The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-09-04
BOARD OF WORKS
MAKES REPLY To
ATTACK ON PLANT
CONTINUED From Page One)

that is filled with misrepresentation
and downright falsehood from begin
ming to end. The burden of it is to
the effect that Superintendent Rogers
of the city light plant is wholly incom-
petent that he resented any inspection
of the plant by members of this board
that he has refined his position and
got an increase of salary by bulldozing
the board; that he not only demanded
said increase or he would quit. but
that he would take the other employees
out with HMM short, would do his
best to wreck the plant-and so on for
quantity.
Those who know Mr.. Rogers and
those who know this board need no de-
NAL of this miserable SANDER; but to
those citizens and taxpayers of Rich
mond who do not know us, we desire
here and now, in the most solemn man.
ner to pronounce said article as essen
TALLY false and malicious from first to
last; and we denounce such reckless
Misrepresentation as disgrace to de-
cent Journalism. Mr.. Rogers never
even mentioned the matter of raise in
salary to this board until after we
spoke to him about it. He gave us no.
tice about the first of June that he de-
sired to give up his position at the end
of his years contract, the first of the
present month. We considered the
matter as a board counseled with
some of our representative business
men, investigated the value of such SER
vices in other cities, both by CORE
spondence and personally, and came to
the unanimous conclusion after over
two months consideration, that if Mr..
Rogers would stay for 1925 per month";
he was even then, probably the best
and cheapest superintendent we could
get under the circumstances. And
for that reason we asked the coutcil, as
the law provides, to pass the ordinance
authorizing the increase. We have
not, however, as the Item states, closed
any contract with him, although we see
no reason in the boiler accident for not
doing SO. In fact, since that occur
renee, Mr.. Rogers has offered to resign
II 1t was the pleasure of the board, but
we unanimously declined to release
him.
The. charge that President Merrill
and Mr.. Rogers Intentionally deceived
the newspapers as to the magnitude of
the boiler accident is also untrue. Their
statements were made early the next
morning after the occurrence, at
which time the full extent of the blow
out was not known by either of these
officials.
The charge that the light plant is
little better than a pile of junk-that
it lis on the verge of absolute ruin
is wholly untrue. The man who wrote
1t, knew it was untrue and the man
who printed it knows it is untrue The
plant is making good money and is 4
decided success. 1t has had a series
OIL accidents the past three months that
are as unaccountable, taken as a whole
to the management and the board as to
the public. We do not charge that
there is treachery at work trying to ru-
in the property. for our evidence at this |
time is too intangible to warrant the
charge; and it is well known fact |
that all manufacturing plants appear |
to get "hoodooed" at times; and new
machinery is about as liable to go |
wrong as the old. Defects in castings |
which do not show on the surface, are
a constant source of danger. Other |
defects are equally well concealed Ac- |
cidents from such causes can not be |
prevented, because they can not be- |
come known beforehand
The public should remember that ac-
cidents are occurring at intervals in |
all factories. and sometimes they come |
in quick succession-they bunch their |
hits as the base ball boys say But |
these are private plants and the public |
hears little or nothing about them,
and cares nothing about them, unless
the accidents are very serious. But a
municipal plant. being public proper
ty, is continually before the public eye,
and be sure if the least thing happens
out of the ordinary the papers. "des-
perate for news" will give it public
fly. Add to this the fact that papers
are more often trying to vindicate a
theory than to find the truth. and we
have degree Of publicity attaching to
municipal plants that is little short of |
appalling.
The citys engineers and firemen do
not claim perfection. Neither does
Mr.. Rogers. Neither does the board
OF works. But we do claim to be CIV
ing the city a quality of service that
will compare favorably, not only with
other municipal plants. but with those
OF private individuals and corpora
tions: and We shall endeavor to inn
prove the service whenever and
wherever the necessity for such i'm
provement becomes clear. Respect
~Vlly,
G. w. MERRILL,
w. P. O'NEAL.
b. b. JOHNSON