The Seattle Star Newspaper, May 2, 1914, Page 15

of on he " SWITCHBOARD AT SUBSTATION, SEVENTH AVENUE AND YESLER THE STAR—SATURDAY, MAY*2, 1914, began supplying elect 4c 1 purpower in. September kwebr and in the companies tow to LO canta per kwlt r,, In thove | sections of the city where the city pii.nt had tts wires, In 1919 the competition of the city plant the companies to make another cents per K w-hr effect of pel thin time to 9% again co reduction, mple of the was ont exe Ballard is & notable the city plant. This suburb has become a and the service tn eity, town and ham | fleld of competiti but | fnetor in determining rates the electrical field in every n the Pacific Coast very municipality in the cotntry seeking to Way | free itnelf from the bueden of excessive rates [for light and power and from ‘other oppressions strong elty of Be 1 1907 The city plant's com mercial wire re not extended into the district | until! Maren, During these three years cith zens living In the district continved to pay the 10cent rate, while the rest of the city was enjoy ing an &8%-cent rat On July ft, 1911, the city plant reduced the rate pte per kwehbr This reduction was met company on November 18, 1911, when it its rate to 7 cents, On June 1, 1912, the t 1 its rate “o 6 cents with a bO« t which duct i in me ¢ owed by the company reducing 1 it the same as the eity plant ate rh t ant now anking neb » KF c county outside of the city limit, wh enable suburban districts coutiguows to f Seattle to 1 themselves of lie benef city plant has not made low ty of Beattle, but comme of the ition it has waged in the open market! for business, the service 4 Uae public of Seattle In supplying light « wer is of a high-| efficiency than that rendered in any other tion of the country Not only has the city plant lived In the oper CITY LIGHT The Plant That Made Seattle America’s Best Lighted Ci STORAGE BATTERY, SEVENTH AVENUE AND Y: ESLER WAY . we ie ie = By J. DO. ROSS this steam plant and the immediate de- In the past, municipalities have grant-;include operation, maintenance, depre a Superintendent of Lighti velopment of the remaining available ed the right for a term of years to indi-|ciation, sinking fund and interest mena ye a soya LE power at Cedar Lake, bringing the total viduals to supply this service, giving to| charges, and do not include the item of the indpol capacity of the plant to 45,00. K. W. in such individuals the right to use public taxes, but the surplus derived from the producer; as an agency to bring water power and 15,000 K. W. in steam. "ye and oth thoroughfares operating of the public utility is pocketed commercial industries to our cit, This power will require a considerable ome of conveying the com- by the public, either by means of reduced time to fmsteli and judging from the consum Veually this rates, extensions to the utility, or by the a factor in providing comforts for the home, Seattie’s municipal light and pow- er plant and system is the city’s largest utility and its greatest. No single agen- rapidly increasing demand will be need- ed as fast as It is possible to develop it Demand for Power band In the city of Seattle h 80 great an These extensions, however, are ade opportunity te be a “city build quate only for the immediate future. The will play so important a part in winning creat water power resources of the state | and holding for this city the commercial *'" being quietly and rapidly taken | by privat principally by the compan tes. competing concern. The lighting depart ment fs allve to the fact that its future depends on acquiring further water pow-) er while the chance remains. To this) end tt has for several years been quietly conducting considerable Investigation in-| to the various power sites. The Lake supremacy of the Pacific Coast. The city plant is lighting 890 miles of streets, serving all city buildings, and supplying 32,000 private customers with light and power for business houses, fac- tories and residences. It ts now earn Cushman site in the. Olympic mountains, th a possible development of 70.000 Hf fe the most desirable at this time | ing & gross revenue approximately $1,- 000,000 annually; it is paying interest on & bonded indebted: of $3,240,000; it Aside from the fact that this site! has established a sinking fund to retire/or any other cannot be acquired at/ this bonded indebtedness tt peovener 15. better price, if at ail, at a Inter! due; ft has created a cash reserve de a eae mee ear . t a ally preeiation fund; it has paid ite opers-| Sting the development of a project. of tion and maintenance charges and In ad-/ this size and nature, the power from this | @itien to paying all these charges has | plant cannot be delivered any too soon | converted $1,500,000 of its revenue Into | meet the growing demand. Resides, , 4 each addition to the system betters the Gutunnton to ttn plagts.and system, | service and produces current at a lower At the same time, the plant has stead: | unit cost fly forced rates down until Seattle ad- mittedly has the lowest rates for light | Seattle, America’s Best and power in the country, excepting