Los Angeles herald., 1907-11-14

SCHEME NOT
ENCOURAGED
PASADENA COUNCIL BECOMES
CAUTIOUS
BELIEVED MAYOR UNABLE TO
FORCE ISSUE
Citizens Of Grown City Dislike Idea Of
lnourrlns Unnecessary Expense
Of S15o,ooo for EnIarelns
Lighting Plant
BY l.. GEO. THOMPSON

| PASADENA, Nov 13.-There was a
hitch in Mayor Thomas Earley's pro-
gram today and the special session of
the council that he had called for the
purpose OF deciding as to whether the
city would vote on a pond issue for
municipal light came to naught so far
as lighting bonds were concerned No
action was taken on the matter what
ever. 1t Is possible that the council
will do nothing further in the matter
until the holidays have ceased, as they
might affect the validity of the pro-
ceedings.
1t is considered a debatable question
as to wether the mayor will now be
able to carry the measure even through
the council as the article in The Her
aid of yesterday has placed the pro-
posed bond issue in a light different
| from the one the mayor had cast up
on 1t.
There is not the confidence reposed
| by the citizens in the advisability of
following Prof. Corey's recommenda-
tions since 1t has been learned that the
board of underwriters has consented to
the city placing its wires in the under
ground conduits and upon the poles OF
the Sunset Telephone company.
Would Mean Unnecessary Expenses
The city can take advantage of such
privilege as long as 1T uses low
voltage current as Is now being gene
rated for incandescent lighting, but If
| 1t took the advice of the two experts
and installed the system that they adj
wise 1t would be impossible to use the
poles already up and at the disposal of
the city, and new set of poles would
have to be placed at an expense of
several thousand dollars. AS the
| Id
with larger number of poles than is
compatible with the beauty of the
town there is double reason for using
the telephone poles
Taking the estimate of Mr.. Scatter
| good it has been figured by Superin-
tendent Glass that the city would save
| in term of years the equivalent of an
| investment of s325000 by taking adj
vantage of the offer of the Sunset Tele-
phone company. which has expressed
it's Willingness for the city to use
| it's poles and conduits provided the
underwriters of the insurance COM
panies found no objection to the plan.
| BY installing the system of wiring
advised by both Scattergood and Corey
the city would have to spend a consid-
cradle amount for several thousand
more pounds of copper than would be
required by the mesh system now
working satisfactorily and recon-
mended by Mr.. Glass
Advises Use of Caution
AS far as Mr.. Glass is concerned per-
sonally he says that he would be glad
to have all the money necessary to
complete the plant and a hundred
| thousand or more beside, as 1t would
relieve him of the responsibility of
fathering the plan and give him
large capital to work with, but he
maintains that he can complete the
plant with the $4,000 that the mayor
plans to have voted for that particular
| purpose and then increase the plant
from the revenues of the commercial
service as the extensions are needed.
Mr.. Glass recommends a cautious cam
paign in the commercial field until the
| department knows where 1t stands.
Mayor Farley on the other hand advo-
Gates the immediate voting of $150,000
more bonds than are needed at the
present time and the installation of a
plant much larger than the need of the
city will require for years to come.
1t seems a trife peculiar to many
that the mayor and his adherents were
so critical of the former administra-
| tion because it used the tax money to
start a lighting plant and let the fire
| department wait, and now the present
administration is trying to do the same
| LHlnS only Will d QlllereHI
Municipal Plant viii Pay
| In the former case the tax revenues
were used and now the mayor wishes
| the people to vote more lighting bonds,
| but is adverse to giving the people
even chance to vote on school or fire
bonds.
That a municipal plant will pay
when properly conducted is evidenced
| by the report of the plant of the city
| of Detroit, Mich. covering its opera
| tion for the past ten years. The plant
was built at a cost of $1.112,455, and
| the city paid for maintenance and
operation for the period of ten years
s1,059,996, making a total cost of
S2172,451. The lights used were
| equivalent to 2479 acrs, the actual
cost of which was $s7,6S per lamp as
compared with the bid of an electric
company of $102.20 for ten-year
period This shows an actual saving
of 14.57 per lamp each year. The city
has in addition the plant which Is still
worth a very large proportion of its
original cost. II the contract had
been awarded to the private concern
the city would have paid out more
money and had no property at the eend
| of the ten years. Allowing for the
present valuation of the property the
average cost per lamp would be S52S7
/ which is almost so per cent saved.
1t is significant that Mr.. Glass esti-
mates the same percentage of saving
for the city over the price it formerly
paid to the Edison company after the
municipal plant pays all of the fixed
charges, such as interest and sinking
fund and the operation and mainten-
ance costs.
If Mayor Farley is able to carry out
his pet scheme of installing a system
4 that will prevent the city from taking
advantage of the telephone company's
offer 1t will necessarily increase the
fixed charges by several thousand dol
lars per year. and therefore increase
the cost of energy to the consumer, a
condition that would be the best thing
possible for the benefit of a private
corporation competing with the city.
HUI in Car Crash
BY Associated Press.
GAM I'D NJCTGGO Nov II A Fillmore