Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-07-13
Webster City Shaken by NUM-
cipal War Over Electric
Day Current
BUSINESS MEN BECOME ANGRY
Council Meets Requests of Commercial
League With Chilling Air and Pro-
eeeds to BaIk Necessary Legislation
Until Forced to compromise-N1atte
Has Now Reached Stage of Deadlock.
;pecial to Times-Republican

Is i'll the thrOeS or q munlclpal wal
which threatens to disrupt the city
council and has already caused the
business men of the city to mark sew
eral of their number for retirement al
the elections to be held next spring
The trouble which has caused the
business men to rise against the city
solons Is the matter Of whether the
city shall be supplied with an electric
day current The council seems not
to be as progressive as the citizens
would have it and the matter as to
whether they shall Dut in the day cur
rent has caused civic disruption such
as has not occurred In years. The
war has been raging so bitterly that
the council, finally driven to the wall.
made the granting Of the current sub
! ject to certain conditions to be COM
| piled with by the business men Of the
city. The conditions imposed were be-
lieved by the council to be next to
| impossible to comply with. The busi-
ness men. however, have complied with
them, and the councilmen are now
hedging and doing all in their power
to block the proper legislation.
| The trouble which has eliminated so
bitterly began about two years ago.
when the business men made a request
for the day current. The city is the
absolute and unqualified owner of its
electric lighting system. it's pumping
plant and water works and heating
plant which was established last fall.
All the funds then on hand were needed
for other purposes, particularly the
heating plant. The citizens We're willing
to wait for the current as the heating
system was needed the worst and In
consequence they dropped their first
request for the day current in favor
of the heating system. The latter was
put in and has proved eminently sue
cessful. The city's finances are in such
good condition that the business men
felt as tho the current could now be
given. Accordingly about month ago
the Commercial League of the city
started a movement in its behalf. 1t
was expected that the council would
meet the movement in friendly spirit,
and 1t caused great surprise when the
mayor, F. A. Edwards and several OF
the more influential members of the
council, met the request with very
chilling look. Many cries of graft
were heard on all sides and the matter
grew very bitter. The League finally
sent a committee of representative bus
mess men of the city before the coun-
ell so that an understanding of the city's
financial ability to undertake the job
might be had. This committee was in
ho1 10
matter taken by the council, which
sent member) In favor of putting In
the day current The business men then
asked that the council proceed to put
in the improvement. They responded
by empowering the mayor to appoint
a committee to further look up the mat
ter and make its recommendations TO
the council Mr.. Edwards then ap-
pointed the committee consisting OF
three members. What was the sur
prise of all when he announced the
makeup of this committee to find that
of the three unfriendly members OF
the council, two had been appointed on
the committee. The business men
pressed the committee so hard, how
ever, that they were obliged to 90
something. They responded oy making
a proposition to the Commercial
League.
This proposition was that II the
League could get the future patrons OF
the current to advance $4,000. with
which the council could make the nee
essary additions to it's electric plant.
they would furnish the current. 1t was
understood that this $4,000 should
merely be rent advanced by the patrons
of the plant, which should be repaid to
them in electricity. This was COM
paritively an easy thing to do and In
few days the League had petition
with the full guarantee upon 1t. rms
proposition had been made by the
committee very unwillingly, having
been forced into it by the League, who
met their statements that the city had
no ready money, with the offer to adj
vance It, The matter has now reached
the stage where the committee mas
the Leagues guarantee but has thus
far absolutely refused to do any
thing.
The Daily Freeman Tribune has tax
en- occasion to score the balky council
men in no uncertain terms. while the
MAYOR himself has escaped with no
little criticism.