Evening journal., 1905-05-01
TO
PAWN CAS- WORKS
"Boss-ridden" City Will Sac
rihce Its Most Valuable
Possession
It is CORRUPT AND COMMENTED"


Philadelphia, May driven to the
verge of bankruptcy by her own po-
litical debauchery and prohigate
wastefulness, the city of Philadelphia
is about to pay the spendthrlfts
penalty. The staid old town with sub
missive Quakerish grace is calmly pre-
pairing to pawn its most valuable mu-
nicipal asset as its sole expedient for
raising ready money. AS a magazine
writer said not long ago, philadelphia
is corrupt and contented'
And having determined to go to the
pawnshop Philadelphia cannot take
the plunge fast enough. Special ses-
sions of the city Councils have been
thought necessary for the speedy con-
summation of what is generally brand
ed here as the most shameful bargain
in the political history of a city whose
records reek with shame.
Obedient to the viii of the political
Organization which shapes the destin
les of Philadelphia and which takes
its orders from Israel w. Durham. the
ruling municipal boss, the City coun-
ellis finance committee has approved
and advanced toward final ratification
Ian ordinance providing for the lease
of the city gas plant to the corpora
ton known as the United Gas Inn
.provement Company for a period Of
seventy-five years.
CITY TO LOSE s15O,OOOOO
Conservative estimates indicate that
the deal will cost the city something
like $3.50. 100000 in revenues which it
could and should have realized within
a generation under a less reckless pol
icy and which are now sacrificed to
politics and corporate greed.
Every newspaper in the city has pro-
tested against the brazen effrontery Of
the bargain makers. Their work has
been done in the open and its conse-
.quences have been clearly indicated
from day to day.
It is one of the anomalies of the
present situation that Israel w Dur
ham, Councilman Seger and others
who have been most active I'm press
ing to a hasty consummation the pres
.ent seventy y-five year lease were among
the men who most violently opposed
the thirty-year lease proposed in 1891
They were then fighting to acquire the
absolute power which they now enjoy.
They organized mass meetings and
political parades and carried trans
parencies bearing notices protesting
against the bartering of the peoples
rights and the looting Of the taxpay-
ers.
GANG" CHANGED ITS MIND.
But the lease in 1897 was ratified.
and the results during the period of
its operation until now show that as a
piece of bartering or looting it was "A
veritable gold mine to the people of
philadelphia, in comparison with the
lease which it is now purposed to sub
stitute at the urgent instigation of the
very men who most violently opposed
the more equitable contract Of eight
years ago.
Thomas Dolan and his associates of
the United Gas Improvement Company
made good their promise. They ex-
lpended large sums Of money i'm it's
lbetterment and demonstrated that as
a business proposition they could gem
crate and sell one dollar gas at a
handsome profit to themselves and
with neat incidental revenue to the
city.
Under the lease now about to be
abrogated, there was actually paid i'm
to the city treasury during the year
Tended December 81, 1904. the sum OF
$655,000, as the municipalities share OF
the revenue from the sale of gas.
THE PRESENT BARGAIN"
Reduced to its essential elements this
is how the present bargain looks: The
city surrenders the right it now holds
10 buy back the gas plant i'm 1907, by
lindemnifying the company for i'm
lprovements and extensions made. II
lsurrenders it right to take back the
plant complete in 1927 free of all cost
II surrenders the present lease, which
yields S650,O00 a year now, would
yield a rapidly increasing sum eacl
year and total of more than S29..
100000 by 1927. and hereafter agree,
Ito exact no share Of the receipts from
the sale of gas. The gas consumers o
philadelphia must abandon the hope
lof cheaper gas until 1927.
The present lease would gradual,
have reduced the price TO seventy-hvl
lcents per thousand feet. Under IN,
lnew lease 81 thousand feet viii bl
lexacted until 1927, and they will b.
compelled TO pay ninety cents a thous
and thereafter until the year 1880
In exchange for all the city gives up
il receives for its impoverished treas
ury from the United Gas improvement
Company the sum of $25.000,0 600; tn
first s1,O0O,000 to be paid within thirt!
days after the ordinance confirmini
the lease becomes a law; S11O00O0
on December 10. 1905; S6,500.OOO ol
December Is, 1905, and S6,5O0,O00 OF
i. December Is. 1907 These payment
the city agrees TO accept in lieu Of al
its rights in the gas works during tn
, next seventy-five years.
A town meeting has been called 70
! next Wednesday evening at the Acad
emy of Music to protest against tn
steal and syndieates of citizens vii
offer the city double the amount offer
ed by the u. G. l." for the plant. Liz
lprevious public movements however
. this VIII not prevent the consummatior
81 fh. daoI ae, fVad nm nv fha "hoeeees