The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-01-06

awakening to the fact that for a goodl,
number of years they have been tn
victim IS of the highest light and waite
chargds on Puget Sound, and this a
the h ands of the Everett Railway
Light & Water company, owned by tn
Stone & Webster street car, light
power and interurban railway trust.
For the enlightment of those VIII,
have to use light and water from thi
company, and everyone in Everett i
forced to do this, for we have no othe
source of supply, the Snoqualmie Ligh
company here being controlled by th'
owner is of the Everett Railway, Light
& Water company, this paper has col
lected some interesting facts regarding
water and light rates in other Puget
Sound towns, and gives them below.
For six-room house in Everett, we
are charged flat rate of $l.85 pc
month, with 25 cents additional TO,
each of the four summer months, max
ing 1920 a year for water
| If you are unfortunate enough tt
live lin seven-room house in Everett
your water rate is $l.95 month
eight-room house, $2.05, etc.
In Seattle, with city water plant
| it cost so cents a month for water, fol
500 cubic feet, ON meter which is
ample for any ordinary family. If a
meter is not wanted, and it is not put
in unless you ask for it, you can have
water on the flat rate for any size
dwelling, with laundry, toilet bath, etc,
for $l05 a month, and no extra charge
made in the summer months, as we
have in Everett. Rates to manufacture
ing plants furnished with water by the
Seattle city water works are on a pro-
portionately low scale.
Twelve months water in Seattle
costs the user SO year for any sized
dwelling house using a meter, as
against $22.20 a year for -roomed
house in Everett, making 1920 out of
the pockets of the working man here
and into the Golfers of the Boston wa
ter, light, power and street car trust
known as the Stone & Webster COM
pany, which refuses to pay its working
men more than IS cents an hour to run
its cars. Think of what this means
when there must be nearly 5000 water
connections in the city of Everett
nearly 100000 every year; $4,000 ev-
cry month. Thing of it, citizens of Ev-
erett, and then think again.
Twelve months ago the mayor of
Everett appointed committee of the
city council to investigate and report
on the subject of city water system
His annual message, published January
4, regrets that lack of funds prevented
this committee doing anything. Lack
of funds did not prevent the buying
of $4,000 police patrol automobile,
which is proudly claimed to have saved
about $3.50 in upkeep over the horse
drawn wagon.
If the mayor and council really mean
business and want some facts about
city water plants, let them go and see
the Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, or
Port Townsend city water plants.
Port Townsend, with population OF
about 5000, put in its own water works
in 1905, bringing water twenty miles,
at a cost of $250,OO0. They have
since paid off $4,000 of the cost price
from earnings, and in few more years
win own the system free and clear and
can then apply the profits to reducing
city taxation.
One of the produest boasts of the lit
tie town of Shelton, in Mason county
Washington, in it's booklet issued at the
Alaska Yukn- Pacific exposition, in '09
was that it owned its water plant, and
that large part of the town taxes
were paid out of its earnings.
To show that city owned water
plant is a paying investment, we give
here the last financial statement oi
the Seattle City Waterworks, published
in March, 1910;
Cost of operation ------------$l5l, ,o7l
Reconstruction, - ---------- 5l,ss:
Fixed charges and Interest," 250,604
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