Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-08-29
lancaster fntellige1lrer.
WEDNESDAY svEN1No. AUG. 20. 1888

Aa1lca8IEI fItIHlttYEIlCEI.
WEDNESDAY svENINo.A AUG. 20. 1893
They Need Not be Afraid.
The contemplation of the number Of
electric light masts standing on our
streets affords strong revelation of the
remarkable pusillanimity of men, acting,
or called upon to act, singly. 1t is safe
to say that nearly every post that has
been planted has been placed against the
wish of the owner of the sidewalk and
that not one relishes the incumbrance in
front of his property. Yet with a single
reported exception they have been per,
mitted to stand. The owners of the
property are apparently afraid to cut
them down, although their right to do
80 is very clear. II these property owners
would get together and consider the
question they would speedily and unani
mously resolve to cut away the obnox
ious poles but 50 long as they are re-
quired to act independently, they do not
act, simply because they lack the nerve,
little as it takes. There is not a man
who submits to the imposition of an
electric light pole upon his sidewalk
against his will who does not discredit
his manhood. If he feels that it is an
imposition he ought to act at once to
relieve himself of it. Not one of them
should submit to it yet they all do.
They express their Indignation, but do
not act to give it effect. What they
need to do is to satisfy themselves of
their rights, and then set promptly to
work to defend them.
The property owner who has any
doubt of his right to cut down pole
erected on his sidewalk by the electric
light company without his consent, is
certainly a very stupid man. He needs
to have a guardian. Any one Of ordi
nary intelligence will readily understand
that in cutting down a pole that is put
up on his property by private individual
against his will. he is exercising a right
that cannot be denied him. This Maxim
company is erecting these poles under
what it claims to be an implied authority
from the city. It has no express author
ity to show, and the city through its
mayor and city solicitor gets on the fence
when it is asked to take stand between
the company and the people. If these
officials should make up their minds to
get down, and to send the police force in
to protect the poles from being cut down,
then serious question will arise between
the property owners and the city, which
will be ultimately decided by the courts.
But the city certainly cannot delegate
its authority to private individuals. If
it chooses to aid the Maxim company to
plant its poles it must send out its own
officers to superintend the job or give
the Maxim people commissions as special
officers of the city. If the city authori-
ties choose to undertake to give the
authority of the city to the attempt that
is being made to incumber the streets,
we suggest that the mayor, the street
committee, the lamp committee and the
street superintendent march out to the
scene of action, when the next pole is
laid low, and sit astraddle of it while
they announce to the assembled multi.
tude that they lend the authority of the
city to the effort of the Maxim company
to make it hideous. Then they can get
up and 60 home; if they are not saved
the trouble by being ridden there on the
pole by the willing hands Of their as
sembled fellow citizens.
But until the municipality indicates
its intention to help the Maxim COM
pany in its work, our fellow citizens can
certainly cut away at their poles, with.
out the shadow of the fear of anyone.
An electric light company is no great
institution. The men in this concern are
very innocent creatures one Of them,
named McKelway, we suppose to be the
peddler of pills of that name in Chest
nut street drug store, in Philadelphia.
Our people have been SO long
trodden upon by telegraph pole fiends,
that they seem really to have come to
enjoy the notion of being kicked about
by these corporations. There is not a
telegraph pole in the country, erected
without the consent of the land owner,
that has right to stand. 1t stands
simply through the forbearance of those
who own the land it rests upon. Itwas
put there by the "cheek" of the tele
graph linemen, who achieve eminence
and high pay in their profession accord
ing to the success they have in stealing
land for their poles. Railway companies
pay damages for the land they take,
and telegraph companies have also as an
item of their expenditure, the cost of
their right of way but their cost is in
the fees they pay to lawyers and council
men and road commissioners to grease
their way along. They never-hardly
ever-pay anything to the land owner.
We suggest to property owners that
they act like men about this pole bust
ness. If they like the poles, let them
stand. If they don't like them, cut them
down. But don't growl about them
while they stand only through their own
fault. The wooden poles must 60.
The Berks County Judeship.
Over in Bsrks county the fear of the
Democracy that a refusal to nominate
Schwartz to the orphans court judgeship,
to which he was nominated by Governor
m L.