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

when it pays for all OF the honda. ex-
cept the $4,000. 1t will look better.
OF course, If the city has taken care 81
tnls depreciation as 1t occurred and Will
snow better business management.
| There is one of Mr.. Myers letter.
from which no quotations have as vet
peen made in this article This let
Ter IS OF twenty pages. and he began
| by saying:
Il stated to you few days ago that
clpal lighting plant failures to every
| one successful plant which any one
could refer to. As q matter of fact.
! 90 not know of any municipality
operated plants that can be nm.
quaiinedly called successful. Tp-
pekas experience in this direction IL
no exception. I am going to list here
a number of failures. L do not want
70 take your time with the details in
eacn case, but will give you the facts
concerning forty or fifty of them ID
tnat you can see what it Is that con-
tributes to and brings about this dis
appointing result. 1 think you win
nnd that there is one governing cause
and that il lack of keen businers
administration
without going into details It will
be stated to the reader that the let
| ter sets forth alleged failures OF
municipal plants. In substance the
L
agement due to politics, and to lack
OF clean business administrations.
Inc answer the State Journal makes
TO this Is that in view of the lower
average cost Mr.. Myers himself finds
that the city Of Topeka has expended
for its lights per lamp per year that
Iopeka must be congratulated upon
having better mayors, better counct1-
men, better superintendents OF electric
light plant, and less political misman-
aRom4nS <,f he al 1x, -
Myers list which have gone into
| municipal lighting. It is safe to say
right here that Topeka's mayors ana
Topeka's councilmen do rank far above
! those Of very many cities and that
probably aside from the recent sewer
| frauds that Topeka has recently been
remarkably free from graft, corruption
| and incompetency that have disgraced
and piundered so many Of the cities OF
| this country.
But here are few of MT. Myers
statements regarding the cost of munI-
cipal lighting in other cities: Bay
City. Michigan, 5000; Bloomington, Ill,
$1,000; Chicago. 10000 in 1900, cut to
$S400 in 1905; Lincoln, Nebraska 1884.
| but recently cut to $79.61. Another city.
$4,000; Muncie, Indiana, $3.50, ETC.. etc.
Mr.. Myers does not mention the sue
| cessful municipal plant at st. Joe. I'm
official figures say the cost there Il
about 5000 per lamp per year. have
| figures which give the cost in Detroit,
| There Is reason to doubt these figures,
| but on the other hand plausibility for
Detroit has a model municipal plant.
| and charges off only per cent for de-
probation.
Is 1t not Topeka's duty to stick to
| municipal lighting under all the cir
wreck its plant and thereby herald the
| joyful news to all of the lighting cor
porations of this country Municipal
| lighting is failure. Topeka. that beau
| tiful and model city. tried municipal
| lighting twenty years, made failure OF
it and abandoned it,
| To abandon the municipal plant now
would be an insult to the many good
mayors and councilmen the city has
chosen in the past and who were the
| consistent friends OF the municipal
| system, believing that 1t was saving
and the best for the city over other
plans. Abandonment would reflect on
Mayor Cofran. one Of the most success
| full business men Of Topeka, man who
made one of our best mayors, under
| whom the municipal plant was started,
| and who while mayor required q daily
report Of the cost and operation of this
plant With his experience as mayor
and as a man intimate with machinery,
/ he is today an ardent advocate Of NUM-
| cipal ownership, but believes with many
others that it should be put into the
4
| from politics.
Mayor Harrison was a strong advo-
cate of the municipal lighting plant.
sustained it and favors 1t today.
Mayor Davis and his associates saved
the city much money by the little item
of putting in ninety modern lamps tive
years ago..
other mayors, too numerous to men,
| ton, fostered the municipal idea and
stood by the guns of the city constant
| w Of
| porations, naturally and commendably
| working for their own interests, In tho
shape of proposals all the way from
$120 to 500. $50
| What the State Journal hopes tina
| ways and means committee of the
council will see At to do at its meet
| ing to be held within a few days, ID
that it will recommend that the couu-
Gil at once put the city electric light
department in the hands of a COM
/ mission, OF three good men, like those
men and that commission which are
now SO successfully operating the To-
peka waterworks. Let the superin-
tendent of the electric plant work
under this commission of three just
as Superintendent Shaw of the water
works acts under that commission,
all doing splendid work. Then let the
committee advise that the mayor put
before the people at the special cleo
vote $4,000 in bonds, so much there
of as may be necessary to be expended
by this commission upon its thorough
satisfaction of the requirements In the
way Of new machinery and equipmen$
to put the city's plant up to date and
| in shape to supply five hundred lights
1t seems to the state Journal. that Il
would not be fair, in view of the past
success of the municipal plan. which
has saved thousands and thousands OF
4 I'LL =
there is a question In the matter OF
its success. In other words. that the
city should not vote upon the alter
native whether 1t should accept the