Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-05-03
TOWN WITHOUT LIGHTS.
Predicament Of Benwood fer the Past
Two Nights.
Some Unknown Trouble With the
Line or Machinery the Cause.
Employees Were Discharged to
Reduce Expenses and They Claim
the New Men are Incompetent.
The New Men Allege the Lire
Has Been Tempered With-Ex-
pert Electricians Sent for to
Remedy the Trouble.

For the second successive night Ben
wood was again in darkness last night,
and as consequence the people of Ben
wood are kicking vigorously. Sunday
night the electric lights in the streets
were not burning, on account of some dis
arrangement, until after midnight, when
a Wheeling electrician was sent for and
put the circuit in proper condition.
Again last night the same state of af-
fairs prevailed and a great deal Of incon-
venience was caused to the people
generally, as this is the only method
by which the streets can be
lighted since the town made a
contract with the electric light company
to furnish "a arc lights to supply the
town. The fact that the town was in
darkness last night caused a great deal of
talk in Benwood and the matter is not
devoid of sensational features. One of
the councilmen notified the electric light
company last night that the city would
refuse to pay for every hour that it did
not get light
While the city and the people are COM
planning about the lights not being on,
different reasons are suggested as the
cause. AS stated exclusively in Sunday $
Register. three or four of the workmen
employed at the electric light plant since
it started were discharged and their po-
sitions given to two outside workmen
in order to reduce expenses from s159 to
$l29 month.
The move was unpopular even with
some of the stockholders who did not
favor reducing wages to the minimum
when the company was said to be MAX
ing money at the rate of about eight per
cent interest in the investment. 1t was
all the more unpopular because the men
discharged live in Benwood and those
who have taken their places are non-res-
identS. Benwood people. being working
people themselves, generally sympathiZe
with the discharged men and have not
failed to condemn the two members of the
committee of the electric light company.
who are said to be responsible for the
move to get cheaper labor. The old men
went out Saturday and Sunday the new
men took their places. There was no
light and the new men were charged with
not understanding their business. The
same thing happened last night, as pre-
viousy mentioned, and the old men again
insisted that their successors were not
qualified to attend to their work.
The new men, on the other hand, charge
the old men with tampering with the ma
chinery before they left, and say that
they responsible for the trouble.
While there is no evidence known to sup
port this charge, yet it is said that some
of the members of the company believe
that the former employees have something
to do with the failure of the system to
work properly. 1t is stated that the com
pany last night telegraphed to the Pitts
burg company, which furnished the cleo
trical appliances for the plant, to send an
electrician to remedy the trouble. The
whole matter was the chief item of i'm
portance in Benwood last night