The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-07-05
THE REAL QUESTION.

The editor of the St. Peter hide
pendent in his last issue uses up over
a column of space in discussion IA
voring the ownership of an electric
| light plant by the city of Mankato,
and as is usually the case with an out
slider who knows little or nothing of
the case at hand, shot wide of the
mark. He is stirred up to commence
with, by an article which appeared in
the FREE PRESS few evenings ago,
in which it was said that prominent
business man of this city had been in
| formed by two or three st. Peter bust
ness men, that the ST. Peter lights
cost that city S65 per year each, and
says that it is fabrication of false
hoods, tending to deceive the tax
payers of Mankato." The statement
was published by the FREE PRESS
just as given it, and was related as
told the gentleman in ST. Peter.
There was no desire to deceive any
body either on the part of our in
formant or the FREE PRESS. The
Independent further says that the real
cost of each lamp there is less than S45
per year. Last spring, when the
editor of that paper, in company with
two or three others from that city
visited meeting of our city council,
while the question of electric lights
was under discussion, he made state
ments tending to show that if the St.
Peter lights were burned on a
basis of the same number of hours as
in this city, they would cost $50 per
lamp per year. This would indicate
that the ST. Peter business men who
gave the information published in
these columns recently, were not so
very far out of the way.
But the situation in Mankato is en-
tirely different from what it is in st.
Peter, and the two will bear no COM
parison whatever. If there was any
degree of similarity it might pay Man
kato to study the St. Peter situation.
But the question here is of far wider
scope than the mere matter of street
lighting. The real question is whether
Mankato shall put itself in shape to
receive the full benefit of the advance
which is being made in the electric
field, or whether by putting in plant
for street lighting purposes it shall
close all opportunity in this line for
years to come.
We want electric street cars, and by
allowing private enterprises to ego
ahead and put in electric power, we
can have them running on our streets
within the next eighteen months.
We want electric power here for run
ming light machinery; also electricity
for heating purposes and for any other
purpose in which it can be used. If
private capital is allowed to go ahead
with this, we will soon have it, but if
the city decides to go into street
lighting on its own hook, then this
great power of modern' civilization
will be shut out for years to come, as
the field is too small to be divided.
AS to the assertion of the Indepe1,d
emit that no such sum as has recently
been stated would be invested here in
electric power, it is simply asserting
something it knows nothing about.
Home capital stands ready to improve
the field if given chance, and any
amount of foreign capital necessary is
ready to be added to it if it is required.
AS to the city or the people being at
the mercy of corporation in such a
case, there is no need of it if proper
are taken in framing the
The rights of all parties
can be carefully protected if the mat
ter is followed in business-like way.
Because cities have allowed them
THF GREATEST