Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1917-12-08
LOCAL COMMENT

II the people Of this city have their
gas rates boosted. they will be paying
against the street lighting contract re-
Gently negotiated by the city council.
which would have added volume to the
local company's electric light business.
while at the same time. saving money
for the city, and would have at least
postponed the rise in gas rates. The
mes-Republican warned the public
about this at the time, but majority
preferred to vote without investigation.
Dollar gas was a low rate for town
of 5000 people at the time the fran
chise was voted. and the coal and labor
cost has undoubtedly risen. Gas COM
panies in Minneapolis and Washington,
D. c., according to the newspapers
from those cities, are asking for in
creases in rates. At Washington the
company asks to increase from Is cents
to s1.l0. claiming that the manufac-
turing cost at the burner has jumped
from 81 cents in 1916 to an estimated
cost Of so cents in 1918. and that it
would require rate Of s1.10 to pay
71s per cent on the investment. The
Minneapolis company wants to increase
it's rate from II cents to 800, claim
ing that its cost has risen % cents.
Gas can be distributed cheaper in large
cities than in small, but the fuel and
labor costs at the burners should vary
about alike, so there can be no question
that gas costs more when coal goes up:
just how much can be determined only
by an audit.
There is more profit in electricity
than in gas, and II is natural that the
company would like to confine the audit
to the gas department, but the local
franchise is the only one in Iowa
which gives a city the right to audit
the company's books once in every five
years. If an audit is to be made. it
should include the entire business. The
gas rate will undoubtedly have to stand
alone in its final determination, but
there might be an excess profit in
electricity. If a rate is finally nego-
tiated by compromise without an audit.
ii should be fixed only for the period
Of the war and should go up and down
with the price of coal. 1t took four
years fight is get sl.00 gas for Mar
shalltown, and we should not give it
up easily. The people who have had
advantage of il have never appreciated
what few determined individuals won
for them or they would pay less at
tention to the noise of those who know
very little abou. the business statistics
of public utilities. 7
When the temperature drops to
twenty below and the loose floor boards
of cheap house are all that stand
between the children of the poor and
the extreme cold. you fellows who are
warm and comfortable in a furnace
heated house owe a little something
to charity. II a committee missed you
this week. send check for $40 to W.
T Smith at the Let's. Fletcher Com
pany's Office. He is not so busy run
ming big wholesale business but what
he can act as treasurer for the charity
association. A group of strong men
and women like him, with H. A. Kin
nar. secretary and treasurer of the
Lennox Furnace Co., as their president,
are giving time and money to care for
TIE pOcF u ILLS SiSs- AC iCSt W uo
can chip in without asking any ques-
tons Listen to the wind howl. think
of the Kids in families OF the poor who
need coal, and then dig. The world
will always damn a tight-wad, and
most of us hope that the Creator will,
too.
The season is upon us for snow
shovels. What about that patrol sys-
tenn for sidewalk work? A bunch of