Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-04-05

Seattle. And further and more i'm
portant, the facts show that the re-
ductions in rate, in those cities which
have never had municipal ownership,
and which are not likely to ever have
1t, have been larger than in Seattle.
CITY LIGHTING IN SEATTLE.
Again, on January 2, 1903 the private
company in Seattle signed contract
with the city to furnish street arc
lamps at $3.50 per month per light, or
$66 per year, and these rates were On
force up to January 1905, when the city
took over the street lighting and con-
tinued to charge the same price for
several years. So there was not a
single penny of reduction in the street
lighting business under municipal
ownership and today, in place of that
s66 rate, the city is paying $S4 a year
per lampi
SEATTLE'S WHITE ELEPHANT.
Seattle has always been q radical
community; it is so today. Not satisfied
with her plunge into socialistic light
ing. the city sought and secured the
ownership of street railway through
an issue of bonds for 100000. With
something like Az miles of track, of
which 3h was double, they began
business. A little later real estate
corporation gave the city 81 miles of
street railway, which they had built to
sell lots in a new section of the city.
The financial statement for the year
1915, shows a loss of 1000 on this
white elephant and the loss would
have been larger only for the fact that.
the electric lighting department sold
to the setreet railway $32, 155.S5 worth
of electric current for $1,000. Only
for this the municipal railway would
have shown loss of more than $780,
900.
A DAM LOSS OF $4,000.
Seattle offers a very fine example Of
the utter incompetency of political
management of business. In 1904 the
hydro electric power plant of the city
was built near the outlet of Cedar lake.
This was a wooden crib dam. In or
der to increase the power plant to sup
ply the city lighting, 1t was decided to
build masonry dam IS feet higher
than the old dam and three miles be-
low on the Cedar river.
Every engineer and every scientific
man in the city was opposed to the
building of this dam at that point. Yet,
with a new and more radical municipal
ownership gang in power. they pro-
ceeded to spend a total of $1,7oO,O0o on
q dam that is now known by every
body to be absolutely worthless. But,
your municipal ownership advocate
never charges this great loss to muni-
cipal ownership, yet that is where it
belongs. And it is Just such kind of
nnItffoa1 hot
ed the municipal debt of Seattle from
ago to nearly $35,OO0,O00 at present
with a huge interest cost annually,
burden upon every wealth producer.
The specialization OF any industry
forces its management by and through
politicians There is no record of the
successful conduct of a great business
by politicians. 1t is time. Mr.. Editor,
for the political goats and sheep to
separate. Those who believe in the
specialization of industry should sup
port the propaganda for municipal and
national ownership of industry. Num-
cipal ownership here and nationalist
| ton there, means the insertion of the
socialistic wedge into your city and
state. Socialism, whether 1t be in the
form of the naturalization of rail-
ways, telegraphs and mines. or wether
it be the municipal ownership of street
| railways, gas and electric Fighting
| plants, seeks to obliterate the individ-
| ual and treat man in the mass. Pub
| lie ownership Is the haven Of the in
competent, of the lazy, the demagogue
and the self-seeking politician. Car
ried to its logical end 1t means the
destruction of our democracy. Think it
/, over.