Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-11-03
THE kLEOTRICAL CONPANT STILL
"I.EGsING" FOR WHlrAKER.


general claim unsupported BY fact, fig
ure or even specific statement that it
has the right Of the controversy be-
tween it and the citizens OF Wheeling
There Is no room to sQuirm or shift
10 that controversy, so-this time TAX
ing refuge in the title OF the company,
its president evidently having refused
TO permit his name to be signed TO its
second untruthful statement-the cor
poration, with amazing effrontery, SIM
ply lodges every point Of the contro-
versy, IL the dispute about so plain
situation can be dlRnifed with the title.
II insults the memory OF citizens and
the members Of Council who we're pres
ent when its franchise was granted, and
makes an assertion it knows TO be
wholly untrue when it denies there was
an understanding that the city was to
compete with it 10 supplying electric
light TO the people. The plain state
ment was made that the company was
not 10 oppose the city when it should
desire TO add an electric light plant TO
the gas works, and it was upon that un-
Outstanding alone that Council was in
ducsd 10 grant IL the rights 1t asked.
Any other view Of the subject is ao-
surd aud involves the more than
absurd claim that the city con-
templated going out Of the bust
ness OF supplying light to her
citizens and proposed TO deliberately
throw away Que Of the most valuable
rights in her charter together with an
ungafing and always increasing source
Of revenue and an economic convenience
of inestimable benefit TO the people!
Itis quite evident, in the light OF
subsequent developments that the cor
poration made this agreement with the
city with a mental reservation as to the
fuldHmeut Of its part Of it-a reserva-
ton corporations rarely fall to make
with regard 70 the fulfllment Of the
splendidly liberal promises they al
ways lavisned upon the community
whenever they want anything from the
citizens. It Is well known corporation
method. After the company gains its
obfect-presto change-the people
may whistle for a iulfillmet Of prom
ises and solemn agreements that
are not spiked down and douoly
rivsted In an ordinance. The cor
Doration, as in the case Of the Electric
Light Company, Will deny them all
and, shaking its franchise under the
city's nose, coolly ask the citizens
what they are going to do about it,
In our local columns will be found an
article which goes into the subject in
detail and pulls to pieces the mass Of
false statements and figures with which
the corporation tries to obscure and
confuse the real question at issue, not
one point regarding which, as previous
~ fully brought out by the REGISTER,
does the corporation make any attempt
whatever to answer, for the reason
that il cannot.
II produces no figures, nothing what
ever. TO back up its former assertion
that it is furnishing light as cheaplY as
the city could. If that were true it
would not oppose the city going into
the manufacture and sale Of electric
light. It would, rather, welcome 1t for
then II the city charged more or as
much as the corporation there would be
a grand kick among the taxpayers who
would drive the city out OF the business
entirely and the corporation would fall
heir TO the whole thing street lighting
aud all.
The corporation makes no sllusion
whatever to the REGISTERS exposition
OF its previous false statement that the
city was paying 500 per lamp for street
lighting, nor does it attempt TO deny
that the city is paying less than S64, or
that the corporation could not do the
same work for less than S72.59, which
was the company's bid and which in-
cluded exemption from taxation.
The corporation knows the city could
20 into the manufacture and sale
to the people OF incandescent light
at once and at not one cent
Of additional cost to the tax
payers, but on the contrary at
a considerable lessening OF the
cost Of the present arrangement for
VITA the change from gas 10 electricity,
the corporation has taken away the
city's best paying customers and these
the city without exception would get
back including even those whom the
CORPORATIONS poor light and exorbitant
charges have driven into building plants
OF their own, for no private concern or
person can make light as cheaply as the
city can. The corporation knows as
well as any one iu the city, and may be
better, that the addition Of al mean
descent plant to the city's present arc
light plant for street purposes, no mat
ter how large It would have to be TO
supply the city-in fact, the larger the
better-would pay for itself over and
over again in an incredibly short time
aud leave the city = very handsome
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