The morning times., 1896-02-11

tion for the regulation of the gas companies
and for other purposes, was just about
what The Times of Sunday anticipated it
would be, except that in details it is more
more elaborate than was expected.
The board declares for one dollar gas and
against granting the privilege to new
companies of tearing up the streets for
the laying of new mains, and also advo-
Gates municipal ownership of conduits and
gas plants.
The board submits substitute bill for
the one now before Congress to incorporate
the Columbia Telephone Company, which,
for that matter, becomes substitute for
all similar measures, and upon the telephone
bill has this to say by way OF special re-
port upon all the topics suggested:
The object of this bill is TO charter a
new telephone company in the District or
Columbia with all the powers and privileges
necessary and usual, including the right to
lay and maintain coEduits and electrical
devices and appliances in such of the public
streets as it may choose to occupy.
The representatives of the Columbia Com
pany allege that the Chesapeake and Ohio
Company, by reason of its high rates has
failed to occupy the fled, except to a very
limited extent, and point to the fact that
that company has but 1,7O0 subscribers at
present, which it is asserted is 800 or more
less than it had two or three years ago
FAILED IN IT'S DUTY.
A company that has thus failed in its
duty TO the public, and which must con-
tinue to do so, should no longer be per-
mitted, they contend, to enjoy a monopoly
of the telephone business in the District
of Columbia.
There is considerable force in the state
ment that the public is entitled, as COM
pensation for an exclusive grant of the
kind held by the Chesapeake & Ohio Tele-
phone Company, to the hest and cheapest
service that the state of the art will per-
nit, and that if that company is unable or
unwilling to furnish such service it should
not be permitted to stand in the way of
another company which promises 10 do so
and proposes to pay 3 Per cent on gross
receipts and grant free telephone service
to the District besides.
The Commissioners, however, in report
ing upon all similar bills proposing to
grant the privilege of tearing up the streets
for the purpose OF laying gas pipes or
conduits therein, whether for the use OF
telephone company or an electric light
company, have taken the ground that il
was against the public interest TO grant
privileges of this kind TO new companies.
That aside from the great damage to
the pavements and the inconvenience TO
the public occasioDed by digging up miles
of streets, 1t is not necessary or wise
to duplicate any gas pipes or conduits
in the public streets for Congress has fun
power to regulate the rates to he charged
by such companies, as well as TO correct
any other evils.
So far as tie gas company is concerned,
its pipes are laid In every important street
in the city and suburbs, and there is no
thickly settled district of the city where
new company could find support without
occupying streets which already have a
double line of gas mains.
Not so. however, with the telephone and
electric light companies. Neither of the
latter companies have as yet occupied
more than comparatively small number
of the more important streets, and there is
plenty Of room for new companies to lay
three times the number Of miles of conduits
owned by the existing companies without
laying foot of conduit on the same side
of any street occupied by the latter com-
panies.
ONE IMPORTANT FACT.
The struggle between rival companies for
the privilege of laying gas pipes and conduits
in the public streets, suggests an important
fact, of which we have alreadyhad abundant
proof, that should be carefully considered
in connection with this and similar bills
the great and ever increasing value of these
franchises, for which existing companies
pay into the public treasury practically
nothing.
Contrast this exemption from tho burdens
of taxation, with the system which obtains
in European cities, and we not only get
some idea OF the value of the franchises
which we throw away, but we learn some
thing OF the rate of taxation which ought
to be imposed on these companies as COM
pensation for the valuable privileges which
they enjoy.
The Commissioners here introduce a
statement of the rules that govern in for
eign countries, with respect to the exac-
tions of compensation for the use OF the
streets, and then say:
In Detroit, Mich. the cost of operating
the public lighting plant from October 1,
1895, to January 1, 1896, is stated by Mr..
Conant, secretary, as 7.50 per month per
lamp for arc lighting. as against $11.50
per month per lamp paid by the city under
the contract system.
The following, sho wing the relative cost
of elect rie lighting in a number of American
cities before and after municipal owner
ship, is taken from Paving and Municipal
Engineering for February, 1896, the fig
ures last given being after the purchase:
Bangor, Me-. $3.50 and S4S: Lewiston.
Me-, $182 and S65; Peabody, Mass, $1S5
aud $62; Bay City, Mich, $110 and $58;
Huntington, Ind, STAG and $50; Goshen,
Ind, $156 and ST.; Chicago, H.. $3.50 and
$96; Bloomington, Ill.,, Sill and SOL; FL
gin, H., $266 and SAB; Aurora, H., 1926
and $40; Fairfield, Iowa, 1887 and $40;
MarshaIltown, Iowa, $125 and $27; Jack
sonville, Fla, $24 and So (probably per
monthl.
PHILADELPHIA'S EXAMPLE.
Philadelphia furnishes perhaps the most
conspicuous illustration among American
cities of the value of a gas franchise in a
great city, even with gas at 81 per thousand,
and of the profit to the public resulting
from municipal ownership.
The mayors report for the year 1894
shows that notwithstanding the price of gas
reduced from 1.5o to 81 per thousand in
1894, the Bureau of Gas from 1891 TO
1894 increased the capacity of the several
works 2S 1-2 per cent, and the holder
capacity 16 3-4 per cent, and after paying
for all these permanent improvements and
other expenses, returned q net profit of
nearly $3,000,000.
It also furnished the various municipal
departments and for street lighting 2,407,
50S, 39S cubic feet of gas for which the
bureau received no credit at all, and which
had the city been compelled to purchase at
even one-half the price paid by private con-
sumers would have cost 81 ,649,651.
The tendency almost everywhere is
towards municipal ownership, and the sys
| tenn has, SO far as the Commissioners are
| advised, been successful wherever it has