The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-18
ROtarians, Taken to City Jail in
a Body Today.
Chief Parsons Wanted Them to
See the .sBuH Pen.o
JOHN KINKEL ON UTILITIES"
Interesting Talk by Member OF
State Commission.
Editor of Oklahoma City Times
HOnOred Club Guest.

To be arrested and sentenced to serve
in the city Jail is an experience that
not many business men of Topeka
would like to have but today noon
every member of the Topeka Rotary
club was arrested and taken to Jail by
Chief Harvey Parsons and his men,
The men were kept in the bull-pen
only ten minutes but they all said that
it was nine minutes too long. The
stunt" was arranged to stimulate in
terest in the project for a municipal
farm.
The club luncheon which was held
at the Commercial club this noon was
a success from every angle. Thrills
followed thrills and the meeting came
to climax with the arrest of the
members
John Fields, editor of the Oklahoma
City Times, and member of the Rotary
club of Oklahoma City, was a guest of
Governor Arthur Capper at the lunch
con. He made an interesting talk
about what the Rotary club was doing
in Oklahoma City. Arthur J. Carruth.
jr., spoke on Making a Newspaper"
and John NJ. Kinkel told the members
of the club about Public Utilities"
E. F.. Foley, a member of the public
utilities commission, who was a guest
of Mr.. Kinkel, also responded with a
talk.
A plea for closer relationship be-
tween the public and public utilities
was made today by John NJ. Kinllel,
member of the public utilities COM
mission of Kansas, before the mem
bers of the Topeka Rotary club. MIR.
Kinkel stated that the relationship
should be one of candor, fair treat
ment, and personal character.
THE furnishing of steam and in
terurban railway transportation, of
water, light, power, gas, heat and
telephone service, are such services
as. touch the every day life of prac-
-
said Mr.. KinkeI. And when we con-
slider the foibles and frailties OF hu
man nature, the fact cannot be es-
capped that it is necessary for some
competent, disinterested body to have
power such as can only be conferred
upon it by the legislature, to hear
and adjust the various matters of dis
pute that continuously arise between
the public and public utilities.
when the first so-called public
utility law was enacted in this state,
many of the utilities were much dis
turbed as to the probable results |
years of experience, has. however, |
convinced both the public and the |
utilities that a commission, .mbued |
with the sense of fairness and a de- |
sire to do justice and equity, will not |
work a hardship, but on the Their |
hand, accomplish much good.
Desire Efficient Service.
The public desires efficient service |
ana Is Wiling To pay proper anu
reasonable price for it The public |
utilities commission of Kansas was
created, among other things, for the !
purpose of aScertaining and enforcing |
Just and reasonable rates and pre- |
scribing standards of service, there |
by furnishing to the public accurate |
information along these lines
1.-The owners and managers of public |
utilities are only human, and cOnSe- |
quently possessed of the same ten |
denotes for good and bad as are gem |
orally found in the average of human
experience. Much of the dissatisfac- |
ton and complaint that exists at times |
on the part of the public, is largely |
due to the fact that the operators of
these utilities are incompetent and |
even failures in their positions, in |
about the same ratio and proportion
that incompetents and failures are |
found to exist in commercial activi- I
ties and other lines of every day labor |
and endeavOr.
Growth Is Marvellous.
THE growth of public utilities is
really a marvellous thing. The i'm
provement in railway service in the
past twenty-five years is a matter of
common knowledge, to men of mature
years.
1.-The manufacture of electricity and
its use for lighting purposes is COM