The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-10-13
CHEAPER TO BURN GAS THAN
. TURNIT Off lAMEDIGIAEHAT
Place Where the Weather Comes
From Strong Exponent of
Municipal Ownership.

MEDICINE HAT. Alberta. Oct. IL.
Medicine Hat has long been famous
as the continents blizzard factory,
but that does not tell all OF the story.
Everybody has heard how a 100 to
1876 degree change in temperature are
telegraphed to Washington for the
forecasting OF billiards.
But this town Is worth the ten
minutes IL takes to read about IL Tor
other reasons.
Here is one OF the very few spots
on the whole earth where you can
stick a pipe down in your back yard
anywhere and get heat, light and pow
er for nothing
Yes, il is gas town Rather It
is the gas town.
The gas town because for ten years
shallow wells have been going with
out perceptable check; the gas town
because they never started Well
that didn't strike gas; the gas town
because strata under strata OF gas
is here and each strata has more gas
and a heavier pressure than the one
above; and finally the gas town, the
power town, because from the start
the citizens kept In their control, the
towns control, this wonderful how.
No Show For Monopoly.
Lots OF towns have coal and oil and
gas and water power, but mighty few
of them have from the start conserv-
ed all their natural resources for the
good of all the people.
Private monopoly, private manage
ment of utilities, never has got a hold
| in Medicine Hat, and things are about
fixed now so II never will.
From the time gas was discovered
the town reserved the right to the
sole sale OF this gas. You can buy
lot, dig well and use the gas for
your own business. but you cant cross
the street with main or sell to any
one.
The city controls the field, and
while IL will give young gas well
and a site besides to an industry, IL
won't give the right to sell this re-
source to anybody on earth.
Medicine Hat knew that much ten
years. ago, which shows that there
are several bits of information that
haven't percolated across the border
vet.
Medicine Hat sells gas to its citi-
zens at Is IL cents thousand feet.
That is about the cheapest light and
heat proposition on earth, still the
municipal plant made $4,000 last
year and its whole establishment
didn't cost much more than that.
Medicine Hat sells gas for business
purposes at cents thousand feet;
|it costs less than five dollar month
to light and heat a five-room shop,
and run an eight horse power engine
eight hours day six days a week
Also this town with the queer name
and funny ideas held on to its best
manufacturing sites. and Is selling
them at cost to small establishments
and giving them away. with free light
and power to big ones.
Some big industries have been es-
tablished here; more will be when the
ban Of the Canadian Pacific 10 lifted
and other roads cut freight rates to
something like an honest figure.
Has Good Imagination.
Medicine Hat hasn't very many
people. but IL has good imagination.
Ii recently thought of the time when
there would be street cars In the
town, and Il went forthwith to the
legislature and got q perpetual and
exclusive franchise TO own and opers
ate car system when the time
came.
Some OF the town folks we're not
content with gas for nothing, so the
obIiging municipality has just com
pleted an electric light plant: the
power generated by steam boilers
made red hot with the ubiquitous
gas, and II you are high-toned you
can have electric light and a dynamo.
Just how much gas Is worth In the
place L. shown by the fact that the
scores Of big street lamps burn every
hour in the year; IL Is cheaper TO
burn the gas than to hire a small boy
TO turn the flow on and on.
Medicine Hat of course has Its
water works and makes a profit there
from and II Is rapidly cutting down
the tax on improvements while keep
ing the tax on land at full value. In
two or three years II will have re-
moved the tax on improvements and
with free light, heat and power for.
the industries OF the earth, and a
climate that makes you hustle to keep
from freezing to death II expects TO
be quite some hat, some big medicine.
But what do you know about a fool
town that won't let nice bunch OF
fellows manage its gas for II?
nAIrcIITEp or ACCJrcEn