Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1916-04-24
Something for .,',,'ss. . '.e t s ..S% F> SO"
s,1 : Nothing Appalss1 People. ). Forum Fol

bewildered and suspicious of the offer
of something for nothing. Ashland is
possibly the only city in the United
States which offers free electric cur
rent for porch lights, and the very
unusualness of the offer seems to
have made the citizens suspicious of
accepting it. City Electrician Strick-
land tells us that to date, only about
Cne-third of the resident consumers
in the city have taken advantage of
the offer of free porch light current,
Absolutely no current cost is attached
to having a porch light The cost Of
installation is small and a lamp costs
but 80 cents and will last for years.
Certainly the city expects to get some
return from the offer, but the return
lies in having the best lighted city in
the country, advantages to the po-
lice department and other con-
veniences.
Throughout the country Ashland,
the city of free porch lights, has re-
ceived much publicity on account of
the offer, and municipalities else
where are following suit. The fol-
lowing is taken from the Lodi, Cal,
Sentinel:
Ashland, Ore, has gone itself one
better in the matter Of porch lights,
for it has now decided to furnish the
electricity absolutely free for this
purpose. The result is that everyone
is getting busy and having porch
lights installed.
THE report that Ashland was fur
porch lights at a nominal
charge of 5 cents per month was pub
lished in the Sentinel a short time
ago, with the result that the city
of Lodi took immediate ac-
tion upon the suggestion. Instead of
a graduated rate for differ |
ent sized lights as was being done in .
Ashland, they decided upon maxi (
mum of 40 watts to the light at a ,
charge of &c cents per
and the Lodi trustees are
now waiting to see how the property |
owners of East Lodi avenue take to
the proposition before making the
privilege general throughout the city.
THE trustees of Ashland, recon-
sidering the matter, have undoubted-
ly decided that while porch flights
which are left burning every hight
are a part of the lighting system of
the city, it is up to the city to pay for
the current, the same as it does for
street lights. - "
Ashland buys its Juice from
power company, the same as Lodi,
and distributes it among the people.
The news that the northern city fur
lishes free porch lights will go broad
,ast and be a splendid advertisement
or the city. '
The idea is: What Ashland can
10, Lodi can do. Lodi is perhaps
making more profit from the distribu-
ion of electricity than the city re-
erred to, and in all is more PROSPER
,us and has a great deal more money
n its city treasury.
IF the trustees of Lodi would see
it to furnish free electricity for porch
lights, it is a certainty that nearly
very home in the city would soon be
quipped with the free lights, and
he property owners would be perfect
y willing to pay for the installation.
Lodi might do the same as Ash
and: Furnish the lights free until
he first of the coming year. This
'ould give plenty of time to figure
ut a nominal charge, if this became
ecessary, and at the same time en-
ourage people to have the wiring
one."