Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-09-05
Lancaster fntelligsnrfr.
WEDNESDAY, EVENING, SEPT. 6, 1898.
The wooden Poles Must 90.

nal ana the NeT hfu nave Conciuutu w
let tho poles 60 up, referring probably to
the fact that we do not daily protest
against them nevertheless our opposi.
tion to them is unabated and our invo.
cation unchanged to the property hold
ers and the city authorities, who have
the power to keep the city from being
dis0gured by these ugly poles. They are
q relic Of a bygone age, and are no longer
tolerated, being no longer necessary.
The Western Union telegraph company
has Just been refused permission by the
commissioner of the District of Colum-
bia, to put down more poles in wash
ington city. They are informed that
their wires should be laid underground,
and the intimation is strongly made
that the poles now up must shortly come
down, because Of their unsightliness.
Washington Is fortunate in being under
the jurisdiction Of intelligent commits
sioners. Lancaster and most other cities
are unfortunate In being under the con-
troll of councimen and committees who
do not have an adequate conception OF
the needs OF the community. They have
no idea of the beautiful and but little
idea Of the good.
The councils have undertaken to give
the city the electric light and to the
lamp committee fell the work. The lamp
committee did not know any thing
about electric lights, but they had "A
company which was lighting the city
with petroleum which was also in the
electric light business and this com
pany told the lamp committee all about
1t and offered to ,ut up the plant and
provide the light for year for certain
sum. The lamp committee, delighted
at the ease with which their duty could
be thus discharged, embraced at once
the Maxim company and its idea and its
price, never asking anyone for bid or
an idea, and made brief agreement
which simply said you put up the
light by certain time and we will pay
you the money" They were prudent
enough to get bond in sl0, 900 that the
Maxim company, which in truth might
he maximum fraud, wonld do what it
agreed to do. This 1t has not done. 1t
has not done its work in the time speci-.
fed, but it has put up poles. The Maxim
company is stoutly devoted to poles. 1t
seems to think Lancaster people love
poles and they have justification
for their opinion in their calmness over
their intliction. Another electric light
company, now introducing its light on
our principal streets, finds no use for
poles. IL fa3tens its wires along the
houses under the awnings, where they
are very conveniently located. The
Maxim company could do likewise. 1t
could get permission from property
owners to fasten its wires to trees or
walls where they would do no injury. 1t
might be asked to pay for the accommo.
dation, and it should be willing to pay
for it. We do not understand that the
city has any particular interest III
this electric light company, which calls
upon it TO aid the company in imposing
its poles and wires upon property owners
without paying for the privilege. We
do not suppose that the lamp committee
or any other official has any pecuriaiy
interest in the Maxim contract, improvi
IDENTIFY as it seems to have been gwen
out. Why then should the city officials S
give this company their sympathy ard
aid in its undertaking to take private
property for its use without compensa.
tion
If the lamp committee Of councils bad
desired to do its duty intelligently it
would have acquainted itself with the
merits of the respective systems of elCc-
trical lighting. 1t would have discovered
that the one it has selected is not the
best even of the pole lighting systems
1t would have found that the city
could be economically and efficiently
lighted from single high tower, where
all the light made would be utilized, in.
stead Of being confined and wasted as in
the system contracted for. The European
visitors and scientists, who have came
over to attend the opening of the North
ern Pacific railroad, were very much
struck by the illumination of the town
Of Fargo, in Dakota, by electric light
from central tower, which shed its
effulgence OIL the earth for miles around.
The rapid growth of the town, which
numbers some ten thousand inhabitants
now, though not in existence a decade
ago, did not astonish them so much as
did the quickness with which the latest
improvement In science was seized upon
in the wilderness, and the new town
lighted with the best light, utilized in
the most efficient way while the old
cities in the East and Europe were still
clinging to their old appliances. Fargo
still but a third the size of Lancaster
has erected an electrical plant which
throws mild light over the whole
town, rs we'll in the yards and ALLEYS
and on the house tops as on the streets
Nune of the light, and none of the powe,
that makes 1t is lost. The streets art
not obstructed and disGgured with poles
And better than all, persons resIdin!
near the electric light or walking to
wards 1t are not distressed by its inferna
glare, as they would If it hung low OF
poles.
STATE CHAIRMAN COOPER is report
IN s.N