THE MICHIGAN DAILY RY
HE MICHIGAN DAILY
Reduction In Edison Rates Sought
An Open Letter To The Michigan Public Utilities Commission
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Edited and managed by students of the University of
Michigan under the authority of the Board in Control of
Student Publications.
Publishea every morning except Monday during the
trniversity year and Summer Session.
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ered at the Post offier at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as
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'ember, Associated Collegiate Press, 193738
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40 MADISON AvE. NEW YORK.N . Y.
cHICAGO - BOSTON LOS ANGILIS - SAN FRANCISCO
Board of Editors
MANAGING EDITOR.. IRVING SILVERMAN
2(ty Editor . . . . . . Robert I. Fitzhenry
Assistant Editors . . . . . . Mel Fineberg,
Joseph Gies, Elliot Maraniss, Ben M. Marino,
Carl Petersen, Suzanne Potter, Harry L.
Sonneborn.
Business Department
&U INESS MANAGER.... ERNEST A. JONES
Credit Manager . . . . Norman Steinberg
Circulation Manager . . . J. Cameron Hall
Asistants . . Philip Buchen, Walter Stebens
NIGHT EDITOR: ELLIOTT MARANISS
The editorials published in The Michigan
Daily are written by members of the Daily
staff and represent the views of the writrs
only.
It is important for society to avoid the
heglect of adults, but positively dangerous
for t to thwart the ambition of youth to
reform the world. Only the schools which
act on this belief are educational Institu-
tions in the best meaning of the term.
-Alexanter G. Ruthven.
An Industrialist
For Collective Bargaining
A N ENCOURAGING SIGN for the
future of American labor relations
4 (be read in a letter of John H. Goss, vice-
president of the Scovill Manufacturing Co. of
aterbury, Conn., and of the National Indus-
trial Conference Board. Mr. Goss declares in
engphatic terms that negotiation with trade
unions as a means of settling labor problems is
"here to stay," and advises business men to learn
how to use this "finest tool yet devised with which
to carve out the answer to the problems of our
interrelationship with or employes."
Mr. Goss speaks, of course, from the pint of
view of the enployer. lie offers business men
hints on how to conduct the actual work of nego-
iation with workers' committees, suggests use of
t sense of humor, restraint of temper and the
tactics of a "good salesman." "If you are a poor
salesman," he says, "you should substitute an
Ssociate who is a good one. If you are a good
;alesman and the program does not go over
With modification that you can readily agree to,
then there is probably something wrong with the
jrogram. In that case, they (the workers' com-
mittee) will very clearly prove it to you, and you
would better admit it and agree to change it."
The time has passed, Mr. Goss declares, when
the management could arbitrarily tell its workers
how, much they were to be paid. Workers want
as much money as they can get for their services,
And "unless employes ae reasonably satisfied,
there cannot be efficiency in operation."
It would be foolish to think that employer-
employe difficulties will disappear with the
doption by American business men of Mr. Goss's
tenets. The question of "a fair wage" will not
be solved by a sense of humor. Declining in-
dustries will not be put back on their feet by
the retention of a sunny disposition on the part
bf the executives. However, the fact remains, the
Substitution of the Goss for the Girdler method
of dealing with labor problems would have a most
healthy and stabilizing effect on our economic
life. In the long run, American business men will
find that the cost of a few hours of give-and-take
across the conference table is far exceeded by
the upkeep of an army of spies and thugs, or
the importation of a ready-formed battalion of
Strikebreakers to stage a back-to-work move-
ment.
Mr. Goss, in concluding, remarks that labor
leaders, "if they persist in militant methods,
will discover sooner or later that they
have not qualified and they, too, will lose their
positions." Militancy on the part of labor leaders
is a slightly' more involved question than Mr.
Goss implies. There are doubtless some labor
chiefs whose methods are unecessarily violent,
but as a rule, militant unionism is the result of
militant employer anti-unionism. Strikes are
seldom called without sufficient cause, for the
simple reason that workers immensely prefer
working to striking and are not inclined to
either walk out of or sit down in plants unless
they are convinced they can gain a fair deal
from the management in no other way. If Mr.
Goss can induce capital to bargain intelligently
and honestly, he need fear little from labor.
editor's note: The following letter to the
Micigan Public Utilities Commission was sub-
mitted to the Daily by Prof. Louis C. Karpinski.
