Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1908-01-24
MAYORS SAY FAILS"
Chief Executives Write of Their
Experiences.
They Do Not Consider Public Owner
ship Successful In Their Cities-Two
Plants For Saie-one Lasted Only
Six Months. =


Plants For Saie-one Lasted Only
Six Months. .
last man in a city to say that munich
pal ownership could not succeed vet
two mayors in uext to the most popu.
lous state and one in the largest state
In the Union have emphatically ex-
pressed their views in letters.
Guy 4. Bryant. mayor of Princeton,
ILL.,, 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 it was taken over by
the city. and considerable money had
10 he spent to get IL into fair running
shape. This was eight years ago.
Since then we have moi been able to
make 1t paying investment, as we
found the cost of running the plant
has exceeded what the cost of lighting
our city would be ii the light was pur-
chased from private plant. and il
has been deemed advisable 10 sell Ii II
satisfactory bid can he had This is
our main reason for disposing of 1t.
Municipal ownership of lighting
plant, In my opinion. cannot be made
a success in cities of this size
The mayor of Marengo, ILL.,. ]. ii
Patterson. is more brief in summing
up the case Of that city. but nobody
l.. Iaft In q rh ha HC
on the question of public ownership.
When he wrote Marengo had not yet
| succeeded in making suitable arrange
ments for IA 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 expen-
sive luxury. The only question seems
to be one Of terms. Mayor Patterson
says:
I'VE are contemplating deal where
by the management of said plant will
60 out Of our city's control. Our rea-
son FOR doing his is that we consider
municipal management a complete fail
ure. and the less there Is of II the
better for all parties concerned"
When c. C. Weaver was mayor of
Itasca. Tex. he expressed his opinion
OF a city trying to work and gave the
brief but trying experience of his Ow.
| city as an example. In letter on the
subject he said:
Our city bored an artesian well and
was fortunate in securing Il flow of
water of very fine quality and in a
| quantity about 300 gallons per minute
In connection with this it was decideJ
| to build an electric plant. | investi-
gated the cost and probable income of
an electric plant and found it doubt
| full proposition and recommended that
| we avoid 1t. but the aldermen believed
| 1t would pay in connection with the
waterworks. and the work was begun.
"The pump WAS Installed first and
was operated about one month before
| the electric plant was ready; hence we
know how much 1t cost to operate the
! pump. When the electric machinery
was put in operation our losses began.
We operated 1t little more than four
months and found that 1t was taking
all our income from both the water
works and electric plant to pay run
ming expenses Of the plant We did
not want to shut down, as we knew 1t
would be dead loss, but we We're
| forced to do something; hence we hit
upon the idea Of selling the electric
part OF the plant. 1t was turned over
TO me TO sell without any reserN ations
AS to what | should get sold the
electric part, but not any part OF the
waterworks. We lost money in trying
to operate the plant and did not get
all our money back In the sale. We
operated the plant three days less than
six months and lost about 500 per
month.
IF you stop to think about ii, a city
cannot work, but must hire all her
help. The hired man does not have the
coal bill to pay. nor does he care
whether houses are wired or not. He
Is not much interested in the receipts
and does not hustle business; hence
the expenses run up while the receipts
are neglected. Public money does not
hold out like private money. know
1t ought to, but l am now serving in
my eleventh year rs mayor. and |
know whereof speak.
when we come to figure these
things, it is not safe to figure on what
ought to be done. but we should face
facts and recognize the facts as they
really are and not as they should be,
but are not
IAN electric plant has to have close
personal attention. and the man who
superintends 1t ought to have a very
serious interest in the expense account
and in the receipts. and this interest
should be such as would affect his own
pocket.
"You ask II | would advise middle
size cities to build electric plants.
Now. IN answer to this particular
question | must say ! would not"
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