The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 5, 1917, Page 5

Uncle Sam As a Coal Miner The Government Owned Lignite Mine at Williston, N. D. ahd Williston’s Light Plant---Successful Public Ownership BY E. B. FUSSELL OVERNOR LYNN J. FRAZIER of North Dakota and a party of friends were at Williston the other day. The governor insisted upon .leading the party out for a seven-mile tramp, four miles out and three miles back (they found a shorter route on the way back) under the broiling sun. But everybody was glad to be able to make the trip, because “there was something worth seeing at the end of it—two sights, really. One is the only government coal mine in the TUnited States and the other the only govern- ment electric light plant supplying light and power for city use. Governor Frazier and the other members of the party were given regu- lation miners’ lamps and escorted through the darkness of the under- ground passages of the mine. It was the first time that.most of those in the party had ever been in a coal mine. They were taken through the plant where the power from the coal is turn- ed into electric power and then trans- mitted to the city of Williston and to the reclamation project at Buford, 26 miles away, WILLISTON PLANT WAS BIG SUCCESS It was all very interesting, but the most interesting thing about it all was the story of how one operation after another, being undertaken by public enterprise instead of private enterprise, cut out the middleman’s profit and enabled the people to reap the benelit. 'The city of Williston a good many Yeurs ago undertook to supply its citi- zens with electric light and power. It did this because it recognized that public operation would cut out private profits and give the public the benefit of the saving. So the city op- erated a steam plant, buying lignite coal to operate it from the private mines which are numerous within a few miles of the city. The city did well, too, supplying its citizens with light and power at rates considerably less than those charged by private companies. The citizens had cut out one middleman and were putting the saving in their own pockets. But another step was to be taken. It came about like this: Nine years ago the federal govern- ment established the Williston recla- mation project. It built an electric power station to operate the irrigation system. The electricity was to be pro- duced by dynamos operated by steam engines using lignite coal as fuel. Now the government had in the vicinity of Williston some lignite coal land which private speculators had not grabbed up. So when the reclamation service engineers began to makeé plans for a fuel supply, they decided to put Uncle Sam into the coal mining busi- ness. A shaft was rua into the hillside and from it, for nine years past, the government has been taking coal to run the engines of the Williston power plant.. The government dynamos were able to produce considerably more power penses, that was much lower than the cost to the city of producing its own power. NO PRIVATE PROFIT ANYWHERE NOW So the city decided to give up its own plant for the production of power. It contracted with the government plant to purchase at least 70,000 kilo- watt hours of electricity monthly at wholesale rates, and to distribute this among the citizens using the distribu- tion system that they already owned as part of the city lighting plant. That proceeding has been followed and the city is charging a profit ra.Lher’ too high to be called reasonable on re- tail power. Only one profit out of three is saved to the consumer, and yet the retail price of light and power in Wil- liston is considerably less than that in other cities where three profits are charged. The other two profits get into the public purse somewhat indirectly. The profit taken by the government goes into the reclamation service and tends to benefit land owners under the sys- tem; the profit taken by the city tends to reduce city taxes. The saving made by the government Government owned and operated electric plant, which supplies the city of Williston with light and power, operated with government mined coal. At the extreme right is shown the end of the tramway from the coal mine. The coal is then hauled up the belt in¢line into the power plant. 5 ) than the irrigation system needed. Williston city authorities, operating their own electric light plant with fuel that they purchased from private mine owners, got curious about the govern- ment's cost of operation. They found that the government, using its own coal instead of coal bought from a dealer with a private profit added, was manu- facturing power much cheaper than the - city could. They found that the gov- ernment authorities could quote them a price on their surplus power, after adding interest on the investment, cost of depreciation and all operating ex- Governor Lynn J. Frazier and party after tour of inspection through government owned coal mine near Williston. From left to right are: 0. M. Thomason, Gov- ernor Frazier, A. E. Bowen, Superintendent S. L. Sinclair of mine. The members _of the party carry the miners’ lamps us thing. ed in the mine. " PAGE FIVE ever since. Coal mined by the govern- ment produces power that is sold at wholesale by the government to the city of Williston and is sold at retail by the city of Williston to its citizens. There isn’t a private profit anywhere . along the line. It would be fine if the writer could g0 on to say that there isn't a profit of any kind along the line.” If the gov- ernment and the city were both oper- ating at cost Williston might stand as a shining example of what low rates can be given with a public owned utility. z But the fact is that the federal gov- ernment and the city both make a profit out of the operation. The fed- eral authorities apparently are not particularly anxious to make a profit, but quoted a price to the city high enough to make sure that the govern- ment at least would break even. As a matter of fact the government is con- siderably more than breaking even; it is making profits that run as high as $600 per month, CITY IS MAKING $15,000 PER YEAR It sells the power to the city at rates ranging from 2 to 4% cents per kilo- watt hour. The city now takes about 76,000 kilowatt hours which makes its wholesale rate approximately 31 cents per kilowatt hour. The city turns around and sells this power for lighting purposes to most of its users at 9 cents per kilowatt hour. It has a four-cent heating rate. Nine cents is' a much low- er ‘rate than the average for a city of the size of Williston but a rate considerably under this could be given if it were not that the city has adopted the policy of making a profit out of the light business, using the money to reduce taxes by bearing a large share of the support of the city government. The city makes around $15,000 a year, which helps out con- siderably on its general expenses, but which would be appreciated by its light consumers if it were pro-rated back to them on-their bills. ‘What happens at Williston is that the federal government is charging no profit on coal mining, and is charging a reasonable profit on wholesale power, e " The election July 10 in the First congressional district of North Dakota will decide just one It will decide whether the farmers or whether the food gamblers and market pirates are strongest.” . John M. Baer’s election is YOUR victory. His defeat is THIE Rvictory in coal mining is worth while. The current price for lignite coal, at the mines at Williston, is $1.90. The gov- ernment keeps careful track of its cost and finds that the average is approxi- mately $1 per ton. Of this cost 65 cents goes to the miners, who make about $3.50 in an eight hour day. Possibly coal could be mined by the government at a lower cost yet but for the fact that Uncle Sam's engineers try to make their mine a model. It is probably one of the best ventilated mines in the state and so carefully timbered that there is no chance of an accident. It is different in some of the privately operated mines, where the only thought of the owners is profits, at whatever expense to the lives and health of the workers. S. L. Sinclair, mechanical superin= tendent in charge of the coal mine and power plant, never saw a sample of public ownership until he took charge of the Williston operations. LIGNITE COAL HALF AS GOOD AS HARD “It has been enough to show me that a publicly owned enterprise can be made successful whenever it is honest- ly operated,” he said. “We haven’t begun to scratch the surface yet in making use of the lig- nite coal deposits of North Dakota. There is enough lignite in this nine to last a thousand years. “Lignite coal has slightly more than one-half the heating power of anthra- cite. Where anthracite coal produces 13,000 British thermal units, our lig- nite produces 7,000. We. can mine it for a price ranging from 97 cents to $1.15 per ton. It can be briquetted and made virtually as good as antharcite. “Lignite is destined for more domes- tic use in North Dakota. There is no reason why other cities than Williston should not establish power stations near the source of coal supply and transmit their power over copper wires instead of hauling the coal by railroad. “I look forward to the time when the Great Northern railroad will see the folly of hauling its own anthracite coal from Pennsylvania. and will instead’ ‘make electricity from lignite coal in North Dakota and operate its trains by wire.”