Tacoma's 1909 Fight to Own Its Power

In favor of the proposition, as set forth and detailed in Section 2 of Ordinance No. —— of said city, that the city of Tacoma make certain additions to the existing light and power system owned and controlled by said city, at a total estimated cost, as set forth in said Section 2 of said ordinance, of two million dollars.

Also in favor of the proposition as set forth in Ordinance No. —— of the city of Tacoma, that said city become indebted in the sum of three hundred thousand dollars for the payment of part of the cost and expense of making certain additions to the electric light and power system of said city.

These two propositions will appear at the top of the ballot for the power plant election tomorrow. Those in favor of the project should make a cross in the square that will be at the right of each proposition. The election will be held at the regular polling places, and the polls will be open from 9 o'clock in the morning until 7 o'clock at night.

Every man in Tacoma in favor of freeing the city from the extortion of the power trust should get out and vote. The power trust will probably tonight and tomorrow make a final desperate attempt to mislead the voters and confuse them with false statements.

Voters should keep in mind the following facts, which cover the whole case: Tacoma now owns a monopoly of the electric lighting business with a plant that cleared $130,000 profit last year. The city now has to buy its current from the power trust. The trust raised the price to the limit allowed by its franchise a year ago and is now free to raise the price to any figure it pleases. The trust and other private companies own the lighting plants in most of the other cities of the Northwest, and their rates to the people are nearly or quite twice as high as those charged by Tacoma. This fact indicates that the trust, when it can, will force Tacoma to raise its prices by charging the city more for current. It will be able to do this the coming year, for Tacoma even now is exceeding the amount of current it has contracted for. The reason it has not already been done is probably solely because the trust was afraid to do it before this vote was taken, as it would have made it certain that the people would vote to build their own plant.

The trust sells power in Tacoma to factories and therefore will not sell current to Tacoma so the city can make cheap rates to manufacturers to attract new industries here. The only way Tacoma can compete with Seattle, which city has a municipal plant, is to build its own plant and thus be able to attract new factories.

All competent engineers and every citizen who has seen the Nisqually plant proposed for the city say it is the best left in this section. It will deliver to this city 20,000 horsepower. It will furnish the current at one-third the price the city now pays the trust. It will enable the city in time to reduce rates for light and power, attract new industries, pay for the plant itself out of the profits, and make the city independent forever of the power trust.

And for all time the city with this plant will be able to dictate the price of power in Tacoma, no matter who sells it, for the trust will no longer have a monopoly. This fact alone will be worth millions of dollars to the people.

The proposition is clean-cut, straightforward and definite. It is endorsed by every improvement club in town, by the chamber of commerce and the commercial club. It is up to the people to vote for it now.

It was hinted today that the power trust tomorrow would attempt to frighten voters away from the polls by circulating the falsehood that no one can vote without re-registering. This is not true. Every voter in Tacoma is entitled to vote tomorrow. The registration law provides that registration in any year holds good until the first Monday in January of the following year. The first Monday in this year will be next week, so everybody is eligible to vote now without further registering. Go to the polls; your name is on the books all right.