OCR Text |
Show 1 It's a Poor Rule That Won't Work Both Ways but Just Watch ; the Utilities Change It. i For years public utility companies have insisted that rates should be based on the "reproduction cost" of their properties. ' This was a swell scheme, because costs were rising steadily. Though a utility concern might have built its plant for $10,000,000, it could ask for and usually get higher rates, because it could prove that it would cost $15,000,000 lo "reproduce" the layout. All the quaint "public service commissions" were very cordial to this idea, most of the commissions being backed by the utilities, anyway. i A plant that cost $15,000,000 three years ago can be reproduced today for about $10,000,000 but we have yet to hear of any utility putting its own rule into effect and basing lower rates on "reproduction cost." : Maybe, now that conditions are altered, the utilities will discover they were all wrong, and that rates should be based on the original construction cost. Of course, if they do, there is nothing you can do about it. The utilities run the "public service commissions" and so you might as well pipe down and keep on paying 1929 rates on 1932 valuations. j: 'An acrobat walked across a busy street in New York on a tightrope. Well, that's one way to foil the auto drivers. - |