The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-06
NOT AFTER The CITY LIGHTING.
The Investment Company VIII Not
Bid for the Contract.

liz AOA SA0 OOAtA aCts
President w. G. Cooper, of the Belt Line
street railway, laughed when a MORNING
News reporter asked him yesterday If there
is any foundation for the rumor that the
Investment Company is TO bid for the con-
tract TO light the city.
Mr.. Cooper said that such an idea has
never been advanced in the board. He
added that g proposition had been sub
mitted by the Brush Electric Light and
Power Company 20 lease the Belt Line,
with view to operating it by electric
motive power, but as the proposition
was not considered favorably nothing had
ever come of it. The Brush company had
in view the operation of a street railway,
but the Investment Company has had at no
time any intention Of becoming an electric
light company, and competing either in the
city hgntlng or in commercial lighting.
The company, Mr.. Cooper said, has been
considering the feasibility of putting in an
electric plant TO operate the Belt Line, and
lighting Its own property, and nothing
more, but it has not yet decided to do that
1t finds objections to the overhead system
OF electric power, and as electricity as a
motive power is in its infancy, it does not
yet feel safe in adopting the storage battery
IN electric power that it is not deemed safe
to act hastily in the matter.
1t is not true that the Belt Line has any
desire now, nor has it had at any time, to
go into the light business" Mr.. Cooper said.
III has been figuring on plant for motive
power for the street railway and to light
Its own property, but it has never
az any time considered any propo-
sltlon to be a competitor of the Brush
N,nmnanV Mr.
several Of the stockholders of the In
vestment Company are interested in the
electric light company, and it is not likely
that any proposition to go into the electric
lighting business would meet with favor
No such proposition has been made, and l
do not think has ever been thought of by
any member Of the company"
ID. Il. Lester, who is a stock holder in the
Investment Company, said that the COM
pany has no intention of competing with
any company in city lighting. It has never
been suggested, Mr.. Lester said, by any
stockholder OF the company. The Brush COM
pany made a proposition 10 the Belt Line
to operate the road by electric power but
the proposition was SO manifestly out of all
proportion to what 1t ought to be that
IL was laid aside as being too low
70 give it second thought While the
brush company seemed to have desire to
run street railroad, the Investment Com
pany had no idea of establishing or operat-
ing an electric light plant.
ID. H. Thomas, ex-president Of the Belt
Line, said: The Belt Line does not intend
to go into the street lighting business. and
the subject has never been suggested
Another stakeholder of the company
said: ''The Belt Line people have not vet
decided what they will do. Some of us are
anxious to try the experiment of electric
cars, but we are uncertain as to the present
outlook for the overhead wire system, and
are afraid that it will soon be replaced by
the storage battery system, yet we are not
satisfied that the latter is perfected to such
degree as to warrant company like ours
in making SO costly an experiment.
Nothing is further from our intention than
to put in anything but the simplest plant
for the railway service, If we put in any
thing of the kind. Electric lighting is a
business in itself, ana is more nearly
an adjunct to a gaslight company
than to an electric railway. The In
vestment Company, the owner of the Belt
Line, has as much as it can handle in man
aging its present property. Moreover, a
number of the stockholders, probably a
majority of the stockholders of the In.
vestment Company, are stockholders in the
Brush Electric Light Company, and they
would not likely allow one interest to con-
tiict with the other"