The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1882-01-24

Nh'S~tAAANhaNNA
Suppose comparison be made between
the Water Works and Streets and Alleys
and the Gas Works for the last ten years,
the time during which the city has owned
the Gas Works. In that time there has
been expended on the streets and alleys,
for labor and for improvements, $50, 396 "a,
and what is there to show for it? Not a
single street has been newly bouldered,
and but one or two newly macadamized.
Parts Of Jacob and McCOllOch streets and
the Peninsula bridge are the only new i'm.
provements made. Scratching mud and
patching cutters and streets here and there
are almost all the city has received for this
immense outlay. Think Of it! Thousands
OF dollars spent for nearly nothing! Is
there another city Of our size which has
spent so much money for SO little. The
above sum is more than half enough TO
have paved all Of our unpaved streets, and
is almost enough to have macadamized
every road in Ohio county, il properly cx.
pended.
For the Water Works there have been
expended for contingent expenses and
salaries S294, 4SG 43, and for repairs Sl25,-
626 "a in the past tcnyearS, enough TO have
built an entire new works, and We still
have the same old engine house and the
same basin. We have added to our lines
OF pipe and have new boiler.house and
Worthington pump, but with these excep.
tons the system is almost now us it was ten
years ago. The water rents paid now are
the same as then, with the exception,
probably, OF the per centage on rental
values, being q instead Of per cent. The
contingent expenses have increased from
$lG,94S 9S in 1872 to S45, POO % in 1881, but
the burden OF taxation has been lessened
but little, il any
Now, turn to the Gas Works. The loan
Of 500, bearing eight per cent interest,
has been paid. At least $4,000 worth OF
improvements have been made, and the
city owns to-day a property worth S200, 900,
which never cost the general public one
cent. This entire sum was paid by the
parties using the gas, and not one dollar
has been paid out OF the treasury Of the
city for the above purpose. In addition
to all this the city gets her gas for all her
public buildings and street lamps free.
During the past ten years the price Of gas
to consumers has been steadily reduced
from s. so per thousand feet, ten per cent
OIL for prompt payment, to 81 20 per
thousand feet, less ten per Cent-net 81 oS, |
Added to this is the iRdiscrsioa OF Maxwell |
and King-said toamount to $4,000. Do
not all these facts say more for the Commits
sioner plan than can possibly be trumped |
up against ii?
For streets and alleys as managed by
Council SS75,SS6 n in ten years was pail |
out OF thu. public treasury, and very little to |
show for it.
For water works managed the same way |
Sl6O, lib 10, and not much increase in value
and no diminution in water rents. For the
two departments, $SS5,500 20.
Gas Words, original purchase, money !
and interest paid, large and valuable i'm
provements, five hundred additional con.
sumers, ST 900 worth OF Gas furnished tho
city each year and $4,000 borrowed by
and King. Not one dollar mid |
out OF the public treasury No man. rIcL
or poor, asked to be taxed for this depart.
ment, and all our citizens given the benefit
Of gus in the public lamps, market and
engine houses, council chamber and other
city buildings which department Is pract;.
cally the friend Of the poor,man?
There is no room for doubt that tho
water works department can be made
equally as profitable and It's support ms
fairly placed on the shoulders OF each citi-
zen in proportion to the amount Of water
he uses II placed in the hands Of commits. +
sioners. The demagogue howls about this
being blow at the poor mans rights. III
he would speak the truth he would tell the
poor man that it is tho present sys.em
which Expresses him. There is not
laboring man in this city who paws
water rent, who does not pay ten times ma
much as any Of the rolling mills for the
water in proportion to the amount he uses,
10 that used by the mill. We certainly
have seen enough to convince us that our
present plan OF managing the streets and
alleys and water works department IA do.
Iectivc. Whythen refuse to try something
elseY Our experience in one case, the Cas
works, has certainly been success, the
great Commoner to the contrary notwith.
!tanding Why not place the other two
departments under the same management?
CITIZEN.
NEVER spend your money before You have 4
!, This will save you from many dificul. |