Year: 1879




Are We TO Have Cheap Gass


1t is ungracious to look gift horse in
the mouth, and perhaps the people Ought
to be thankful that the price OF SO necessary
an article as gas has been even moderately
reduced without being curious about the
causes that have led to the reduction. For
many years the citizens of New York have
been at the mercy of a practical gas mono2-
oly They have been compelled to make
unreasonably large deposits as security
with the supplying companies and to pay
an exorbitant price forthe article Three dol
two dollars and half have been the cur
rent rates for gas per thousand cubic feet
for number Of years in New York, while
gas in London and Paris has been supplied
at from seventy-five cents to dollar. There
is no reason why the price should have
been much if any higher here than in
either of the cities we have named, save
one. The New York companies have COM
bin ed to charge the consumers three or four
prices for their gas The present reduction
seems to imply that this monopoly or COM
bination is now broken, and probably we
ought to throw up our caps without seek
ing to ascertain the cause Of the fracture.


But it is of interest to inquire whether
the reduction is to be permanent, and
whether it is of kind to benefit those con-
sumers who most need a cheap article. Mr..
Edison and his electric light has nothing to
do with the sudden liberality of the gas
companies. So all the officers assert, and
it is easy to see that they speak the truth.
Competition is the talisman that has pro-
duced these extraordinary effects. So long
as three principal companies, by Partition
ing the city between them-one taking all
south of Grand street, another all north of
Thirty-fourth street, and third the rich
intermediate slice-could agree to keep up
the price and laugh at the grumblings of
the consumers there was no hope of reason
able rates. But interlopers have stepped
in, with the privilege of laying their pipes
in any streets of the city, and down come
the charges of the old companies.


Who gets the benefit of the reduction?
The price recently charged to ordinary
consumers who burn less than ten thou
sand cubic feet monthly has been at the
highest two dollars and fifty cents and at the
lowest two dollars and twenty-five cents per
thousand cubic feet These are now to be
supplied for two dollars per thousand, and
the consumer of three thousand cubic feet
will thus save from seventy-five cents to
dollar and half in month. But to 'large
consumers" the price is to be one dollar
and twenty-five cents per thousand cubic
feet, and these on every three thousand
feet consumed will save from three dollars
to three dollars and seventy-fve cents.
It is evident that the poorer classes of
consumers are not the ones that will be
the most benefited by the reduction. The
reason of this is explained by the fact that
the interloping companies have selfshly
laid their pipes only where the large con-
sumers are to be caught, and the cutting
down is made not so much for the
benefit Of the people as to meet and
defeat this competition. It is certain that
the price to the smaller consumers is still
exorbitantly high If fair profit can be
made out of gas supplied at q dollar and
twenty-five cents to large consumers, then
this should be the general rate. insufficient
as the present reduction is, however, it is to
be hoped that it may last and that the new
companies may not have their price and be
only waiting to be drawn into revived
monopoly. The people have seen SO much
Of this sort of business in railroad and other
corporations that they naturally receive
with caution the sudden liberality of COM
panies that have hitherto been somewhat
exacting and avaricious in their dealings
with the public.