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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1928 THE FLESHERTON ADVANCE Why t^rettofie Tir^B Wear Longer TIm above illustration shows a single cord of a FircstOBe tire greatly magnified and separated into fifteen atraads composed of hundreds of tiny fibree. Every fibre is completely insulated with rubber as a result of the Cuxn-Dippiag process. This practically eliminates internal friction, tho gfs a te s t enemy of long tire-life in ordinary tires. NerertfaelesB. Firestone prices are the lowest in tire histoiy. That's why you'll be "MUes Ahead" when you •quip jrour car with these wonderful tires. Coma in H. DOWN & SONS, Dealers FLESHERTON, ONTARIO Miss Macphail Spoke Friday in Opposition to the Bell Bill 4 Following is the Speech Given in Parliament and Reported by Hansard This bill has aroused widespread in- terest in the proWnee of Ontario. The Bell telephone is the only tele- phone of any consequence in the prov- ince. Whether this is so in Quebec I do not know; I am not familiar witb conditions there. But it is true in Ontario. The Bell Telephone Company serves the public; it is op- erated by a private concern but is really a public utility. The telephone has become a necessity in this age. We could hardly think of livin? with- out it. It has done very much to save time for all of us, to save life in4eed, to make business run smooth- cent of its total business. In 1925 according to Mr. R. A. Reid, barris- ter, who was counsel for the Ontario government at the last hearing before the Board of Railway Commissioners and aJso at the appeal from that hearing before the cabinet, $12,000,- 000 of apparatus, supplies and equip- ment were sold by the Northern Elec- tric Company to the Bell Telephone Company, and at the end of that year the Northern Electric Company had total reserves and surplus amounting to $8,409,070, with property and plant valued at $9,882,053. For the years from 1920 to 1925 the depreciation ly; and it has been a great factor in reserve ranged from 100 per cent to binding people together in scattered 1 129 per cent; that is what was set communities. It is therefore of ^reat social significance. The Bell Telephone is a subject which interests possibly more people than almost any other thing in the province of Ontar- io. It is not then to be wondered at that the neople of that province are watchinR <»arerly the fate of the two bill's that have been presented to this house, the Bell Telephone bill and the btll to safeguard the people's inter- ests, moved by the hon. member for South Toronto (Mr. Geory). The Bell Telephone Company has been operating in Canada since 1880 and it rs only since 1909 or 1910 that the company has become subject to the jurisdiction and authority of the Board of Railway Commissioners. Since that has been true the Bell Telephone Company has been most gererously treated by the Board of Railway Commissioners and by the people of Ontario and Quebec. In 1919 it was permitted to make a flat increase of 10 per cent, and in 1921 of 12 per cent.; and a few months ago another incres se was allowed, the dis- posal of the profits which is now causing th<» company concern «nd in all prohahility is t><» reason for the bill which la row before th«> houfie. The rat»e in rates was allowed on the principle: That non-discriminatory rates should be established by the company sufficient to produce revenue to cover its operating expenses; a proper^ am- ount for depreciation and amortiza- tion: its taxes, including income tax. interest, dividends upon its stock and a reasonable surplus. The Globe in an editorial on May 23, 1928, has this to say: A dividend of 8 per cent, is main- tained, ard the board has accepted aside yearly for depreciation of plant and equipment. Surely this is a satisfactory condition, yet the Bell Telephone Company, which owns 52 per cent of the stock of the Northern Electric Company, does not show any share in its profits. They would rather receive their profits through an increased' rate grant\ed iby the Board of Railway Commissioners, is levied on the people of Ontario and Quebec. Under the statute as it is at present, the Board of Railway Commissioners canitot investigate the Northern Electric Company, and it seems quite clear that the right to investigate the subsidaries of the Bell Teleohone Company, among them the Northern Electric Company, should be granted by Psrliament to the Board of Railway Commissioners. If we. as a Parliament do not grant the Board of Railway Commissioners the riirht and power to investigate the snbsidary companies of the Bell Telephone Company, surely we cannot be said to be safeguarding the intpr- eot"* of the people. The Geary bill. \vV«ich has not come ud for consider- "♦â- 'on. was designed to do that very thing. Mr. MORIN (Bagot): What about the Sanderson amendment? Miss MACPHAIL: That amend- ment was moved