The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1895-01-03
MANITowoC, Wis, Dec. 29tb, 1894.

MANITOWOC, WIS, Dec. 18th, 1894.
Editor Of The Pilot:
The questions l dared to ask you
aroused your ire to such an extent that
you prefer subterfuge behind personal
rIdicule, tending toward abuse, instead
of answering my questions,-accept my
sympathy
l did not ask you: Whether the mayor
would bond the city for some other r. K
project wouldn't need to ask that but
What other expensive investments the
city ever made exclusive of the 10000
Dollars r. r. bond purchase.
mo comparison with the management
of the insane asylum and the control OF
the electric lighting plant can be insti.
tuted."
Why not? Does such comparison
demonstrate too clearly how advantage.
Gus institutions can be controlled by the
public?
Formerly private corporation, owned
the buildings, cooking utensils, &c. and
furnished board &c. to each insane for
which the county paid three dollars per
week.
private corporation now owns the
building machinery &c. and furnishes
electricity to each lamp, for which the
city pays ten dollars per year.
The county now owns the buildings,
&c, and furnishes board &C., to the in
mates direct at cost.
If the city owned the electric lighting
plant 1t would furnish electricity 10 the
lamps at cont.
The County Board simply adopted the
progressive Qess faulty plan, the same
as our present City Board has adopted,
to settle the electric light question, there
by deciding that profitable investments
by private enterprises are not paramount
to the welfare Of the masses.
To call tailor that makes money out
of his customers a monopolist is too ridi-
culous.
Either you don't know what constitu-
ties monopolist or you labor under the
impression that your readers don't
Tailors do not ask for franchises and
special privileges and the public can
patronize any tailor it pleases.
II the question; For what would the
city pay three times as much to operate
an electric lighting plant as under the
present management is too puerile &C.,
You ought to answer the same as a man
and not palm off another common as.
sumption that again raise the question:
Will such be beneficial or detrimental to
the masses.
Educational institutions we're under
private control for hundreds of wears
and IN that period only select few could
read and write, but; as soon as they were
brought under public or governmental
control, they proved beneficial to the
multitude.
However as to the lavish expense to
MAINTAIN our educational institutions,
admit that you are better qualified to
speak, as you we're a number OF years.
employed by the public in such instltu-
lions aud If You lnsinuate: That the
teachers &c. receive too high salaries or
perform too little for the pay they re.
celve, and as you were also a recipient of
such pay 1t must be true.
You admit that electric lighting if
managed is profitable
Now, l believe that the citizens COM
posing the municipality of Manitowoc
are abundantly capable even with
out the SO called heavy tax payers, to
manage an electric lighting plant, not
alone properly but also advantageous to
the citizen, either by furnishing light at
price so that the most humble of our
,ltizens can afford to use this invention
Or secure an income into the city treas. |
airy.
The man who turns bis business