Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1911-09-24
CITY ATTORNEY URGES PEOPLE
TO DEMAND INSERTION OF
ANTl-DEp0SiT CLAUSE.
SAYS TT IT UNJUST
Tells What Company is Paying for
Natural Gas Privilege at the
Capital.

Editor Graphic:
[ insisted before the special COM
mittee that the following clause
should be written in the franchise OF
the gas people.
Sec IS.
THE consumer Of gas should not
be compelled to make any deposit with
the grantee as a condition precedent
to the installation of meters but the
grantee may be allowed to collect
three months in advance at the mini
mum rate of fifty cents per month
and the grantee shall be allowed to
charge only such minimum meter
rate on such meters in actual use
and if more than one house is supplied
through one meter in that event it
shall be allowed to charge only
minimum meter rate on the meter IN
actual USE
My position is that the gas people
are compelling the people of the this
city to advance them five or ten thou
sand dollars to do business on for
it was conceded that they would use
the money and pay the consumer
per cent interest on the money depo-
sited. They keep the money until
the consumer ceases to use their gas
then they return it. This is an UNI
lust and unreasonable requirement.
Now it was asserted that it was done
to protect them against people who
would not pay their bills which
amounts to taking the money of one
hundred people because they might
, find half dozen who would beat
their bills The courts universally
have held that the gas company mas
, not a right and are not justified in as
suming that the people it is to serve
, are dishonest and that they will de-
r mand service and refuse to pay for
, If The very same question was
, raised in the city's case against the
Pine Bluff Corporation in the matter
. of service pipes and this was the
: language endorsed by our own supr-
RENE court.
: A water company is not JUSTIFIED
I in assuming that the people 1t Is to
serve are dishonest and that they will
J. demand and pay for months water
g supply merely to entail upon the
: company the expense Of putting IN
: laterals from it's mains to the res
It pective lines of their property, and
i that they will thereafter refuse tc
=: take the water and thereby discomode
a themselves and depreciate their own
i property. and the courts Will MOI
i render Judgment upon such an as
= sumption.
$ Now it is not so much a question
II as to what the gas company will do
n That has caused trouble with many
: public service corporations. The
d question is what ought the city te
IS do. The gas people are getting valu'
able rights here; rights that the
n Pulaski Heights Gas Company art
$ paying to the city of Little Rock ont
q thousand dollars the first year, two
thousand dollars the second year
# three thousand dollars the third, fou
IT thousand dollars the fourth, and five
q thousand dollars thereafter during
Is the life of the franchise and they ge
# gas as cheap as we are going to ge
It,
N think that our committee was to-
g easy with the company and SHOULD
If have stood pat on the insertion o
l. this clause. The fact that the comp
any will stay out of the city becaus
h the people of the city demand fai
n deal is the merest rot. Besides thi
q franchise is for long period an
a our anxiety to get valuable commo
st dity should not cause us to overloo
the interest of those we are electe
Is to serve. l believe that the people @
J. this city should demand of their re
ID representatives. that they insist on tn
= insertion of this clause. If they d
not feel that so far as my duty goe
have discharged it.
ii w. B. SORRELLS.