only to-night, and although it seems similar to the Geary bill I cannot say whether or not it serves the same purpose. As a matter of fact I think it would be a very good thing in this case if this public bill could be given some sort of right in this chamber, because it has been moved by this member in order to safeguard the interests of the public. We have 245 members in this chamber who have openly the estimated requirements of the eloquently and solemnly at election company for depreciation, wt'.i one; times promised to wQrk very hard in small exception. There are few cor- 1 the interests of the public and to do porations in the country but would; what they could to safeguard the welcome a guarantee of solvency and commor^ people against the attack earnings such as the Bell company | from any source whatever. This is obtains. i ^ fine opportunity to make good that All this is paid for by the telenhonp promise. Undoubtedly the members users. In justice to these, should of this house, by defeating the Bell not the bonvf) he authorize') to make Telephone bill as it stands at present certpiii th-' tho r-vpiu!''': of 'h? oom-^ave a -, opportunity to seiVe the „„,„„ „_„ ^pvotpf) H :;ic "omnanv's ppopb in Ontsrio and Quebec, and in- biis'n' ? o>:clusively? deed the people of all Canada. In the irind of anyone who has One would hesitate to say that a looked clo?;ely at this matter there is Libfial governmert is more interest- the suspicion that a olose relationship, ed in !• bill which pnposea to in- exists between the Northern Electric crease the capital of the Bell Tele- Company and the Bell Telephone phono Compi^ny from $75,000,000 to Company, end that in al! probability $150,000,000 than in safeguarding the the Bell Telephone Company has used people by pa.ssing with that bill an the Northern Electric Company to .Tiiiemlment which will make it pos- conceal its profits. Kt least it is siblo to h;!ve the affairs of the sub- true that the Northern Electric Com- sidiary companies investigated when pany is controlled by the Bell Tele- th? Bell Telephone Company comes phone Company, and in the year 1926 before the Board of Railway Com- the Bell Telephone Co"">any wps amisioners a.sking for a guarantee of customer of the No-thern Eloctri'? dividends on their increased capit;*!, Company to the extent of 57.8 per should this bill pess. If it were true, u we hope it U not, that the pre- dominant element within a Liberal government stands for that principle of looking after special privilege be- fore looking after the interests of the masses of people, one might well ask if that is a good Liberal principle of doctrine The thing which makes the Bell Telephone Company bill look auspic- ious is this: If there is to be no milk- ing of profits from the Bell Tele- phone Company by the Northern El- ectric Company why should not the Bell Telephone Company welcome a full and free investigation into the affairs of the Northern Electric Company and its other subsidiaries? Some friends of the bill claim that the company wants more capital with which to extend its business. If that is true, why did not the friends of the bill support the Garland amendment in this house, which to me seemed the easiest and most sensible course to adont if an increase in capital were desired, since it provided for the sale of stock in the open market. The house defeated that amendment; and from that we can onlv conclude that the amerdmont ws defeated bv the friends of th<» Boll Telephone Com- nanv. which leads ns to ba eycp<»d- inplv ousnicious of the r«»'»'.5on for this Hoiihlin<' »f ca"'*al. I <->«;nk the r-5oho of Mon.. Uov 28. 19i>8. maVe^ if ^rtir^r '*]fiPT i«'*^a« it «a^--:. in a «h'^''t pditorial on the first na«r3 of the c;(kPAnrf «p/»tion* Why â€" if everything is straightfor- ward, cleancut and aboveboard â€" does not the Bell Telephone corporation welcome the Geary bill, which would effectively Establish its bon fides? Why â€" if everything is straightfor- ward, cleancut and aboveboard â€" does not the Bell Telephone corporation welcome the proposal to offer this new stock to the public at the market price, which would effecti'vely dispose of any suspicion that the 'public ser- vice monopoly plans to "cut a melon" among its privileged shareholders, as was done the other day by the Amer- ican Telephone and Telegraph Com- pany? One of the chief reasons given by the Bell Telephone Company for the increase requested when they last ap- peared before the Board of Railway Commissioners was that they needed the increase to enable them to pay dividends on their stock. Now they want to double the amount of that stock, and I suppose the next step would be to go back to the Board of Railway Commissioners and ask for increased rates in order to guarantee an 8 per cent dividend on the increas- ed capitalization. .