pow | Lighted City | sibly the Niagara Falls district. Not | This has been made possible because alone has the city of Seattle been bene-| 11, department is a pioneer in the de fited by an immense reduction in rates,| velopment of special lamps, changing the but the entire county of King has been | system to one using tungsten fncan- Denefited to a lesser extent, although —- lamps, replacing the inferior as rates outside the city Mmits are still /) hevciees ahtek, ie tetera a 66 2-3 per cent higher than fm the city In fact, the entire Pacific Coast has been | P. cient as the tungsten and the city of Se attle’s lightir department, on account of directly benefited by the rates estab- its progressiveness in street lighting de- | ta ety Want plant velopment in the past and the fact that Mahed by Seattle's city light pi the department's officials realized the This splendid showing has been made 4 r os without costing the taxpayer one dollar importance of the new Nitrogen fn taxes and in competition with a pri ,lamp and placed the first sub- vate corporation that is backed by one| *'#ntial order with the National lamp fac- of America’s richest and most power. | ‘OTs. | has been given the preference ful financial associations. lover all other concerns and has the first The Plant ers great Mazda of these lamps used in America now in in commercial quantities. In a| The city’s main hydro-electric plant is | short time all of Seattle's street lamps} situated at Cedar Falls in the Cascade | will be doubled in brilliancy and that mountains 40 miles from Seattle. An| without extra cost to its eftizens. auxiliary water power plant is situated on the east shore of Lake Union in the The Record heart of the city and is supplied from the overflow of the city water system. The establishment of a municipally A storage battery has been installed re-| owned light plant by the elty of Seattle} cently to further safeguard the elevator | had an immediate effect on the rates) service. The demand on these two plants | charged by the privately owned plants {s so enormous that a steam auxiliary | supplying electric energy in the city, as of 5,000 K. W. is being built beside the | shown by the following schedule Lake Union water power plant. This| Prior to 1902 private companies plant is being rushed to completion and| charged 20 cents per kw-br. In 1902, will be finished in the coming fall. The! when the municipal plant became an as city lighting department is asking anj|sured project, the companies reduced immediate extension of 10,000 K. W. toltheir rates to 12 cents per kw-hr. The| is given without cost or in any e nt. the to the municipality are so small # to be of no moment The very nature of the utility to be supplied is such that these rights are practically exclusive to the tn pecuniary returns The rights so acquired by talized often for millions of und the holder of the rights pro- borrow money to develop the on the strength of a right that 1! pra ly nothing He e rate he shall charge for the utility at a figure that will pay his opera- tior depreciation and sink ing also the interest on the t ¥ and a handsome prof- | it in dividends on the capitalized value jot the right which the public granted him without cost The public owner of the public utility must contribute to governmental ex penses through the medium of taxes in exactly the same manner as any owner | of property, real or personal. In no in | stance does pay any greater amount h est person who may own a little home. In act practice he is liable to pay a less amount than his proportion, due to his greater ability and power in contending his property to be of @ less value than it actually is Th private owner of public utilities, because of the fact t he is obliged to contritmte to the maintenance of the government, in every argument relating to the public ownership of the public utility which he poses the public as a p When the public will supply publi proceeds to borrow money by | bonds to develop the utility and to sell the commodity to the public at a rate controls, lic benefactor. determines that it utilities to itself, it | whic h will pay o ‘ation, maintenance, depreciation, sinking fund charges and the interest on the bonds Any profit | over nd above these charges the pub- Me takes to itself in various ways. It may either duce its rates, or it extend its utility, it may re may its sur. and use it in the conducting of the ‘al public business he entire qu mn of taxes the individ: | proportionately than is paid by the poor- | before | issuing | use of the surplus in the conducting of general public affairs. The Municipal Light and Power f has contributed to the general pubije — through the reduction of rates an bee " many times in exceas of the taxes would have been derived from the utility had it been owned by a private concerm, It is a matter of simple computation for any householder to calculate his individ — ual saving on his light bill because of the fact that the city of Seattle operates a municipal light and ylant. Taking the residence consumy| | of electric energy alone, there was in the