The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-02-20
THAT FRANCHISE EXTENSION.

T HE MATTER of the extension of
i the franchise of the Utah Light
and Railway company viii come before
the city council tonight. The COM
pany is asking for an extension of
fifty years for a franchise that does
Lot expire for forty years, making a
total of ninety years. If the service
furnished by the Utah Light & Rail-
way company were beyond criticism,
il it were excellent in quality and rea-
Sonable in price, the council should
still refuse to even seriously consider
the extension requested.
The company wants, in addition to
the term extension, the privilege of in
creasing its minimum charges for
electricity and gas by fifty per cent. in
both instances from 81 to $1.5O per
month. We are told by an apparently
competent authority. the attorney for
the company, that there is no inten-
ton of increasing these minimum
charges. The company merely wants
the privilege of increasing them should
it desire to do so. But does any sane
man suppose for a moment that the
increases viii not be made?
The history of the Utah Light &
Railway company Is a long record of
increased charges, charges that cannot
be described otherwise than as extor-
tons. Today the corporation has many
thousands of dollars of money of its
Tatrops, wrung from them in the form
of meter deposits, on which it pays no
interest. Up to year or two ago it
renewed incandescent globes without
charge, on the principle that a mer-
chant should not exact money for the
paper he uses in the wrapping of par
GELS and for the delivery of goods. Now
globes are renewed only on payment
CT ten cents each, thus adding thous-
ands more to the revenues of the
company. The cost of gas to consum-
ers has been increased until it is out
of all proportion to the cost of manu-
fSctdre.
The Utah Light & Railway company
is also in the street railway business.
and the system it maintains is
standing reproach to the community
We do not believe one Salt Laker in
a hundred, not connected directly or
remotely with the company. viii say
he is satisfied with the street car ser
vice This. however. is by the way
The Utah Light & Railway com
pany, in the face of all these well
Known facts, wants the people of salt
Lake City to bind themselves. their
children and their children's children
TO the fourth generation to submit to
any eXactiOns it may see fit to i'm
pose. This city has long since passed
the point where it is necessary to give
away franchises in order to secure
public utilities. True, the corporation
offers TO give something for the priviI-
lousy inadequate that it can hardly
be described. under the circumstances,
as any compensation whatever.
The truth is that the Utah Light e.
Railway company is seeking some
thing which it knows to be worth mil
lions of dollars at this time, which it
Knows viii become immensely more
valuable in the future. And in ex-
change it offers 10 give the city, at
~ I'm t'e'AIE > o"H EXCESSIVE valuation,
something which the city does not
need
The interviews with the Salt Lake
business and professional men pub
ished in The Herald of yesterday.
furnish sufficient indication of the
public mind on this subject They
show that if the question OF granting
the extension were submitted to the
voters it would not receive one per
cent of the total number of ballots.
The. council cannot afford to disre-
Sard the known views of the people.
Nor do we believe the councils will do
anything of the sort.