â- ^.cain. that will result in swollen profits with which thev will have to do something, and if thev take the same step again they will increase their capital and then iTO back to the Board of Railway Commissioners and have their rates raised to nav divid^ids on the increas- ed capital: that will go on endlessly. I was much interested this morning in reading the long and detailed brief submitted by Mr. Reid when, as counsel for the provincial government he made an appeal to the cabinet against the ruling of the board. The very close connection between three or four companies is made very clear by. him. The American Telephone aivd Telegraph Company owns 98 per cent of the stock of the Western El- ectric Company; the Western Electric Company o'wns 48 per cent of the stock of the Northern Electric Com- pany, and the Bell Telephone Comp- any owns 52 per cent of the Northern Electric Company. It will be seen that there is a direct connection be- tween the higher rates the people of Ontario and! Quebbc pay and the swollen profits of the American Tele- phone and Telegrraph Company. I am surprised that such a good Can- adian as the member for Parkdale (Mr. Spence) who so violently pro- tested against the talking out of this bill, is anxious to have the money of his very patriotic city go to swell the profits of the milionaires of New York. If one goes through all the material submitted by Mr. Reid, who would seem to be the greatest author- ity on this subject â€" Mr. SPENCE: He thinks he is, that is all. Miss MACPHAIL:â€" the connection between the high rates paid by our people and the profits of. all these other companies cannot fail to be noticed. This milking process has now been going on for some time. The BeU Tdlephone Company has bee.- successful in hiding from the people who pay the rates the amount of their profits. Some they have hidden in depreciation much greater than they use, as I will show in a moment, and some they have hidden in the Noithern Electric Campany. The depreciation set aside by the Bell Telephone Company has been hiding enormous profits in the past. I am now quoting from page 15 of the petition of appeal: From the year 1912 down year 1926, it has taken out of the telephone user.-? and subscribers of Ontario and Quebec, under the guise or mark of a depreciation charKc, the sum of over $39,000,000. and has only used or spent out of that money for the purpose of depreciation for whi"h it was cxt! acted from the telephone u.sers. the sum of about iSI.'H.ono.nnO. leaving a. .^upi of over $'?Tnnt).nno taken out of the pockets of the said tpienhonp ixsorr. of Ontq'-jf, ,.,,,| Que- her !n cxtortior^tc. hii^'i ard nv"os<, tplenhnn" â€" >*'>o fin-Uo, th.it "oriod of fin^o. -pf) which will never be spent ffvv tho pyr'oss snp'ific niirnrx^p f,>r which it wai Rnue->7pd out of th-. snM tplonhone mori, nr"! iâ„¢ stil' >>«â- ! â€" •â- "}- rln.i to -^-^A riled np at tho rat? of over SI '00 non. That wjnld fspm to show th-it the RpII Tplnhon' Company is hidinnr what is renHv profit under the name of depreci.-jtion. When, we consider the way they to ''the have of dealing with the income tax, we find that they keep the public from knoing just how much they are making 'but of the rates charged. On page 11 of this same petition in appeal we find the following: The ciuestion of income tax was not properly dealt with by the rail- way commission, and no definite finding, judgment, or decision was arrived at. thus leaving in the air an item of over $400,000, which your pe- titioners contend should not be allow- ed at all as an operating expense of the company, as has been done, but should be deducted from the com- Dar-''s net earnings and paid by the company and its shareholders, and not bv the subscribers an telephone users, nor shifted by the company in such a way as to have to be paid by the telephone users: nor is the com- pany entitled to, by rate increases or otherwise, sufifciently high rates to meet the payment of such income tax payment. It must be uaid by the company direct as an entity or person out ' and from the sHroli"- and "-^t profits. It is an aperating expense. Mr. Reid goes on to show that the method used by the Bell Telephone Company in the paying of their in- come tap is contrai-y to the statute under which the income tax branch of the Department of National Revenue operates, and he quotes as follows: It •- under and by virtue of section .?. s-'-ection 8, of 13 and 14 George V. chapter 52. statut»-. for 1923. that the denai^ment acts, and th't is the authority under which an it"-' ' this kind, nnt in as ?• oneratin" expense, is d'^allowed as such. And further on: The application of the Bell Tele- phone Company for an increase of rates was based upon the 'derations for the year 1925, and the company (Continued on Page 4) Figure^nGYPROC /^YPROC walls and partitions will make your ^~^ tuinmer cottage much more attractive, comfort- able and fire-safe. 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