Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-05-15
FERGUSON & Co 1908 Second st buy,
sell or exchange second hand harness.
1 of a

One OF the mysteries Of city life--we
speak not Of miseries-is the variation in
the price Of gas. Within certain limits,
the relation between demand and SUP
ply, the ~cheapness aud accessibility of
materials, etc, are expected to modify
the cost Of production of gas and, con.
seQuently, the price of it, hut the margin
here need not be a large ene. In all
places gas is about the same thing, sup
piled in the same way. The material
used may be coal. or naptha, or oil, or
wood, but the product is earburretted
hydrogen, prepared at a central factory,
distilled over into a receiver called a gas
ometer, whence il is distributed By its
own specific gravity through pipes i'm
peryious to air, to the places OF local
consumption, the quantity used at any
point being ascertained by self-register-
ing apparatus. The price Of gas, there
fore, should not vary much otherwise
than as the price Of material varies. Yet
We discover that gas in Little Rock, Ark,
costs five dollars per thousand cubic feet.
being made from Pittsburg coal distilled
in conjunction with pitch pine or light
wood" Cost Of material makes it SO
high, the reader says at once. But gas
is the same price per thousand in Engle-
wood, N. j. Small place and light de-
maud, the reader concludes But it is
only three dollars and fifty cents in Co.
hoes, and three dollars in Tifin, Ohio.
In Augusta, Ga, in Charleston, W Va,
in Lyons in this state, it is four dollars,
so the theory of small places falls to the
ground. In Newark, N. j., the price is
two dollars and e~ighty-fve cents, while
in East Newark the price is 4 four dollars.
Will some one explain wby2 In Balti-
more the cost of gas to the consumer is
three dollars per thousand; in Philadel-
phia the cost is only two dollars and IF
teen cents. In Pittsburg the happy ma
ker of gas bills gets his artificial light at
one dollar per thousand, but when he
goes over to Allegheny he has to pay one
dollar and thirty cents. The gas in Bos-
ton and in Washington is sold for two dol
lars and twenty-five cents; here in New
York for two dollars and fifty cents.
Peoria and Bath, Me have each to pay
three dollars and fifty cents, which is The
same price as that charged in Pottsville,
Pa, in the heart of the coal country.
The people Of Nantucket are able to
supply themselves as cheaply as those Of
York and Erie, Pa, while Wilkesbarte
charges as much for a cubic foot as does
Charlottesville, Va. Staten Island gas
is as high as the gas in San Francisco,
CAL, made mostly from coal shipped
round Cape Horn. In Harrisburg and
Reading, Pa, the gas bills are as high as.
in Knoxville, Tenn, and in Richmond,
Va. Chicago gets its gas for two dollars
Fifty cents, but in Detroit it ouly costs a
single dollar to the thousand feet. 1t is
simply impossible to say why an article
should be charged at five dollars in Lit
tie Rock, three dollars in Baltimore, two
dollars and fifty cents in New York, two
dollars and fifteen cents in Philadelphia
and n dollar in Detroit, unless we sup
pose that there is extortion at one place
or undue cheapness at another. As ges
is furnished usually by joint-stock COM
panies, the hypothesis of undue cheap
ness is simply absurd, and we are driven
to fall back upon the alternative of ex-
t%ortionate prices, which p%resupposes mo-
nopoly ON the part Of the companies and
long suffering on the part oftha citizens.
AS it is impraeheable to prevent gns mo-
nopolies by the simple means Of compe.
tition, it seems to be necessary for cities
to adopt municipal regulations for con-
trolling the quality and price Of gas, and
to grant no charters except the privilege
to regulate be observed IN. Y. Wortd.