Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-03-26

something like five years before 1t was
sold out, and they lost the sum OF
| $4,000. which shows that the price OF
TIE ice which they dehvered IN the
cities of Lewiston and Auburn was
too low The other company was
| known as the c. c. Wilson Company
This company operated upon the river
and in order that you may understand
the conditions there I will state that
the shore rights on each side Of the
river in Lewiston and Auburn are
owned or were owned at that time by
the Franklin Company. They owned
back about mile and half above
the dam that supplies the water pow
er for the city of Lewiston. This e.
c. Wilson Company leased from the
Franklin Company the shore rights
on that river on both shores, and as
every lawyer knows, this being not a
navigable river, they owned the land
under those lease-hold rights to the
bed of The river on each side; or. IN
other words, they controlled the land
and by controlling the land they con-
troled the ice on the river. So the c.
c. Wilson Company holds, so far as
everybody else is concerned, the Ice
that was formed on the river from the
dam at Lewiston one mile and hall
up the river. Now, when this condltl-
ton of affairs was found out, that one
Company was losing and the other
no more than holding their own, and
this c.. c. Wilson Ice Company was
holding it's own simply because c. G,
Wilson was a lumberman and in the
Ln horses
men in the lumber woods and i'll that
way kept even with the game.
Something like a year ago six young
business men of the city of Lewiston,
one of them it is true is the president
of the company, Mr.. Sawyer, a civil
engineer and a man l believe that eV-
erybody in the cities of Lewiston and
Auburn respects for his talent and in
tegrity, and another man by the name
of Joseph G. ChabOt who was at one
time Republican candidate for mayor
and another by the name of T.. +.
Langley, who was manager tor the
metropolitan Insurance Company and
three others whom 1 do not know
formed themselves into company
called the Lake Auburn Ice Company
These young men are not monsters
they are not gentlemen who are going
to try to destroy the children of the
city of Lewiston; they are men who
have large business interests directly
or indirectly III the city of Lewiston
They have as much respect for the
interests of the city of Lewiston as the
mayor or Mr.. D. L. McGillicuddy OF
the Honorable gentleman from Lewis
orl Il
their money into the corporation. They
have put in $4,000 and they borrowed
$50, 900 more, making 100000 which they
have invested in this ice company.
don't believe there is a gentleman on
the floor of this House who wants any
man to do business and lose money
They advanced the rates, that is true
and it is that advance over the low
and unproductive rates that they had
before that has stirred UP all the
trouble here. l do not believe it is al
all political. l charge nothing of the
kind, for l know personally the mer
or nearly every one of the men who
appeared before the committee or
legal affairs and told their story
There was Republican county at
torney there. as stated by the gentle
man from Lewiston (Mr Edwards
and there was other men there whose
characters are above reproach, both
Republicans and Democrats and one
Socialist, man who 1 believe is scri-
Gus in his convictions but visionary
| and man whom we cannot afford tC
| follow.
Now this company did make some
money last year; there is no doubt
about that. but they did not make
any eNorbitant sum; they made some
| thing because it was a very warm sea
son and they could not very we'll help
| it, The rates in the city of Lewiston
are not eXorbitart. They are not as
| high as-are the rates charged in many
other cities of the State. In fact
you could have % pounds OF
| ice for $3.50 a month, and that is
| as low as it is in the village
| where l live. right on the banks Of the
easy to get ice as it is there. We are
| told because they owned the shore
rights along the river at Lewiston
| that therefore there was no competi-
| ton; that they are a giant trust, these
six citizens Of the city of Lewiston who
arc trying to earn an honest living are
! a trust. Where does the trust consist
| They are not bloated bondhOlders and
neither are they men who are trying
to ruin the city of Lewiston. Three
miles from the city of Lewiston is Lake
Auburn. ana they are not the only
company to go there but this present
company goes up to Lake Auburn to-
day and cuts its ice. and they get il
there because it is a better quality
than the ice furnished by the river. and
they get Is cents month more for
supplying it, and they are doing it at
reasonable rates and making some
thing out of it. Any other body of men
that wants to in the city of Lewiston
can go to that Lake Auburn and get
that ice as they are doing it, and there
is no power on earth that I know OF
| to hinder them. There is a trolley line
that runs there and this company takes
it's ice from that lake and carries il
to Lewiston over that trolley line, a
thing which anybody else can do
| We are told that it is like a water
company because the ice is nothing but
frozen water. We are told that it is
| like tho rac and e1nctrio con,popioc