The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1894-01-16
INTERESTING TALK WITH Mr.. WOLFF
why Wheeling Cannot anticipate
81 sIuc,l of Reduction, in Rates IN
the FIXTURE - What Com p pen! on
would mean in Te1ephoncs-The
I,ona Distance Scrviccinos Popular.

The telephone people are putting up
come immense new poles, great y o '1'''i
pines, Just brought on from Al u !.
5sIn accordance with the requireme nt5 oil
4 council they have laid their wires under
& ground ON Main and Market streets be-
tween Tent. and Twentieth, and tnesc
E@Iiuce poles arc put up az centcrs, at IN
& tcrval5 throughout the district "ithin
these bounds, from which the wires
i coming up out OF the ground at these
b center and carried up the poles IN al: an
iron tube, will radiate to business
Z places and private residences
It's costly job, this work that
& thc# company is now doing, and is
D estimated 10 aeceseitatc ar outlay
& of SOS, COO The new poles, LOT
instance. will cost $50 each when
ii r,osition. They cost $50 on the
cars in the Michigan plnerles. Ihe
underground conduits arc alao or course
expensive The work OF Insulating Inc
cables and mbedding the condults
properly has to be very carefully oohe.
jrhe company is putting down extra
4 iyriresiin order to accom- modate the pos
5eible growth of their business Tor many
years to come.
Asked in regard to this provision Tor
: the future, Superintendent " oltt SAID
3 ti,at.cach center would have asurplusage
3 Of twenty-five wires with dead enos,
ready for connection in case OF demand.
Now service, however, comes IN Slowly
said he inasmuch as the potentlalltles
of3the district ia tho way OF business
have been pretty we'll exploited.
S=sz The company opened for business in
4 July, 1880, with twenty-five patrons, and
now has $50 patrons, and this number
practically at standstill with no ma
3 terial increase in sight.
Asked III regard to prices for
service hereafter, in view OF the
8 near OK pirntion OF patents, 5he SAD
: that tho company could hold out
no inducements in that direction.
Wheeling had always had cheap
service in comparison with other cities
and towns. It began here at $50 per
phone per year and had mover been
raised whereas up at Washington, Pa,
1.-THE charge was $50. and at Pittsburgh
1884, at Cleveland $72, at New York SloO,
& and at Chicago the same. Subscribers
here get the benefit OF the suburban
wires free, as, for instance. u to
sMoundsville, Bcllaire, Bridgeport and
Martins Ferry, with a charge OF twenty
y five cents only to Wellsburg and Beth
9 any.
The West Virginia service has never
paid the company. and therefore
&thero is no prospect OF reduction. In
regard to prospects Tor competition,
now that the patents are expiring, he
4 said that competition in phones was
) almost contradiction in terms, mas
much Us two constituencies III a city
must be served by two central offices,
not connected with each other, and
s therefore not connecting with their re-
spective constituencies. The expert
mont had been tried in Antwerp and
lin Belgium, and abandoned. 1t is
good deal like trying to make two bodies
8 occupy the same space ut the same time
However, nobody could tell about this
thing Of competition in the future. At
present there is no probability Of such u
thing in Wheeling.
Asked in regard to the progress
= and prospects of ''long distance"
E5telephoning as between Wheel
3$ing and points east and west, Mr.
sNNold said that the town is now
s connected with at least 500 cities and
towns to which long distance service is
Il possible. But, he SAID, there is 10 great
& amount OF such business done; it is too
expensive; for instance, 81 to New York
1 aud Chicago and SIS so to Cincinnati for
five minutes talk, rs against So cents by
fora ten-Word message.
man can get an answer to q telegram in
an hour and naturally does not like to
s pay SIS 65 extra for the small saving of
time 1t is only used by people to
whom time. as we'll as questions and
Immediate answers thereto, are neces-
& sarv,5 and will not soon be Il competitive
i service TO that OF the telegraph compa-
MES.
The long distance service is n
separate organization altogether from
that OF the local companies. Mr..
VOLTS company takes III only Pitts