the work of this committee that the importance of the work to the industry demands. The contact of our industry with the public is largely through our employees. The lineman, the meter reader, the trouble clerk, the cashier in the cage, the telephone operator and the office boy answering the telephone have in their hands the popularity or unpopularity of our industry with a very large proportion of the public. It cannot be impressed upon our executives too strongly that the proper education of our employees along the lines suggested is a very important part of their duty in their particular companies and to the industry as a whole. It is hoped that executives will give more attention to this work year by year. In a recent article by Floyd W. Parsons on "You and the Public Utilities," which was published in World's Work, in discussing the responsibility of utility managers, he wrote "The failure of utilities to properly educate employees is largely to blame for bad relations. It is far better to have any employees use their brains in their contacts with the public than to act always in accordance with hard and fast rules."

A public speaking committee was formed to organize through the geographic divisions a bureau of public speakers, national in its scope, and dealing with subjects pertaining to the electric light and power industry. In an industry which so thoroughly covers the country it would seem that an organization could be developed that would carry its story orally throughout the country. While the results obtained this year were not so far reaching as we would have liked, still a start has been made. It is hoped that as the geographic divisions become better organized that a bureau of national speakers can be successfully developed. It cannot but result. in a great benefit to the industry through the public becoming better informed as to its problems and its needs. The State Organization of Public Information Committees has had general direction of the organization and direction of all state committees on public utility information. The work of this committee has met with a marked success. There are now eighteen organized public information committees covering twenty-five states. These committees are sending weekly to the newspapers of these states news items on utility matters that must be helping to impress upon the people of those states their own great personal interest in the success of utility problems. The necessity of this work, and, in fact, all work that tends to educate the public on utility problems is well illustrated by the present condition of the steam railroads, which largely results from a lack of appreciation in years gone by of the inter-dependence of the railroads and the people.

In order that we may not hand down to those who follow us in the operation of what will be great central stations distributing electric energy over wide areas similar conditions to those which the railroads now face, we should so educate and advise the public that they will see clearly that

they have an interest far greater than ours in the proper development of our great industry.

Το

Women's Public Information Committee. formulate and put into effect plans for the education of the women of the country in the fundamental economic principles of the electric light and power business and the inter-dependence of the public and the industry. It was deemed that the time had come when the women in the industry and the women of the public should be recognized as a very considerable factor in our relations with the public. In many of our member companies one of the greatest points of contact with the public is through the woman office employee. It is important that she should understand our problems and equally so that her sister in the public, who now casts her vote, should be posted on public utility matters. The Women's Committee this year has been a pioneer, and like all pioneers has found it very hard breaking the trail. They are entitled to our thanks and our wish should be that in the coming year they will be able to gather the harvest from the ground that they have cleared during this.

Manufacturing Advertising Committee. To formulate and put into practice a campaign whereby manufacturers of electrical machinery, equipment and supplies shall devote a portion of their advertising space in public and trade magazines to the publication of good-will advertising. Again we must thank this committee for the splendid work they have done-not only among manufacturers but also among bankers, insurance companies and other financial interests in spreading a good-will advertising campaign. To Chairman P. L. Thomson, of the Western Electric Company, the industry is deeply indebted, as well as to the members of his committee, who so ably assisted him in his work.

The headquarters publicity staff has been very active during the year, and has produced and disposed of nearly 600,000 pamphlets, namely, reprints of articles, editorials and publications dealing with matters bearing on our industry. Just prior to the close of the fiscal year, ended June 30, 1921, the sales campaign for the two series of "Kilo Watt" had just been completed, and many companies had more than six months' supply of these pamphlets on hand for use as envelopestuffers. It, therefore, was considered inadvisable by the Public Relations National Section Executive Committee to get out further series of pamphlets for general sale and distribution. At present the Publicity Department is working on a series of singlesheet envelope stuffers in rotogravure. These will be exceptional in appearance because of the method of printing, and at the same time will be less expensive than pamphlets which have been issued heretofore.

The 1922 good-will advertising program of the Association is being carried on in advertisements appearing in Colliers', the National Weekly, and the Literary Digest as national general media, and in the following farm publications: Breeder's Gazette, Suc

missioners' classifications, and it is a matter of great importance to the member companies throughout the country that this Commissioners Classification should be adopted by all the State Commissions as promptly as possible.

Come and hear this address and help arouse the members of the Association to the fact that each one of them has a definite duty and responsibility in helping to put over this standard classification program.

Coming now to a brief report of the Accounting Section work, our Classification of Accounts Committee submitted to the Committee on Statistics and Accounts of Public Utilities, a subcommittee of the National Association of Railway and Utilities Commissioners at their Convention in Atlanta, last fall, the N.E.L.A. amendments to the Commissioners Uniform System of Accounts, and again before that Committee as now constituted at a meeting held in Chicago, February 20, 1922. As a result, the commissioners' committee agreed to accept in substance practically all of our proposals for amendments. That committee's report will be submitted to their national convention in Detroit, next October, and if adopted, as we anticipate it will be, the commissioners' and the N.E.L.A. classifications become practically identical.

