Evening star., 1895-10-31
CHEAP LIGHT AND TRANSPORTATION
What Has Been Done in Detroit Under
Mayor PinGree.

To the Editor of The Evening Star:
A great deal of fun has been poked at
Mayor Pingree of Detroit for his plan of
Grabbing the poor to help themselves by
1aising potatoes, and his efforts to secure
to the city treasury some of the profits
heretofore reaped by the chartered monop-
oltes, and at the same time provide the cit-
iZenS with cheaper gas and cheaper trans
portation.
ling the ridicule and oppose
tion, he seems TO have brought about some
very good results and as an evidence that
the citizens appreciate his efforts the papers
announce his denomination by an over
whelming majority.
In the matter of the gas supply, on which
he made his first fight, he succeeded in
1888 in securing a contract with the gas
company by which the company agrees to
sell gas up to July /, 1894, at S1.4o i,er 1,0o0
cubic feet and from that date, so long
the quantity manufactured does not ex-
coed U0,e0o,oao feet at $115. When the
| quantity exceeds 6b9Wy0G00 and until it
amounts to Ss0.0g0. $50 feet it is to be sold
| at $lGJ; when it exceeds Sbo,0Oo,G@ feet. at
| % cents, with a discount of II per cent
| from these rates if the bill be paid at any
! time during the month in which the bill is
| rendered: and, further, that for heating
! and cooking the price shall at no time be
more than 30 cents per 1000 feet, with a
| discount of 10 per cent if the bill be paid
| ary time during the month.
The ordinance further provides that the
| gas shall not be less than eighteen-candle
| power. two-candle power more .han ours.
! 1t further provides that the city shall have
| the right TO purchase the entire gas plant
| at the end of thirty years-that is in 1877
| at valuation and upon terms to be fixed
| by board ot arbitration. three of whom
| are TO be selected 10y the gas company,
| three by the mayor of the city. and three
more to be selected by these six. In addi-
| tion the ordinance reserves the right Of
| the city to alter, amend or repeal the 1rdi-
| a time ic of viola ion
| of any of the provisions on the part of the
| company. Under this arrangen ant, brought
about by the vigorous fight made by Mayor
! Pingree, the citizens of Detroit have their
! gas at 81. and for cooking and heating pur-
! poses at 81 cents.
Notwithstanding all this, and that for
| five years past gas was made and put into
the city mains at Philadelphia by a pri-
| vate company for 81 cents per loco, the
| Washington Gas Company claims that gas
cannot be sold here for 81, and presented
| cooked-up figures making the actual cost
10 the company in 1889 $l.S9; in 1880, sl.2l;
| in 1891, S1.o6, and in 1892, $l.19 per 1000
| feet.
OF course as any one can See by eXamn-
| ing the statements presented by the gas
company. to make the cost of gas so enor-
| nous they included the entire cost of their
! new plant, extension mains. and all other
| expenses. no matter what for, and which,
| as President HARRISON of the Hartford Gas
| Company, at the annual meeting of the Gas
Light Association at Baltimore in 1859,
should not he charged to the cost of max
ing gas. but to the account of capital in
vesled; because that was a permanen; inn
provement that the company would have
the benefit of for all future time, and had
nothing 10 do with the cost of making the
gas in that particular year.
Ard yet the maiority Of the Senate COM
mittee in their report, republished and in
dorsed those figures, and reported against
and thereby defeated the dollar gas bill
| which had already passed the House.
The next movement in Detroit was m re-
gard to the street railroads, and that mat
ter has now reached a point where the COM
| panies have offered to sell their tracks to
the city, the companies to then lease the
tracks and pay the city So per cent inter-
est on the amount paid for them. and
charge a 3-cent fare. with universal trai,s-
fers on all connecting lines, and to sell
forty tickets for 81, or at the rate OF 2ia
cents each.
This arrangement is not yet completed
but there is good reason to suppose 1t or
some similar arrangement Will soon be;
and thus Detroit leads all American cities
in following the splendid example set by
Glasgow Birmingham and other European
cities, where the municipal ownership Of
tramways, gas and electric light plants has
resulted in giving the public a greatly i'm
proved service at reduced rates, and at the
same time put large amount annually
into the city revenues
1t is probable that the success of mu-
ncipal ownership of the street railways in
, Toronto, adopted couple of years ago, has
|
will elsewhere when public attention is at
tracted to it and kindred subjects.
, AS further illustrating the public benefits
of this system of municipal ownership
call attention to the fact that while we pay
STAG, and until 1894 S1S2J0, per year for
electric arc lights of nominal 1,2O0-candle
$ power (really not over 100), in South Nor
i walk the municipality has built It's own
c electric plant. and according to the official
t report for last year, after paying interest
on it's cost, the entire expense of oper'
] ating it and allowing ) per cent for de-
probation, they furnished arc lights OF
from l. 400 to 1000 nominal candle power
: at an average during the past two years
l Of S61.31.
: There are today over one hundred towns
4 and cities in the United States which owr
: their electric light plants, with results
equally beneficial to the public, ana ye
the magazines and papers published in ths
n interest of corporations are Illed VIII
t articles by paid writers attempting, 10y
r cooked-up statements, tc prove that mu
il nicipality cannot furnish the public a!
r cheaply as the private companies.
f The tine is approaching, however, wher
= an intelligent public will no longer b'
q fooled by such statements. The principa
+ | want is an investigation by the public, ant
/. men like Mayor Pingree to lead in the re
e form. w. u ooDHH-.