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per cent on the $1,000,000 it carries under this head;
on its bonded indebtedness of $3,000,000 the com
pany paid last year 5 per cent, or $150.000 —a total
on stocks and bonds combined, of $210,000.
Suppose the Electric Company’s own returns
should he accepted as the actual value of its prop
erty, we should have here the spectacle of investors
receiving $210,000 as one year's interest on property
worth $973,000, —a result which would put to
shame about any get-rich-quick enterprise promot
er's promises yet heard of.
Xow. it would seem within reasonable bounds
entirely to tax the Electric Company upon a basis
of half the amount represented by its bonds and I
preferred stork, which would be $2,000,000. But
even this is not proposed by the opponents of the
Guckenheimer amendment to the tax ordinance.
The Aidermen who are insisting that the Electric
Company should bear at least a respectable share
of the tax burden, only ask that its property in the
city be placed upon a basis of about $1,500,000, or
fifty per cent of the amount of its outstanding bonds,
leaving out of the question altogether the $1,000,000
preferred stork, which last year, it is claimed, netted
its owners $60,000 in dividends.
This, it is contended, is a basis far and away
lower than that upon which the assessment against
private property is fixed. It is estimated that own
ers of private* property in Savannah pay taxes to the
city upon an assessment basis of from 75 to 80 per
cent of its full valuation, and in some parts of the
city, notably that section north of Liberty street and
east of Habersham where property depreciated in
value because of the withdrawal of the old Savannah,
Florida and Western terminals, the taxable basis is
said to be practically at par. and even above par
in certain instances, with the marketable value of
the property.
Xo one comes forward to deny that a goodly pro
portion of the Savannah Electric Company’s capita
lization is water, mere water. This view of the
situation, at least, is taken by those who oppose its
petition for a reduction in taxes. The men whom
the company’s spokesmen call its “enemies” have
never thought of taxing the “water” element in
its composition.
Yet if the question were considered in all its
phases, it is doubtful if the fictitious quantity enters
so largely into the company's capitalization, after
all. 'fhe value of its rights to traverse and occupy
the streets of the city is something enormous and
may not be computed in figures. These rights are
perpetual, not limited in duration as are similar pri
vileges elsewhere. This is an item of inestimable
worth, and might well be considered as tangible
property for purposes of taxation.
It is understood that the Savannah Electric Com
pany offers to Council as an excuse for asking a re
duction of its taxes the fact that it last year paid
$60,000 in dividends on its preferred stock, expect
ing its earnings to reach a point justifying that ac
tion, when, as a matter of fact, the earnings did not
meet expectations. If this is true, and it was so
stated by Aiderman Wilson in Council last week,
the reader must determine for himself the amount
of merit due such a plea. Mr. Wilson also stated
that if this premature and anticipatory disburse
ment had been omitted, the company would now
have in its treasury some $30,000 with which to pay
taxes or for any other purpose. In this connection,
the query might aptly be put, whether the City of
THE REASON
Savannah should stand ready to financially reim
burse the agents of a corporation owned outside the
State of Georgia for their errors in reckoning divi
dends on the corporation’s securities!
The Reason assumes that the citizens of Savan
nah who are affiliated with organized labor bodies
are familiar with the Stone and Webster Company’s
attitude toward unionized labor. Press reports indi
cate that the company's officers have fought its
motormen and conductors in Pensacola to a suc
cessful finish, through the importation of profes
sional strike-breakers. This contest was a stubborn
one, and must have cost the trolley interests a large
amount of money. But the price they had to pay
is doubtless considered by them to have been well
expended. If the labor people here are satisfied
with this result, and would reward the victors, they
should lend their influence in aid of the amend
ment to the tax ordinance.
The Reason desires that its position in reference
to the contest now on between the Savannah Elec
tric. Company and the Savannah Lighting Company
shall be thoroughly understood. If reports are true,
the competition for lighting contracts has brought
the rates for current down to a basis under the cost
of production in some cases. Both companies pos
sess great strength, and if they have entered into a
death grapple, the end cannot be foreseen. This
paper's position is always one of special solicitude
for home enterprise, whether it consist of lighting
companies, insurance companies, manufactories, or
what not. But its chief concern is the welfare of the
people of Ihe city in which it resides. 'The Reason
is the spokesman for neither of the electric com
panies, and is not concerned in the lighting and
power war except so far as its results may affect the
interests of the community. It might well be looked
upon as a public catastrophe should either concern
completely triumph over the other in a life and
death struggle.
Right here it should be impressed upon citizens
who alternate from one lighting company to the
other, as rates are successively lowered by either,
that they are in all probability reaping but a tem
porary advantage, and if there are business men who
avail themselves of the opportunity produced by
the rate war to exact from either concern contracts
for lighting at ruinous figures, they are but laying
up future trouble for themselves.
Sane competition is good for the consumer, and
he should therefore encourage it. On the other
hand, the style of competition which must surely
result in the putting out of the fight of one of the
contestants, should be discouraged in every pos
sible way, unless the consumer stands willing to
ultimately pay the war debt.
Residents of Savannah have good reason to know
that life and death struggles between opposed utility
corporations have a habit of ending in combinations.
Telephone users, it may be ventured, are well aware
of the soundness of this proposition. If. in the light
of recent events here, the people have not profited by
experience, one would feel tempted to say “Go ahead
and get another dose of the same medicine.”
Os course no evidence is in sight of any such
issue in the conflict now waging in Savannah. The
Reason claims no prophetic powers, and leaves citi
zens to do their own reasoning, which they are
amply capable of doing.
The point is sought to be made, however, that if
the Savannah Electric Company were really in need