homes of Seattle in 1913 mately 12,000,000 kilowatt hours of tric energy for lighting purposes. the rate paid in the city of Spokane as rate that would have been in foree the city of Seattle but for the m plant, 1 e, 10 cents per kilowatt the cost of lighting the homes of would have been $1,200,000 for the 1913. Because of the rate estal and maintained by the municipal and power plant, 1. e. 6 cents per watt hour, the actual amount paid by citizens of Seattle for lighting their was but $720,000, a saving to our cl due to public ownership of this utility, of $480,000, an amount equal 11 per cent of the total amount to | raised through the medium of taxes, |the support of the general city siness houses and fi are saving in reduced rates for light | power, due to the operation of the cipal light and power plant, an equally as great. * In the case of private ownership |a public utility the private owner taxes and a few families grow rich, « In the case of public ownership of | public utility, no taxes are paid, but the B 5 ‘ public as a whole is benefited by reduced rates. | Seattle’s Opportunity The entire trend of thought today | iosane the Pacific Coast. Ste: |companies are on the coast seeking minals and dock sites for the ste |lines, Great railroad managers are {ing toward the coast for terminal cilities to enable them to share in the CITY SUBSTATION, SEVENTH AVENUE AND YESLER WAY REVENUE AND EXPENSES 1910 1911 tal revenue... $45,470.10 tal expenses. . 64,356.85 Balance Depreciation a9 xSurplus 18,876.75 ” 11,025.43 2° 2Deficit for year. *after applying $24,086. xThe surplus revenue Is consumed by extensions, con and 1906. struction and liquidation of Mabilities. - io. LAKE UNION AUXILIARY WATER POWER PLANT, EASTLAKE AVENUE | of privately owned public utility trusts, turns to] Seattle's city plant for information as to methods | and means by which relief from capitalistic con-| | trol can be obtained. On the other hand, this same capttalistte in terest is using every effort and device purchasable by unlimited resour to discredit and destroy Seattle’a municipal light plant, knowing that by | removing this example of successfal municipal | ownership, public ownership of publicvutilities will | | scarcely survive the blow lA Fallacy Exploded It is often said that a private concern can run a business more economically than a city and many have been the dollars paid to instil thi idea into an unsuspectin public 8 city light plant has shown this notion to be a fallacy Surely a great utility Mke the city plant should continue to hold the esteem and loyalty of Se-| attle’s citizens and be given every chance to ex pand and become one of Seattle's t city | builders, especially since it is more than self-sup- porting and since its development brings in a cash surplus instead of a tax burden, and all that its | development needs {s a vote that entalls no cost Taxes vs. No Taxes | The loss to the public in taxes" is a combina: | tion of words which means nothing when deal ing with the subject of public ownership of pub-| lie utilities. Yet it 1s one of the chief arguments | used by the t corporate interests in the coun try against this public ownership of public utilities, | When defeated on every other point in the de-| bate they fall back on the argument that the | | vately owned public utilities help to bear the burden of taxation while publicly owned public utilities pay no taxes The term “public utility’ used in relation to a} municipality, relates, in its narrow sense, to the | supplying of light and power, the supplying of |water and the suppying of transportation | to the public, and in this sense transportation in-| cludes not only street railway service, but Bae AND NELSON PLACE telephone and telegraphic service, toward defi '**After applying $5,815.82 toward deficit balar 477.35 7 es pocketed by the private owners through) vantage of the favorable position they ears GENERATING PLANT AT CEDAR FALLS, WASHINGTON lost | transportation of the cargoes that these — through public ownership may be summed | steamships will unload on our ¥ up as follows | Manufacturers are seeking sites for Under either private ownership or pub-| factories that they may enjoy the ie ownership of a public utility in the} power that our splendid water |last analysis the public pays the bill, | furnish. Capital is seeking out In the case of the privately owned pub-| power sites and developing them. je utility these charges include the|every hand men of affairs are operating, maintenance, depreciation,| into position to enjoy the advantages of sinking fund and interest charges, the|a new industrial era in a new country, taxes paid being included in the operat- ing cost, The surplus or profit resulting! from the operation of the utility The city light plant has pioneered the way to cheap light and power and now is is| the time for our citizens to reap the ad- | the medium of dividends, | Im the case of a public owned pub- hold in this new industrial era because of — | | Me utility the charges paid by the Babs| the public ownership of this splendid pub Me utilit Advertisement.