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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1903)
! u i IM THE OMAHA DAILY MEE: StA'DAY, MAHCll 2J, 1!)OH 10 Vl 71 O 'O (SOAP (Jri fan T1 VVO n 11. 1EM JJl. (U) 10) 3 MUNICIPAL LIGHTING PLANTS Papar by Victor Eose water at National Municipal Ownership Oonrention. t ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE CITY Mere Political neaaorallaatloa la Craata f Prlrate Pranrhlara Thaa la a BerTlce fcy Rrapomal hle Paalio Serraata. Part II. Rightly or wrongly, the first question linked whan the question of municipal own ership is broached Is, "Will It pay?" If municipal ownership meant a heavier bur den en the taxpayers of the city no other argument could command attention. But the beneficiaries of private franchises still Insist that It le more economical for the city to rublet the task of supplying its electric lighting to a f ranch Ised corpora tion, the answer Is that the results of very Investigation Into comparative cost under private and publlo regimes contra dict their assertion. In alt candor I ask. why should a private corporation be able te eupply electric light more cheaply than a publlo corporation? Would it be rational to believe, entirely apart from the facts and figures we have already examined, that the elements entering Into the production of electricity for lighting purposes would To take cold. Iff so common to neglect the cold. That is one reason why there are so many people with "deep-aeated, stubborn coughs, and so many more with lung trouble. The short, quick way to cure a cough la to as vr. Fierce Golden Medical Dis covery. The quicker this remedy is used the quicker the cure. Bat ere when neglect bee let disease fasten on the longa, Golden Medical Discovery -aaay be relied on to cure in ninety iiht ease out of every hundred. The only motive for substitution is to penult the dealer to make Uie nine extra profit paid on the tale of leas meritorious medi drjea. He gains. You lose. Therefore accent no substi tute tor 'Golden Medical Discovery." I sat fecliag qalt well. writes Mtas Dorcas A- Lewis, ol Na. n.Mh M , Washing". D C. My cough Is very much better, sad I awe it all to Df. Am' CoMea Medical Dwcoaary. I caanot lay too Biuca la praiae at the raadktae, I bod bcea quit a sufferer far a Va( tua. ud after raadiBK IX&tor rieivaa Cuanmoa aeaae tl J 1 . ,i . . . t- k. . - W4 flni.la try,- I W,T 3) Mcdaai iMacovvry,' aa.ao4 Ukiag N ia Mil. iIa Mduot bras s.eeia well K a Uag Uama. Took otw teaaoaoaM of Dr. rarret S Geldee kladical DtanA-eiv aad atept aaaiiT ail Btgbt aril bout cougbiag. aa I contfaaea Using It I aa la great ayatthy aril aavboa waa saaTera wUk a oougH. 1 aad bara a auffwr aa aiou thaa tea year. I tried kaa ai oifleirni , MUdBa aad different auctora bat dM act frel ' aaaca Wtter. I coached a a til I oMaavenerd l ttag blood, ba aow I kl aiach airaafr ud am enllnrlr wall. Dr. Nm oataea aieakai tHacovery U the heal aiedicla I kave eecr iaaaa lay aoaaa Is la WUliaaitburg, Vtrgtala. Dr. Pierce' Pleasant Pellets are a la dies' laxative. No other medicine equal thcia fox fcntlcncsa and thorowghnesav A come more expensive to a municipal cor poration than to a private corporation? The cost of production may be divided broadly under (1) capital investment and (2) expenses of maintenance and operation. Will any one contend that private cor porations can borrow money ss cheaply as municipal corporations? When it comes to raising the necesssry funds for the capital Investment, the municipality can sell its bonds at better rates than the private corporation. In the city of Omaha, where I live, municipal bonds bring a premium that reduces the Interest rate down to approximately 4 per cent, while the public service corporations have to float their securities on a t per cent basis and often at a discount, and I have reason to believe the same Is true generally throughout the country. It is sometimes contended that the municipal corporation will have to pay more for its building sites and construction work and that it cannot buy Its machinery and in stallation materials as cheaply aa the private corporation. There Is nothing, however, to support this assertion, nor Is It plausible unless we assume that the publlo officers are recreant to their trust and that private corporations are not as liable to suffer from dishonest or scheming employes aa the municipal corporation. The manu facturers of electrical machinery certainly stand as ready te sell to municipal corpora tions as to private corporations without discrimination aa to prices. Of the expense for mslntenanoe and operation, the principal Items are those for supplies and fuel, for wages and salaries, tor depreciation and repairs. What I have said with reference to the purchase of machinery applies with reference to sup plies. There is no good resson why the municipality csnnot buy as cheaply and effectively aa any one on the market. These purchases are usually made by contract awarded on competitive bids whether they affect a municipality er a private