Last summer, a situation in the Northwest, where several of the state commissions were considering the adoption of the commissioners' classifications but with such considerable changes that the principle of uniformity was seriously in danger, was dealt with successfully by this committee.

At all of the Accounting Section executive committee meetings which have been purposely held in different sections of the country, general discussions of retirement or depreciation accounting have been had, and Mr. Meyers, Chairman of the Classification of Accounts Committee, has done excellent missionary work in educating accounting people to a better understanding of the N.E.L.A. policy on this subject of retirement or depreciation.

While all dealings with the Federal Power Commission have been handled through the Waterpower Development Committee, and the Accounting Section therefore has no official authority in the matter, the chairman of the Classification of Accounts Committee and a number of its members have done a great deal of important work in connection with the system of accounts proposed by the Federal Power Commission for the use of its licensees. This matter, which I presume will be reported on more fully by the Waterpower Development Committee, is not yet settled.

In this connection I wish to express the opinion that this Association and its member companies are very fortunate at this time in having as chairman of the Classification of Accounts Committee an able, experienced man, who is thoroughly posted on the subject, and who has the faculty of getting on his feet and presenting his case clearly and convincingly before any audience. Through the liberality of the United Electric Light & Power

Company, of New York City, Mr. Meyers has devoted a large portion of his time to this work for several years.

Some further amendments to the Standard Classification are under consideration at the request of the Pacific Coast Electrical Association.

Probably the most important work before the Accounting Section at this time is the further prosecution of the work of securing the adoption of the Commissioners' System of Accounts by all of the state commissions, and the drawing up of a standard form of annual report, and I wish to impress upon you that each and every one of the member companies, every geographic division, and every state association, has a definite duty and should share with the Accounting Section the responsibil ity of presenting the desirability of the uniform classification on every proper occasion to their respective State Commissions.

As I have before stated, the Federal power classification matter is not yet settled, and a general agreement and adoption by all of the companies, and all of the states, of this uniform classification cannot help having a very important influence on the classi fication and accounting rules as finally adopted by the Federal Power Commission.

The report of the Customers' Records and Billing Methods Committee, this year, is quite a departure, in that it consists of a carefully worked out comparison of the cost of customers' accounting for a number of companies. When I tell you that for the average company, nearly one-fifth of the total number of employees are engaged on this customers' accounting work, which includes meter-reading, billing, bookkeeping, cashiers, and collecting, I think you will appreciate that a comparative study of these expenses is important. You should take this report home and figure up these same expenses for your companies, and use the figures in this report as a yard stick to measure whether or not your operations are on an efficient basis.

The Budget Committee has made a very thorough and extensive study and has prepared what is really a complete text book on the subject. They have divided their work into four parts with a subcommittee assigned to each, namely, Investment, Operating, Stock and Cash, the latter consisting of a summary of the other three, together with some current financial figures of the balance sheet.

As this is a subject much broader than strictly accounting, we should very much appreciate having some of the operating and engineering members who are interested attend our meeting and take part in the discussion of this report.

This year, for the first time, the Accounting Section has made a definite, persistent, and reasonably successful effort to encourage and help in the organizing of Accounting Section work in the Geographic Divisions, and in the coordinating of same with the work of the National Accounting Section.

This has been accomplished by holding joint Executive Committee and subcommittee meetings in different sections of the country, the first one, at

Gerwood Springs, Colorado, for the benefit of Western members, the second one at Detroit, and the last one at Chicago, and by getting the Geogransic Accounting representatives to attend these We the attendance of the accounting chairmen the geographic divisions at our meetings has quite satisfactory, the difficulty with the geo

plan of organization, at least so far as the inting Section is concerned, is that the geoPratic representatives, who largely make up the hership of the national committees, are not as la' 'e in regard to attendance at meetings, and spear attendance I think is partly the result of a of a proper appreciation of the importance of counting work by many of the managers and For this reason, I wish to present the ***ing Section work from a different viewof covers not only strictly accounting, but also reading, billing, collecting, timekeeping, and 'I records, stock transfers and records in conn with stocks and bonds, insurance, statistics, t and cost data, rate analyses, and appraisal

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e the average company, exclusive of fuel, one of the total operating expense falls under the ton of the Accounting Section

A large proportion of your employees who meet eal with the public comes within the scope of presting Section activities, your meter read ez biers, collectors, and the employees at your a transfer windows, probably have a greater ine in creating good will on the part of our cus. towards the company, than any of the other et emplovers who deal with customers on y message that you send to your cus a' least the only regular message, the 1,16 19sued by the accounting department t that I want to make, and the thing that being home to you, is that you should edy

aten your accounting men by getting from home occasionally to attend the of committees to which they belong, and their friends engaged in similar work in Many of the company executives are

drawn from among the office people, and a little more money spent in helping accounting men to get new ideas and new visions will be money well spent, and the best way of doing this in my opinion is through association committee work

The chairman of the Accounting Section of the American Gas Association, about three months ago, suggested that the Accounting Section of their Association, and that of the National Electric Light Association, should undertake to coordinate their work so far as practicable. They happened to be holding their Executive Committee meeting in Chicago at the same time as ours, and so we arranged for a joint luncheon and discussion of the matter

It has been arranged that the chairmen of their committees shall attend the meetings of similar committees of our Section, and vice versa.

