Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1864-12-14

| The PRicr OF 0As The Cincinnati Gazette
| furnishes the following intereslug items upon
the gss question, which have en- application here
as we'll a. in that city:
A correspondent informs u that there was 4
| gas controversy in London in lo49. 81 there Is
IN Cincinnati IN leC4 There vas, too. mo
nopoly there. az there i here. The Company
that controlled the business seems not to have
bad an exclusive right to use the streets. The
| price OF gas under the monopoly was bs per
IhpO cubic feet Capitalists began to figure.
and the result OF calculations that Gas could
be furnished at Is Cd new company vas
/ formed pipes were laid. and gas was furnished
at ths figure After time the old company
bought in the new one. and the price was fixed
at A., equal to ninefy-si< cents in American
coin. Our informant gives these figures from
memory. bat he thinks he states them correctly
London Is a much larger city than Cincinnati
consequently there "a more gas consumed there
than here, and therefore it be sold relatively
cheaper. I he gas consumed the cheaper
it can be furnished. On this principle Cincinnati
should be supplied with gas cheaper than a
smaller place and this shows the estimate
placed upon the intelligence of our people by the
Gas Company, when II proposed TO regulate the
price of gas by the average of Dayton. Indisnap-
oils Columbus. Buffalo. and such points. gress-
ing this dose by adding Chicago and ST Louis,
where gas coal j. much higher than Is is here.
The Company. se think. might have added to
the list the private works of some OF our Clifton
ueghbors. IT'D f
In Pittsburg We understand. gas has been sup
piled, II il II not still furnished. al 81 3Ils per
/ 900 cubic iee, The city owns those works
and they pay their way. Coal Is cheaper in
Pittsburg than in Cincinnati 60 is coke Gin
cnnat consumes more gas than Pittsburg. in the
proportion of population The census OF 1860
puts the population Of the two cities As follows:
Cincinnati .... ......... .s........ isl 900
Pittsburg. 1000
We argue from these figures that gas can be
afforded in Cincinnati at as low figure as in
Pitsburg- let the prices compare as follows, II
we are not in error 10 the present charge at
Pitisburg:
Cincinnati. ................... ..........s3 y
Pittsburg 81
The Cincinnati Gas Company being close
corporation, il IS difficult TO arrive Al sny official
facts regarding the financial machinery; but We
understand the situation to be "a follows:
The cash investment by ockholders foots up
$3.50 900 Annual dividends of - per cent.
have been declared and out of the surplus earn
iDgs the works have been extended Upon the
investments thus made new stock was issued and
divided
In this way the capital stock has been in
creased to about e., 900 900, and the stock was
recently worth 225 Stockholders. we are in
formed. have been twice called upon for assess
ments of and > per cent. respectively. This
ia TO be added to the $3.50 900 previously named
the cash paid in. From these figures the
reader judge OF the actual cost of gas in
Cincinnati and the actual profits realized We
de not pretend to absolute accuracy in giving
this statement. bnt We base the figures upon the
best Information We have been able to gather.
| and most of it has been obtained from stockhOld
ers. If the city should purchase the works the
| price would be the actual cost less the deprecis
Ion in property. This would strike of the l25
premium on the stock, and bring it down to sim
pie par. or less. Now we have a simple question
in arithmetic to propose: If the Gas Company,
while the city has been growing from $4,000 TO
100000 has realized such large profits on gas
sold at 81 50, what price could the city afford it
at while our population grows from 100000 20
400 ,000f