The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1908-01-24


Six Months.
One would expect mayor to be the
last man In city TO say that munich
pal ownership could not succeed, yet
two mayors in next TO the most popu-
lous state and one in the largest state
In the Union have cmphatIcally ex-
pressed their views in letters
Guy A. Bryant, mayor of Princeton,
H.. tells about the experience of his
city, as follows:
"Our city has advertised for bids for
Its electric light plant. our plant was
an old one when ii was taken over by
the city, and considerable money had
to be spent 10 get II into fair running
shape. This was eight years ago
Since then we have not been able to
make 1t paying Investment, rs we
found the cost of running the plant
has exceeded what the cost Of lighting
our city would he If the light was pur-
chased from Il private plant and II
has been deemed advisable to sell ii If
n satisfactory bid can be had. This Is
our main reason for disposing of 1t.
Municipal ownership of a lighting
plant In my opinion, cannot be made
n success I'm cities of this size"
The mayor of Marcngo, ILL.,. J. III
Patterson, is more brief in summing
up the case of that city, but nobody
Is left in doubt rs 10 where he stands
on the question of public ownership.
When he wrote Marengo had not yet
succeeded in making suitable arrange.
ments for lease. The tone OF the
mayors letter, however, does not indi-
cate that there is any reluctance on the
part of the city TO get rid of its cNpcn.
sive luxury. The only question seems
to be ore of terms. Mayor Patterson
says:
1--WE are contemplating deal where
by the management of said plant will
go out Of our city's control. Our rea.
son for doing this Is that we consider
municipal management Il complete fail
ure, and the less there is OF II the
better for all parties concerned"
When c. c. Weaver was mayor OF
Itasca. TcX., he expressed his opinion
of city trying to work aud gave the
brief but trying experience of his owl
city rs an example. In letter on tn,
subject he said
"Our city bored an artcSian well auC
was fortunate In securing flow o.
water of very fine quality and I'm {
quantity about 300 gallons per minute
In connection with this IL was decide,
10 build an electric plant ! inveSti
gated the cost ana probable income %
an electric plant and found IL Il doubt
full proposition and recommended tha
we avoid IL, but the aldermen believe,
II would pay in connection with TIN
waterworks. and the work was begun
'The pump was installed first an,
was operated about one month bcfor
the electric plant was ready; hence W
know how much IL cost to operate tn
pump. When the electric maChiner.
was put I'm operation our losses began
We operated IL little more than fou
months and found that II was takiu
all our income from both the water
works and electric plant to pay run
ming expenses of the plant We di
not want TO shut down. as we knew
would be dead loss. but we wcr
forced TO do something: hence we nj
upon the idea of selling the clcctrl
part Of the plant II was turned owe
10 me TO sell without any reservation
as 10 what ! should get | sold IA
electric part. but not any part Of IN
waterworks. We lost money In tyin
TO operate the plant and did not &.
all our money hack In the. sale ~