The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-12-02
Editor of The Tribune:

sarcastic comments upon the report
published of the part taken by me in
the recent discussion by the Board OF
Trade, of the water rates charged man
ufacturers by his company, require, in
the interests of the public and of truth
some correction, for which / crave the
courtesy of your columns briefly:
The condensed report of my remarks
which was published, was incorrect in
stating that 1 said, but after short
time the company put in a meter, and
from that time on the water at the
Wheel Works cost more than the fuel"
what 1 actually said, as l think those
that heard me will agree, was in Illus
tration by some experiences of mine at
the Wheel works Of the argument /
was making, that the water rates here
were excessive and iniudicious, neu-
tralizing to a certain extent the ad-
vantaGes of cheap fuel as an induce
ment for the establishment of manu-
facturers here. 1t was in substance
that after the meter was introduced it
seemed to be impossible to make much
reduction in the monthly bills by de-
creasing the quantity used as the rate
per thousand gallons seemed to in
crease as the quantity used decreased,
and the tax of the Water company re-
mained about the same whatever econ
omies were accomplished; that the cost
fuel to evaporate 1t.
AN ILLUSTRATION.
A statement which I believe to be
sufficiently accurate as an illustra-
tion, for find upon reference to
my books that there was a month
when the hard coal bills were only
about SIS more than the water bill,
and there were no leaks" that month
either. Hard coal is used there for
other purposes than making steam, and
ii Is not fair or reasonable assump-
tion either from the published reports
or what l said, to include the cost of
soft coal used for generating gas in the
discussion.
Concerning the aggregate of s4,94S. 90
given by Mr.. Scranton as the total cost
of water at the Wheel works between
July 1st, 1888, and March 1st, 1897, it
should be remembered that these eight
and two-thirds years included five Of
the most severe business prostration
this country has experienced; during
which the works were partially or
wholly idle much of the time, therefore,
the division of this sum by the 104
months to fix upon $47.5S as the month
ly cost of water for the works is utter
ly fallacious and false. The amount
of water bills actually paid in 1896 was
$Sl0.01, and in 1896, $799.14
THE leak in the inch pipe" to which
Mr.. Scranton refers, made itself known
Immediately by an increased flow
through the meter but, although con-
Stant efforts were made for q consid-
erable time, it was not located in an
underground pipe until the works were
shut down preparatory to turning the
management over to new superinten-
dent 1t was detected by my engineer
from the noise made by the escaping
water which could be heard when the
work were quiet. I suppose it had ex-
listed in an increasing quantity two
months subsequent to March, 1897.
USED RESERVOIR TANKS.
The "astute people" at the head of
the Steel Tired Wheel company were
so impressed with the Importance of
reducing the costs for water at their
works, that they Immediately insti-
tuted reservoirs, tanks and a plant for
economizing its consumption, at q cost
of over $4,000, which they consider
saves them money above the annual ID
per cent. charges for interest, taxes
and repairs of $500, which saving and
charge formerly went to the Water
company and is the reason the aver
age amount paid by them is dimin-
ished, although "he understands the
work done in the plant is greatly in
creased" Thus when the false work"
upon which it was built up is removed,
Mr. SCranton's whole superstructure of
attempted sarcasm and personality
falls into-well, "innocuous desuetude." I"
1t is quite common for those who
recognize the weakness of their po-
sition to try to hide it, like the Squid
in a cloud of ink, or kick up a dust of
some kind to distract attention from
it.
The real question before the public
is too grave and important to be be-
fogged in this manner. 1t rises above
persons and personalities.
Is the cost of water for Industrial
and manufacturing purposes in Scran-
ton injuriously high and if so can
it be reduced' That is the point at
issue in this discussion. Now / have
been a manufacturer all my life.
was the first one, "to the best of my
knowledge and belief" to begin the use
of cUlm in this anthracite region for
generating steam under boilers, some
twenty-five years ago at the Moosic
Powder works. For many years We
have used nothing else there for gen.
Grating steam.
COST OF FUEL.
l am well informed on the subject
of making steam with coal and culm.
While l have never made any ac-
curate or scientific tests of the
evaporative efficiency Of culm there
in our practice, we have found that we
use about the same number OF wagon
loads Of culm q day for making steam
at Moosic as we do of coal when it
has been used. With the best burning
facilities, the evaporatiVe efficiency of
culm is but a little inferior to sfted
coal. When We bought this culm by