Tacoma Votes to Take the Power Back

Citizens are urged by the city’s chief executive to vote for the proposition; victory for municipal ownership is indicated.

TO TACOMA VOTERS:

“We pride ourselves on having water power here equal almost to that of Niagara Falls. We advertise this to the world. Now shall we take advantage of it? This seems to be our last chance to get a power plant of sufficient capacity. It will give us power to pump water by day and give light by night and furnish cheap power for factories that desire it. It will prevent us being tied hand and foot by other power dispensers. I hope the people will vote this proposition to build this power plant by an overwhelming majority.” — Mayor John W. Linck.

The ballots are falling today in the power plant election. Over 16,000 are registered and have the right to vote, but indications are the ballot will be light. It looks, however, as if the people will give emphatic sanction to the proposition, thus declaring the freedom of the city from the grip of the power monopoly.

If the city never grows another man, the present light service will pay all expenses and the profits will pay for the plant with interest and principal in twenty years. If the city grows, as it has in the last three years, the plant will pay for itself and the people will have it clear for nothing in seven years.

It is incomprehensible that the intelligent voters of Tacoma will not take advantage of the opportunity to get for themselves this great proposition.

Some of the inspectors of the election were slow in getting started and at some polling places the ballot boxes were not on hand until about noon. The last one to go out was in the third precinct of the Seventh ward. Few votes were cast in any precinct until noon. Reports from places where they were voting indicated that the balloting was almost unanimous for the power plant. Voters were voting for both the propositions on the top of the ballot, thus insuring the early beginning of work on the power plant project.