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Show p UTILITY IS DEBATED H Authorities of Na-Kj Na-Kj Fame Argue on J Boise Floor is- ' 'PA; dlgc is irrtury of tho United Light and Power njpanj ox New York. discussing n ln M iy morning the address delivered de-livered by George B. Erb. in which the suggejilon vu made th.it depreciation depre-ciation reserves be handled as a public trust fund, declared this system would not be fair. The statement made bj Mr. Myers was indorsed by Frank W Smith, vice president of the United states Klectrle Light and Power company of Now York and S. R. lnrli. vice president and general manager of the Utah l'wi r and Light company. In the afternoon E. M. Seeley of the Idaho public utilities commission took the floor, at the request of th chairman, chair-man, and asserted that. In regulating public utilities, there are tbree viewpoints view-points to consider the utility's, the public's and the lnestor'x. He remarked re-marked that ho regretted that the paper pa-per presented hy George l Myers of the Pacific Power and Light compajl) ' I'urtland, ' re.. on "Justification foi State Control" stopped With the statement state-ment that "experience had uncovered sunn- shurtcomlngK In the system of n gulatlon by states, which were not the fault of the theory." in discussing, among other things. depreciation funds. ' Tracing the history of the development develop-ment of public Utilities, George I, Myers had told of how many of these companies at first sought too large profits, until the public demanded protection pro-tection in the form of municipal regulation, regu-lation, aided, when the municipalities tound their ordinances Inadequate, by legislative acts. The plan Mr. Myers aid. proved to j be ineffective and resulted in much' Contusion and duplication. besldei 'furnishing nn opportunity for un-1 Scrupulous politicians to hold up the Utilities bv misrepresenting the facts to the puolic. "1 liese conditions convinced tho 1 iei-p)e that some stale department should he established for the eole purpose of regulation regulntlon based upon adequate and complete In-, formation Accordingly the public ' service commission came into exLsi-ancc." exLsi-ancc." TO EXPAND l.t BIX1 LMscussIng these funds, Mi inch, again look the floor, declaring that' investor's money Should be sacredl) kept in t he utility in which he invest-1 ed it. "It s economically unsound," he i declared, "for the utilities to invest these monies in insurance companies1 anil like enterprises Mr Inch also said that if Seeh meant that tho companies should give their investors strict accounting of Ithelr monies in the depreciation i "trust" funds, he was In accord with i him. "The money should be invested for the upbuilding of the utility" Inch o- j serled. "That Is what the public, the: company and the Investor wants." ( i v-l y Bin I KM Mr. Seel. paid he entirely agreed With Mr- inch s Ideas, although It WaS I declared from the floor that a close line of Uproar kaUon should be drawn between "trust funds" and "depreciation "deprecia-tion funds." This statement brought forth no comment "Outside of a quarrel over an lr-1 ligation ditch," said Mr Seeley In his address, "there Is nolntng that will enrage a man so much as a row with la public utility "Regulation of public utilities Ik nl poor expression," he continued. "Wo ennot really regulate. We can sol j somo limit, which you cannot go beyond, be-yond, but we cannot regulate, and the public knows it." IGREE ON OUNTING Mr. Seeley. In his short address, took Issue, with the speakers of the morning morn-ing who had assailed depreciation fumis of public utilities as regulatettl bv legislation. He intimated that he, believed such funds should come further fur-ther under the regulation Ot the stales jln- far as holding thest funds Intact for maintenance of progenies at such times as maintenance if most needed Informal discussions on the floor I following the afternoon seeslons show-id show-id that a majority Of the delegates at the convention appeured to bo In ac-,-or. with the suggestions ;ls offered by Mr. Seeley. especially so far us providing pro-viding for a strict accounting of these funds. |