The Cordele dispatch. (Cordele, Ga.) 19??-1971, 1916-07-09
NOW. OR WORSE LATER.

power plant Now it is a municipality
owned aid operated packing house.
What a splendid idea! Have we yet
to learl the difference between pub
lie utility and private enterprise
What business has municipal govern
ment with any other than its public
service interests? We might have a
packing house that would earn mil
lions IL dividends, but is that a public
utility in any sense? Let us go easy.
Such industries are operated by pri-
yate capital exclusively and the word
has gone down the line that we should
encourage private capital. We could
not do much of that if we monopolized
every Industrial enterprise.
1t is our electric light and power
plant rhat we want. This is property
right that belongs to the people, a
| right which the law safeguards to the
citizens 1t is a public asset that can
not he sold or put beyond en- enjoy
ment of the citizens by any sort OF ar
gument. No private operator or cor
poration can enjoy it longer than the
law allows, no matter what munich
pal government might want to do. The
electric light and power franchise in
Cordele belongs to the citizens of Cor
Il I, IN Inf
not the case with a private enterprise.
Those who are enjoying the profits
on the lighting and power service in
Cordele know this better than the or
binary citizen. They knew when they
took hold that the law prevented their
having a long lease on this public in
terest. They knew that when the PEG
pie asked for il back, the people could
get it. Not so in private industry. If
the Cordele Electric Company owned
and operated a packing house in Cor,
dele, The citizens might vote them
selves black in the face, but they could
not take it away from its private own
ers. The law would protect them in
The enjoyment of their property as
long as they wished tC own and oper-
ate it. There is the difference
Our friends of the opposition certain
ly mast know these things, or must We
be accused again of misrepresenting
things when we say they are true? The
ssus is this: Shall we own and OPP
crate cur electric light and water
Giants in connection and direct the
orofts toward helping to maintain a
municipal government at minimum
cost? Shall we eliminate the heavy
costs Of lighting our streets poorly as
hey are now and through our munich
nal plant secure the arc lights anC
white way that other cities have? Shall
we save our city lighting bills and have
all these advantages added-no money
o pay out at all for them? Shall we
nave a lower lighting rate and a low
n power rate for the consumer and
then tLrn a handsome earning annu
ally into the municipal treasury with
which to help maintain the city gov
eminent and the schools? Have VIC
sufficient interest in our community to
10 this much towards putting it in the
commercial forefront?
Let us say one more time: Our lots
are cast in the sacred atmosphere Of
love and loyalty for the advancement
Of our community. We are the town
is commercial destiny is in our
lands. Its business opportunity is
What we make it. AS the years go by
It will be harder to control the electric
light and power franchise, for the lon
ger it remains in the grasp of private
ownership. the more difficult will it be
o shake loose. The older the town,
md tile older the electric franchise,
he more profitable Will it be. There
never will be better day than now.