The age-herald., 1898-01-11
COAL COSTS $2.72
 GAS SOLD AT S This Is DanVille'S ROCOrd-It Can Be Done in Birmingham. PROFIT FOR YEAR, $10,508.14 City Council Should Stand Out For Dollar Gas as Only Compromise. PRESSURE WILL BE BROUGHT For it is Not Expected That the Old Company Will Forsake Its Hanna Like
 Tactics at This Late
 Day.
PRESSURE WILL BE BROUGHT
Price of coal per ton. se.7e.

Price of gas per thousand, S1.00.
 Profit on gas for one year, Sio,5o8.14.
 This is DanviIIe's record. What can be done there can be done In Birmingham.
 Whether Birmingham will have dollar gas now rests in the hands of the city council. At the next meeting of that body the spe- cial committee will hand in the bids which may have been presented to them.
 There will be great pressure brought to bear on the council to make contract for more than one dollar. There has been powerful influence, which some parties sought to exert over the board of aldermen all along in it's deliberations and acts on the gas question. These Mark Hanna-lik tactics will not be abandoned until every inch of ground has been gone over, the battle won and the new document bears the seal of the city and the signature of the old concern, if it receives the award.
 It has so for been fought back step by step, and at this late hour it is not to be presumed that it's bluf1ling proclivities will be to any extent weakened.
 The pressure of the people, on the other hand, is on the city council to make no contract for more than $1. It has been demonstrated by every means possible that this is a sufficient compensation for any company The enormous profits of the Bir mingham Gas company have been laid bare. The cost of making gas has been told, and there are not dozen men in Bir- mngham who are not convinced that gas can be made and sold at $1 per thousand feet at a good profit.
 The city council has rights. It represents the citizens and their rights It is to be hoped the board of aldermen will not swerve from the course it has pursued on this question. Fight boldly, and let the only compromise be dollar gas.
 The gas company has resorted to every thing known to unhorse the city. MT. Roden said in actions: We've done it; what are you going to do about it?''
 The company, after seeing that it's bluff ing powers availed nothing, sought to frighten the city by threats of a long litiga- ton in the courts. The city prepared itself for battle. denounced the old company, de- clared it had violated it's contract, forfeited it, and is now asking for a new source of supply for gas.
 It has been so broadly hinted that it has about come to be established fact, that the old company will make some overtures to secure contract. The test comes then as to whether the city will have dollar gas. Let that be the only compromise.
 How Can It Be Doubted?
 That dollar gas can be furnished in Bir- mingham at a profit cannot be disputed. There are too many illustrations taken from other cities, where coal is higher and where less favorable conditions pre- vail.
 Danville, Va, a city not as large by more than half as Birmingham, furnishes striking example of the profit in dollar gas and also to the advantages of municipal ownership. The following is a statement furnished The Age-Herald by the author ities of that city:
 Price of coal, per ton ... ..$2.72 Price of gas per 1000, to the
 consumer .... 1.00
 Front on gas ....... $1050S. If
 "Out of this the city pays $793.50 for gas used by the city. This, of course, merely transfers the item from one side of the account to the other. In addition to this they pay the costs of electric lights which over and above the amount of deficit from the electric lights that they supply to con- sumers, is $3,463.O3, which leaves the city a clear profit in money of $6,35161 on it's . gas plant. The electric lights which are paid for are 92 lights on one side of the river and 27 on the other, making 119 elec- tric lights in all.
 'In addition to this the city makes some where in the neighborhood of sS,00O or $9 900 a year on it's water department, so that there is clear profit to the city on its water and gas department of something like $1S,00O year, after paying the entire costs of lighting the city, lighting the streets, and supplying al the water that the city uses, which leaves clear cash profit of something like $14000 or S15,000 a year."
 The statement was drafted by City Att torney N. H. Massie, and concludes as fol- lows:
 eff we only had to pay $1.20 ton for coal we could have gas at about COG or 65c a thousand. In other words, your company down there must make at least $1.00 a thousand profit"
 This clinches the proposition. Gas can