Business: Yankee Power

Rearing a few surprising skyscrapers above the rich alluvium of the Connecticut River is Hartford, capital of the third smallest State in the Union, home of a considerable proportion of the U. S. insurance business, birthplace of J. P. Morgan the Elder. There, where Secession was debated long before the South was tempted, old Yankee families grew rich and conservative in the manufacture of textiles, tools, machines. When Thomas Alva Edison devised a lamp which never needed filling, the gadget appealed to a good Hartfordian whose fortune had come from linen. With $20,000 capital Austin C. Dunham founded Hartford Electric Light Co. in 1881.

Typical of Hartford management was the company's practical progressiveness, its stanch independence. Hartford Electric was the first U. S. utility to use high-voltage transmission, first to use aluminum lines, first to install a steam turbine, first to use that marvel of efficiency, the mercury turbine. But the spirit of innovation never pushed its way into the treasurer's office. Not only is Hartford Electric completely free of a holding company; its capitalization is the simplest conceivable—840,000 shares of common stock and not a dollar of bonded debt.

Last week this pioneering power company reported a profit of $2,500,000 for 1934, a slight increase over the year before. At the same time President Samuel Ferguson was elected board chairman, succeeding the late Samuel G. Dunham, the founder's brother. Upped to the presidency was Viggo E. Bird, a Danish-born engineer who has been a vice president for years.

Small potatoes in the U. S. power basket are Hartford Electric and its affiliate Connecticut Power Co., which serves a few other counties in the State and is not to be confused with Connecticut Light & Power, a United Gas Improvement subsidiary. Yet Samuel Ferguson is keenly and sometimes enviously watched by most of the industry. Instead of spending his best time and talents defending the status quo, he has slaved to promote the use of his power. As a result of his efforts, Hartford Electric's domestic rate has been reduced from 9½¢ per kwh. in 1921 to 4½¢ in 1935.

Two years ago Samuel Ferguson started to rent electric ranges "on trial" for 30¢ per week. Now he has more than 1,700 out and hundreds more have been sold. Last week he reported that the average domestic consumption of power jumped from 793 kwh. in 1933 to 858 kwh. last year. His latest innovation is to offer free current to customers who increase their consumption by certain amounts. Thus, if a householder boosts his meter reading 10 kwh. per month, he may have the next 50 kwh. without charge.