Omaha daily bee., 1882-12-06
CHEAP GAS.

On the 22d of January, 1868, an
ordinance was enacted by the city
council OF Omaha granting authority
under certain conditions to the Omaha
Gas Manufacturing company to erect
gas works and lay their mains through
the public streets and alleys. By this
ordinance the company and it's sue
o~essors were bound TO supply the city
with gas at q price not above IS per
thousand cubic feet for street
lamps. Section 9th Of the
ordinance repaired the gas company
to report to the city council stating
the number OF consumers in said city
and until it shall appear that there are
two hundred consumers, the said
Omaha Gas Manufacturing Company
may charge any sum not exceeding
SO 733 per thousand cubic feet Of gas,
and alter the number Of
shall exceed two hundred and until
there are over three hundred conaum.
ers, they may charge any sum not ex-
ceeding three hundred and seventy.
two and q half hundredths dollars per
thousandcubic feet of gas, and whenever
there are over three hundred consum-
ers they may charge any sum not ex-
ceeding three and seventy-two and a
half hundreths dollars per thousand
cubic feet of gas"
This is verbatim the language of the
ordinance compiled by John P. Bart
lett, city solicitor 10 1872. The only
inference that can be drawn from the
above, is that either the compiler was
a knave and changed the language OF
the original ordinance, or else
that the council that granted
this charter was a set of idiots. This
charter was granted fifteen years ago,
years before The BEE came into exist
ence, but it's editor, who even at that
time WA intensely opposed to the
creation of chartered monopolies, we'll
remembers that he spent two days
fighting the passage of this ordinance,
and John H. Kellom, who was one of
the incorporators of the defunct gas
company, recently remarked that
this was the first time he discovered
the fighting qualities Of Rosewater.
The editor also distinctly remembers
that as originally drawn the ordinance
fixed a rate at a fraction over S. Per
thousand for consumers until the
quantity Of gas consumed reached
loo, 600 cubic feet a day, when the
price was to be reduced 30 cents per
Thousand for every additional
fifty thousand feet consumed
daily until the price touched So so
There was also a provision that the
gas was to be of 16 candle power and
manufactured from Pittsburg coal.
All these provisions are not now to be
found in the revised ordinances. But
that doesn't matter. Section Ii pro-
vides that the company shall forfeit
all rights and privileges granted if
they charge any higher rate than that
fixed hy the charter. Now the
original company went out of exist
ence or transferred all its
rights to the present Omaha Gaslight
Company and they are subject to all
the provisions of the original grant.
Everybody who has used gas during
the past two years knows that that
sliding scale of $3.72A per thousand
and a half up and down has not been
adhered to. The people of Omaha
have been made to pay all sorts of
prices ranging from So. 90 down to
s3 90 per thousand feet.
The time has come for cheaper and
better gas in Omaha. A responsible
company asks the privilege of con
atructing works and laying down their
mains under a guarantee that they
will furnish gas of double the lighting
quality at, one-half the price We now
pay. The public interest demands
that such a right shall be given them.
The enormous expense for lighting
our streets must be largely increased
as the area of lighting is enlarged.
We want lights not only for three
hoursa night, but for all night, and II
we can get it for less money than we
are now paying, it behooves the mayo,
and council to give US the benefit of it.
Ont NJ p0littnd