The herald., 1897-05-18
PASADENA

PASADENA
PASADENA. May 17.-(Regular Corre-
spondence) AS was to be expected, III view
OF all the circumstances, the city council
! did not formally accept the Offer of the
p. and L. A. Electric railway company al
its session today, although It can be stated
as known fact that 1t has been already
I accepted Informally. However, that does
not necessarily mean that 1t will ever go
into effect, and In fact there are very good
reasons for believing that it will never be
saddled upon this community. All the
cards have not yet been played in the
game which is to settle the future pros
perity of Pasadena. and there are some
surprises still In store for those who ex-
pect to see the p. and l.. A. company sue
ceed In Its undertaking. II the proposition
Is accepted 1t will get into the courts. as
stated some time ago. but it may never
reach the stage of formal acceptance. At
any rate. 1t is safe to say 1t will never stop
there. and that the city of Pasadena will
not be lighted by the P. and L. A. company
IN return for monopoly of our streets.
The board of trustees are men of too good
sense to lose such all opportunity as is
likely to be presented to them soon be-
side which the "offer" of the p. and L. A.
company dwindles into insignficance
when all the circumstances are taken into
account. Many of the spectators at the
council meeting this afternoon expressed
wonder that the p. and L. A. company, in
the formal offer which they now make to
the council have accepted the very condi-
ton to which they so strenuously objected
before, and owing to which it was given
out that "the council and the electric COM
pany were miles apart and could not come
to any terms. That was about ten days
ago. but the situation has changed very
materially since then. and the p and L. A.
company has finally walked up to the fact
that Notwithstanding its adroit. move in
securing control of the Pasadena electric
lighting plant 1t is still as far from having
a monopoly on the "offer" BUSINESS as 1t is
from securing the much-coveted monopoly
OF the streets. Hence its sudden willing
ness to concede the point of former conten-
ton. after it had already been allowed by
the trustees This was in reference to
putting up the stock of the road as guar
antee that the company would fulfill its
obligation to the city. As soon as the coun-
ell had listened to the reading of the for
NAL offer of the company with which the
readers of The Herald are already familiar
A. r. Metcalfe. the company's attorney.
stated that they were ready to place the
stock of the road in the hands of any trus-
tee the council might appoint as a guar
anty or the faithful performance of the
obligations to be entered into Trustee
Reynolds at once moved that the PROPOSE
tion be referred to the city attorney, to be
X.
tee Washburn interposed with II thought
1t was In shape to be acted upon TODAY.
while President Hartwell said he would
prefer to leave 1t for one week. He was
willing to accept the offer, he said, but
would rather have 1t referred to the city
attorney so that he could examine it first.
Trustee Hamilton moved to accept 1t at
once. Finally the original motion was
adopted and the matter referred to the
city attorney, to be reported upon one
week from today. DIR. G.. Roscoe Thomas
asked leave to address the board for a few
minutes. and, after presenting an addi- |
tional petition asking for the Terminal
franchise, containing the names of ia cit |
ixens who had not had a chance to sign !
the other one-making over 1900 names in
all-he proceeded to say that he had just
returned from an outing In the mountains.
and the first thing upon his return saw the
article In The Herald of few days ago
wherein one of the trustees is quoted as
saying that there were whole pages of the
petition In the same handwriting and that
there were the names of men, women and
children who lived outside the city on the
list. He said If he had misquoted anybody
he wished to be corrected, but no correc-
tion was forthcoming so he proceeded. DIR.
Thomas then went on to say that he did
not doubt but that there might be a yerv
rev names on the petition which did not
belong there but as he would himself like
to ascertain Just what proportion of the
ectuai voters favored fair play in this
matter, he would make a proposition to
the council himself. which was this: If
tney would call an election on the matter
ana 1t did ont turn out that two ont Of
every three voters in Pasadena favored tha
Terminal being allowed to come in he
wouio loot the whole bill of expense for tho |
election, and as guarantee would furnish
. good and sufficient bond as the trustees
might determine 1t Is needless To record |
tnat tnere was no sudden rush to accent |
Dr. Thomas offer. DR.. Thomas hos a. |
ways been known as a rabid goldbue but |
ne told the trustees some facts that evi. |
dentiy did not set comfortably with his
brethren of the Hanna persuasion, regard |
Ing the causes of the large vote William, 7 |
Bryan received from the Republican ranka
At the last election. They were plain, un-
varnished facts to the extent that # was |
just such fostering of monopoltes as the
acceptance of this "offer' would result IN |
that caused so many thousands of Repub-
Iicans to desert the ranks and even vote
Tor Bryan rather than accept the leader
ship of Mark Hanna and his allied corpor.
ations
The following communication, self-ex-
planatory, was read:
Gentelemen: We beg ito request that
your honorable body take under advise
ment the question of Offering for bids a
franchise similar to that granted the pres
ent electric lighting company of Pasadena
that IT, franchise for transmitting elec.
trical energy for both lighting and power
purposes within the limits Of your city
ana X given an opportunity to do so, we
snail pc pleased to make q bid for such
2 franchise The source of supply for
such electric power az might be transmit j