The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-06-21

speak o.. III the people were being plum
dered or charged an exorbitant price for
gas. or If the companies were making
money rapidly and declaring large divi-
dends. these facts would furnish a strong
rgument in favor Of the proposed fax.
But that is not the case. No city in the
United States gets natural gas fuel as
cheaply as this city does and has for six
years past. Consumers Of Indiana gas in
meter measurement. while those in this
city pay less than 5 cents per thousand
feet for all they want to burn and waste.
So far from being plundered or charged
an exorbitant price for gas, the people of
indianapolis are favored in an extraordi-
nary and exceptional degree. There is
every reason why the Council should feel
satisfied with the result OF the ordinance
fixing the price of gas. and why the people
should feel grateful to the companies for
accepting its terms and continuing to do
business under il at constantly increasing
expense 10 them for a product which they
AAlft y TN CT a 49, 49, ~ ~
is little or no money in the natural-gas
business as now conducted in this city, IL
the original conditions as TO supply and
cost of delivery could have been main
tanned for a reasonably long term of years
the companies might have realized a fair
or even a handsome return on their in
vestment. even at the very low rates fixed
by the ordnance. But the conditions have
undergone a great change. Five years
ago the companies got their entire cup
ply of gas within twenty-five miles of the
city; now they pipe 1t nearly fifty miles.
The continual exhaustion of wells and the
large drafts made upon the field TO supply
other cities in this State and in Ohio and
Illinois has imposed on the companies a
heavy outlay to maintain their supply. Old
territory and exhausted wells have had
to be abandoned. new territory has had
TO be leased, new wells sunk and addi-
tional mains laid. The greater distance the
gas is piped the greater has to be the ini-
tial pressure. SO as to overcome friction
and insure a supply at the point Of de-
livery. Thus it may take fifty wells at a
distance of forty miles to do the work
which half that number would do at a
distance of twenty miles. AS a result of
these changed conditions it costs the COM
panies three or four times as much to de-
liver gas in this city now as 1T did five
years ago. and yet they are required to
furnish 1t at the same price. The Journal
learns on unquestionable authority that
during the last four years one of the COM
ines and maintaining its supply and that
during nearly the whole of that period
the stockholders did not receive a cent
of dividends. If this was the case. during
the last four years the companies are
likely to be in still harder lines during
the next four years. for their territory
is being constantly narrowed and the COM
petitive struggle for gas becomes sharper
every year.
In these circumstances the Journal con-
fesses its inability to see any fairness or
justice in the proposition to- impose a spe-
cial tax of. any sum whatever on the
natural gas mains. To do so would simply
he imposing an additional burden on an in
vestment from which the community has
Slready reaped far greater benefits than
the investors. Because the city has an
undoubted right to impose such a tax is no
reason why it should exercise the right.
1t should not kill the goose that lays the
golden eggs simply because it has p yer to
do so. Better let her live and lay a few
years longer.