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Show WATER SYSTEM AND ELECTRIC LIGHT PROPOSITION RECEIVE ATTENTION OF 0. A. KENNEDY I editor The Standard: Over in En;-I En;-I :,n,t ion know wh.n - candidate (' fll,Mi.- oftM is ypenklne before the vot-f. vot-f. rrs it is luitc tlir- proper caper for any 4C,ti:r to fanri right "P In mating nn I ak the candidate any number of cm- trras-'inc riuestlons That Is callod heckling" tho candldato. Dut In this country. If any one in-I in-I tcrrupts a public meeting to ask a can-' can-' didate questions, the police pounce upon him. arrest him and beat him up while dipping him to tho station, where thJ it- him for hing disorderly nn1 creat- II ir.K a disturbance I That Is Hie difference between the I LpcIi-"!' 'n'' American ideals ol free P) ?rech lg Also. If anyone criticises a cindidato I nr bawls hl.n ""I ' in a III tie 2xi dod- 1 ger. the candidate's friends yell, "cor- H iupt praciioea" .n.) i ill for a i"i which still fin ih. i discourages free :;...-h But now that the election is over ' may , we not" venture to "heckle'' the suc-R suc-R f cof'ful randldates'.' !t is like this. Years ago. wlin tho odtn City wafer stein belonged to n r,. private corpt'iaiion it was run lor prof! 111. iranfcb and above loard. It did not t exist for the purpose of furnishing pure r,k water 'o the people of Ogden, but to b I make dividend? for the stockholders B H The water was taken from Ogden river r i above the powr dam, and after It hud bocn warmed up I '-si-rv oii v. nh :i mud bottom was doled out to the citi -j t- if-ji5. some of whom promptly died of M I typhoid. Th'' minlstei general! culled : Sr juch a caw "a mysterious dispensation M f of Providence,' hut the undertaker knew n: that it was caused by too much divl- ! 'aj dcnd5. If In tho?? days two citizens owning a' l,oii?es on Adams ;ivrntK, near Thlrty-I Thlrty-I fifth street, got tired of drinking av.-'I cij water with microbes in it, and called t cn the wjierworks company to extend 1 !! ihe water msins to (heir property. The clerk at the window advised theui 't to go and ?ee the vice president, and h referred them to the secretary and I the secretary sent them to the managr mi unui ai iifi incy came io mo cnairmon of the copunlitce on water maina ;md il he was a fat nan rind .-it o desk an 1 (a ) was clothed Tilth ruithorlty. He shook his head very slowly and ill L Impressively Tehn the two citizens made their request. YV-; art- not making any L8 extensions, ' he .-.Pid "Bu we an- read: to guarantee you 111 eight per cent interest on the cost Ol lil extending the mam up to our property." 1.3 they told him Tho fat man smiled "It Is true." 1 e M said, "that our franchise says we must make ext r..loris when eight per cent Interest Is guaranteed and, if we do not i Co it. v.p nr- liable to lose our fran- '"'t ill- 'i'v already has two or hrcc runs ng.ilnnt ns in court now. to I wc mlgh' a? v.. hnve another one" "But we will guarantee you ten per j cent " tin- told him -v, "We make no extensions so long a- I Ogden Cit is fighting us In the courts." g) 'a5 the lejily nj "Will you fllinNh til.' pipe, If We Will $H die the ditch" thry a-.ked him. 0 ! He shook his he a i icrf "Will xou do The plumbing if we fur- 7 Dish the pipe and the ditch both"" z "No extensions until the law suits ai- BP Killleei " But at last he did agree that the com-J" com-J" would tap the vat, , main at Wash- JUtout extra ehnrg.-. thus saving thom -S0 actual cash, and that was the Uist jVwI nsion ilu-v could get 1 ,So ",ri '' 1 ' r-h"H ; naid rHflft Plumb?r fl" ''ving '; U of inch-:PMrom inch-:PMrom u'-'-l'l'H:to avenue up to the.! I nouae, on Adamy. and the water com- i Pany did not charge them anything to connect with the water main. From a strictly "business" .standpoint, the water company was all right In r. fusing to extend the mains. It made money -nrl raved lr. But that policv held back the growth of the city In a period when Ogden had much to overcome in other directions, the lack o! fitv water in the suburbs was like an iron bond about a growing tree. In tho course of time the tree bursts tiie hand, but an ugly scar Is left, and Just so today. to-day. Ogden still shows the effect of the refusal to aid the growth of tho city by furnishing good water. Then the city bought the water system sys-tem and improved it, and extended It Nothing his promoted the growth ol Og'len so much as the campaign carrte-l on to extend the water mains to all parts of the municipality and to secure puro water by means of artesian wells. Hut the defect In the whole proposition proposi-tion lies in tho fact that tho city stih I rani the waterworks to make money, not for the- sole purpose of furnlshlnsj watei to the people The annual revenue fixm the water dc- ' partment is about $120.00" The cost of me.iiitenance. interest, extensions, etc , i about $60,000. That leaves a 50 per cent profit The city has, for about eight ycaiv. had tho choice of saving that profit for the people in either one of two ways. First. The city could cut the water rates in two and save $60,000 to the consumers con-sumers of tho water. Second: The city can go on collecting collect-ing from the citizens