Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1888-12-27
The Cost of Gas-How Managed Abroad.

The Cost of Gas-HOw Managed Abroad.
To the Editor of THE EVENING STAR
Inotice your reference to the "drop-a-nickel-
n-the-slot" machine in which you figure out
the cost of gas to consumers abroad, it being
less than IS cents per 1000 feet 1t is not neces-
sary 10 resort to this means for ascertaining
the cost Of gas abroad, for we have it in the
ufhcial reports.
fled with the Senate committee in May.
lsSS. documents showing that while we paid
az the rate OF 9E cents per candle power il cost
IN England but Al cents, or less than half of
what we pay, and theirs is pure coal gas while
OURS is half water gas, a mongrel mixture that
Is neither one thing nor the other.
showed by the report Of the very man that
the gas company asked to have called ss an ex-
pert that the actual cost Of making pure coal
gas IN this country in 1880 was but 35$S cents
per 1000, and il is much less now. The cost as
given by q. w. Stevenson, @. E. F. G. s., the
best authority in Europe, was IS 3-5 cents per
1000 feet, almost the identical amount. That
vas for gas In the gasometer ready for use
In 1886 the American was making il at % cents
per 1000, as shown in the investigation. also
fled documents showing that in twelve cities
in Great Britain the average price was "a cents
10 consumers In London, so cents: Man.
chester, As cents, and for street lamps 121S
cents for IL candle power, and in Leeds, As
cents. And the companies there all paid a
good dividend. the London company paying
y per cent net.
In H. R. mis-. doc. No. 1859, ID ses.. 49th Con-
pess, is published the report of our consul at
Tunstall. dated February z. 1887, in which he
gives the price Of gas in England as follows:
AT the stoke works, IS to 81 cents; average of
fifteen metropolitan companies 66 cents to
sL25; average ofnineteen provincial companies
a TO 81 cents The lower price is charged in
the cities and the higher price in the outlying
districts The fifteen metropolitan companies
having an average of 8, 756 miles of mains. and
the nineteen provincial companies an average
Of 4520 miles Of mains.
The cost of distribution is about 40 Der cent
Of the cost of production II, as shown by the
best gas experts, the cost Of production in 1880
was IS cents, the distribution would cost IA
cents, or 40 cents in all; or IL the cost of pro-
ductiOn is % cents, as stated by Hon o. Cleve-
land. In 1886, and we allow the same for dis
uibution, the total cost, delivered to the con-
sumner, is AZ cents per 1000 feet. At these
rates gas can be sold at IS cents and paw a
profit Of from 60 to so per cent.
the government viii purchase or condemn
the gas company's plant, there are plenty of
parties who Will contract to run the works
furnish gas at IS cents, and pay o handsome
amount into the District treasury for the privi-
Iege and still larger amount at S1.00 per
thousand
In 1885 the city Of Paris derived q revenue
OF 900 from the gas company, while in
Boston the revenue from the gas company was
N@fc~ot0oOf VI OfNNeDcg1tV 6tc cfAtTc COSt VI utt
Dssasiclpdl gooesnussnf, and which, the report
says, Is one of the beneficial results of "the
more enlarged self-government extended to the
community from time to time by the state and
the sovereign"
The Berlin gas was originally furnished BY
an English company, but the city now has it,
own works and lights the streets and public
buildings, the company being restricted to sup
plying private citizens, the use Of gas by citi-
zens being far less common than with Us, the
poor generally using petroleum and the rich
using candles and the more costly oils, which
Is also true of Paris.
In Paris the city reserved the right to buy
the works at the end of seven years, and it has
done the same with the electric light company
InGreat Britain one-half of all the gas works
are owned and run by the municipalities, and
they are rapidly buying out the rest All are
limited by law TO q certain per cent of dividends
on the capital actually invested, and the COM
panies are permitted to increase their per cent
Of dividends in proportion a. they reduce the
price Of gas. They are required by law to make
fuH report annually. and any gas consumer,
on payment OF one shilling, can obtain q copy
Of the eompany's balance sheet and which no
company dare refuse, for fear Of being sum-
moned before a magistrate.
That Is the way matters are managed for the
public benefit, by the ''effete monarchies OF
Europe" but in the capital Of free and en-
hghtened America" gas companies railroad
companies and the like seem to control the
government instead of being controlled by it.
W. c. DoDaK.