Fun in Philadelphia

When it was first suggested in 1833 that Philadelphia's streets be lighted by gas instead of oil, a group of such prominent citizens as Benjamin Chew, Horace Binney and Jacob Ridgeway wrote in consternation to the city council. They protested against the use of "an uncertain light, sometimes disappearing and leaving the streets and houses in total darkness." Despite these dire predictions, the city council spent $100,000 on a municipal gasworks which began supplying 46 street lights and two homes in 1836. Last week hundreds of Philadelphia housewives telephoned the city hall to find out whether the 100-year-old prophecy of Messrs. Chew & friends was going to come true.

Since 1836 Philadelphia's gasworks has often been a political football. The price of gas was reduced from $3.50 to $2.70 per i ,000 cu. ft. and its quality reduced to a point where it corroded stoves, when, in 1880 a reform movement ousted a city administration that was known as "the gas house gang." In 1897, however, when gas was down to $1, an era of peace set in with the granting of a 30-year lease on the gasworks to United Gas Improvement Co., first U. S. public utility holding company. In 1926 the city council was sufficiently satisfied with the arrangement to renew the U. G. I. lease for ten years at a rental of $4,200,000 a year.

At that time Samuel Davis Wilson was an investigator for a zealous religious group engaged in prosecuting concessionaires who stayed open Sundays at Philadelphia's Sesquicentennial Exposition. Getting into politics in the city comptroller's office, Sam Wilson soon rocketed to fame by attacking "the utility-banking-political combine." In 1935 he was elected mayor on a platform whose three major planks were 5-c- carfare, tax reduction and 50-c- gas, Philadelphia carfare is still 7-c-, but Mayor Wilson did cut taxes and last year, at a banquet celebrating the gasworks centennial, he fired the opening gun of a drive for 50-c- gas.

From a seat beside U. G. I. Chairman John Edward Zimmerman and U. G. I. Vice President Conrad N. Lauer (see cut), Mayor Wilson rose to repeat his 50-c- gas campaign pledge. Looking directly at Chairman Zimmerman, he remarked sweetly: "You are efficient, and I'd prefer to see you continue rather than have another company come in and offer us more favorable terms, say 30-c- or 40-c- gas." Ten days later he filed suit against U. G. I. and the Municipal Gas Commission demanding the "return" of $12,741,457.50.

Mayor Wilson's suit has yet to come to trial. Meanwhile, Mayor Wilson got the city council to notify U. G. I. that it would get no new lease on Jan. 1, 1938. When U. G. I. went to work conciliating individual city councilors with hearty lunches of fried oysters and chicken salad, the mayor shouted over the radio that U. G. I. was "pumping air into the gas supply."

Next, inventive Sam Wilson hired experts to support his contention that 50-c- gas was practicable. When they found to the contrary, he disowned them, advertised for bids from natural gas producers. Pennsylvania miners objected and the Mayor backed down.

Three weeks ago after two secret conferences between U. G. I. and the city council, it became known that U. G. I. was willing to cut its rate from 90-c- to 85-c- per thousand and last week the council approved the lease to U. G. I. Nothing daunted, Mayor Wilson refused to execute the new lease and on December 31, last day of the old U. G. I. lease, he declared a "state of emergency," asserting that there existed no legal contract or lease to operate the gasworks, that since "lawlessness . . . possible loss of life . . . injury . . . and damage to property" might ensue, he would take over the gasworks at midnight, reduce the rate at once to 50^, and raise the pay of "all necessary employes" 5%.

U. G. I. immediately procured a restraining order from the State Supreme Court preserving the status quo until this week. Simultaneously Sheriff William J. Hamilton Jr., Mayor Wilson's bitterest political foe, ostentatiously mobilized 160 pudgy deputies "to enforce the orders of the courts." The Civil Service Commission in the meantime opened an investigation of Sam Wilson's action in ordering police to circulate 7,000 "Stop the Gas Steal" petitions, each headed by his signature. Snorted Civil Service Commission Chairman Thaddeus M. Daly: "There are three courses this commission may take . . . ask the council to take appropriate action . . . ask the district attorney to prosecute for misfeasance . . . ask the courts to appoint a lunacy commission for the mayor."

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