Arizona republican., 1909-02-24
PHoEN1x, ARIZONA, FEB. 24, 1909.
THE POWER CONTRACT.

lengths, yet we should think there would be some point at which they would stop, short of the lunatic asy- lum. All are aware how great dam age to this valley might have re- suited from the assaults which have been made upon the reclamation ser vice in connection with the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. contract, if the government had not known that the assailants did not represent the best and most progressive sentiment of the community.
 We are reminded of this matter by a not quite coherent utterance by the Democrat last night, but from which rings out the old stock war cry, Monopoly" This latest attack was provoked by an interview given out in Washington a few days ago by MT. Hill in relation to the con tract which had been unwisely made the subject of a legislative memo rial
 The assailants of the reclamation service, the Water Users association and Governor Kibbey, from the very discovery of this mares nest have been as unfair as they have been demagogic and foolish. Only three weeks ago the same Democrat in re- producing the contract omitted a part of it, which left something to be explained. That is always sufficient for a demagogue It furnishes him a point upon which to hang a de- mand for an explanation and that to him at once becomes a well supported accusation.
 We have hardly patience to tra- verse this ground again, but it must seem to all fair minded men that the gentlemen who compose the Water Users association, with Governor Kibbey as legal adviser, would coun- tenance no sacrifice of the rights of the city or the valley. Beside, Mir. Hill and the reclamation service by every act since the beginning of this great enterprise. have certainly earn ed our confidence. The contract re- ceived the approval of the interior department and it's able legal ad- visers, who certainly could have had no interest in the Pacific Gas and Electric company as against the peo- pie of the valley.
 But the contract itself is by no means complicated. It requires neith- CT defense nor explanation for the enlightenment of the fair minded and the ordinarily intelligent.
 As MT Hill stated in his Washing ton interview, and as we here knew, certain rights acquired by the Pa cific company before the reclamation service entered the field, were put into another shape hardly more ad- vantageous to the company. Only repudtators would contend that the company should have been divested of those rights
 The company had two power plants under a contract with the Arizona Water company, which would not have expired until 1926 The water furnished by the completion of the Roosevelt dam would have supplied the company with 1900 kiIowatts con tinuously, which under the old con tract would have cost the company less than a half cent per kilowatt an hour Under the contract with the government the company is to re- ceive a continuous load of 900 kilo- watts at one and one-half cents per kilowatt.
 Though this price is three times as much as the power would have cost the company under its old contract, the lessened expense of handling it, as we may say, induced it to enter into the new arrangement and the reclamation service was enabled to construct a new crosscut which could not have been undertaken without the abrogation of the old contract. The new contract, by the way, expires seven years earlier than the old one would have terminated.
 Now. as to the monopoly feature. The government could not have en- tered into an arrangement with the company, advantageous to the gov ernment unless it could have offered it protection against other possi- ble retailers within the corporate limits of Phoenix. The company had something the government wanted, an established privilege A privilege had to be exchanged for it We may suppose that the government had not made this contract and the company had gone