The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1908-02-13

into communication with him. Green:
leaf wanted to know if Taylor was
rated in Bradstreet's or Dunn's and
was told that Mr.. Craig presumed SO,
Or at least he was entitled to rat
ing. Mr.. Craig said that Mr.. Taylor
owned stock in the street railway In
Keokuk, Iowa. Mr.. Greenleaf said
that he didn't know much about Mr..
Craig, that he hadn't met him before
that afternoon, and wanted to be ex-
cused from asking pertinent ques.
tions, because for all that he knew,
Mr.. Craig might be an exploiter and
trying to secure this franchise for
nothing in order to take it east and
hook it around among the moneyed
men.
The mayor showed by his questions
that he was against the private owner
ship Of the system and later on stat
ed so in good plain English.
Mr.. Craig, in his ordinance,
stated that the company was not to
make more than fifteen per cent a
year. Greenleaf wanted to know if
Mr.. Craig was willing to include in the
ordinance section granting the city
right to inspect the books, and the
gentlemen from Iowa, said that he
was perfectly willing. Greenleaf then
asked, "Mr. Craig, if at the end Of
year, you find that your company has
made thirty per cent on the invest
ment instead of fifteen per cent, would
you be willing to incorporate in the
ordinance a section providing for the
return to the city of the other fifteen
per cent? Mr.. Craig didn't believe
that he would be willing. He thought
the proposition unfair.
Mr. Craig did say however that the
city might have right to inspect the
books, and if the committee found
! that the company was making too
much money, committee on the re-
vision of rates might be in order.
"Then Mr.. Craig" Greenleaf went
on, "you mean that you are willing for
your company to make all there is
in it, until the city gets next to it?'
This created quite little laughter.
One of the joker sections of the or
| IL: - h1 1,,bo %ho
pany agrees to sell back to the city
the system at the end of ten or fiji
teen years. Now anyone knows that
Minot has already reached her debt
limit and with all the improvements
we need in the coming years, this
! city will not be able to purchase the
system at the end Of ten or fifteen
or even twenty years. Surprising
that we did not want to buy the plant
at the end of ten years. According
to the ordinance prepared by Mr..
Craig, we would have to leave the
value of the system to five hydraulic
engineers, disinterested of course,
yet who ever heard of hydraulic en-
gineers giving the city anything but
the worst of it? They must stand In
with the water works concerns. Then
again, there was nothing said as to
whether the company was to charge
the city anything for the franchise
when it came time to buy the system.
The city gives the franchise for abso-
lutely nothing, but at the end Of
ten or fifteen years, the franchise
without the physical value of the
plant, might be worth a couple OF
hundred thousand dollars.
The Craig ordinance embodied
practically the same rates as the pres
ent one. Greenleaf showed that the
Minot system has been paying ex-
penses with the present rates, and
with a very inadequate plant. But a
comparatively few people in Minot
are using the city water. But with
a larger system and better water,
nearly everyone would patronize the
plant, and the city could make
handsome profit. Fargo clears 100000
year from her plant. Minot in time
can do as well.
Mr. Craig proposes to charge the
city $50 for each Of the 127 hydrants
about the city for fire protection alone.
In twenty years the city would pay
the company $4,000, or enough to
install the entire system. And thus
we might 60 on with page after page
of arguments in favor Of the city
owning its own plant. Its the best
asset that any city can have There's
only one city in the state Bismarck,