Show TEE CITY AXD TIlE GAS COMPANY The action of the city council in revoking re-voking the franchise of the Salt Lake and Ogden Gas and Electric Light I company is regarded in some quarters I as a rather radical and perhaps hasty step and I altogether unfair to the gas I and light company in question I We can scarcely come to that conclusion con-clusion since the company has redress I in the courts if the action of the city I council is unwarranted Nor are we I off the opinion that the city authorities were without sufficient ground for the II step taken It looks to us as if this company was plainly violating its charter when it i undertook to charge more for its light I and fuelgas than the maximum named nam-ed in its franchise So far as the small consumers were concerned it had the appearance of being a coldblooded proposition to hold them up The gas I and light company had no right to I charge more than 30 cents per thousand thou-sand feet for its natural gas and yet it went to the consumers of less than a thousand feet per month and told them that they must pay the company I at least 150 per month though they I might use less than a thousand feet I of gas and if they used but a thousand thou-sand feet then they would be paying I five times the amount that the company I com-pany had any right to charge and I we do not think a company has any right to do that kind of thing 1 We know it is an important matter to annul the franchise of a corporation corpora-tion that has expended so great an amount of capital as the company in I question has and < that furnishes so I much labor for SaJt Lake workmen as this company does We are also aware 1 of how damaging to the efforts being I made to induce capital to come to Salt Lake and Utah for investment such I unfortunate embroilments may be but i i rising above all these considerations is j j that which is of still more importance j namely that corporations must be j taught to observe the law and that I they cannot ignore the terms of their I franchises and do wrong even to the humblest citizen We hope the matter will be speedily I settled and settled right without injury in-jury to the gas company and without discredit to the city I |