The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1866-11-21

with our own.
City Gas and Railroad Companies and their
Abuses-Tho Duty or the Legislature.
The people Of Boston are just now engaged
in agitating the question Of cheap gas They
have suddenly awakened to the fact that they
are paying to the Boston Gas Light Company
three dollars and twenty-five cents per thousand
feet for their gas, while the city manufactures
better article for its own consumption at the
public institutions at Deer Island and South
Boston at cost Of only one dollar and thirty
cents per thousand, which expense would, Of
course be greatly reduced If it possessed equal
facilities with the private corporation. The
City Council, taking these facts into considers
tion are debating the expediency Of making
the manufacture of gas for the whole city a
public affair, repeating the charter Of the Gas
Light Company, and supplying the consumers
at the minimum cost, after defraying the neces-
sary expenses of management In Cincinnati,
few months ago, similar movement was
made, and in the discussion to which 1t gave
rise it was demonstrated that wherever cities
are supplied by private companies the people
are compelled to pay for their gas about
double the price it costs when manufactured
by the city. The agitation Of the question is
not confined to this country; for several English
cities are petitioning for q law authorizing the
municipal corporations to manufacture gas for
public consumption, to be supplied to the con-
sumner at the lowest possible cost.
1t is time for the citizens of New York to
direct their attention to this important subject
and to be prepared to press upon the Legisla-
ture, which will soon convene, their demand
for an immediate reform in this city and
Brooklyn. Next to cheap food and cheap
fuel the great mass of our people
are interested In securing cheap light,
cheap water and cheap transportation.
The policy which made the supply Of water
public matter and established the Croton
Aqueduct Department has secured this great
necessary Of life to the public at q very
triiing cost The policy which has bestowed
upon private individuals the gas and railroad
franchises Of the two cities has left the people
at the mercy of greedy corporations and COM
PEELED them to submit to their extortions. In
this city the price Of gas is three dollars and a
half thousand feet. In Brooklyn there are
two companies, divided by Atlantic street, one
Of which charges three dollars and seventy
five cents and the other three dollars and
twenty-five cents. In both cities gas could be
manufactured and supplied, after payment OF
all cost, for less than two dollars thousand,
leaving a profit to the city for the benefit Of
the taxpayers.
In like manner the railroad franchises Of
the two cities have been given away to
private individuals, who are making enormous
fortunes at the expense Of the public. The
cities get no benefit from them the people are
defrauded by them. Three years ago the
Third Avenue Railroad Company divided
eighty-seven and . half per cent, and every
year 1t pays q dividend Of twelve per cent
Other city railroads are realizing equally
enormous profits, taken out OF the hard earn
ings of the working population and put into
the pockets mainly Of political adventures
and lobby speculators A city railroad bill
passes In Albany with fifty names in II as cor
porators. Probably forty Of these represent
members and lobbymen, and are bought out
Dy the remaining ten, receiving each little
fortune as his share Of the plumber. All
this outlay the travelling public have
TO make good, as well as TO enrich
dozen individuals, comprising contrac-
tors, brewers, "ring" politicians, worn
out editors, ex-Clerks Of the Assembly, ex-Sen-
ators and ex-AssembIymen from the rural dis
tricts. who remain in to run the concern and
purchase houses, and live in shoddy aris-
tocracy style in the upper part of the city ont
Of the profits But for the greed of these pri-
vate corporations the laboring man could ride
| from one end Of the island to the other for
three cents, and at that rate he could afford to
live in healthy, decent neighborhood and
take his family out Of the reach Of the diseases
that hover about the crowded cheap neighbor-
hoods where he is now compelled to find a
home.