Professor Karpinski has received a reply from the
commission stating that the commission is re-
quired to serve a copy of the complaint oi the
Detroit Edison company for its comment before
setting a date for a hearing, and promising an
investigation of rates "if the number of signa-
tures on your petition indicate a general feeling
among the customers of the Detroit Edison that
therratesrare too high." The petitions for this
purpose arc now being circulated.
To the Michigan Public Utilities Commission
State Office Building
Lansing, Michigan
Gentlemen:
As citizens receiving residence service from the
Detroit Edison Company, we appeal to your
Commission for a real reduction in the rates
charged for electricity to make them somewhat
in accordance with the modern developments in
electrical science.
The present rates in effect in this territory
constitute a discrimination against the citizens
of the eastern portion of Michigan as opposed
to those served by the Consumers Power Com-
pany.
The standard domestic rate given by the
Consumers Power Company being $1.00 net for
20 KWH or less is $.17 less than the charge made
for 20 KWH by the Edison Company. The second
step is net 4 cents with the Consumers Power
Company for 30 KWH, whereas with the Detroit
Edison it is net 3.6 cents for the next 40 KWH
leaving, however, the net cost for amounts under
50 KWH less with the Consumer Power Com-
pany than with the Edison Company.
No Reason For Difference
There exists no valid reason in the production
and distribution costs of the two companies for
this difference. For the third step the net rate
is 2 cents (up to 150 KWH) in the Consumers
Power Company and 24 cents net in the Edison
Company for all electricity consumed beyond
50 KWH. Again there is no valid reason for this
discrimination against consumers in the area
served by the Detroit Edison. Further than that,
the Consumers Power Company, possibly be-
cause of the competition of the municipal plant
at Kalamazoo, gives a fourth step rate of .11/2c
per KWH for all over a total use of 200 KWH
per month. This rate is still further reduced in
part to 1 cent per KWH when restricted water
heating service is included, but there is some
similar arrangement for water heating at a
lower rate made by the Edison Company.
Every consideration of equitable dealing by
the Michigan Public Utilities Commission seems
to require that the 'rates of these two companies
be made to correspond to each other and, at the
same time, more closely to the modern conditions
in the production cost of electricity.
'Horse And Buggy' Rates
The charges for the first step in electric ser-
vice seem to me to belong to the "horse and
buggy" days of electricity. At the present time
it is well known that both for the Edison Com-
pany and for the Consumers Company the cost
of production of electric power is in the neigh-
borhood of .6 of a cent per KWH and that a
charge of 8.1 net for the first 10 (Edison) or 5
cents net for the first 20 (Consumers) is ex-
cessive. The overhead cost would be borne by
a charge of approximately $.75 for the first 25
KWH per month and this would give to the con-
sumers at the lower end of the economic scale
the possibility of modern use of electricity which,
under the present ridiculous rates, they do not
have. The former chairman of the Michigan
Public Utilities Commission made an impassioned
plea for the poor consumers who used only about
$.50 worth of electricity, but when the Commis-
sion put through their derisory reduction made
largely, apparently, to prevent a real reduction
in the near future, the poor consumer, over
whom the Commissioner had almost wept, re-
ceived a reduction of from 3 to 4 cents per month
in his electricity bill. According to the figures
given to me by the Detroit Edison Company,
courtesy of Controller Harry Snow, out of 505,000
residence cnsumers of the Detroit Edison Com-
pany, 255,000 received this laughable so-called
reduction.
My first request of the Commission is that
the first step rate be reduced approximately to
the figure 25 KWH for $.75 per month minimum
charge, with the second step rate at 2 cents per
KWH for the next 125 KWH.
Would Aid 200,000 Consumers
This charge would make it possible for some
200,000 patrons of the Detroit Edison Company
to receive the benefits of modern electrical de-
vices. This reduction, if accompanied also by the
reductions in the lowest step rate to an approxi-
mate charge of 1 cents per KWH, would in-
augurate a tremendous revival of business in
electrical equipment in the State of Michigan.
The net benefit to the State would without ques-
tion run into millions of dollars.
The second request which we make is that
your Commission reduce the final step rate to 1
cent or 11/4 cents per KWH. Particularly for the
farmers of Michigan, but almost equally for
householders throughout the state, this rate
would enable the use of labor saving devices and
stimulate the sale of electric kitchen stoves and
heaters. Apparently the Detroit Edison Company
does not believe in the modern use of electricity
or they would themselves have requested some
such reduction long before this, as such reduc-
tions are indicated by the present cost of pro-
duction. In Canada particularly, where they
have enjoyed even lower rates for some years,
there is approximately, I am told, triple the
amount of electricity used per capita as com-
pared with Michigan. The citizens of the State
of Michigan are entitled to similar benefits. A
practical monopoly in the sale of electricity is
given by the State of Michigan to the Edison
Company in this area, but it places in the hands
of your Commission the obligation to see to it
fhc f-p nfe h lr h r ltniAin _nri r
creased due, largely, to modern developments re-
ducing the cost of production of electrical power.
