Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-08-22
THE GAS PRESSURE.
MIR. Caldwell Comes Back mt Messrs.
Whitaker and Brockunier.


Mr.. Caldwell Comes Back mt Messrs.
Whitaker and Brockunier.
To the Editor Of the Register.
As you have opened your columns to an
attack Indignantly personal in its charac-
ter by interested parties in answer to my
late card, which certainly was not OF that
kind, 1 will ask in fairness that you permit
a reply, which pledge myself shall be the
last word from me in the newspapers, what
ever may yet be said by others therein.
The personal features of the controversy
are not what the people of Wheeling are
interested in, but they have an interest in
seeing that life ndprOperty are not put in
unnecessary peril to deposit a few more
dollars in the pockets of Messrs. Whitaker
and Brockunier.
The only reason they assign for wanting
unlimited pressure is that they may keep
the mills running When it is proposed to
them by parties who, like the writer, have
no adverse interest to them in any way,
shape or form, to try n twenty-pound
pressure, and if that proves insufficient
that Council will at once increase it, they
resort TO attempts to prejudice public
opinion against their opponents, impugn'
inc their motives and endeavOring TO in
timidate them. No one doubts-they dc
not themselves dOubt-that if the twenty
pounds pressure proves insufficient those
who now oppose unlimited pressure,
would vote to increase it to whatever Is
necessary. They would do 50, even if they
were convinced that it could only be done
at considerable risk. We must have the
cas- for our manufactures, even if risk i
necessary.
1t has been demonstrated by previous ar
ticles in your paper that 20 pounds Is FULLY
sufficient to supply our mills and factories
WHY then is more clamored for? 1t can
not be that it is asked for the sake OF oul
manufactures and workmen. Twenty
pounds will supply them If not,
the advocates of that amount of pressure
and of public safety, say prOre 20 pounds
insufficient, and we will vote for more.
This reasonable proposition Is rejected
1t is evident that the cry that those reject
ing it are doing so out of regard for oul
manufacturers and wOrkingmen Is hypo
critical and mere demagoguery. Plainly
there is some hidden motive, and the cry
that those who are trying TO do their duty
bv insisting that reasonable precautlon fol
| life and property shall be taken rs to pres
sure, are opposing the interest OF manuiac
turers and wOrkmen, is merely raised tt
intimidate them and raise prejudice against
| them to make them yield.
II al tl,n nt the pnnlnlnN
is contirmatOry of the charge, that the sup
ply of the Bellaire factories Is the cause o.
unlimited pressure being desired in Wheel
ing; that the one pipe down the Ohio side
of the river is insufficient, after being de
pleted all the way down by the mills, &c.
to supply Bellairc fully; that it is to escape
the great expense of laying another pIpC
| down the other side; to save their Owl
rockets. not to benefit the mills of Wheel
inc or the wOrkmen of Wheeling, thai
these men are willing to subject their iel
low citizens of Wheeling to the dangers o
unlimited pressure through the entire
! length of the city.
or course they do not avOw this rs thcll
reason before the City Council, because
Council would not be willing, they know,
! to take such risks for the manufacturers o
! Bellairc.
II is said that scll-intcreSt would keep
the gas company from running any risk
with g;ls pressure But Seli-intercSt make:
men willing to take risks. If two or three
houses are blown up, and several souls sen
to Heaven, az in Washington, Pa, in the
twinkling of an eye, by undue and unnec
esSarv pressure through our streets to sup
ply Bellarc, il will be very poor conSola
ton to the spirits Of the departed to know
in another world that the gas company l.
pccuniarily responsible and will pay 70
killing them.
1t is thought that the above explain,
why the writer was publicly and passion
atelv denounced Us coward ant
pup by Mr.. Whitaker after the las
meeting of the City Council, for Opposin!
Mr.. VS. m0ncycd interests, and threat
encd by him with political extinction 70
what the writer thought to be his duty.
The ,wO persons named above state ii
their card in your Saturday paper that tn
special committee of Council which wen
to Pittsburgh and elsewhere to investigate
and report what pressure WAS safe, re
ported not fifteen pounds, but blan'
pounds. Below is the resolution verbatim
from the report Of that committee eXactl.
rs it came to Council from the committee
and verified by the records and the Cit.
| Clerk.
Your Committee offer the following rcSo
luton for adoption:
R,SOirrd That the City Solicitor he di
rcctcd To prepare an ordinance allowing
natural gas to be transported through tn
pipes or street mains within this city at
pressure not greater than fifteen pounds t.
! the square inch. and requiring each com
paIiv operating within the city TO plac
pressure guagrc in the Hose Houses in eacI
ward through which their pipe lines may
pass, and compel, under penalty, eacI
company to inspect and flash each escap
at least once in every lorty-eight hours.
II. T. MCGREGOE,
Chairman Committee.
The statement that the committee re
ported blank pounds is not in accOrdanc
! with the facts.
! Ii is, however, just as accurate and truth
full as the statements in the card Of Satur
day last aS to what the writer OF this card
! had said. My utteranceS were perverted
changed and distorted wiltully.
| deny ever saying what WAS put in NJ,
mouth either in substance or words. Th
is n question of veracity in which the pub
lie has no interest except to defeat the per
| SrcutiOn attPmDted t0 be inaururatcC