Evening star., 1924-12-14
HOWELL ATTACKS
LIGHT RATE HERE
Calls 1t Ridiculous, in Course
of Senate Debate on
Muscle Shoals.

: CharacterfElng as ridiculous" the
electric light charge In Washington
of 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Sena.
tor Howell of Nebraska. on the fioor
of the Senate yesterday afternoon,
said that Congress should be ashemed
OF itself to allow such q high rate
in the National Capital"
Senator Howells remarks anent the
District were in the course OF the
Muscle Shoals debate in the Senate.
He was giving statistics showing
electric charges in the various cities
of the United States in relation to
the potential power to the Nation OF
Muscle Shoals, when he was asked by
Senator Brookhart OF Iowa, as to the
electric charge per kilowatt hour In
Washington.
Ten cents kilowatt hour in
Washington with no discount" an
swered Senator Howell. "on basis
of 40 kilowatt hours per month, the
publicly operated company in Cleve-
land, Ohio, charges $1.30, the private
ly operated company 50 and the pri-
vate company here in Washington -.
These figures prove that the same
electric energy is 100 per cent more
in the District of Columbia than 1t Is
in the city Of Cleveland.
Let me go back and call attention
to the fact that there is nothing pc
culiar in Cleveland except public COM
petition, and whenever public COM
petition is threatened, these results
follow"
Query byssenator Ball.
Senator l. Heisler Ball, chairman
of the Senate District committee,
ased Senator, Howell If he new that
the rate here was only 8 cents. as set
by the Public Utilities Commission,
and that the other 2 cents was at
present impounded awaiting the deci-
sion of the courts.
II am asking this question" said
Senator Ball, 'fn order to be perfect
ly fair to the Utilities Commission,
which reduced the rate about two
years ago"
mo, I was not familiar with that
fact" answered Senator Howell. 81 do
want to say this, however, that even
cents is an outrageous price in the
city of Washington. In Lincoln, Nebr.,
a city of $4,000 inha bitants, a private
company supplies 40 kilowatts fol
$2.10 and the electrical energy pro-
duced in Lincoln is produced by
steam, from slack that comes from
the Kansas district and costs about IS
ton.
Senator Howell said that in his
opinion public competition woul6
bring down electric energy rates ali
over the country.
IF you will compare the rate, for
instance, in Lincoln, with the rate
here you will find that we pay st
per cent more in Washington for 40
kilowatt hours of electricity in a
city of 100000 than the people in
the city of Lincoln pay with only
$4,000 inhabitants. Why Is that? l:
is because in Lincoln they have {
publicly-owned plant which supple.
a part of the city, just as they have
in Cleveland"
Senator Ball, in an effort to fine
out why publicly-owned companie:
can operate on much lower figures
asked if Senator Howell was takfnf
into consideration the fact that
privately-owned companies had to
pay large taxes. He said that he
did not know the figures in other
cities, but that in Wilmington. Della
the electric light company is charged
SO much for every pole 1t erects ant
also charged so much for a direci
tax.
He asserted that the statistics Sem
ator Howell was quoting were very
interesting. but he thought they
would be of greater service If the
additional taxes, which private COM
panies paid. were made known.
The Cleveland publicly owned plant
Senator Howell said, sets aside every
year and places In the hands of ths
treasurer an amount equal to the
taxes it would pay, as q sinking fund
Il have quoted only one publicly
owned plant" he said, land you will
note that / am not comparing the
Washington rate with the public
plant in Cleveland, but with the pri-
vate plants in that city. That's why
! say that the rate here Is out of all
proportion to that in the cities of
Cleveland and Lincoln"