The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-14
LETTERS TO
 THE EDITOR.
THAT GAS FRANCHISE.
President Vandiver of the Light and Power Go. Defends the Council
 and His Company.

Montgomery, Ala, Aug. 13, 1901.
 Editor The Advertiser: [ In justice to the City Council of Montgomery, which has been misfapre- sented, and, in justice to my company,
 on account of the misrepresentation of facts, feel that 1t is my duty to have something to say in regard tC the stu ation, so far as our applic l.ion fer and having been granted a new gas fran chise is concerned. It was a gross misrepresentation of
 the City Council, possibly not intentional,
 to say that the ordinance granting to
 the Montgomery Light and Power Com pany a gas franchise, was ''railroaded"
 the application for a new gas franchise
 was presented to the Council by the
 Hon. Ray Rushton on June 17, ana Tot
 on July 3, as has been stated. At a
 meeting of the City Council h.lc July
 3d, the Committee on Franchises and Privileges was called on for 7, report and they asked further time to con- cider the ordinance which was suggest ed, and same was granted. On August 9th, at the first meeting of the City Council afterwards, being more than thirty days, the Committee on Fran chises made its report, and after being amended, was adopted by the City Council. Thus you will see fifty i5O) days elapsed between the time the or dinance was presented, before action was taken by the Council. Final az ton however, was not taken un:il SIX days later, or the 12th of tkis month, making fifty-six days in all from the time 1t was adopted. The gfore, I should conclude that it was not .rail- roaded,' either by the Council or by other parties at interest, neither wss information suppressed from the public as to the application for ;his franchise,
 neither dId the Council suppress any information that the public was entitled to, so far as its action was concerned, as the whole official action was promptly published in the City Coun- cils official organ, The Montgon ,ry Journal, as is usually done with all matters pertaining to the public in.er. est. So much for the misrepresenta :ion Of the City Coau,i.
 Now, in regard to my second prono- sition, that is. injustice to my com pany on account of ;ion Of facts: I find that am forced To pay some attention to an article published in your~paper, dated August 1O enti- tied Gas Rates Elsewhere" and signed Consumer. However before taking up Consumers" article, I want to say that consider any article unworthy of confidence. unworthy of notice, the au- thor of which has not the moral conr- age and manhood to sign his own name, but in this instance Consumers be- ing the only one attempting to estab- fish facts with figures, I am compelled to analyze same as to it's correctness, and then make comparisons as to the relative situation and conditions at the cities he names, and compare same with Montgomery. Before, however, going into the details of Consumers" "Gas Rates Elsewhere" I desire to assemble below few facts aud figures in a con solidated form, in order that the 3l.b- lie. who I believe have been radically mislnformed in regard to these cities, may form an intelligent conclusion. rom business standpoint, and then be prepared to make the comparison of the situation at the cities named by consumer" with the conditions that we find in the city of Montgomery: