The age-herald., 1900-06-27
RESULT OF DOLLAR
 GAS IN NASHVILLE Consumption Doubled in One
 Year by Cheap Rates. A STRONG OBJECT LESSON For Birmingham-Gas Was $1.eo in Nashville-A Reduction to g. Two -2 Years Ago Brought Prosper ity to the Company
A STRONG OBJECT LESSON

years ago was very similar to your situa- ton in Birmingham today" said a wealthy citizen of Nashville last evening. "The Nashville Gas Company was then charging s1.60 per thousand feet for gas. Its con tract with the city was about to expire and it was seeking a new contract. The city officials demanded dollar gas or refusal to extend the franchise. There was much parleying and conuesting but event.
 ually the company cut its price to a dol lar Since that day the Gas Company has prospered and thrived like green bay tree
 When the price was $160 the company
 made and sold a maximum of 10o,ooO,00O | feet. Last year it made and sold 200,0O0,00O l feet and during last month-May-315 gas | stoves were put into Nashville residences. | The price for fuel gas is now, by the way | 75 cents per thousand feet. The Gas Com pany is prosperous it's sales are increasing monthly, and the owners of its securities are even more pleased with the reduction | in price than the citizens"
 You know" he continued, that the by products of gas plant pay for the coal, I and in many cases enough to offset the | labor, making the gas cost practically | nothing. In the delivery, however, of course | there is expense.
 | I hot COmOa0V with | high prices only makes 5O,OOO,000 feet an- nuaIly If the price were cut l venture | that o,000,0O0 feet would be sold within the next twelve months and consumption would | continue to increase. Birmingham uses less
 gas than almost any city of it's size in the | country-probably due to the high price. | As business man interested in the Nash | vile Company, I venture the opinion that
 Birmingham Gas Company would prove | a splendid investment"
 Gas in Knoxville | Another party, in speaking of cities hay l ing dollar gas, said that Birmingham, with high prices, was making but 50OOo,0O0 feet l of gas annually and had only about 15O0 consumers, while Knoxville, smaller city, | selling gas al $1, had about 2,400 consumers
 and sold nearly 1O0O0o,OOO feet of gas
 nually.
 some Local Expressions | Almost every business man in Birming
 ham indulged in discussion of the gas situ 1 alton yesterday. A few talked for publica- | tion:
 | M. II. Burger said: q am most assuredly | for dollar gas; am opposed, therefore, to I the thiry-year contract now before the l City Council I gas at my residence I and little gas at my store, supplementing my store gas with lamps If gas were l cheaper I would use more of it. Certainly | the people of Birmingham entitled to | dollar gas.''
 Bert Jacobs: While I have not studied l the question thoroughly, it does seem to me that the citizens of Birmingham should l not be required to pay over a dollar per 1 1000 feet for gas. If other cities, not so | well favored as ours, have dollar gas, it l does not show well for Birmingham to have l higher rate l am opposed, anyway, to l the thirty-year contract pending before the | Board of Mayor and Aldermen" | J. Burger: q am opposed to the thirty | year contract which the gas company asks | the City Council to accept. Other cities | have dollar gas, and gas consumers of Bir | mingham should not be made to pay more | than dollar per thousand. We are cer- l tainly entitled to gas at as low figure | as any other community"
 | Col. E. l.. Higdon: q do not want to | see any industry here operated at loss, l but it seems to me that the gas company | could supply it's customers with gas at | one dollar per 1000 feet. If other cities have dollar gas, 1t speaks badly for Bir- | mingham, in the coal region, if its citizens | have to pay more than dollar. I hope l the City Council will not agree to the con | tract now before it. Such a contract | would be blow to this city" | G. r. Jackson, president of the Huston Biscuit Co: When Birmingham was in | the infant stage it all right for the | authorities to enter into contracts and grant franchises for public utilities on | terms liberal and tempting to the parties l applying for these privileges. Every young
 and ambitious city has to give away val | uable privileges. But Birmingham has
 | outgrown the infant stage and our city I fathers cannot be justified now in doing
 what had to be done fifteen or twenty
 years ago. In other words, the City Coun-
 cil would be very wrong now in entering
 | into thirty-year contract with the gas | company for high priced gas. The people
 | of Birmingham have right to expect dol
 | lar gas If we cannot have dollar gas, we
 had better stop boasting our great advan-
 l tages as the capital of a rich mining dis
 trict. So long as Birmingham gas consum-
 CTS have to pay over dollar per 1000, just
 | so long will Birmingham get a bad ad-