The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-02-13

cept the $4,000. 1t will look better.
Of course. If the city has taken care Of
this depreciation as it occurred and will
snow better business management.
There is one OF Mr.. Myers letters
from which no quotations have as yet
been made in this article. This LETT
ter is of twenty pages, and he began
by saying:
Il stated to you a few days ago that
l thought could point out ten NUM-
clpai lighting plant failures to every
one successful plant which any one
could refer to- AS a matter of fact.
do not know of any municipality
operated plants that can be I'M
qualif1edly called successful. To-
peka's experience in this direction is
number of failures 1 do not want
TO take your time with the details in
each case, but will give you the facts
concerning forty or fifty of them SO
that You can see what it is that con-
tributes to and brings about this dis
appointing result. I think you will
find that there is one governing cause
and that is lack of keen business
administration"
Without going into details it will
ter sets forth alleged failures of
municipal plants In substance the
failures are attributed to bad man
agement due to politics, and to lack
OF clean business administrations.
The 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
Topeka must be congratulated upon
having better mayors, better council
men. better superintendent of electric
light plant, and less political misman-
agement than most of the cities in Mr..
Myers list which have gone into
mr.. f1iT, Hob f- 70
right here that Topeka's mayors and
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 plundered SO many of the cities OF
this country.
But here are few of Mr.. Myers
statements regarding the cost Of NUM-
cipa1 lighting in other cities: Bay
City, Michigan, $90.36; Bloomington, ILL.,,
$4,000; Chicago. $4,000 in 1900. cut to
$S4. 90 in 1905; Lincoln, Nebraska. $9S.S4.
but recently cut to 1881. 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 is
about 5000 per lamp per year I have
figures which give the cost In Detroit.
There is reason to doubt these figures.
but on the other hand plausibi1ity for
their correctness for the reason that
Detroit has a model municipal plant.
and charges off only per cent for de-
probation.
Is it not Topeka's duty to stick to
municipal lighting under all the cir
cumstances; Not to abandon and
wreck its plant and thereby herald the
joyful news to all of the lighting cor
porations of this country Municipal
lighting is a failure. Topeka that beau
tiful and model city, tried municipal
lighting twenty years. made a 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 it was q 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, q man who
made one of our best mayors, under
whom the municipal plant was started,
and who while mayor required 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
hands Of a. commission and divorced
from politics.
Mayor Harrison was a strong advo-
cate of the municipal lighting plant,
sustained it and favors it today.
Mayor Davis and his associates saved
the city much money by the little item
of putting in ninety modern lamps two
years ago.
Other mayors, too numerous to men
ton, fostered the municipal idea and
stood by the guns of the city constant
ly menaced by alluring charges of cor
porations, naturally and commercially
working for their own interests, in the
shape Of proposals all the way from
$120 to $50.
What the State Journal hopes the
ways and means committee of the
council will see fit to do at its meet
ing to be held within q few days. is
that it will recommend that the coun-
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
ton soon to be held, proposition to
vote $50, 900 in bonds, 50 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 equipment
to put the city's plant up to date and
In shape to supply five hundred lights.
It seems to the State Journal. that it
would not be fair, in view Of the past
success of the municipal plan, which
has saved thousands and thousands of
dollars to Topeka, to assume that
there is question in the matter of
its success. In other words, that the
city should not vote upon the alter
native whether it should accept the
Edison company's $500 proposition
or vote $4,000 in bonds. The coun-
Gil should decline the Edison PROPOSE
ton in the opinion of this paper and
with ffu A1,fxy ~ v,x.< ~f.-k