Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-02-29
THE KANSAS CITY GAS FIGHT
Rival Companies Furnish Stoves
TO Consumers.
Residents OF the Queen of the kaw
Getting Ca for Ftfty Cents
aThousand--Death Strug-
gle OF MonopoItes.

Kansas city. Feb. 22.-The Missouri
Gas company has met the old gas com
pany's latest war measure by also of.
fering gas consumers the free use oil
gas cooking ranges
The first gun of the Kansas City gas
war was when the old company began
selling gas AT 80 cents. The se"oiid gun
Is the announcement by botn conipani. ;
that the gas consum rs will be provided
with gaS cooking range free or charge
Just AZ the cut to 20 "cnts was the
greatest single cut In gas prizes eNei
made in America, the present
ment about stoves is the first instance
OF the kind on rarDrd. The stoN e..
such as the companies offer O eve the
free use Of, cost them from So TO SO
each. and the connections from 81 e
SIS and more.
In New York. two years ago, h com
panies began To provide such stoves ON
an annual rental OF S.. In Dther pieces
sales of stove at cost and free connec
ton have prevailed, and what are
known as hot plates" costing 81 IL
s., have been given away. The "Ro.
chester plan" which was considered
ItNOlullolldlN was W give d StoNt u
those who paid for $2j of gas in advance.
thus conlining the gift to persons OF
means. This second gun in the Kansas
City wal is the first bona fide free use
Of adequate gas ranges afforded gas
consumers i'm America. The only string
to the Offer is that the stove and con-
nections lemain the company's property
which may be r we'd at any time.
Thus Il cham ,ompany viii include
a change Of
The famous night - get competition
and cheap gas i'm Kansas City has al
ready performed wonders. \ year ago
the had To pay for the meter
connections; Ia get services into the
buildings the owners thereof had
to pay the old company for the SER
vice pipes and for repairs 10 the street
pavement. These services and street re-
pairs sometimes cost as high as $50 and
more. Deposits of from 81 to $25 were
required when gas was turned on. To
get such "a stove as is q offered free
the consumer had to pay from SIS to $40
and the cost of connections.
Since the Missouri Gas company's
plant began To assume a grim reality
the whole face Of the Kansas City gas
methods has changed. connections cost
nothing now and the meter setter does
not bring back the meter because a few
feet of pipe are short. Services are as
free as air. The deposit is a relic of the
past. Everybody can have gas and on
the jump. too. The results show that
the beliefs of the rcvolutionists, whom
the gas men have frowned down all
these years. were true. They show that
the best thing i'm "A business way that
ever happened to the arrogant Philadel-
phia gas trust was when il was driven
to new methods in Kansas City.
In one week, since the announcement of
free stoves, nor" orders for stoves have
been received than i'm all the years pre-
reding. Two thousand have been ordered.
Since September l the output Of gas has
been doubled. The 81 90 gas company sold
1T, 900, 90 cubic feet annually. The fifty
cent gas company, doing business five
months. is selling 40U,0 1900 annually.
From $500 consumers, there are now 5000
consumers in five months In other words,
there Is now enough gas consumed TO give
both the old company and The Snyder com
PAM a business equal TO the old business
II they split even.
During the Kansas City boom. when the
GiS es %%s run had ny $50 s;Ss consumers. the Of
all told. Now the same company usSs
twenty-five office men. all told, and RE-
Gently THY had to work nights, for all Of
them did not have room 10 work on the
books at once. This wonder working IS
the result Of the fact that opposition gas
will be turned on by April j. President r.
NJ. Snyder of the Missouri Gas company
said this morning that he has sixty miles
of mains laid and the big new works at
Second and Gilliss streets practically fin
ished. Five hundred men are still laying
mains and services. The old company has
been forced to hustle, too. 1t has put In
quietly an extra new water gas appar-
atus "a big as the whole plant ten years
ago. IL has thirty miles of mains pro-
jected where two years ago, the people had
no idea OF ever getting gas.