Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-05-21
DOWN WITH ICE TAUsr.
Hartford 'Liquor Dealers Will Form
 Mammoth Company.

Hartford Liquor Dealers Will Form 1 Mammoth Company. Hartford, May 21--Bennlte steps to
 fight the ice trust and supply the
 public with ice at a moderate price was taken at a meeting of the Hart.
 ford Liquor dealers association held
 flu Hlbernian hall on Central row last
 evening, The meeting was attended
 by 100 members and assurance of co
 operation and support were received
 from twenty.two, others. The mem
 bership of the association Is i5i. Resolutions condemning the ice trust and calling on the public for
 cooperation were passed and com
 mittee of three members were ,ap-
 pointed with power to take steps at
 once to procure ice at fair prices. It
 Is the intention to form an organixa'
 tion to handle ice for the trade and the public, and it will be founded on
 & sufficiently strong basis to assure
 success. The cooperation Of large
 consumers and the public at large will be solicited to make the venture
 doubly sure and the clamor of indig-
 nation at the prices instituted by
 dealers this consumer would indicate that hearty cooperation will not nc
 wanting. Resolutions were passed
 and committee appointed to look | up the whole question and report at
 future meeting.
 l After the meeting member of the association said that he had been in- ScFmed by an employee of the ice trust that the Hartford companies
 had shipped large quantities of ice to New York at $1.35 ton. fin the
 face of m impending shortage,
 shortage which they now advance as ra reason for raising prices to |. point making it prohibltive for poor peo-
 pie and ruinous for many business men.
 We can get all the ice we want. We know where, when the time comes" said another member. we
 don't depend on Springfield and
 Holyoke by any means, for there's lots of it to be had"
 There will be another meeting of the association before long to hear the report of the committee and 10 proceed with the work.
 Speaking on this question the Con.
 rant this morning put out the follow ing warming to the trust There is 'Iio acceptable excuse in
 sight for tho astonishing increase that
 the public is being forced to pay this l season for ice. It is ~intolerable and | 1t will not be patiently borne. Tho
 complaints are not simply accidental
 here and there. they are all about.
 The two-dollar ticket of last year is three dollars this year. and the size of the ice block Is certainly not en-
 larged. The small customer. the poor person to whom the ice is ever more
 necessary than to those better oR. finds the ten-cent allowance a ridicu- lous travesty. We heard of caIe the other day where last year twen. ty-cent block had to be trimmed bit to go Into the ice chest of It's refriger- ator and this year the charge for fill ing the same ice chest in the same re-
 frigerator is fifty cents--and the re- frigerator has not expanded any dur ing the winter.
 Ice has become absolutely neces.
 sary. Moreover the manufacture of
 ice is,.Ase simple as the manufacture of shin8ts spRnlHicks. The, artificial.
 Ice company that started in the spring with considerable flourish of trumpets has not been heard of of late Why? Because the Ice monopoly
 stepped in and bought up the entire outputs that otherwise might have given us ice at reasonable profit. We are cornered and paying for the corner. It may he that well to do people will sit and watch this sort of thing go on: possibly few of them will enjoy the dividends But it Is as sure as common sense that such perform ances simply push us along towari the municipal control and manage
 ment against which the same :'better element" protests as subversive of the best interests of the people. Hart ford Is today furnishing water In liquid form from municipal plant
 under municipal management. How different to furnish water in solif
 form a municipal plant under munI- cipal management? Under such con
 dition the poor would get their fec at close to cost and at all events would
 know what the cost was.
 If the fee supply depended solely
 upon the caprice of the thermomet~. we might recognize occasional trouble
 But since the arts wIll produce bet ter fec at cost perfectly well known. it follows that a warm winter cannot
 he made to do duty for an extortisn-
 ate monopoly. It is wake up or be
 walked mp. and we may as well sc. knowledge it and wake up.