Further, a study by your Commission of the
reductions which have been afforded to the
large consumers of power en masse, will reveal
that these consumers have received double and
triple the benefits which they have granted so
grudgingly to residence consumers. The residence
consumers are the particular concern of your
Commission, since the great corporations are
able to protect themselves by the threat of manu-
facturing their own electricity.
In connection with the derisory reduction last
made by the Detroit Edison Company it was
widely advertised that the reduction amounted
to $7,000,000 per annum. This is wholly a ficti-
tious statement of the case as no change in the
net income of the company was made by this
reduction and had a real reduction rate been
made the increased use of electricity would have
resulted undoubtedly in practically no loss of net
income to the company. The determination of
the effect of the reductions proposed should
not be advertised by the Commission in accord-
ance with some fictitious scheme proposed by
the Edison Company on the basis of the con-
tinued use of the same amount of electricity as
ifeemr to Me
Heywood Broun
The Daily Worker has gone to bat upon the
case of Mickey Cochrane, of the Tigers. I picked
up a copy of this radical sheet by mistake in the
subway yesterday. My eyes
are not what they used to be,
and I swear I thought that
some absent-minded royal-
st had mislaid his Herald
Tribune. When I got a good
look at the abandoned paper
and discovered its identity I
was minded to toss it back
upon the floor before it could
enmesh me in subversive
activity. But the ride was long and the day was
hot, so I thought, "I'll just look at the sport.
page. There can't be any harm in that."
I remembered that the Worker had a sport
page, because when the innovation was intro-
duced some years ago a newspaper wit remarked,
"I suppose those Reds will try to class-angle
the box score." He was joking, naturally, be-
cause a hit is a hit and an error is an error under
any economic system whatever.
The sport page featured a column "On the
Scoreboard-By Lester Rodney," with a picture
of a ball player in one column measure, just
above the fold. In its physical appearance this
was just like the makeup of any one of the
most patriotic papers in the land, and so, heed-
lessly, I plunged into the text. ~
* * *
Surprise And Horror
Imagine my surprise and horror to discover
that the baseball expert of the Worker was using
the summary dismissal of Mickey Cochrane as
a text to agitate against the sanctity of private
property and question the gratitude of big league
mnagnates.
"It's a thankless task, this working for million-
aire owners like Briggs and Wrigley, who sit in
their front office and play with the jobs of their
men as the whim strikes them," whined this
outside sports writer who would evidently tear
down the Bill of Rights. "It reminds me of the
Redfield cartoon wherein two wealthy dowagers
are reclining on a lawn and one of them yawns,
'Let's fire a butler-I'm bored to death.' "
By now, of course, I had my warning but just
out' of a kind of mocking curiosity I plunged
ahead to see what sort of garbled tale the radical
would cook up in his attack on a prominent busi-
ness man like Mr. Briggs, who makes auto bodies.
And before I read another word I said in a voice
loud enough for all my fellow passengers to hear,
"If he doesn't like it in the American League why
doesn't he go back where he came from?"
According to Rodney, of the Worker, Mickey
Cochrane took a laggard team in 1934 and won
the pennant. The next season he added a world's
series victory, and in 1936 and 1937 he brought
his team home in second place behind the ram-
paging Yankees. In the latter year he kept on
catching while he was sick and was beaned and
almost killed in a crucial series with the Yankees.
Now he is tossed out without notice. Mr. Briggs
builds bodies, and maybe he finds it difficult to
distinguish between a dented fender and a ball
player with a fractured skull. Scrap iron is scrap
iron in men or materials.
* * *
What Propaganda Will Do To You
But hold on. What's happening? Those last
two sentences weren't in the Worker at all. I
made them up right out of my own head. That's
what propaganda will do to you if you don't
watch out.
Abashed and repentant at being taken in by
the smooth words of Rodney, the Red, I jumped
out at the next subway station, and procured a
copy of the New York Times. To my surprise I
found that his facts were correct. It was only
his implications which were wrong. John Kieran
in the Times stated the sound position which
every rooter should take.
