The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1920-06-24
CITIZENS VIGOROUS
KICK BEARS FRUIT
SEVERAL HUNDRED PEOPLE
TAKE PART IN FRIDAYS
MASS MEETING
WHITNEY IMPROVES SERVICE
HIGH LINE WILL BE BROUGHT
TO THE PROPER VOLTAGE
SOON

SOON
The mass meeting of remonstrance
against the quality of light and pow
er furnished BY the st. Cloud Wa
ter Power Company, of which A. G.
Whitney is active head, held at the
junior High School Auditorium Fri
day evening brought out a large siz-
ed audience.
Mayor A. L. Ingram presided at
the meeting and in straight from
the shoulder talk he told Wheelock
Whitney, representing the company
some of the things the citizens OF
Sank Centre had put up with during
the past few months.
He called upon a number of the
power users who had been most vi
tally affected during the past few
months, to state their grievances.
Among those called on were Asa M.
Wallace of the Herald, H. A. Liden-
berg, of the Minnesota Products Co.,
Harry Schmidt of Swift & Co., A.
Markson of the City Steam Laundry,
John Tombers of the Sank Centre
Wood Working Plant, Gus Otto of
Otto Bros, garage, and others. All
of these concerns had lost money
through the ineficiency of the SER
vice, the loss to the Minnesota Pro-
ducts Co., running into hundreds of
dollars because of products spoiled
IN the manufacture.
Mr.. Whitney is not clever tao
tician like his. father. But unlike his
dad, he is refreshingly frank. He ad-
mitted that the service had, been very
poor and the citizens of Sink Cen
tire were justified in complaining
over the quality of service furnished
He said that long before this the
company had expected to have their
high line carrying $4,000 volts into
Sank Centre. In order to do this it
was necessary to rebuild a portion
Of the main line firm Richmond to
Cold Spring and st. Cloud. Because
of labor difficulty, delay in the ma
terials and the short time spent on
this particular work each day the
changes had progressed as rapidly
as possible.
Unlike most power companies, Mr..
Whitney stated that their peak"
load came in the day time instead of
at night. He said that when the
changes were made the large granite
concerns and the Pan Motor Com
pany and the Great Northern machine
shops, all in the city of St. Cloud
representing in all $500 horse power
would be taken off the line run
ming into Sank Centre and that this
city would have the required amount
of juice for continuous satisfactory
service.
Superintendent John McGibbon of
the local plant reviewed conditions in
Sank Centre, admitting under pres
ure that the citizens of Sank Cen
tire had kick coming over the sort
of service furnished by the Whitney
system.
In his talk Ben Dubois suggested
that the commission be urged to SER
iously consider the advisability of
cancelling the present contract with
Mr.. Whitney.
City Attorney Kells was asked for
a legal opinion as to whether the
Whitney Company had lived up to
the terms Of the contract, and was
of the decided opinion that they had
not, and that the city had ample
grounds upon which to start cancel
lation proceedings should they so
elect. He urged that the city should
have definite assurance that Mr..
Whitney would live up to- the con-
tract, instead Of promises.
Commissioner Sprague upon being
intemogated relative to the contract
stated that Mr.. Whitney had object
ed to the insertion of a financial
penalty for non-fulfllment of con-
tract, and that the clause was left
out.
In his talk DR.. Dubois stated that
he hoped that Sank Centre would
get on one track and remain
there sufficient time to see whether
any given line of activity was going
to be success. He was rather OPP
posed to the city taking over the
plant in the first place, but since
they had erected plant to generate
electricity he had hoped that they
would utilize this plant long enough
to demonstrate whether municipal
ownership was success. He urged
the commission to take the people
into their confidence in handling the
.cty's affairs.
! Commissioner Henneman stated