Arizona republican., 1918-04-06

plant on First avenue and on Second avenue. The gathering guests were met at the big gates of the plant by Manager Aller or department heads and escorted to the tables. Each was presented with "gas bomb" in the form of a highly -colored toy balloon, each inflated with gas. Every now and then one of the balloons escaped from its captor and went sailing skyward while the guests, like boys, gazed and craned their necks until the floating spheres disappeared.
 Manager AlIer Speaks
 Almost before the guests knew it, the luncheon was under way. There was no attempt at giving out places of honor." Every man found a chair and sat down beside companion of his choice. And knives and forks fur nished the only music of the occasion. When the last piece of 'punkin pie" had disappeared and the cigars were about to arrive, Manager Aller arose and explained that he had decided not to burden his guests with too much conversation and had therefore placed before them a leaflet setting forth some of the company's operating con ditions which he thought would be of interest.
 "A public utility such as ours has very different business problems from those which you merchants encounter said Mir. Aller in prefacing his brief talk. "The chief economic difference | is due to the fact that the public util- | ity requires a much greater capital in- vestment per dollar of gross revenue | fban 6Oac tIo r11arCIopt Tho aUpra oe merchant turns over his capital four or five times a fear, whereas the public utility turns over it's capital once in | four or five years. The taxes, depre- citation and interest return allowed by | the corporation commission totals 4t l per cent of our gross income. The similar fixed charges in the business oi the average merchant are less than | per cent of his gross income. When 8 | duplication of this heavy investment occurs by the construction of compet- 1 ing plants, creating double these fiXeC 1 charges, then the cost of service tend: to be greater than when one utility en- joys monopoly of the business.
 Tells of Growth
 'In the leaflets which we have placed before you we have shown how rates 1T Phoenix have been effected by this l SlOWb4i 1nu lllODOpOlNs W nave Dull our business much more rapidly thar the community has grown. You vii note with a growth in the number Ot water consumers and telephones of 5l per cent and 37 per cent that the mum. Der of gas and electric consumers ha: increased 136 per cent, and that the | gas output has increased 1S7 per cent
 During this period the cost of opera. tion has materially increased in spit' of which we have made several rat, reductions. This has been made pos sible chiefly by the marked increase il business without proportionate in crease in plant investment.
 We point in the leaflet to the fac that we construct gas and electric serv ices to the consumers meter free O charge, and also to the fact that W, pay per cent interest on consumers deposits, which though in itself littl thing, is not universally done Tn latter has cost us $1,50O during tn, past three years, and the free servic connections have cost us and saved tn, consumers $64,000 during the past fou years.
 Lowered Fire Risk
 "In 1912 we established a practice o leaving. gas and electric meters in stalled when an account was concelled thereby facilitating the re- connection at that location for the succeeding con sumer. This practice was an innova tion which proved successful and eco nomical so that the practice has sine been adopted in a number of larg cities.
 MT. Hornberger will tell you briefl, about the plant, but in passing I wan to mention one or two points.
 "The store stock which we carr, ranges in value from $55,000 to $65,00 at all times. We carry from $10,000 t
 s15,000 worth of oil in storage.
 "The fire insurance rate on our plan ran from S1.50 to $3.50 three years age Today these same risks are written a
 from 26 cents to 94 cents, due t
 changes in our plant and the installa ton of various fire fighting apparatus We have large permanently con
 structed extinguisher for the oil tanks which in event of a fire will automa tically discharge soap bubbles of car
 bon dioxide in such large quantitie as to extinguish the oil fire.
 The Cleanest Plant
 "Our service and trouble departmen is maintained day and night. Consum CTS difficulties being remedied withou charge. We have twelve automobile and three horses in our service depart ment. Instead of having a large ga rage at our plant, we erect sma portable garages at the homes of ou
 men and permit them to drive tn cars home. This practice has prove to be very satisfactory, giving our me more time at home.
 "A gas plant at best is not a delight full spot, but this plant is probably a clean as any you have seen. Lam black is not pretty to look at, but it really not bad to eat, being pure car pon. We have designed and installe soot-arrester to prevent soot froI annoying our neighbors and have or dered a duplicate arrester for ou second generator. which will soon | installed. At our Grant street propert we have planted honeysuckle aroun the entire block which will climb o an eight-foot fence and hide the lam
 black settling pits installed there. Some two years ago 1 told the Re tary club of the activities of our em ployees' Association. This associatio
 has been an important feature in build ing our business to it's present size.