The San Francisco call., 1898-03-23

mere are more ways than one or skinning a cat.
 There are also multiplicity of ways of performing the same operation on the city treasury, some of which sur gical feats are we'll known to the San Francisco Gas and Electric Company.
 One of these has just been discovered by Mayor Phelan, who is at present en- gagged in considering the best plan to pursue to put a stop to this municipal skin grating.
 It is the familiar story of quick-con- sumption meters-a story made fla miIiar to the public by the investiga- tions of The Call during the past three days.
 Two weeks ago Mayor Phelan be- came convinced, from what he had learned from private consumers, that it would not be out of place to have the electric watt meters in the City Hall tested by experts independently of the employees of the company furnishing the light. There are fourteen meters in use at the City Hall, and securing the services of two men whose business 1t is to test meters, the Mayor instructed them to proceed with the work.
 Going to that part of the basement where the meters are located, an un- expected obstacle presented itself to the experts in the shape of a wooden barrier built for the express purpose Of preventing the object the Mayor had in view. This barrier effectually shut off all view of the meters, but door fastened with a paddock, provided em- ployes of the company with means o1 reaching them.
 rea m an entrance and proceed with thelr work, which they did by forcing the fastening to the door. It required some time to test the fourteen meters, but when the task was accomplished the result was as surprising as it could well be.
 Two of the fourteen meters were found to be slow one of them 20 per sent, due to the fact that it had not been cleaned for some time, and the large quantity of dirt that had sifted into it more than offset the current found to be correct, that is 1t was with in one per cent of correct, which is as close as they can be made to register.
 The other eleven Were 1ast; some of them a trifle, such as or 4 per cent, but others were a great deal more, reaching as hi~h as 20 per cent, and one-the champion of the lot-toOk the purse by going the distance of 50 per cent faster than a well regulated meter could.
 How long this ingenious sneak thief has been charging up 50 per cent more electricity than the city has used on that circuit nobody knows, but it's fel- onious career will probably soon be cut short. Mayor Phelan has the report of the two experts in his hands now, but what action he will take has not yet has been determined.
 It Is possible the San Francisco Gas and Electric Company had no knowl- edge of the dishonest wurK of it's me- ters, but, if so, why did it seek to pre- vent an independent test by erectin~ v that barrier around them?
 Ones doubts are raised, however, when the terms of the contract the company has with the city are thor oughly understood And that very con- tract proves the statement at the be- ginning of this article that there are more ways than one of depicting the treasury. The dishonest meters are shown to be one way; the price charged the city by the company in question is another.
 Two years ago the Edison Light and Power Company (since absorbed by the San Francisco Gas and Electric Company was awarded the contract for lighting public buildings with cleo tricity, at the rate of II cents per 1000 watts. At the same time the same company was supplying private con- sumers at rates, in some instances, as low as 51a cents per 1000 watts.
 But those rates were only made in sections of the city where competition had entered the field Before bidding on the city contract, care was taken that no competing company could, by any possibility, carry out the terms of the contract. This was done through the instrumentality of the Board of then in office, which in serted the following bit of humor in the inviting bids:
 No bid will be received or enter tained from parties who estimate on any contingent event, or cannot com ply with, or who are not prepared or qualified to carry out the terms and conditions therein imposed.
 The contract was to go into effect May l. 1896. but on one pretext or an other the board delayed action until ong in April, and it was only about ten days before that date that the con- tract was awarded, and therein was se- ereted the joker.
 The Edison Company, or, as 1t Is now known, the San Francisco Gas ana Electric Company, was the only cor poration in the city prepared to enter upon the terms of the contract at so short notice There were other electric fight companies, with facilities fully capable of supplying the required amount of light, but they were new III he field of competition. and their lines lid not cover the entire city, as did hose of the big concern, and It would nave been impossible for any or them 70 extend their service to the outlying districts in the intervening time, even lad the board not prevented them rom bidding by the insertion of the little oker That bit of pleasantly is worth 'eading the second time. It may crop ID in the proposals for bids that will ,e issued next month.
 With that "cinch" on the contract the Edison Company put in its bid of Il cents and got the job, of course. At he same time 1t was supplying the Palace Hotel at the rate of 515 cents.