The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1920-07-08
The Liberal Light
Ice e. Power CO.
(By N. o. Shanks)

A newspaper man coming into a
city soon learns who are the leaders;
the lesser lights who do not care to
give out dope says, 'see so and So"
Two men were named time and time
secretary of the Chamber of Com
merce, and Harry w. Magruder, an
all-around general booster, president
of the Southwest Publicity Associ-
alton, and general superintendent of
the Liberal Electric Light, Ice and
Power Company, also the Dalhart
light and power company, but Mr..
Magruder makes his home in Liberal,
and is one of the shining lights of
pep and enthusiasm and go-to-it
spirits of the great southwest coun-
try.
But this article is about the COM
pany that he manages; the company
tina is responsible for much of Lib
erals growth; responsible for many
of he public utilities and industries
in the city, because they got their
motive power from the current gene
rated in the central plant
Something like thirteen or four
teen years ago Liberal was still in
her swaddling clothes the company
was organized and incorporated. 1t
has "growed" with Liberal and the
surrounding country until today it is
one of the model plants of this sec
ton, among its equipment being two
Murray Corliss engines, 125 horse
power, each; and 100 horsepower
Diesen engine; one 100 XIV genera
tor; one 215 XIV generator and one
l0S, XIV generator. And quoting the
chief engineer: "Most of the time we
are full up, too"
There are more than 700 users of
Juice" in the city; eighty per cent
of the residences are wired for and
connected with the stuff lightning is
made of; and the city "does it cleo
trically"; the housewives do all kinds
of things with electricity; in fact,
Liberal is an electric town.
Besides the light and power, the
Liberal plant makes more ice than
the plant at Dalhart; in fact during
the iceing of cars season Liberal
ships to Dalhart. Only two cars can
be iced at time here owing to plat
from facilities, while twenty-five can
be handled at one time in the Texas
town. The capacity of the plant here
fifteen tons.
How few realize the important
part that a'light and power plant
plays in their daily life; so few have
anything to say when things go right
blu prone to "growl' when things
20 wrong at the light plant. And
Liberal is blessed-we use the word
conservatively-how often is the
town in darkness-and how short a
time then? But how few people
think of that when anything does go
wrong? But we are not trying to
picture grief. That's no the purpose
of this article. We just wanted to
make this comparison so you could
make the comparison-and let the
outside world know what light GER
tainty Liberal has.
Naturally, of course, the office has
all kinds of electric accessories; with
their constant current the people
have realized that it is safe to make
purchases of irons, sweepers, coasters,
and the like. The fact that Liberal
such an extent is another proof posi-
tive that the light and power is
certainty and they consider it so.
This is the day and age of cleo
triciy; even the farmers use it, but
the local company does not extend
their lines out of the city. The rural
people use the storage battery kind.
But the city people have it at their
command; they have a well lighted
elf; a great white way while not as
extensive as it might be, and as it will
be, it shows the spirit and the pro-
gress of the town-and the suiri Of
the men behind the local light COM
pany-and the men behind progress
and development of the city of Liber-
al.