The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1919-01-01
Laurens. S. c.,
December, 80, 1918.

| Laurens and Reedy River Power Com
pany will expire on the 9Th Of Janu-
ary. The City and Power Co. have
discussed making new contract and
the editor Of this paper has been kind
enough to offer us his columns for any
statement we might desire to make;
and for this we thank him. 1t is a
long story and somewhat technical,
but will be as brief as possible.
Let's everyone get posted and un-
derstand the facts and there will re-
main no ground for criticism. The
great trouble is that the public does
not get possession Of all the facts.
For example, it is stated in the paper
that MIR. PhilpOt said power could be
generated from $l700 to $500 per
| II. p, but that he did not know what
this included. Mr.. Philpot had ref
crcncc to cotton mills operating 10
hours per day; besides that, his state
lmcnt was 50 Indefinite il amounts TO
hoarsaX. Ten or twclyc years ago n
great number Of cotton mills smut
down thcu magninccnt steam plants
and contracted With power companies
flor $2l.0 per II. p per annum on
ia hour day basis For . hour run
it would be &50.Io. l'licc OF current
has gone up 10 TO 20 pcr cent within
tho last few years. I merely state this
because it was mentioned that we
were charging tho city $1,000 per II.
p. This refers to q hour run, of
froarsc. Without fear OF contradiction
| say the city has made handsome pro-
lit out of the contract every year if
arc light and hydrant protection is
counted.
Now, sometime since, the City re-
ouestcd the Power co. to make a pro-
position. We told the officials we pre-
fe:rrd The City to make us one, and, if
they would make their figures right,
wc would accept them We ate in
formed that they had bcen operating
4 steam crGine here for some lime to
run one pump at cost of over 5000 90
per month and, no doubt, knew about
what 1t would cost to operate the
plant AT that time the Power Co.
was furnishing current for one cleo
trio pump, all arm and incandescent
lights. They said they preferred for
us to make proposition; I went be-
fore them and told them I'd not
gotten all the information desired,
and that by way Of preliminary, sug-
gcsted that our price would not b Y
cecdng &c per X. w; hour and 81, 10000
minimum. explained to them that
pCrhaDs this looked a little high and
probably vas, but I gave it rs a basis.
They asked me to write ont a con
tract. which I did. leaving all prc IS
blank They later made uc propo.
sition Of $4,000 minimum and &c per
*. W. hour and requested that we turn
over to the City our motor business
up to IL II. p.
Now as to tho motor business, we
beg to state we have examined the Con-
sti1ution Of the State and are Of opin-
ion that the City has no Constitutional
right to go into the power business.
Many years ago cities did not have
right to even sell light and water to
individuals. Later, the Constitution
was changed in this respect, and they
were given the right to sell light and
water, but were not authorized to sell
power. 1t will be said that some towns
do sell power. This Is true, and
great many things are done by ac-
Huiescencc or consent which are not
strictly legal. Furthermore, the Pow
cr Co. having erected its motor line
and bought transformers and installed
customers, etc, and having made CON
tracts, and this being strictly within
its line of business, we thought in JUS
ticc to all parties We could not give
up this part of our business. Besides,
as the City is figuring with the Power
Co. on meter basis, and not upon a
peak lead, it could receive no benefit
from that kind Of a contract, unless il
expected to charge the customers
more. There's no use 10 complicatc
matters, having the City to buy power
from the Power Company and turn
around and retail it to customers, cs-
pccially when It has no Constitutional
right to do so. 1t would be necessary
for the City to make connection with
the incandesccnt line and this line is