The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-02-21
STATE EVENING FEBRUARY 49,

ing the Edison company s65 per lamp
per year for the very lights hung from
/ the city's own poles.
| - have said nothing about the con-
oltion OF the machinery at the plant,
writes President Myers January 80,
because 1t is generally admitted that
II Is completely worn out and practi-
cally unfit for service" The general
| admission is wrong. This other writer
| mas Just been down to see and ma
enlnery men like Herbert Hackney, L.
| L. Cofran and Joseph Bromich Will
| testify to the excellent condition of the
Dig Corltss engine at least.
In one of his letters Mr.. Myers says:
ABOUT three-fourths Of the city's COP
per WIRE has no insulation and what
insulation there is is not good" Well
now much insulation has Mr.. Myers
| forty miles of heavily charged trolley
wires! None at all. I observed a good
| deal of the Edison's wiring with insula-
tlon gone In chunks and ragged shreds
OF 1t fiuttering in the breeze-down near
Lincoln school for instance. There is
much fake about insulation. 1t gets
worn or unreliable in a couple OF years,
out copper wires last Indefinitely and
lighting corporations don't braid on
new insulation, but let it go.
| Mr.. Myers said in the discussion, not
in writing, that he did not want the
| that he liked Topeka and wanted to
upbuild the city in every way, but did
believe the municipal plant was heavy
| tax on the city, that the Edison COM
pany was a tax payer and was interest
ed in keeping down taxes and would
help in that direction by this $55 pro-
position as they were well equipped
makers of electricity at the low figure
by which the citizens would be big tax
| savers. The writer replied that he too
L " va
over. a third as much as the big Edison
| company-which is bonded for 100000
| and stocked for $1,250.000.00 and paid
| taxes last year on valuation OF $lOI,-
700.00-the taxes being $5,862.60 The
Edison company has no complaint to
make on high taxation.
| This is undeniably a good time to
buy machinery and material including
the miles Of copper wire needed for
| the additional lights included in the
| 500. The demand for these supplies
has fallen off heavily recently and
| dealers are anxious to sell and the
copper wire has dropped a half since
the estimates were made by Freeman
and by Brill a year ago. Mr.. Myers
thinks a dozen tons of copper wire
will be needed.
| Electrician experts this year are ad-
vising cities against any long time
contracts for lighting. saying that i'm
provements are constantly being made
which are reducing cost of lighting;
| that lamps have been adopted within a
year that require only third of the
energy to produce a given light, Let
| stead of giving it to a company.
| AS an example showing how Mr.. My
ers' figures, however Internationally,
| have misled the public, the following is
bod fr0v 1nT Co fo1 ,lI loo
| Saturday morning, following Mr.. Ny
ers' talk before the council the evening
| before:
TT now seems certain that the coun-
ell committee on ways and means will
| include in the city electric light plant
bond proposition the alternative of
abandoning the city plant and purchas-
| ing current from the Edison company
for the street lighting system. The
| committee did not take final action on
the matter last night, but 1t was given
wide discussion. The Edison company
has made an offer to furnish all night
service. every night in the year, for sos
per lamp per year. Figures were pro-
duced at last nights meeting showing
that. since the establishment of the
plant in 1889, it had cost the city an
average of 1857 per lamp per year, op-
| Grating on a moonlight schedule.
| 1.-THE statement showed the total op-
Grating expenses since 1889 to be $780,
857.97. The original total investment of
| $50, 263.06 has suffered a depreciation Of
| $61, 1896. In addition, an enormous
| amount has been paid out in interest
on the investment. The average cost
per lamp per year is divided as fol-
| lows: Operating expenses, $49.08; inter-
est, $13.69; depreciation, $3.50; total,
1857: It is estimated that this cost
will be increased As per cent on an all
night schedule, SO the saving to the
| city if the plant is abandoned will be
considerable. Whether the contempla-
| ted extension of the plant, to cost from
$4,000 to $4,000 would result in a re-
| is only problematicaL'
The State Journal would not dispute
! the fact that the Edison company can
mechanically now produce light cheap
er than the city does, provided the Edf-
son company could do business without
a profit; if the Edison company had no
capital invested in a franchise, or in a
going concern. It must be remembered
that the city can figure no profit, no
investment on going value, or on the
enormous investment capitalized in the
| matter of franchise. These are the rea-
sons why the city, with plant handi-
capped by politics, and with the city
council afraid to spend money asked by
the superintendent of lighting, for
economical lamps and machinery. yet
can still furnish lights cheaper than
the handsomely equipped and finely
managed Edison company will propose
| to do.
It must be taken into consideration
that another great advantage to the
city in maintaining control of its own
street lighting lies in the fact that by
dismantling It's plant now and going
out of business it is at the future mercy
of the Edison company, and could do
nothing at the end Of the period in the
way of refusing whatever proposition it
had to make on continuance of it's
performance, unless it again commenced
anew and decided to go into the munich
pal lighting business, which in the year
of 1908 1t had decided was a failure and
| had abandoned
| Tt has been reported by some of the