The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-25

BEATTY TAKES ISSUE
 MT. Beatty took issue with him, stat ing that it had been his experience that the freight rates, the water rates and the light and power rates were the principal things holding back Bir- mingham.
 But want to say to you, MT. Mes ser" he said, "or any other man who can locate an industry for Birmingham, that the price placed on the property held by the Birmingham Realty com pany will never keep one of them out"
 Commissioner Weatherly, in the course of his address, referred to the action of the Rotary club in naming Thomas W. Martin, general counsel of the Alabama Power company, Fl. H.. Horner of the Birmin gham Water works and H. Key Milner to investi- gate the bond issue. q have the high and you know Key Milner is my cous- in. but what kind of a report could you expect from them?
 Admitting that MT. Martin has an interest in the matter" said Robert Jemison, Jr., replying to MT. Weather ly later, q believe I can state safely that neither of the other two men is nearly so prejudiced in the matter as Commissioner Weatherly."
 
 of the meeting after it was decided to hold an open session or citizens gath ering.
 PLAN IN OTHER CITIES
 Commissioner Weatherly cited rates in Jacksonville. Fla. Pasadena, Cal, Cleveland and other cities as showing the advantages of municipal owner ship of lights as we'll as other util- ities. He read from reports of various cities in support of his claims and de- clared that in 1900 cities and towns which had tried the ownership of util- ities all had made successes of the ven- lures.
 Municipal ownership will get the public service corporations out of pol. itics. In practically every municipal government scandal in the history Of the country the bottom has been shown to rest on some effort of a public serv- ice corporation to control the city for various rates" said Commissioner Weather1y.
 "The opponents of this bond issue talk much of the question of duplica- ton. In other cities, even where there is duplication, the city gets plenty of business and the company gets plenty and both serve the people at rates far below what the private corporation charged before the city owned it's plant And the rates in all these places are much lower than we are paying now. In addition to the money saved to the citizens and the money the city makes in profits, there is also the item 8 of thousands of dollars per month which the city saves in the mat ter of street lights. lights for all it's schools and other buildings.
 BIG INTERESTS FIGHTING
 The various big interests are fighting this proposition all along the line. We must line up and get this bond issue through. There can be no doubt about this extension being paying proposition. With our small investment at the North Birmingham plant, we have demonstrated that 1t is good thing Experts have advised that it will pay the city and will save vast sums to the citizens. Let 'e all rally to the support of this proposi- tlon' and 1t will mean a great forward step in the history of Birmingham A defeat of this bond issue will set our city back and will retard our industrial and business development"
 T. h. Motion, after introducing his resolutions indorsing the bond issue, spoke at some length on une measure ''For 25 years, we people in Birmingham have been paying for water three times the rates paid by our sister city of At lanta, declared MT. Motion. Municipal light plants pay dividends to the city ana at the same time are big savers to the citizens. Take Cleveland, where the rates were 10 cents per kilowat with no dupli- cation. Newton Baker. now secretary of war, was chosen mayor on a municipal ownership platform. and the citizens were supplied power and lights at a maximum rate of cents with a rate for large quantities as low as cent. These rates were in the face of the duplication of plants and the private company came down and both plants prospered.
 DEFENDS COMMISSIONERS
 MT. Motion took issue with those who declared that the city commissioners were incompetent, and pointed to the record made by a commission which construed the $5000O0 sewer system for the city and county. 'If we were to have all the bankers of the city on the commission, the opposition would still declare that the board was incompetent for municipal ownership he said.
 We heard much about the cheap power which Birmingham would get when the Alabama Power company came in here,