corpora tion. taestlB f Coaaparatlva Salaries). When H cornea to the questloa of com parative salaries and wages, we can cite testimony In the report of the commiasioner of labor, already referred to, which con tains a tsble covering these points within the respective groups Into which the plants are classified, with this comment: So far aa salaries are concerned the aver age cost in municipal planta Is smaller In every group presented. In some cases being lens "than half the average coat In private plants. As regards wage coats. It ia seen that In seven of the groups shown the average cost In the municipal plant exceed that In the private planis, while In eight of the groups this com In the titivate planis la greater than In thoae municipally owned ami controlled. From this we would be safe, certainly, in assuming that municipal plants are at no dissdvantage. As to repairs, wear and tesr, and depreci ation, the ownership of the plant will make no difference unless we take It for granted that the men in control of one class are less efficient and less competent than those ia control of the other. Accidents are no more likely, nor the rate of depreciation more heavy on account of the ownership of the plant. Coaaaaerelal Baalaeaa. Ia figuring on the financial saving ef fected by municipal ownership, we must remember that substaolally all the private planta engaged la supplying electric light have a large commercial business In eddt- tlon to their contracts' for street Illumina tion. Ia fact, for most of them, the cos tract tor city street lighting is simply a nest egg, while the more proliable part ot , the business constats la sailing electricity te private consumers. In some cases prl vste ownership undertskes io furnish street lamp at moderate, or even loalDg prices, as a consideration for the privilege of ex pluiuni the commercial lightlug said. On the other hand, the municipal plant has not always been allowed to engage In commer cial business, but very often has been com pelled because of legal limitations to con fine Itself to supplying street illumination for the municipality alone. In his notable Investigation Labor Com missioner Wright feels called upon to ex plain that In many cases his table (of comparative cost of production) shows that: In municipal plants the Income from private users during the year exceeded the com of production and that apparently the city not only obtained free electricity for its own uxe, but made a profit besides, while in other cases, mainly In the smaller pLantx, the cost of electricity used by the city was extremely high. In the former caaee the prices charged consumers by the municipal works was sufficiently high to reduce the cost to the city of its own electricity to a very small sum, and indeed in muny cases to nothing In addition to showing a large profit on the service. In the latter cases. In which the coat to the city was apparently large, the condition may be due to one or more of a variety of causes. In some instances the high cost may be accounted for by the fact that a small price In charged to the private consumers and the Income from this ftnurce being very small, the proportion of cost to be borne by the municipality and charge able aguinwt the electricity used for public service becomes correspondingly large; runner tn small towns and cities where the service Is limited the cost of operation Is almost aa great aa would be demanded by a greater amount of service. In analysing the table I have constructed from the annual compilations of the sta tistics of cities already referred to, I have noted that of the thirteen cities of over 30,000 population two, namely, Tacoma, Wash., and Taunton, Mass., are appar ently unique In doing business on a strictly commercial basis. For the year covered by the September, 1902, reportx the city of Tacoma Is credited with receipts from sales ot electrto light aggregating $80,845 for thn year. Its expenses of maintenance for thn same period were 169,251. so that the city secured all of Its 836 street lamps without cash outlay and had besides a surplus of nearly siu.vuv io onset ine interest on its Investment and the depreciation of Its ' plant. According to the samo source of information, the plant at Taunton took in a yearly revenue amounting to $29,747 paid for commercial lights, while its ex penses of maintenance were $29,247, leaving a difference of l"00 In addition to the use of 247 arc lamps for street Illumination as an offset against Interest charges. To show that this result is not simply an extraordinary condition of a single year. I hsve compiled from the Labor Bureau's annual bulletins the following tables te ahow the financial operations of these two municipally owned plants for a period of three years: TACOMA-Pop. J7.7H. 1900. 1W1. 19u2. Total number arc lamia SIS Cost of plant $4jO.O00 $n02,2J0 M2,X Capital outlay for year 16.887 64.230 27,252 Maintenance and operation 47.7M M.93 .251 Income from plant.... 67,114 W.ini TAt'NTOK-Pop. 31.036. 1900. 