"The Detroit ball club," he wrote, "is the prop-
erty of Mr. Walter O. Briggs, the big body man,
and nobody should try to tell him how ,to run
his business. He hired Gordon Stanley Cochrane.
He fired Gordon Stanley Cochrane. That's his
business." And to that I am sure that everybody
deretofore. We believe that this prin-
ciple has been established for utility
companies by the action of the Inter-
state Commerce Commission in reduc-
ing some years ago the rates of 3.6
cents per mile to 2 cents per mile for
passengers riding in coaches. Had the
railroad companies been allowed to
figure as the Detroit Edison Company
in the past has wished to figure, they
could have established a tremendous
loss in income, amounting to bank-t
ruptcy. However, in point of fact, theI
new rates produced a tremendous in-t
crease in income. There is every indi-
cation that the .same thing will be#
true with the use of electric current
in Michigan if the rate reductions1
are made as suggested.
Commerce Favored
As explanatory to the section above,t
let it be noted that in the years 1932,k
1933, 1934 and 1935, the average rate
per KWH for residence consumers de-
creased about 11%2%, whereas the av-
erage rate per KWH for Commerciale
consumers was reduced by 15%. The;
rate per KWH of the Industrial Con-
cerns was reduced by 25% until this
average rate is 1.35 cents per KWH or'
about 1/3 of the rate of 4 cents (3.96
cents) which is the average per KWH
on the total residence consumption.
Obviously with an attractive rate such
as the proposed rate some of the
additional current sold to present sub-
scribers with the slightest additional
expense would be at the first step rate
of 3 cents, a great deal at the second
step rate of 2 cents. Even the 1%/4,
cent rate would doubtless be more
profitable than some of the Industrial
business.
No one can overestimate the impor-
tance of such reductions as proposed.
To the farmer, in particular, these
rates would make it possible for him
to benefit by modern electrical de-
vices, and for the farmer's wife this
means comforts not to be obtained in
any other manner due to the difficul-
ty of procuring domestic help. For
hundreds of thousands of citizens
these rates would mean a richer life,
lifting the burden of much household
drudgery. Thousands and tens o1'
THURSDAY, AUG. 11, 1938
VOL. XLVIII. No. 39, 1938
Extension Courses. Bulletins listing
the courses to be offered by the
University Extension Service during
the first semester of 1938-1939 are
now available at the Extension of-
fice, 107 Haven Hall.
Summer Session French Club: The
last meeting of the club will take
place on Thursday, Aug. 11. There
will be a banquet at 6:30 p.m. in
the "Second Floor Terrace Room"
of the Michigan, Union.
The French CGnsui of Detroit will
be the guest of honor. Mme. Charles
E. Koella will sing seme French songs
and Dr. Didier Graeffe .will play a
sonatine by Ravel.
The members who have not yet
signed up for the banquet please do
so before noon Wednesday by tele\
phoning Mr. Koella, 3923 or Univ.
405. Those who have signed up and
cannot come please telephone also.
Guidance Banquet: Thursday, Aug.
11 at 6 p.m. on the third floor of the
Michigan League, 75 cents. All those
interested in the results of some
research work in guidance and per-
sonnel problems are invited. Phone
reservations before noon on Thurs-
day to Miss Ingram, Bureau of Ap-
pointments, 4121.
DAILY OFFICIAL BULLETIN
Publication in the Bulletin is constructive notice to all members
of the University. Copy received at the office of the Summer Session
until 3:30; 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
Western Reserve University will give
a lecture at 4:30 p. m. today in the
Lecture Hall of the Rackham Build-
ing. His topic is "John Milton's
Workshop."
Linguistic Institute Luncheon Con-
ference. 12:10 p. m. Thursday, at the
Michigan Union. Dr. Carl Voegelin
and Dr. Zellig Harris will report on
the Siouan project carried on at the
Institute this summer.
Lecture-"Experiences inyEurope
During the Past Year" by Prof.
Raleigh Schorling in the University
High School Auditorium at '4:05 this
afternoon.
Hopwood Contest. All manuscripts
for the summer contest must be in
the Hopwood Room at 4:30 p.m. on
Friday afternoon, Aug. 12.
Linguistic Tnsti teFinal Lecture,
7:30 p.m. Fuel 'v . in the amphithe-
atre of the Rack1':am Building. Prof.
E. H. Sturtevant vUll discuss "The
Indo-Hittite Hypothe&'."
