Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-25
Prospects for Future Responsible for Move,
Says Company Head; Expects Great Falls to
Have $4,000 People in Five Years; Extend
Pipes to Boston Heights and West Side.

fine organizations we ave built up.
1T was due, too, and in a big way,
to the fact that 10 years ago, when
the commission plan began to grow,
when we saw that people were taking
an interest in the service rendered by
utilities, that the public. utilities them
selves made easy a real participation
by the public in it's activities. The
utilities did not make the mistake that
the railways did Of centering their
ownership in a few persons or in a
few influential families. They made
it possible for the public to take an
interest in their own utilities through
preferred stocks that meant the safest
and best investment for savings. The
result was that their are thousands
and thousands of persons that have Il
real and close interest in their service
plants. In one company in which | am
interested in Illinois, we have some
$4,000 stockholders and of these some
5000 are actual users of the service.
That's coming to an ideal situation.
Not Government Problem
1T isn't municipal or government
ownership. I've seen enough of that
as a consulting engineer to have little
confidence in ito know the waste
and inefficiency that follows it. But
l in this diffusion of ownership there
comes an interest and a pride in the
| development of home utilities that
works unreasonable good both to the
public service utilities and to the pub
lie. People see the need of a fair
not prohibitive or unreasonable-price
that will make the utilities the kind
of investment that will attract capital
for the broadening and improvement
of the service.
"The advantages to the employe of
a ssytem whereby he obtains a real
interest in his business and to the
| employer who extends this help to his
aids, is easily seen"
Baehr spent Friday afternoon in
Great Falls looking over the plant and
| Saturday and Sunday on g trip through
the oil fields of the Sweetgrass arch
with John Stanton of the Stanton Trust
& Savings bank. He said that he was
tremendously impressed with the pos
sibilities of the fields.
II am not a geologist-not even a
practical oil man, although l and COM
panies in which | am interested have
had connection with developments In
m~id-continent and Texas fields" he
said. But as a business man with q
slight knowledge of the oil industry.
Il SAW tlul lIS DOSE1DLllAiCS VA IL y
field are tremendous. Travelling over
it by automobile, / saw a mammoth
field. I cannot predict what the re-
suits will be, but if just 1 per cent
of the possibilities of the northern field
are realized. Great Falls will double
in population, and quickly.
I'VE visited in the field wells thai
are producing, wells that proved dust,
ers and some gassers. 1t was enough
to arouse my enthusiasm.
"Of the gassers visited-and agar
l must say that / do not speak as al
expert-such gas as | saw had thu
appearance of being a wet gas.
Another Gaspipe Unlikely
AS to the possibility Of piping ga
from the field at this time, / can SAL
that ! see no immediate prospect
that the present results do not war
rant this. Bigger production of ga
and from wells more closely connected
would be needed. But We must re
ing. so fruitful of new results, we can
not say what we can expect. 1t i
possible that developments might COM
that would provide a gas supply 70
Great Falls. Certainly, if gas wer'
! found in even the quantities of tn
northern field, but nearer the city: tn
prospect of piping it to Great Fall
would be enhanced. If that time came
you would find the Great Falls Ga
company active, Of course-and W
would like to see it.
81 found hat time through the OF
field, planned in IN offhand fashion
and on the spur of the moment, a rev
elation to me. / can see great thing
for Great Falls TO come of it.
Returning to his view of affairs /