19ul. 1902. Number miles of mains 85 (3 Total number of arc lamps 247 247 Cost ot plant $141,743 $141,640 $15t.42 Capital outlay for year $.23 .7fJ 4.7U Maintenance and operation 14,758 27.5W 29.247 Income from plant 3Mb1 ti.&t 29,747 Expenses of other street lamps S.79C $,814 !.( If these tables ahow anything, they Indi cate that It Is the lack of revenue from the commercial business that reduces the finan cial saving effected by municipal plants cut off from private patronage to which the people ot the respective municipalities are tstitled. When it cornea to efficient service and reasonable prices te private patrona the municipal p'ant agsln hss the advantage. As the report ot the labor commiasioner dec lares: lit municipal plants profit is hot uaually tvnaidcrtd aa au object ana ihe privts charged are not so generally fixed as to eurn a per cent on the Investment, unleHa na In frequently the cane, outstanding bonds render interest a charge neceosary to be earned. In another place the commissioner refers to the fact that by far the greater number of private plants show a good profit, the per cent reaching aa high as 60.45 tn one instance. That such profits are Incompati ble wi'.b reasonable rates to the public goes without saying. The Crr of Politics. But we are told that even if It were pos sible for the municipality to effect a large financial saving for Its taxpayers and pri vate consumers of electric light, and to se cure for them the increment accruing from the steady growth of population and busi ness, which for the private corporation la absorbed in the franchise value, political exigencies would stand in the way. The bug-a-boo of politics is always bandy for use upon timid people or those who merely seek for an excuse. Establish municipal ownership by the acquisition of an electric lighting plant, declare Its opponents, and it la at once dragged into politics. That with proper civil service regulations the plant can be operated without undue po litical interference is certainly a possibil ity, and that the acquisition of such a plant would exert the strongest influence for pro tecting the public service from the bane of politics it is more than reasonable to ex pect. On the other hand, who will deny that the private electric lighting corporations ars constantly in politics? The regularly recurring necessity of securing new fran chise grants, of barring out competitors or heading off holdups, of renewing contrscts for street Illumination, almost compel each privileged corporation to be active in poli tics in order to claim tavora from the pow ers that be. In every city of any preten sions In this country the franchlsed cor porations constitute the most pernicious factor In local politics. They have a com munity of political interest thst draws them together, and they exert themselves as a rule In political contests on one side or on the other with their consolidated strength. Not content with manipulating local poll tics, these privileged corporations have great national organizations through which they operate In larger fields. If we would know what the electric lighting Interests have undertaken from time to time, we have only to refer to the report made to the National Electric Lighting association by Allan R. Foote aa chairman of Its commit tee on legislation the first year after that committee bad been constituted: A year aiiu (ioS) n t the convention of the National Klectric Lighting association the question was discussed of municipal own ership of electric light planta. As a result of the papers read at the time a resolution was adopted creating what we term lha national committee on legislation, of which 1 was made chairman. No instructions were given to that committee. 1 was au thnrtoed to appoint one member from each atatt) in making up the national committee. In order to unity the electrlo In- trr so they could work for their state, we Instituted a movement to orgu-nize state aaaoclutiona The member ship of these state associations Is confined exclusively to operating companies, and the are auDDosed to look after legislation In their own states, being assisted In their work through the wora or ine national ii inn ttM. Bo isr as giving in do not think the committee needs any in structions. Tha gnneral understanding is that the commit t-e la to take cognizance of all Questions thst afreet your Interests, whether that legislation be municipal or state. To provide for finances an assessment la authorised to be made which varies from one-eighth to one-fourth of 1 ner i-mii of tha camiailsation. This aasessmont la subject to the order of the executive committee of the association. So It gives them tha mean or raising a fund if they hxe use for it. without walling to call a meeting ot th association aid with out mm ii delav. They t an simply have a meetlna nf the executive committee, order aa aJfretsmtni sud collect the funds, Mo far an my observation has gone there has been no disposition nt all to hold back In the matter of finances. In my work I have to spend money and then get It ap propriated afterward, so they have a pretty good hold on me. 1 always bring In a 1)111 for what I spend. While this program was promulgated a dozen years ago, and I have no means of knowing to what extent the committee on legislation is still active, Mr. Foote's ex planation by itself ia enough to controvert the assertion that municipalization of eloc- trio lighting; would drag It Into politics. If needed, the evidence could be multiplied many times. 