The San Francisco call., 1898-02-05
JOB
 TO uULCT
 THE CITY. New Plan of the Los Angeles w ater
 Company. ants the Couneiln en to Order a Reappraise-
 ment. Believes It Can Control Enough Votes to Bring This
 About.
PEOPLE SCENT DANGER.
Fear That the Company Will Bs Greatly Enriched if the Deal
 Is Put Through.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

LOS ANGELES, Feb. At Is now definitely known that the water com pany. with the aid of it's newspaper organs and campfollowers, will en- deavor to persuade the City Counc1i 10 make a reappraisement of the value oI the improvements the corporation mas made to the municipal dlstrlputlng plant. The latest job is to get an oroer for a reappraisement through the Coun- eil about the middle of April or the first of May. The corporation will come in with a pretended showing of lm- provements made since the valuation of the property made by Abs Hagen and City Engineer Dockweiler. It will claim that an absolute reappraisement all the way through is what must De had, and it seems to think that 1t will be able to handle enough votes in the Council to obtain favorable action on it's request for a reappraisement.
 It is programmed for the Times, at the behest of the water company, to editorially favor the proposition for an- other set Of figures. Then the Herald and Express are to fall in and agree that the proposition is one which should be allowed. Here is where job Of mammoth proportions is to be put up. The great stumbling block now in cov- ering up any robbery of the people in the purchase of the water plant inn provements is the estimate of their value fixed by the City Engineer and Abs Hagen. That figure is $1,190,6 625. The justice and the equity of this ap- praiSement have never been questioned by any of the water company'S news papers or by the understrappers of the corporation. It is admittedly correct.
 Now, though, the water company pro- poses to sweep that estimate out of the way and have new one made, which it expects will bring the figures up to approximately S1.600,000. When this es- timate is reported and turned in the water company will agree to arbitrate on the expectation that it can finally get figure of s2,000,000 allowed by the board of arbitration.
 This would be just SS00000 taken out of the pockets of the people. for which they would receive no reciprocal value.
 Thirty days ago the water company would not for a moment have consid- cred any figure under S5, 900, 900; but The Calls exposure of the company's plan to mulct the taxpayers has caused a revision of the plans for the big grab, and a consequent reduction of S1, 900 900. Thirty days more may cause another fall of $500, GOO, for the syndicated press is of no further value in defending and covering the tracks of the water com pany conspirators.
 The water company is making a number of improvements that are not necessary to the continued operation of it's system to the expiration of the franchise. The expectation is that by making these improvements another valuation can be procured. However, this scheme will probably fail-and it certainly ought to. The people have been given full inside information as to the plan through The Call, and there is to be such general objection raised to it that the Council will hardly dare to order reappraisement.
 The Council is going to have trouble with some local corporations other than the water company in a very short time. It has seemed as though these local corporations for some time past have looked upon the orders and direc- tions of the Council with contempt. If they saw fit, the managers of the cor porations complied with the instruc- tions and regulations, but if they did not, they simply defied the Council. This policy of arrogance on the part Ol lilS ilOLOpOlleS DdS been Ind-le pos sible by the subservient local press which has smothered all complaint. But now the Councilmen announce that they are going to take a deter mined stand. to the end the orders they give the local corporations shall either be obeyed or those corporations shall go out of business
 In April last the Council fixed con- duit district. Within this district, all wires were to be placed underground within one year. The telephone com pany has its conduit system about completed. The San Gabriel Power Company is now putting in it's system. and the Edison Electric Company has filed its plans for a complete system, work upon which is to be commenced at once. This leaves only the Los An geles Lighting Company. which corpo- ration has not taken one single step to comply with the ordinance. The manager of the Los Angeles Lighting Company will ask to have the time ex- tended for another year before his cor poration is compelled to comply with the municipal law. He has boasted that he can secure any favor of the Council he desires. and it remains to be seen whether he will be able to get special consideration as a reward for