The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-09-15
Wanted Rate tho Terminal People
Could Not Give, and Wanted a
Secret Arrangement..-Tnc Terminal
System Is Simply a Toll Road, and
VIII Dc Run in the Interest Of the
publIc


paying to it the last ilistalment Of $780,.
600 due on the county's subscription to
the capital stock OF the Terminal Com
pany. Judge Cochran consented TO
make a statement IN writing, which
follows: EJeP ~ y
We feel that our past dealings with
the public entitle us 10 fair-minded
treatment, and us yet the public have
not failed, when aroused, to vindicate
their good name for honesty and fair
dealing. The present movement against
paying the last instalment to our COM
pany is n serious blow aimed at the
company and ut tho county by hidden
hands, not interested, we believe, in the
life or welfare Of our company nor IN
the credit OF the county.
Without stopping TO discuss the par
ties or motives prompting the move
ment, let us calmly consider for mo-
ment what the pending question is:
With the bridge and tunnel COM
pleted. as all know they are, the only
remaining question in the language OF
the contract is, has III new railroad
from. the bridge to Conversion, in the
State of Ohio, been constructed ready
for the passage OF trcins% 1t has, and
is now doing business with Us.
II it has, the contract says "the re-
naming one hundred thousand dollars
shall be paid" The contract Is not that
new railroad shall be built by a new
company or by any designated COM
pany. The Wheeling Bridge & Ter
minal Railway Company has not now,
nor ever had, a charter extending be-
yond Martins Ferry. The South Penn
& Ohio Railway Company was char
tered about 1888. The present Wheel
ing & Lake Eric Railway Company is
new company, chartered about 1896,
with its eastern terminus at Bowerston.
In 1887, probably, it took out charter
for a road from Bowerston to Wheeling,
called the Harrison, Jefferson 4 Bel
mont Railroad Company, and this was
the status in January, 1883, when the
100000 was voted by the county.
There was no railroad reaching
Conversion but the Panhandle and the
Wheeling & Lake Erie. and the only
thing to be gained by building q line
simply between Bowerston and Wheel
ing was to let the Wheeling & Lake
Erie, then ending ut Bowerston, into
Wheeling. The branch from Portland
TO Steubenville was later determined
upon, in 1885 or 1880, and was built
under some other charter or proceeding
auxiliary to the main line between
Conversion and Martins Ferry. The
Wheeling & Harrisburg Railway Com
pany, which is now known by the
name OF the Wheeling Bridge & Ter.
minal Railway Company, never had
anv interest in these Ohio roads, nor
ANYTHING to do with their management,
and it was with knowledge that the
Wheeling & Lake Erie and the Cleve-
land x Wheeling Railroad Company
were both working OIL a line between
Conversion and Wheeling, and an un-
certainty as to which or whether either
would construct its road within four
years, that the subscription was put in
the form it was.
We believed then that the knowledge
or prospect that a bridge would be built
TO let any road into Wheeling, would
induce the building OF the link between
Bowerstown and the bridge, and were
willing to take the risk that others
would build it. We never agreed nor
intended to agree that We would build
it. And we venture the prediction
that with fair treatment that will keep
the Terminal property a Union depot,
open to all. yet other roads will come to
Wheeling because Of the bridge, and
the terminals we have built and desire
to enlarge and extend.
have maintained for twenty years
that such bridge, to say nothing OF an
added terminal system, would induce
the building OF other railroads to Wheel
ing. One has already come, and others
will yet come if capital is fairly treated.
We have no traffic contract with any
road and do not desire see the
need OF any, for If we had
such control with any one road,
that would only fix rate for all other
roads. We cannot imagine that any
argument can be added to those already
urged upon us to induce US to fix secret
rate for any road.
We are sorry We cannot give to the
Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Com
pany the rates they have indicated to
us rs satisfactory TO them. We arc un-
able and unwilling to discriminate in
favor OF or against any road because
sound policy, our contract with the
county and the Interstate Commerce
law all alike forbid. ilsiitl.
Ifthey think the rate which our gen.
eral manager has quoted to them is ex-
brilliant, let them specifically give 1t to
the public, and we are satisfied that
the public, which We have trusted and
which has trusted us. will be with us
every time.
The rate we quoted to them is pre-.
cisely the same upon which other roads
are now doing business with us without
murmur of complaint, so fur as have
had any hint. We are simply toll
road, and when We name rate, it is
the rate upon which all roads may do
business with us irrespective Of any
traffic contract. But all this matter Of
rate is wholly outside OF the question
now pending before the county.
AS TO the petition presented to the
commissioners, desire to say that it
was solely conceived by prominent citi-
zens without shadow OF prompting
from us. When it was handed to us as
good will offering and IN earnest Of
the kind feeling towards us II would
have been discourtesy to the splen.
did names 1t contained to have with
held it from the commissioners.