The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-02-11

done by the power company, the ex-
orbatant prices they charged for ser
vice, and the crying need for a util-
tiles commission to govern them. |
used to think 1t must be true be-
cause he said so, yet / did not have
the personal knowledge of it suf-
flcient to warrant me in publishing
anything about 1t. They always
treated me all right, and l discreetly
kept still. In recent years this neigh
Dor of mine has himself engaged in
building and equiping some power
plants, and frequently talk with.
him about it. He never says that
rates ought to &c lowered. He talks
about the high cost of labor and ma
terials entering into construction of
the plant. He merely states the
facts, says it is very difficult to get
the power plant developed to the
point where it will pay expenses, and
he waits patiently for the time when
they can borrow enough more money
to install more units to furnish more
service to make more income to pay
the interest on what they have Dor
had q great deal of trouble with
competitive corporation using the
utilities commission to hamper them,
and it looked sometimes as If it
might ruin them. sat in conven-
ton once where one vote would pass
IA resolution to create a utilities COM
mission or stave it off two years and
l voted to stave it off. But they
finally created the utilities commits
sion, and when l have observed the
trying situations it brought to my
power plant neighbor. l have con-
Guided that l did not 60 to enough
conventions or didn't have votes
enough.
Not Hired Nor Bribed
This article is not written for the
power trust. tits written for the
information of the readers of my
paper. They are paying me $500
year to furnish them the news, and
the truth so far as l can sift out the
truth from the conflicting claims of
the times. To make it palmer,
might add that the power trust is
not paying me a cent nor giving me
any free light nor power for exercis-
ing my gray matter to create and
publish this article. They do not
know tits coming, and they will pro-
baby never know about it, for the
trust is soulless thing, and we see
only it's hired servants.
How People Behave
Sometimes l make mistakes when
I publish things. Some folks call
me down rather sharply when l do
that. l have known them to go out
about the neighborhood giving me
the dickens for mistake, and not
even tell me what had done. One
day / wrote something rather i'm
portant about power company, a
member of the trust ! suppose, and
I was surprised at the showing it
made. But / got the figures from
the right source and l sent it thru
the paper. surprise and all. When
one of the hired men of this alleged
trust read the article he called me
on the phone and goodnaturedly in
formed me that it was good article,
only it was wrong. He said that If
l had only said year" instead Of
month" everything would have been
correct. He didn't even reproach
me. He didn't 60 about town and
ask people to stop advertising with
me nor he didn't stop the company's
copy of my paper. He merely smiled
his approval when / explained the
mistake in the next issue Of the
paper.
Long Wait for Pay ~
I expect to get paid for writing
this article. / consider it worth
great deal of money to somebody. /
don't know how many thousand dol
lors it Is worth, but when | think of
all the people thru this county who
are interested In honest business and
q clean, cheap means of heating their
houses and how much money 1t will
be worth to them to know that cleo
trio heating will not be tactical in
this generation, l claim the value |
Of this article will run into the thou
sands, for them.
Great thinkers are Saying
When think olIwhat it is worth |
TO the people Of my county to know
hat science does not at present hold |
out the promise Of abundant supplies |
If electrical energy delivered all thru
The towns and villages and out in
he country at prices that sound like
he proverbial Song and Dance"
when think Of what the best author
ties in the world are saying right
low about the impossibility Of cop
,er being very cheap and machinery
aking a slump, when l remember
What Theodore N. Vail, the greateset
telephone man in the world has just
written about the difficulties of
service, when I think of the
substantial reasons he gave to show
Why all the telephone, telegraph and
able lines in America and under our
eas ought to be combined in one