twice the amount that It costs to furnish water and make a 50 per cent profit Which plan will It take? No doubt tho average reader of the papers hufc noted that about every three 1 months the reporter who does the city hall news announces that the commissioner.", commis-sioner.", have ordered $10,000 transferred from the water fund to the general funl That means the profits on the water ! business aro being U3ed to pay tho general gen-eral expenses of the city. Sometimes this process is called "hor- j rowing" the money from the waiter fund. It does not appear very clearly whether the money la, ever returned ro the water fund, wherefore It is safe to gueos that it never is returned. Thus the water system has gradually come to be regarded as a "good thing." it is a money-maker for tho city, and a means of raising revenue to be rpent by other departments of the city government gov-ernment And so gradually tho city, the no-v owner, has dropped hack Into the same mental attitude as that of the men who once owned the water system. It ii again being run for profit. The result is that applications for extensions ex-tensions are no longer welcomed. Th-re are delays In acting on such applications applica-tions which gradually wear out the patience pa-tience of petitioners. For instance, on a certain street in the southeast part of the city there ware two houses 3mall frame houses, :he kind people- build who start at the bottom bot-tom of life's ladder and pay as they go and they wanted to drink artesian water. So they applied to hove the mains ev-tended ev-tended 400 feet to their property line. Six months later one of them announced an-nounced that at last he had the dry water In his house "Did the cltj extend ex-tend the main?'' he was asked. "Heck, no," he replied. "Them fellows fooh-d arounel so long that we got disgusted dis-gusted and hired a plumber. We've got $150 tied up In a pipe line of our own J down the street." At another point on the same street another cltlren built a little houae md applied for water. When no attention j ! was paid to his petition, bin wife, a ratn-1 ratn-1 er persistent lady, called to sen tie mayor. 'What do you think that mayor said to me?" 6he said later. He says. 'What do you want to go away out there in the edge of town to build a house for? Why didn't you build jour house down closer to town? Now. right next to my hou3e In a fine building lot. vacant.' " She had taken pains to look up the price on the lot next to the mayor It was $75 a front foot. ' And I only pold $60 for my two lots " she said. "My 56u wouldn't pay the taxes on that lot " Someone toid her to go and see another an-other of the city commissioners, as he was the real power In city water affair She r:ime back hlghlv Indignant. 'He told me I had no business to build n house that far out and expect the city to extend th mains to It. He said I ought to go after tho real estate man who sold mc the lots," Then some one told her that she oughr ' to talk to the third commissioner and .he called on him He talked ahout a j guarantee of eight per cent revenue ou i the cost of extension. o she went out and hunted up the owners of other lots and had them sirn a petition for the extension Then the ' Ity fathers took another talk War vfsj ' In progress. It would be almost un- 1 patriotic to make that extension. The ' government had asked that no more nvin power or Iron pipe should be used up unless absolutely necessary. Then even the persistent lady lost heart and a plumber was employed to lay another 400 feet of private pipe lln-a tS the main Apparently neither the ci'.y or general government noted that both man power and iron pipe was being used I up by the plumber. The same people had to subsidize the le tile light compass to extend light I service to their house, and have not .vet succeeded in gettinc a telephone installed without paying extra. The hardships oi pioneering are not confined to life on the desert Hut :ll the time these things were h-p-; penlng the city was "lifting" at regular Intervals amounts of $10,000 from lh water fund and transfen ing It to the general fund to pay the running expenses of the city government. The point Is that the city had plcntv Of money with which to make these extensions, ex-tensions, but the mono" was wanted for other things. To what extent was tno refusal to extend the mains prompted by the desire to use the money elsewhere' else-where' And to what extent is the present scarcity of houses due to the reluctance of the city to extend the water iv.ins? And O yes. about the "hccklins. ' This Is the question; When the successful candidates Oie ir lalled in office will they cut the water rates or will they keep on running the water system to make money? And. if so. what will they do with the money? Will they extend the mains ro keep pace with the growth of the city and build new reservoirs and install more fire plugs to protect against fire losses, or will thev ' lift'' the money over to other funds? And. if they do build an electric light system will they run that also as a money-making scheme and will they "lift" that money, too. and apply it on general expenses? (Signed) O. A. KEN'EDY. nn |