80 long as electric lighting Is given over to private corporations It will remain In politics while municipal owner ship offers the only avenue for taking It out ot politics. It Is well to bear In mind, too, that In all the stories ot municipal corrup tion that we hear from different sections from St. Louis to Minneapolis and from San Francisco to New York we have nu merous examples of bribe-giving and bribe taking, arising out of special franchise grants to private parties, but none of notable importance chargeable to dishonest management of municipal lighting plants once acquired. We will admit that the mu nicipal corporation runs a risk of loss by dishonest officers and employes, but so also does the private corporation which more often covers up embezzlement by com pounding the offense. But all auch crook edness pales Into significance beside the demoralizing and debauching Influence of the constant corruption of public servants by the paid agents of avaricious fran chlsed corporations. Sanmirr. The real question then is whether it is better for the municipality to operate Its own electric lighting plant or to reserve to Itself only the right to regulate with com pensation for the franchise either by fixed money payment or profit-sharing arrange ment. If financial considerations alone were to govern, the answer would depend upon the terms agreed to, although it Is hard to see how, if the city may rightfully claim part of the profit on the percentage plan. It may not with equal propriety and Justice do the work itself and take it all. But other considerations ought to weigh as well. The city owes It to Its citizens, aho may be private consumers of electric light, to protect them against exorbitant charges, and It ran do this best when It is alone in terested aa owner and operator. Again, the promotion of civic virtue would strongly counsel the removal, or at least the mini mizing of the festering sore of political cor ruption Invariably produced by the barter and trade of valuable franchise privileges. Municipal ownership of electric lighting may have to wait Its turn among the many demands urgently pressing upon the re sources of our American cities, yet no pro gressive program of contemporary muuiui pal reform will without It meet the re quirements ol current popular thought. This Is the conclusion of the paper writ ten by Victor Koaewater tor tha national convention on municipal ownership and public franchise held under the auspices ot the lie form club of New York. Feeetleea with the Wroag Ma. When Buck Kllgore was in congress a constituent of his from Texsa loomed up In the main doorway of the house and asked: "Is Kunnel Kllgob on de floa?" "No," replied the doorkeeper. "Kunnel Kllgoah Is not on de floh. He went out die doh a minute ago and won't ha back no uh." The next day that doorkeeper was ready to accept a responsible position with the Capital Traction company. Baltimore Herald. 1 y.'.v am pies An entire Grand Kanida manufac- turer's sample line of Dressers Chiffoniers Wash Stands in Golden Oak, Curly Birch, Mahogany and Hird'p-Eye Maple, bought at a big discount on special sale Monday at a SAVING FROM ....OriE-QUABTER to ONE-THIRD Here ia the opportunity to purchase a fine piece of f urni - ture for the bed room at much leas than regular value. Only one of a pattern in each finidh. These goods are 11 all highly hand polished, the latest designs and high quality. W e must move them quick as we need the room for reg ular stock. So come Monday. They won't last long. A Genuine sample cut-price sale, all new, this season's ' patterns. Here are a few of the prices showing regular and sample price. $32.00 Bird's-eye Maple Divrwr Kaniile sale $21.00 132.00 Mahogany Drtuwer sample mile $21.00 f35.00 Mahogany Dresser sample sale $22.50 $37.00 Oak Drssr sample sale $23.75 $30.00 Curly Uirch Dresser Ha mple sale $23,Q0 $3.1.00 Bird's-eye Dresser sample sale $22.B0 $43 Maple, Oak and Mahogauy Dresser sample sale. $28.50 $11.00 Oak Chiffonier sample sale $7.65 $16.00 Oak Chiffonier Maniple sale $10.75 $18.00 Oak Chiffonier sample sale $12.25 $21.00 HirdVeye Chiffonier sample sale- $15.50 $30.00 Bird's-eye Chiffonier--sample sale $17.50 $30.00 Binlseye Chiffonier sample sale $18.25 $38.00 Mahogany Chiffonier wimple sale .$23.75 73 other patterns Chiffoniers and Dressers. 5 rchard 1414-16-13 Douglas St.. Omaha Wilhelm (Carpet Qo. TJou't show your bad tssle. but InsiM on having Cook's Imperial Extra lry t'huui- pagae e( purest vintage alaaje. Cures Biliousness Constipation and Tcp!d Mver. HOWELL'S LITTLE ANTI-BILIOUS PILLS i're sample Howell Drug Co., ltilh and Cap itol Ave, ' '
