The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-04

to charge consumers for the water sup- plied. and that the rentals received from the operation of this natural mo-. nopoly have almost invariably shown e profit over the expense of maintenance and operation. In other words, bonds issued to provide for the supply of wa- ter are not . real burden upon the tax payers, since the water rents received pay the interest on these bonds, amor tize the principal, apd still yield profit
 Summing up the result of this article. the author says:
 "Our constitutions should be amended SO as to except from the limitation on the Indebtedness of cities bonds issued to provide for mprovements--which, while gov ernmentai in their character are. nevertheless, essentially business enterpriscs--and from the operation of which profits can be derived sufficient to provide a speedy payment of the in- debtedness temporarily incurred
 I am aware. MT. President, that the tendency of this argument to certain extent is to municipal ownership or all classes of public service industries. l wish to state here and now. in my opin- ion a city should own Its water-Works. its sewerage system. and It's lighting plant. Beyond that, am not yet pre- pared to 20. It seems to me that the proposition just stated was sufficient reason why the Committee on Munich par Corporations should seek to exclude from any debt limit the debts created by a city for the purpose of supplying it's inha bitants with water. Conse- ouently we have So reported.
 MT. ONealWhy do you except eiec- trio light and gas plants from that pro vision?
 mittee in not including hght plants Is because the maintenance oi a hgnt plant is a drain upon the general reVe- nue of a city. unit ss the ci1y soes ist ther and furnishes rot only msnts TOT well am aware of the fact that m many of the cities of the country this |. done ana the receipts from commer- ciai lighting go to a considerable extent in having for the expense Of hghtins tha atreets. do not, however, resaFo tnst as an entirely safe proposition. Tse President-The time of the gen. tieman has expired .u,. the Mr SeC,raffenreid--I move that the r,,Ie. ba suspended and that the gen tIsman be permitted to continue ms Ee- marks. ..,n. aoes the gentleman indicateT .s oent,s- Mr. deGraffenreid--Until the seh''7 man gets through. - ot,op to A vote being taken the no''o"
 suspend the rules was carrieo ., Th. president-sThe motion IS tna' .,a gartleman's time be extendeo IT, definitely. s,,,,s,or was
 Mr Heflin-I would like to amend hv ,nakine 1t fifteen minutes. Ahe gentleman says he can get throusn III MT deCsraffenreid--We were taking vote and a division was called TOT anu an amendment Is not in order.
 The taking of the vote was compie.eu and the time of the deiegase ,ro" | I.auderdale was extended inoennltey | MT. weakley-The question Wae Jus
 propounded by the delegate rom nau or derdale asking why the Coniin.e.ee @ ,bs s | Cornorations did not exclude from tne | 6ebt limit bonds for the purpose o
 Construction or acquiring electric hgh
 nIsnts. 1 believe. gentlemen. as stated before that every city ought 10 owI ito own lighting plant. It has peer demonstrated by actual experiment ho' oniv in small cities such as Athens l Ala but also in Chicago, which na'
 the largest municipal lighting plant II | inc world that a city can furnish lign
 for it's streets from 40 to 50 per cent | cheaner than any corporation will TUT
 nish it for them. But notwhhstanuins l that fact, we believe the expense
 lighting the streets of city ls
 charge upon the general revenues O
 a city and that this expense, ths fore ought to be included In the oep limit. c.-no-
 The Committee on Municipal Corpor
 ations have further recommended tha debts created for the purpose or con | structine sewers be not included l the debt limit and the reN;ons for Una | ane that the public health sometime demands the building of sewers an' that thev should be constructed in an! l event. Another reason for that recon
 mendation lies in the tact that in
 nunber-I started to say the majorit of cases-sewers are constructed an
 paid for by abutting property owner or property situated in the dlstric
 drained by the sewers. In other WoruS we have adopted the rule that wher
 arv debt has been created which not a charge upon the general revenu of the city. that debt, should not b included in the limit. Section c o1 tn { s,,bstitute which I offer excludes iron the debt limit bonds issued or obliga tions incurred to procure means to pa for streets or sidewalk improvement
 ar storm water sewers, the cost
 which ia to be assessed against the prop
 erty or the district drained by sue
 sewers.
 The same principle that leads us t
 exclude debts created for sewers als leads us to recommend to exclude dept
 created for public improvements "nlc'
 are created in the majority or case
 at the request of the property oWneg
 who are benefited by those improve
 ments and constitute no charge agalns
 the city but are charges against tn
 property abutting the improvement.
 inc property benefited by the improve
 ments. -
 Section D, in the report of the com
 mittee on Municipal Corporations, als excludes debts created for the preser vatior of the public health. This pro
 yis,nn was inserted in view of the fac
 that frame the debt limit in the wa
 vol will, there will still be uumDe
 of cities above the limit and in tn
 event of the, outbreak of disease 2 anidenic they would be absolutel nowerless to protect the public healtt Section E of the report of the Com:s!'
 fee excludes debts existing on the 6t dav of September. 1875. In franln
 thia Section no good reason couid D found for inserting the provision tnere in except that otherwise the clty
 Mobile and the city or Moh.soHl7I
 would be debarred from ralslns an wore money for public improvements | twill the R6ntlnInd