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Show I JAMES USE! HEAD I OF MUNICiPAL r . .LEAGUE - The convention of the Municipal flH League of Utah ended last night. The jH election of officers for the league was tH one of the principal features of the SH day. James Larson, city commissioner jHr of Logan, was chosen as president to iHj succeed Mayor Heywood of Ogden, and LeRoy Dixon, city commissioner of jjH Provo, and Commissioner Miles L. H Jones of Ogden were made vice presl-dents. presl-dents. These officers will have the appointing of the secretary and treas-urcr treas-urcr of the league. Hf After the luncheon at the Weber jV club, the delegates to the convention jB and the Ogden citizens went to Butler Way, on Twenty-sixth street, and held Hf the afternoon meeting. D. 0. McKay delivered an address at this meeting jB on "Civic Improvements." Mr. McKay mentioned the fact that Hf whore the greatest progress has been Hj made in community life and affairs the jH city has owned the better part of its public utilities. And he told the dele-gates dele-gates that he favored the municipal JSRf' ownership of all public utilities. ftimi2&: In one part of his speech he men-BE-" tioned the progress that has been gH made In modern times In those cities which have kept abreast of tho times In making the city a better and more sanitary place in which to dwell. In this connection he mentioned the fa-mous fa-mous city of Plymouth, Mass., which BH less than a hundred years ago was B afflicted with an epidemic of typhoid fever and lost 125 lives in a few B weeks. When the matter was sifted, B though, the modern scientific methods B of combatting such disease was not B thought of, it was discovered that a B typhoid patient had suffered through B a siege of the illness the year before B who lived in a house near where the B pure city water emptied into the jH stream that went on to tho reservojfs B for the people to drink. The patient B was ill .during the winter and the B refuse from that sick room and the fl houso was thrown out upon the bank B of the stream by the nurse, who was B so ignorant of the dire consequences of B her acts that she was not aware that B the frozen material would liberate the B germs in the spring and they would be then washed into the stream and carried to the populace. That ignorance ignor-ance and Inexperience in sanitary matters cost 125 lives and more than $36,000 besides the lost time and fun-oral fun-oral expenses of the victims. Mr. McKay commended the city administration ad-ministration for giving to the city the paving improvements. He said that a city without paved streets these days Is no bigger than its paving and cannot can-not progress except as its streets are Improved. Fire Demonstration. A small house had been constructed and smoked in oil. This was lighted :and the alarm turned in to the fire station. The apparatus, lead by Chief Graves, responded and gave a demonstration demon-stration of quick work in subduing tho fire. The new smoke filter was demonstrated. dem-onstrated. Logan's Electric Plant. James Larsen, city councilman of Logan, was scheduled to give an address ad-dress at the morning session yesterday. yester-day. This was held over until the luncheon at the Weber club and Mr. Larsen was represented by H. O. Maughan. The subject was "Municipal "Munici-pal Lighting." Mr. Maughan said, In part: "I approach this subject with some degree of timidity, not that I am a disbeliever in the principle, but I fear I will not be able to bring it to your minds with sufficient force. There are two great systems of government in the world today, one by which the people are governed by a few individuals, indi-viduals, the other, the people rule by selecting their own representatives to do their business. There aro also two great systems by which commercial ihltcrprises are carried on, one where a few persons co-operato together, monopolize the natural resources, develop de-velop them into a marketable product and sell them to the peope. The other, the people lay hold on the natural rd sources, develop them into marketable products and sell them to themselves. Logan's Method. "Tho city of Logan has adopted this latter method with respect to its water and electric power. Thirteen years ago, we built at Logan a hydroelectric hydro-electric plant of 500 kilowatts capacity, capac-ity, at a cost of $77,000, in two twenty-year twenty-year bond series, ?65,000 at 4 per cent, and ?12,000 at 5 per cent, adding 35,-000 35,-000 to the plant out of its resources during the first four years. Later, from funds derived from the plant, Improvements Im-provements involving an expenditure of $17,000 have been made in addition to numerous extensions to tho distribution distribu-tion system. "The one great benefit in all this has been the cheap light and power. It has enabled people in every walto of life in our city to surround themselves them-selves with the conveniences of electricity elec-tricity at a very low price, in fact, if the entire savings of the people had been collected Into one fund, we could today equip one of the most up-to-date plants in the state of Utah. A business man in our city made this statement to me only last week. "The people connected with my factory fac-tory pay $600 taxes per year, but the difference in the price we pay for our light and power and what we would pay to a private concern not only pays our taxes but leaves up a balance of 84. I think this is true In nearly every case in direct proportion to the number of lights used. "Our city plant," Mr. Maughan continued, con-tinued, "began operation about May 1, 1904. At this time the Telluride Power company was charging the people peo-ple of Logan 50 cents per light for 16-c. p., or three for 1.5. The city council pledged Itself to 35 cents per 16-c. p., or three for ?1, with a lower rate if possible. The old company at once dropped the rate to 20 cents per 16-c. p. Theso prices maintained for eighteen' months, then the city dropped to 20 cents and the Telluride company went to 10 cents. This latter price, the city met but five years later raised its lighting to 15 cents and there the rates have remained ever since. During Dur-ing all this time, the power rate has been $1.50 per horsepower per month and 2 cents por kilowatt metered." |