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Show , COMMENTS current, while, according- to Federal Power Commission figures on residential rates, municipal companies, on the average charge 91 cents;; ?1.25 for 40 kilowatt hours, vvHIe the average utility charges $1.96; S2.2S for 100 kilowatt hours, while the average municipal muni-cipal utility charges $3.52. So it goes, in higher residential power brackets in the state What is true in California is true elsewhere. else-where. The rate advantage possessed by publicly-owned utilities throughout the country is, only too often, a fake, and exists only in cause they are tax-subsidized. In. other words, small savings in power bills are made up by more and higher tax bills. In addition, municipal utilities are generally given more HAND IN HAND One of the biggest domestic problems now in the headlines is prices. I'racticilly1 all experts are convinced that the rises which have taken place so far are but a beginning to what is coming. Leon the I'ricc Admins j trator, has said publicly that substantk.lly higher prices in all lines are on their way. A large segment of industry has done its best to hold prices down. The retail trades have been outstanding in this. Both the chain stores and the modern independents have redoubled re-doubled their efforts to reduce overhead costs, and they have passed the savings on to the consumer. A number of the leading" merchandising outlets have also voluntarily reduced their profits, in order to prevent boosts at retail that would otherwise hive been unavoidable. There is obiously a definite limit beyond w hich such policies as these can not go. The operating cost of industry at large is on the increase. The new tax bill add materially to the business. - On top of that, the present trend is definitely inflationary in character. It has been said often, and it should be said many times again, that it is not possible to have a workable price ceiling without 3 wage ceiling. We cannot peg prices at a given giv-en level and permit wages to go merrily up unchecked. In industry, the cost of labor is often the largest item of expense. Industry has no other course but to accompany wage increases with price increases. Wages and prices, in short, go hand and hand, up or clown, as the case may be. Unless that fact is thouroughly understood, all the efforts toward price control, by the government govern-ment and business alike, will be doomed to eventual failure. UTILITIES Price arguments for public ownership of electric plants is "lower rates." The ag'i-tators ag'i-tators for power socialism always hold out rosy promises of the great rate reduction that -may be expected once the people vote themselves them-selves in to debt for a public electric system. However, save for a very few rare exceptions, ex-ceptions, these promises, are almost never fulfilled. ful-filled. The rate advantage, as a rule, actually actual-ly rests with the private utilities. An excellent statistical example of that Teccntlv came from California. The principal princi-pal private utility in that state pays 21.9 cents out of every dollar it collects, in taxes. If it were tax free, as our government-owned utilities, it thus could reduce its rates 21.9 per cent without effecting its net revenues. rev-enues. If taxes are deducted, this company charges 6oc a month for 15 kilowatt hours of costly tree services by city governments which must also be paid for by all the local taxpayers. The private electric industry of this country has given us the cheapest power, and the best and most widespread set vice known to the world. ABOUT TIME FOR Well, its about time for the directors of that great organization that hold the destiny of a few and disgards the wishes of the general gen-eral public to go into a secret session called a meeting of the directors of that great or-v ganization . . . and decide whether it shall be or whether it shall not be? Well, we just have to wait until the powers that be make up their minds and find out what dad thinks about it. TOO BIG FOR HIS BREECHES She was only an elderly lady, well dressed dress-ed and riding in an expensive automobile which stopped in front of the office door As she rushed into the office. (The entire staff held their breath, as by intuition they knew that something was .going to happen). The lady looked the editor in the eye and said she had a complaint to make, and wished to tell it to the world. "I want you to tell the world and the businessmen of this Hobb's corner which you call Sugar He use, That, that young man young snip of a father's bov who is trying to run the old man's business bus-iness has got too big for his breeches and from now on the old man had better put that young man in the army where they will teach him to be a man or break his neck." After delivering this rather strong statement state-ment r bout one of the rising young business men of the district, she got into her auto mobile and said "she would go to Salt Lake and do her buying." |