Imperial Valley press., 1937-02-15
AN EDITORIAL THAT
SHOULD BE STUDIED HERE


In the Sacramento Bee one of the
few newspapers in the nation classed
as a Pulitzer prize winner for the fin
est community service rendered during
any one year, is an editorial which might
we'll have been written and intended for
Imperial Valley, so pertinent are the
facts. It is reprinted here as it appear
ed in The Bee:
The established superiority of public
ownership over private ownership is to
be found in the records of an increasing
number of cities of America where the
citizenry have thrown off the yoke of
bondage of the privately owned power
utilities.
Nowhere is that superiority more
clearly in evidence than in the City of
Tacoma If today any person went
there and tried to tell the people they
had made a mistake in going into the
business of making and selling power
some twenty-five years ago, he would
be regarded as fit subject for exami-
nation by lunacy commission.
And he would be.
For the record of the Tacoma Light
and Power Department confounds those
who still try to promote the myths that
efficiency is the handmaiden of private
ownership and waste and inefficency
are the certain accompaniments of pub
lie ownership.
Tacoma has a population about the
same as Sacramento. So what she has
done we also could have done had we
had the foresight and the good Judg-
ment of the people of the Northwestern
city.
In 1912, Tacoma's municipality owned
hydro-electric system was completed:
With the additions and development OF
the distributing system it is today worth
S23. 9941 with only $6,0O0,OOO IN
bonds outstanding.
But against this indebtedness stands
an earned surplus of S13,614,382, not to
speak of a great number of public i'm
movements paid for without cent OF
cost to the taxpayers.
Nor has one cent of tax money gone
into the development of this splendid
plant. 1t always has paid its own way.
Then take glance at the picture from
the consumers standpoint. Tacoma To-
dav has the lowest domestic consump--
ton rate for electricity in the United
States. It also has one of the lowest
industrial rates.
In the four-year period from 1880 to
1898 inclusive, based on the average
rate charged by the privately owned
nublic utilities of the country, the Ia
coma plant saved the homeowners ana
other consumers of that city Sl5,io9,oou.
That was money the consumers kept
in their own pockets, which in less Tor
tnnate communities went to pay dlVi,
dends on rubberized utility values ana
fancy salaries to power company OIL
Gals. ,o,o,
Since then there have been several
notable reductions which helgntens tne
contrast between what the public ougnt
to nav for electricity and what IL TOO
generally pays in these United STATES OF
America as tribute to the Power trust
Think of this and compare it with
vour own electric bill here in Sacramen-
to:
The average monthly bill OF the Taco
ma householder using the usual electro
appliances in the home is $1.21. You can
even light a modest dwelling Tor tnat
amount in Sacramento unless you MAN.
tain constant vigilance in turning OH
the current in rooms, on porches, etc''
not actually in use.
No wonder Mayor George A. Smiley
of Tacoma recently declared:
Tacoma would not trade her NUM-
cipal power system for any other as
set the city owns. -
She is not going to kill the goose that
has laid her so many golden eggs our
ING the past twenty-five years and prom
.;ses even larger and richer ones for an
indefinite period yet to come.
Fortunate Tacoma!