A similar suggestion has been received within the last few weeks trom the president of the American Electric Railway Accountants' Association, which is afhlated with the American Electric Railway Asso

ciation

Many of the member companies of the National Electric Light Association operate electric, gas and street railway properties, and there is probally much more in common between these three utilities from the accounting standpoint than there is from the technical or operating or perhaps even the com mercial standpoint The Accounting problems of the gas and electric companies are quite similar, in fact, in many of the companies the entire customers accounting (meter reading, billing, and bookkeep ing), for both gas and electricity is handled as one operation

Just how far this athliation of the Accounting Section with these other organizations shou'd go is a matter of organization which should have the careful consideration of the officers of this Association

THE PRESIDENT. I will next call on a man whom we will a'l remember has been doing proneer work in helping us get this new work started, and who is also charged with the d ́ity of carrying on the work of one of our national sections I refer to RH Tillman, Chairman of the Commercial Nationa Section

increased diversity of its application, the Commercial National Section has had many problems to solve during its entire existence and especially has this been true in this, its twelfth fiscal year. Notwithstanding the natural problems, due to our ever-increasing ability in the field of electrical application, and those serious handicaps lately caused by the prevailing world conditions of the past few years, there has been a real and continuous constructive work accomplished by the Section.

While the results of this work during the year just closing might seem somewhat intensive along certain definite lines, it is believed that when analyzed they will cover the main and most important points to which we should give consideration.

At the beginning of this administrative year, it was the desire of the Section that more intensive work be done on the important commercial subjects and that as far as possible the results of that work be given out as rapidly as obtained. It was also our desire that it be so arranged that no parallel sessions within the Section be held at the annual convention. This departure from former practice will, we believe, improve the Section's program for this convention.

It is not necessary to go into the details of the commercial program at this time as the results of the work of the bureaus and committees will be presented during each afternoon. For the work of the Section to be understood and appreciated, it is necessary that these meetings be attended.

The program which will be given in the afternoons, and the various articles on commercial subjects, which have appeared from time to time in various publications, are the result of four group meetings of the committees and bureaus of the Commercial National Section. The active membership on these committees and bureaus numbers some 200. At the most successful group meeting of the year, which was held in New Orleans, there were more than 250 electrical men present. This proved to those in attendance that these group meetings should be held in various geographic divisions from time to time, so that a better understanding of each. other's problems may be obtained. The commercial work in the geographic divisions is constantly improving, with their completed organization, and a continued close cooperation of these divisions with the Commercial Section cannot fail to react favorably to both.

The outstanding feature of the work and accomplishments of the Commercial bureaus and committees is the effort devoted to the movement for business development. At the beginning of this administration the Commercial National Section officers were convinced that they were facing a serious time in the affairs of men, and that the ranks of many commercial departments of the central station companies were so depleted that they could not properly function. It seemed at that time the pessimists and calamity howlers were inevitably sending the country to the dogs. There were even prohibition pessimists warning the country that unless

more strenuous laws were made and enforced the country would not survive because it could not swim, while the "pessimistic wets" were prophesying its destruction by a disease known as "dry rot."

The Executive Committee of the National Electric Light Association realized that only the concerted action of the combined forces of our industry could bring the electrical business out from under this cloud of depression. So when general conditions began to somewhat improve in the Fall-in December, 1921, a message was sent out from the Executive Committee of the National Electric Light Association. This message expressed the belief that electric light and power companies were in a better position to take new business, and were in a better position to obtain capital at reasonable rates than they had been for many years. This message was real news and because it was not expected in some quarters it was especially good news. It was decided that to continue and strengthen the revival in our own industry, as well as to stimulate others a representative committee known as the Joint Committee for Business Development should be elected to plan and to carry out the work under the direction of the National Electric Light Association, and with the assistance of all branches of our industry. This was done and the results of the work of this committee will be described later by its director. At this time, however, I wish to say that the committee has been heartily encouraged by the ready responses from all interests, and trusts that it will continue to receive this unanimous support in carrying out its plans.

The Commercial National Section welcomed this movement, and the committees and bureaus have devoted much time in formulating recommendations and assisting in every way possible because they are confident that this movement will bring telling commercial results. At the present time we believe that we are on the threshhold of what we might call the greatest opportunity our industry has ever had to make its usefulness felt. Wonderful as have been its accomplishments, we must remember that it is yet a young industry and capable of much greater growth and development. We must not allow an opportunity to pass in which we can in any way better the position of our business in the community. We must also appreciate the fact that in all this development and advancement there is imposed upon us added responsibilities of giving the best of public service and maintaining the efficient progressive and aggressive reputation held by our business today.

In closing these remarks I wish to express here for the Commercial Section, the appreciation of the splendid assistance and support which has been received from the officers and Executive Committee of the Association, the chairmen and members of the bureaus and committees, and the representatives of the Associations.

Also I wish personally to thank those at headquarters whose excellent assistance and courtesies were shown me throughout the administrative year.