REGULATION OF RATES (WISCONSIN) The Wisconsin commission states of the charges which make a proper rate : Under normal or ordinary conditions, public utilities are entitled to earnings that will cover the operating expenses, including depreciation, and a fair return on the investment. These items may be said to constitute the cost to the users of the services that are furnished. (Manitowoc Gas and Electric Company, December, 1908.) With the installation of the accounting systems prescribed by the commission, a company's expenses of operation and every thing connected with its finances may be ac curately determined. The commission makes no attempt to give a normal rate of deprecia tion, but states that the rate is a variable de pendent upon the circumstances peculiar to each case. The method of ascertaining the investment value or amount upon which the rate of profit is to be estimated has been given under that heading. In the ease of Hill et al vs. The Antiago Water Company, the com mission discusses the proper return on the investment. The interest rate it states to be a variable, governed by the conditions of each case. Profits above interest, it says, shall be
high enough to encourage new capital to enter the field. Since risks are greater in new en terprises, higher profits shall be allowed them. As the utility becomes older and the risk de creases, profits shall decrease accordingly. It is the duty of the commission to protect the consumer from monopoly prices and discrim inations. The only instance in which the com mission attempts to name at all definitely what is a proper rate of return is in the case of the Chippewa Railway Light and Power Company, in which it says : Many authorities held that it [the rate of return] should range from eight to ten per cent on a fair valuation of the plant; many place it as low as six per cent. It is not unlikely that the figures thus mentioned represent the maximum and minimum rate under approximately normal conditions, and that, as in the case of depreciation, the actual rate allowed should depend on the con ditions in each case.