The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-04
THE GAS TRUST.

OELHCT COUNCIL VIII THIS aIbernOOu % caheu
upon to consider the new gas loan Of $500, 1000
which was authorized by the Common branch
last week, the opposition to it being silenced
by the threat that a portion of the city would
be left in darkness if the Gas Trustees did
not get the meney. We hope sincerely that
a vigorous opposition to this loan will be
developed in the Select branch to-day, and
that nothing will be left undone by the inde-
pendent members to defeat it. Councils have
too long been the servants of the gas ring,
and it is high time that they had at least made
an attempt to prove that they are not either
in law or equity bound merely to register the
DEGREES of their masters, but that as the
representatives of the people it is at once
their right and their duty to exercise some
control over the peoples property and over
the expenditures of the peoples money. By
the unfortunate bargain made when the city
assumed the control of the Gas Works, their
management is entrusted to set of men who
are practically independent of Councils in
nearly everything, but Councils certainly have
the right to say whether money shall or
shall not be appropriated, to be expended
none but the members of the gas ring know
how, and it is an absurdty to say that they
are bound to hand over to the ring any sum
that may be demanded, while there is no
assurance or guarantee that it will be ex-
pended for the public benefit. If the Gas
Trustees can demand half a million dollars
now, they can demand ten millions next
year, and Councils will be as much obliged
to give them the last as the first-named sum,
and there will be no limit whatever to the
public debt
The Gas Trustees demolished the works at
Twenty third and Market streets entirely upon
their own responsibility, and without any
apparent necessity for such action. There
are, it is true, objections to the site, as the
value of property is deteriorated by the
proximity of the Gas Works, and if
new works are built, therefore, they
should be located at a point remote
from the heart OF the city. This is a matter
over which Councils should have some con
troll, for there is no assurance that the trus-
tees will not build upon the old site, or that
they will not select an equally or more OBJ
jectionable one. Apart from all this,
however, it was great outrage
to destroy the old works before the public
were informed of the necessity, if any existed,
for new ones, and before any means had been
provided for their erection. By taking the
course they did, the trustees hoped to force
Councils to grant them all the money they
were disposed to demand, for fear that serious
public inconvenience would occur; but we
appeal to the representatives of the people,
who will consider the subject in the
| Select branch this afternoon, not to
| allow this trick to influence them, and
to absolutely refuse to grant the
loan, and thus throw the responsibility of any
unpleasant consequences that may occur
upon the shoulders of the trustees. Since
| the Gas Works have been under the present
system of management, the profits have
doubtless been large enough to pay for the
| erection of dozen gas manufacturing estab-
| lishments Trustee after trustee has grown
rich from his connection with the gas ring,
and the whole theory of the ring has been,
that SO long as the interest on the loan was
paid nobody has any right to en-
quire into the management of the
Gas Works, and the public and their repre-
sentatives in Councils have no rights that the
trustees were bound to respect. 1t is GER
tainly high time that reform was inaugu-
rated, and if Councils refuse to give half a
million dollars for the erection of new works,
and the people of Philadelphia suffer serious
inconvenience on account of an insufficient t
supply of gas, public indignation will be ex-
cited against the gas ring to such an extent
that new order of things may he expected
to follow. Now is the time for the members
of Councils who have the interests of the
public at heart to make an exhibition of
manly independence that cannot but have a
most salutary effect, and that will greatly in
crease their popularity with the long-suffer-
ing tax-payers of Philadelphia.