Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-05
UTILITY BOARD GETS
GAS BOOST REQUEST
september l8 Fixed for Hearing at
Which Public Can be Heard
Upon the Matter.

interesting session of the Board of Pubic
Utility Commissioners, held last night u
the mayor office, the petition of the VII
mngton Gas Co, formally asking th'
right to boost gas rates, was received
The changes IL seeks to make effective
are an increase in the selling price OF gas
from &lO5 per thousand cubic feet &c
Sl.3O; an addition of 10 cents per one
thousand cubic feet to all bills unpaid
within 10 days from date rendered; also
that they he allowed to charge n monthly
minimum of 80 cents per meter on all
meters IN service where tho gas used
. docs not equal so cents.
President Lyon of City Council, Coun-
cilmen Cathcart and Robertson, City
Solicitor Bayari and number ot other
spectators were present. As was to have
been expected there was tension MANI
tested as soon as the petition was read.
commissioner GarTctson followed ITS
reading with motion that the request
b. allowed" and suggested date Tor the
hearing of complaints, whcrcupon Mr..
Ivon arose and asked: WAS that mo-
tion to grant the request of the Gas Com
pany?'
MIR. Garrctson addressed the chair
''The gentleman is ont of order This IS
meeting of the Board of Public utility
commissioners.
a" am not out of order" exclaimed Mr.
Lyon. Il have as good right to ,,e heard
rs anyone else here; this Is a public meet
ing. | simply asked for information, and.
Mr.. Carrctson, I'll tell YOU right now that
YOU can't shut me off, Your motion was
that the request be allowed, and II IT
does not mean what it says Id hike to
know Just what it does mean.
At first Mr.. Garretson declared: That
was my notion, later explaining that II
was ONLY a matter of form IN which the
request would be properly filed and later
on the public given n hearing.
Following the discussion the request
was ordered filed and Wednesday, Sep
tcrnber is. named as the time for publc
hearing IN the matter.
Mr. Garrctson announced that II was
desirable that some changes IN the ruic
be made before the Gas Company pc
tition was acted upon and upon motion
the chair appointed Messrs- tfarre'son
and Higgins n committee 10 revise the
rules. TIN, same TO he acted upon ut a
special meeting to he called when tncN
are ready To be presented.
A number Of communications were read
and ordered filed, including one from the
Central Labor Union requesting the board
not 10 grant the petition of the Wilmington
Gas Co for an increase IN rates until the
matter had been thoroughly gone INTO and
found necessary II also contained re-
quest that Mr. Garrrtson should not be
elected as president Of the board when It
organized
Following the reading Mr.. Garrntson
said THAT letter consider an INSULT TO
our intelligence BY unanimous vote 70
was accepted and ordered filed
\ communication from the Wilmington
Il Philadelphia Traction Co. was read rr-
gariing the skip stop plan 1t was
ordered land on the table.
rHE TENT OF THE PETITION.
The following Is the text of the Gas
ompanvs petition:
GAS CoMrANr's 5 PETITION
Aug -. 1918
teutle,ner. In October 1917 we appeared
t,.f,re vrur board with written state
men showing the justification Tor addI
tIonal income which Was necessary IN ~
ar to meet the existing advanced Cohts
"a that time covering lauor and materials
.;,lltg into the manufacture ana ols'sl
anon of gas IN the city oil Nhhihstoh-
AIt,5 proper hearings anu aiscuss;9ns Is;,,, -
lore Your board, We were peFmlt'eo 70
:.uvalce the net price of gas ten cents
ar Thousand cubic feet
At the time We submitted the statemen.
r.t.rr,d to we were operating under or
and coal contracts which had been mace
Urior to the United states entenns the
war hut these contracts were 81 nibut, SUI,
Prices for these mateFiais thah aae 80 49,
errlnE normal times. Since the lhCFeaSe
~ ~ cents per thousand went into ei-
feet IN october 1917, our cost OF mahit.r
aud distributing gas has been grauuaAs
increasing due TO the abnormal conditions
aoJ ! irh pricps created by the world war,
ON Aprii LIST 1918, our anthracite coai
c.ntrHr. expired. Our new contract anu
INCREASED freight rate make an increase oi
n present yearly CON
>utnrtion Of anth racite. ON june -, 1910.
the eovernment advanced the irelsbt rates
o. anthracite coal from SLS' p per toH 80
8, 40 per ton, making a net increase oI
! - nee ton or so per cent Freieht rates
[.er. also advanced on bituminous coaI
from SI75 per ton TO SO per Ton. nahlne
q net increase Of $40 per ton or 80 pet
on July 3rd. 1918 We received our last
shipment Of oil on contract with the Al
Iantic Refining Companyi aInsrr msqe lia N 1ei1
Cor quantity Of 3,Sp,ooo gallons at
price Of So cents per gaiioh, ueiNered
our tanks to be delivered oy angus ~
1oIs We arc unable, at the present ume,
% make any agreement for gas oil as we
have been advised by the AtIahuc ne,
fnins Company that the goVernment VIII
r1ot De-rrft further contracts TO De MADE
Tb,s condition neressitates our buying
oii in the open market at the market
nrice nrpyaiIing at the time OF Shipment
Since the expiration rc ., cur sb;nmenfs TTIns Of
I'll from the Atlantic Refining Company
riIted at SIS cents per gallon for the nrst
hsrre and S6S cents per gallon for the
second barge plus unloading charges. The
,oc,cased price Of oil based on the last
shtnment as compared with our former
contract of SO cents makes an approximate
increase Of FIVE cents per gallon Tor oil
delivered at plant or l4u per cent
over the price per gallon which We were
paying in October when your board per
mitted us to increase the price OF gas
at that time This increased price in oil
amounts to SI37 10000 baSpd on our con
sumption of oil over q twelve months
period
The total Increase for coal and oil, based
on our consumption .or period Of twelve
months will alone o1Df 10 approximate
Iv s163 OoOo0 of upr-~-imatelv - cents
Der thousand cn9tc feet based the
amount 0f gas manufactured for the past
twelve months ending Of june 30. 1918
The total cost Of coal and oil comprises
about s. per cent of manufacturing
cost
In addition 10 these increases We have
since October 1st made the following ad-
vances in our labor
Office help-an average Of 20 per cent.
Shop labor from 30 cents per hour TO
II1 cents per hour
Plant operators from 30 cents per hour
70 G7i2 cents per hour
Plant freInex from 20 cents per hour 20
62L per hour.
hour 10 ~ cents and 70 cents per hour
Street labor from 2712 cents to II cents
per hour.
Our total paw roll for the twelve months
ending June 20 1918 amounted n s1G1.
447I3 Increases in other materials re