The Wichita daily eagle., 1904-01-09
CITY OF WICHITA
MUST HAVE GAS
And Have 1t Soon Was the
Sentiment Expressed
AT MEETING OF COUNCIL
Members Will Take Definite
Action January l8.

What Wichita wants is gas, and it is
wanted soon" was the sentiment ex-
pressed by every member of The city
council at a special session OF the body
held yesterday afternoon at O'Clock for
the purpose of hearing a request from
the Bloomington OlI) capitalists asking
the council to give them an extension
of ninety days in which to put up the
$4,000 forfeit, six months more in which
to begin work and ten months in which
to have the system completed.
After a thorough discussion of the
proposition by all of the councilmen. J..
X. Burton made a motion 10 extend the
time until The next regular meeting
which will be held one week from Mon
day. At that time it will be decided def
initely what viii be done in the matter.
Mr.. Kaiser, one of the capitalists, was
the first to speak after The roll call and
he informed the members what he de-
sired. He said that he. with the two
other people interested in the project of
piping gas to Wichita, had found that
1t would be impossible to make as much
headway as was expected. He said
mistake was made when the time limit
was placed and that they had found it
impossible to finance the undertaking as
soon as they would have liked. He con-
cluded by saying that his firm has the
nearest wells where gas can be secured
in large quantities.
Mr.. Schell arose and said that he didn't
see any reason why an extension of time
should be granted. Everybody is in ia
vor of having the gas. but we don't
want to wait forever for it. Several
franchises have already been granted for
piping gas into Wichita and thus far
nothing has come of it,.
Oscar Smith then took the floor and
announced that he had a company which
is desirous of piping gas to Wichita. 1T
Is one of the wealthiest firms in this
part of the country said Mr.. Smith,
and they don't have to be granted a
franchise TO supply the city with gas.
Whenever they are assured that no one
else is at work on the proposition they
agree to pipe the gas here and not ask
for franchise until everything is in
readiness to supply the city. l suppose
their reason for making such a broad
assertion is due to there being no COM
petition whatever in the business provid-
ing the present franchise is dropped"
After the meeting Mr.. Smith said: II
see no reason whatever why this city
should grant outside people the privilege
Of piping gas into Wichita Why not
give the right to home people? The money
market is more stringent in the east
right ha n II iS i,, ;c
no reason for going away from home to
finance proposition of this kind. The
with which 1, and Mayor Me-
Lean also. talked was at Topeka If they
once take hold of this proposition it is
an assured Thing that they will see it
If there is no other way to Sc
cure gas for Wichita 1 am in favor of
the people right here having the thing
done. If necessary, / will invest 5000
myself to see the proposition through"
j. H. Stewart made short talk in
which he said he was in favor of granting
The extension of time to the people who
now hold the franchise. He like all 9th |
ers spoke along the line that Wichita |
wants natural gas badly and he is of the |
opinion that more can be gained by |
granting the present people more time
than to start at the beginning again
c. l.. Davidson favored Mr. Burton's |
motion to postpone the matter until the |
next regular meeting of the council. He |
said further: 'As you all know, Wichita |
wants gas. II we can not get any one |
else to bring it, why not get it our
selves?''
The meeting waxed warm and the |
members showed much enthusiasm. Mr.. |
Davidson was cheered. There are firms |
1esirous Of locating here every day which |
when told of the enormous price of fuel. 4
simply laugh at us when we try to in
-erest them" he added. "Wichita must .
h ave gas"