The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-12-09
WICHITA IN WASTE.
City Uses Gas at Low Rate With
Reckless Abandon.
Other Cities in State SILVER
and Pay for 1t.
MAY ENFORCE REGULATIONS
Stores and Residences Must
Observe Conservation.
Conference of State and Gas
Officials in Topeka.

Residents of Topeka, Lawrence,
Kansas City, Atchison and other cit
les shiver and walk along unlighted
streets while residents of Wichita,
Hutchinson and eighteen other towns
in southwestern Kansas are Joyously
burning cheap gas and leaving the
mains wide open. That was the paral-
lei on the gas situation which Empire
Gas d Fuel Co. officials drew for
Richard j. Hopkins, attorney general,
at conference in the state house.
Low gas rates have made the southern
kansas towns careless and wasteful,
while Topeka and other cities shiver
The conference of state and gas
company officials was called when re-
ports were received in Topeka that the
Wichita Natural Gas Co. threatened to
shut off supplies to twenty towns I'M
less rates were increased. The gas
company has asked for application of
the three way rate in the cities sup
piled and the action is now in the
hands of the federal court. DEGREES
by the gas company were said to be
to the effect that unless increases were
granted before the first of the year,
the supply would be cut off
Wichita Is WastefuI.
But the story which came to To-
peka via Empire company attorneys
was a new sidelight on the fuel
famine, Instead of rigid conservation
regulations, streets and store buildings
in Wichita and other cities are said
to be lighted without regard for coal
shortage Schools are open and gas
is used freely for heating purposes.
I'VE can sell every cubic foot of this
gas at rates far in advance of the price
paid for it when it is sold thru the
mains of the Wichita Natural Gas
company" said ]. w. Hamilton of
New York, an attorney for the Empire
interests. Much of the gas comes
from Oklahoma wells. We can sell
the gas right in the state where it
is produced at higher rate than
Wichita and the other towns pay"
: But the real complaint was the gen.
crosby with which Wichita and neigh
boring cities opened the valves and
'let 'er rip" Gas at about thirty
cents in Wichita and coal at $40 a ton
and no coal-in Topeka and Kansas
City, meant nothing to the Wichita
citizenry. The fact that wood was
selling as high as s18 and $40 a cord
was an idle thought in the mind of
anyone who tapped the lines of the
Wichita Natural.
Pay or Get Off Line.
Then came the sad day when the
gas company said Wichita and her
neighbors must pay or get off the line.
The demand for fuel was at the high
est possible pitch. The Wichita Nat
ural towns had enjoyed sweet charity
until the gas company was denying
service to higher rated patrons and
was losing money-so the attorneys
asserted-on every foot of gas that
went thru the pipes.
The south and north Kansas parallel
has caused a halt in proceedings and
today Attorney General Hopkins is
holding another conference which may
result in some order against the wild
and reckless abandon with which fuel
I'D TtoI, hill
other sections of the state SILVER and
pay higher rate for limited supplies.
Orders in the northern towns prohibit
burning of gas for heating purposes.
In spite of the order which is from
the public utilities commission, it was
recently reported that one Topekan
has enjoyed gas for home heating since
the opening of winter. And this one
person is declared to be an attache of
the commission which made the order.