The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-11-14
Mayor Pinuree's Endorsement.

The re-ClGCtiOn Of Mayor PingrCe of
Detroit was magnificent popular en-.
dorsemcnt of his fight in behalf Of the
people Of Detroit for cheaper gas and
cheaper street car fares. Almost unaided
he waged war against these two monopO-
lies and won. The people appreciated his
work by re-clcctns him by handsome
majority.
Mr.. Pingrco was the man who con
ceivod the idea of planting vacant lots in
potatoes for the benefit of the poor. For
his novel idea hc was ridiculed but he
persisted and today nc has the respect and
esteem of Cverybody-except the monopo-
| lies above mentioned. Mayor PiEgree was
/ in New York recently ard he told Sun
reporter how he worked. As it is interest e
| ing we quote:
| Il don't take any stock in the income
| tax and making the Astor5 and the
GouldS and the Vandcrbilts pay other
| peoples taxes. believe in cheapcning
| things so that everybody can afford to pay
his own taxes. Every city has come to
recognize it now that the weaker class
need help and have got to be helped. Now
is the opportunity for New York in this
cheap fare electric road business. They
ought to sell eight tickets tor twenty five
cents on the very outside limit. We hav
got 1t in Detroit. We have got sixty
miles of electric road there where they
only charge three cents fare and there is
transfer system that helps to get you al
most anywhere. l forget just the num-
bcr Of miles you can go for three cents
but | think its twenty-five miles.
Now the way we got the gas companies
was this: There were three companies.
One the oldest had the most territory.
Then a syndicate came along and bought
them all. They charged Sl5O thousand
feet. They started to issue $1,000, 600 in
stock the syndicate did, and we began to
look up the franchises of the gas compa
MES. Couldn't find a thing about the
franchise Of the oldest company. Th re
wasn't anything in the official files, and
the newspaper files up in the library were
cut Pieces were cut out of the papers at
just the time that this old company got
its franchise. That looked mighty pecu-
lar, and we had the whole city hall
searched. The result was the bringing to
light of the fact that the old company
had not had any franchise for: twenty
years. 1t had run out that long ago.
Well, then, we just put the screws on.
They were floating that $1,000, 900 boEd
issue in Wall street Mt so or 80. We Just
pushed the price down to 10, and the syn
dictate men had to come to terms. Gas
went down to 81 u thou sand for lighting,
and so cents thousand for heating. tn
all be 80 soon Just as soon as the city
uses a certain amount Of gas down will
go the price"
Had Detroit listened to the street car
companies and gas companies there would
have been no concessions to the public on
the Andy Hickenlooper argument: that 1t
could not be done. But Mayor Pingree
is man of facts and action as well as
man of opinions, and the result he has
achieved will have far.reaching conse-
quences throughout the country. The
Detroit price Of gas is still higher than
the Cleveland rate, but the street car fares
established there beat even the low Eng
lish rates. In Glasgow, where the people
own the lines, a three-Cent fare carries the
passenger but 22f miles, while a two-cent
fare Is good for q miles.