The Indianapolis journal., 1903-10-29
PLEA FOR FAIR PLAY.


To the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journal:
am not at all surprised at the commotion
just now raging concerning the Consumers
Gas Trust Company's situation, but j am
surprised that so many men who are habit
ually level-headed should all at once go
wild. Presuming that 1t would be impossi-
BILE TO find any other five men in the city
in whose business wisdom and personal in
tegrity and unselfshness the whole people
would have more confidence. call atten-
ton to the fact that there is a rush to in.
duce these trustees to elect board of di-
rectors TO do, in effect, the very thing the
present board has been trying to do for
twelve years or more, but has not been al
lowed to do, and while no board the trus-
tees can create can do until allowed to by
the city authorities, which for more than
twelve years have persistently refused to
make any concession in the direction of
relief. More than twelve years ago the di-
rectors of this company, together with the
everybody was permitted 10 burn a thou
sand feet of gas at no greater cost to the
consumer>than ten feet would be, the sup
ply OF gas must give out, unless il was in
exhaustlble, and even then il was unjust TO
the companies TO be required TO furnish one
thousand feet at the price of ten feet and
they asked for authority TO charge the con-
sumner for just what he used. no more no
less; but the city authorities i'm whose
hands the whole question then was and
now is, preferred to cater TO the wasteful
consumers rather than 10 the conservators
of this greatest of boons, and here we are
as consequence.
Is il not strange, therefore. that level
headed men by the score should all at once
DC aiming their invectiVe at the very men
who have been trying for a dozen years OF.
more TO prevent this calamity and who
arc now not only willing but anxious 10
do the only right thing in the premises If
they are allowed TO by the powers that out
rank the trustees themselves. Why not at
tack the really responsible parties? Is il
because 1t is cheaper TO attack the more
helpless? But the thing demanded is the
very thing no board Of directors ought 10
do now, even IL the legal hindrances were
removed IL is no fault of the present boa rr,
that the affairs or the company have drift
ed into a condition that possibly ieopardizes
all the extraordinary rights of the COM
pany. II may be that conditions may arise
that will require a sale OF the plant and its
franchises. but the board is not responsible
for even allowing such an event, for IL Is
not and cannot be its fault; the fault lies
at the door of the city authorities, who have
enforced this condition by their neglect. II
not by their connivance.
The scheme now at the front is TO elect
u board TO do the wrong thing as IL seems
10 me. Ii is to proceed at once to the man
utacturing OF gas out OF the material il has
in great abundance, and IL is estimated that
il can make gas at 90 cents q thousand, de-
lvered. Possibly il can. but certainly IL
ought not without first exhausting the sup
ply OF natural gas for fuel purposes. liz is
certain now that natural gas can never
again become the fuel for everybody even
il used sparingly. any more than illuminat-
ing gas can be used even sparlngly by
everybody. AS there is no good reason why
those who can afford Illuminating gas
though all cannot-so there is no reason
why those who can afford TO use natural
gas at prices that will not justify it's use
IN furnaces or factories or by very poor