Commereal Education Students:
Tour of the Burroughs Plant Mon-
day afternoon, Aug. 15. Cars will
leave University Parking lot at 12:15
p.m. Tickets 50 cents at University.
High School Office.
candidates for Masters degree, 1i
(Continued on Page 3)
James H. Hanford oft
Professor
Classified Directory
SILVER LAUNDRY-We call for and
deliver. Bundles individually done,
no markings. All work guaranteed.
Phone 5594, 607 E. Hoover. 3x
LAUNDRY - 2-1044. Sox darned.
Careful work at low price. bx
thousands of children and old people TYPING - experienced. Reasonable
will be able to enjoy on our cold win-
ter mornings a little electrical heat
in the early morning hours. This is
what electricity may mean with mod-
ern rates in force.
Respectfully submitted,
-Louis C. Karpinski
Utilities Have No Comment
LANSING, Aug. 10.-(-P)-The Pub-
tic Utilities Commission declined to
comment today on a petition by a
group of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti
residents for a reduction in the rates
of the Detroit Edison Co., for elec-
trical service.
The commission's rules forbid
statements concerning rate reduc-
tion petitions until the affected com-
pany has had eight days in which to
file an answer.
4a
AS OTHER
SEE IT
Synthetic Record Breaking
It is a proud and happy day for the
United States Navy, which claims new
world records for two of its divers.
Five hundred feet is the new depth
mark, as compared with the previous
descent of 402 feet. This is a notable
achievement, and even more remark-
able is the fact that the navy has
perfected a method of smashing deep-
sea records without leaving the Wash-
ington navy yard. The divers sat in a
diving tank partly filled with water,
and then air pressure was applied
equivalent torsea pressure at 500 feet.
Their reactions were carefully anal-
yzed, and the new record was joyous-
ly proclaimed.
The possibilities of the technique
are limitless. Any day now, an aviator
may claim an altitude record of
149,000 feet after donning an oxygen
helmet and sitting in a cubby hole
where air pressure has been reduced
to the stratosphere equivalent. An
athlete, after a strenuous grind on
the treadmill, can announce a record
that excels Glenn Cunningham's best.
An accomplished shadow-boxer can
boast a theoretical knockout of Joe
Louis. It is a neat method of avoid-
ing the psychological strain of com-
petition and the technical difficul-
ties of actually attempting a feat.
In other words, the navy's great
accomplishment is summed up in the
pld nursery rhyme:
"Sir, may I try andeep-sea dive?"
"Gob, it's a darling notion;,
Go jump into the diving tank
And don't go near the ocean."
-St. Louis Post Dispatch
Add Fortune Teller
To League Program
rates. Phone 8344. L. M. Heywood
43r
TYPING -Neatly and accurately
done. Mrs. Howard, 613 Hill St.
Dial 5244. 2x
LOST-Black Conklin fountain pen,
Name, H. R. Lillie, on pen. Call
23125. 66x
FOR RENT by month or semester,
excellent Vagabond house trailer..
21 feet, equipped, sleeps four. Avail-
able Sept. 25. Write T. E. Dunlap,
1345 Wilmot St. 17x
PIANO RECITAL-Bethlehem M. E.
Church, N. Fourth Ave. Rudolph
Von Charlton, graduate student,
today at 8:15. Assisted by Geraldine.
Boland Watts. 67x
NEW VAGABOND TRAILER. Only
one to sell. 40% discount. Hudson
Sales, Ypsilanti, 100 E. Cross St.,
Ph. 413. 69x
FOR RENT to instructors or gradu-
ate students for 1938-39 school
year, beautifully furnished suite,
with fireplace and lavatory,
Garage. 3001 Geddes Ave. 73x
FOR RENT next fall. Attractive room
with private bath to accommodate
gentlemen. Call afternoons. Tele-
phone 3100. 72x
LOST: A lady's yellow gold Elgin be-
tween Liberty and State and East
Medical Bldg. ¢Please call 4121-Ex.
660. Reward. 70x
WANTED: Ride to Kansas City. Share
expenses. To leave about Aug. 20.
Gentiles only. Phone 4493.
TYPING-Theses aid reports
neatly and accurately. N'ear
pus. Reasonable. Call 619.
typed
cam-
68x
I
ladiadies
here's how to
pe
pull 'em in ... .
advertise your Fall rooms
to rent in the August 13th
ORIENTATION ISSUE
... sent to all prospective
freshmen. Bring your ads
t'.m..
40
A recreational evening in conjunc-
tion with the last League dance of
the Summer Session tomorrow is be