Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-07-15
FooLlN0 WITH EXPLOSIVES

TNHERE is not the slightest justification
4 for the Hall proposal increasing the
price Of gas, passed by Council yesterday.
At the best it is a makeshift.
At the worst It is surrender to the gas
company.
The gas question Is the most dangerous
explosive that the politicians Of this city
ever handled 1t cleaned the gang out
Of the City Hall once. 1t was the provoca-
ton for the first Committee Of One Hundred
ever appointed. 1t has burned the fingers of
every man who has ignored the rights Of
the people in the premises.
We note these facts for the information
Of the members Of City Council who are
now monkeying with the matter.
Councilman Hall ignores the recommen-
datons Of the Gas Commission for the ne
gotiation Of a new lease. He proposed not
long ago that the price of gas should be
raised to $1.25 a thousand cubic feet and
that the Z. G. l. should get 81 Of this
sum. Then he got a bill for gas consumed
in his house for six months and professed
to be so outraged by its amount that he
hastened to call on the president of the
y. G. /. He remained with that official
for nearly an hour and came away smiling.
Now he proposes that the price Of gas
shall be S1.10 and that the gas company
shall receive 81 of this amount and that
the rest shall 60 into the City Treasury.
The present price is 81, as every one knows,
and twenty five cents of this is paid over
to the city by the gas company.
Mr.. Halls plan is to give the sns COM
pany twenty five cents moro for every
thousand feet that 1t now sells, and 10 do
this as q temporary expedient pending the
negotiation Of a new lease. The negotiation
Of that lease cannot be postponed indeA-
nitely, for the present lease expires in 1927.
So long as the city retains the present
price Of gas it has something to trade with
when it comes to make the terms for
renewal Of the lease. The moment 1t sur
renders this advantage it becomes almost
powerless to force an equitable lease from
the operating company, and it puts itself
in the position which the city now occupies
in relation to the Z. X. T., with which it
is trying to negotiate lease for the opera
ton of the Frankford elevated line. The
the terms to the city. 1t cannot be COM
PEELED to operate the Frankford line. The
city has no hold on it of any kind.
But so long as the price Of gas remains
at 81, one quarter of which is turned into
the City Treasury, the city will be able to
say to the gas company that IL it will make
such and such extensions of it's plant and II
it will provide gas of such and such stand
ard Of heat or light 1t may charge such
and such a price, a price based on fair
estimate of the cost of manufacture and
distribution.
The Hall plan should be vetoed and the
plan Of the Mayor, recommended in accord
ance with tho findings of the Gas Commits
sion, is the one that ought to be adopted.
1t provides for conference between
committee Of Council, the Gas Commission
and the City Solicitor, on the one hand, and
the gas company on the other, for the pur-
pose of agreeing on the terms of a new lease
which shall take the place of the old one
and which shall provide for such extensions
of the plant as are necessary to meet the
growing needs Of the city.