Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-21

and so also are they made against the
city water company, one of the best
managed corporations in America, and
so will it ever be. 1t is pertinent in
this connection to ask what a good
business man would do under all the
circumstances. What would you do,
Mr.. Mayor, and you, gentlemen of the
council, the board of public works and
the water board If it were your prt@
vate affair? 1 will venture to predict
that you would go little slow In the
issuance of bonds, and that you would
determine, first, with the aid of the
best information you could obtain, the
probable profit to be derived from a
municipality owned plant and, sec
ond, what the city could realize from
sale of its power to the companies
already engaged in the business, ana
if it could do substantially as well,
and at the same time secure as low
rates to the consumers and preserve
the integrity of the companies IN
Yestments, the question answers itself.
QUESTIONS DEMAND SETTLEMENT
1.-THE representatives of the city and
the power companies should get to-
gether at once and determine whether
plan can be formulated which the
city, through its proper officers, can
recommend, and If they are successful
in evolving such a plan, it can be sub
mitted here for public consideration and
discussion. We all appreciate, believe,
the difficulty of discussing the merits
of a plan that has not yet been ma
tured. Speaking for the power compa-'
hnies, 1 assure you that they will be
pleased to meet the representatives of
the city at any time and take UP the
subject with an earnest desire on their
part to assist in developing plan for
the settlement of the vexed questions
with which we have to deal, so fair to
all the interests concerned that 1t will
appeal to every fair-minded citizen OF
Los Angeles, and we will then be glad
to have 1t submitted to public meetings
for discussion. We are returning, and
as 1 believe wisely, to the good old
town meetings, an open democracy
as Emerson has said, where every
opinion had utterance, every objection,
every fact, every acre of land, every
bushel Of rye, its entire weight.
NEED FOR HARBOR POWER
l.. A. Hanson spoke for San Pedro,
which has not before been specially
represented in the water and power
meetings, and called attention to the
need for power for the harbor. He was
firmly in favor of municipal ownership,
pure and simple, and opposed to any
deal with the power companies.
w. Scott Lewis suggested taking over
the property of the power companies at
their physical valuation, and no more,
and running the entire electrical busi-
ness Of the city from municipality
owned plant.
Tracy C. Becker, who is associated
with Walter Trask in presenting the
case for the power companies, suggest
ed conference between representatives
of the city empowered to act, and rep
resentatives of the power companies.
He called attention to the fact that To-
ronto, Ontario, was facing exactly the
same problem, and that the city was
now negotiating with the public utility
corporations. He suggested it would
was done there, as it would help Los
Angeles in solving it's problems.
Andrew S. Park said the corporations
had high-priced legal talent at their
command and were fully able to take
care of themselves, and added: "The
question before us is to take care of
ourselves" He was strongly in favor
of municipal control of the power.
ENGINEER KOINER's ADDRESS
c. w. Koiner, chief engineer of the
Pasadena municipality owned electric
power plant, was one of the most in
teresting speakers of the evening. He
quoted figures to show that last year
Pasadena paid its operating expenses,
sinking fund and interest on bonds and
had $15,300 left to apply to a fund for
depreciation. That was in spite of the
fact that it operates against strong
competition by the Edison company and
has only a little more than half the
business of the city. In answer to a
question by Councilman Andrews, he
said that the city should take over the
distributing systems of the existing
corporations, paying the physical value
plus fair amount for the going con-
cern. He said that the city could af-
ford to be liberal when it was eliminate
ing competition.
Among others who spoke were viii
d. Gould, r. G. Loucks, D. Daniels and
G. w. Slocum.