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Show THE O SEARCHLIGHT been nominated by George Gadsby to ‘‘represent’? the preferred stockholders. Certainly preferred stockholders we have communicated Kilowatt Mergers~ (Continued from preceding lines from the Colorado system, and vice versa. with have had no part in his choice. page) system to the Utah There are no developed generating facilities in the Colorado area that might contribute to Utah’s the power identities of resources. the two Even units if merged would remain separated in a physical sense. And there is general agreement that Western Colorado is not a well-located concern. It serves a small population in a mountainous re- gion, impossible of industrialization in any forseeable period. Its rates must remain on a higher basis than rates of Utah Power & Light Company, or, with uniform rates, its inevitable deficits must be made up by heavier collections made from its Utah patrons, if a merger takes place. Clearly then the merger of the Colorado subSidiary can be of no benefit to the people of Utah, and may be harmful. Certainly it will afford the Kilowatt Nobility and asseciated bankers a greater opportunity to manipulate and plot all those innovations and schemes that invariably turn to be skin games directed against the public out in- terest. Moreover, the elimination of Western Colorado Power Company from its present corporate position of a subsidiary of Utah Power & Light Company by swallewing the Colorado concern, is merely doing by indirection that which the companies are precluded by law from doing directly. As a division of Utah Power & Light Company its position will be virtually the same as it now occupies as a subsidiary. The Holding act will have been circumvented—not Company complied with. The people of Utah should not have. to earry the added burden of supporting the unprot- itable offspring of Bond & Share. Furnishing sustenance to the original black sheep of Bond & Share in our THE own midst PREFERRED should suffice. STOCKHOLDERS A Salt Lake attorney purporting to represent the preferred stockholiders of Utah Power & Light Company will appear at the hearing. The preferred stockholders he represents are largely confined to a clique of Salt Lake bankers and brokers who want to step into the shoes of Bond & Share. They appear to have Naturally Mr. Gadsby wants to keep everything under control. He concedes that Bond & Share will have to go—must be eliminated from the Utah picture. terest to nominate It is in Gadsby’s in- and control Bond & Share’s suecessors. But what improvement may the people of Utah expect from the substitution of a clique of bankers and brokers that have played along with Bond & Share all these vears? If the choice is limited as above, and should be made by the Utah public, it likely would prefer to keep Bond & Share as the les- ser of two evils. ing how The people of Utah are learn- to cope with Bond But bankers are There tricks. still a little too fast for them. is only one way for the holders to be properly and ed in a reorganization of Company. & Share’s preferred stock- adequately representUtah Power & Light That is for the Securities & Exchange Commission to supervise an election of representatives of the preferred stockholders without pressure or plots organized by the efficient and plausible Mr. Gadsby, whose great desire is to keep the kilowatt his vest pocket. If regulatory domain safely authority tucked supervised an away in election to determine proper representatives of the preferred stockholders, then, in the inevitable reorganization and recapitalization of Utah Power & Light Company, the people who put money into the business would have a voice in the direction of its affairs. Heretofore run the Bond show—run & Share, it for Gadsby. Share and Mr. deesn’t have a thin dime via Mr. Gadsby, has the benefit of Bond & Share & Bond And in the business. Now, stockholders and the for a change, the preferred bond holders, whose money is used to conduct the business, should have a voice in the new financial structure and the management of the enterprise. And, equally important, the Power Company should be reorganized on a_ clean-cut basis that will give due consideration to the interest of the public which pays the bills of an operating utility. Manifestly, the first job in the reorganiza- tion of Utah Power & Light Company is the election—under auspices of SEC or other regu(Continued on following page) |