Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-07-20

SIBLE.
The present street railway fight in
Council is one of the liveliest cam
paigns which has been carried on be-
fore the municipal legislature for
many long day.
There are people still living who re-
member the Terminal Railway Com
pany fight, the telephone company
controversy, the natural gas unpieas
antEess, and to come down to COM
paratively recent times, the Wheeling
and Elm Grove franchise endeavor,
with its resulting complex circum-
stances, but the indications are that
these ARRAYS lively and interesting
and long-drawn out as they were, will
fade into insignificance beside the
combat which is being waged for and
against the pending franchise of the
Peoples Railway Company.
Not much has recently appeared in
print regarding this matter, it's last
public discussion having been before
the Council Committee on Railways,
from which body it was reported fav-
orably. 1t now goes to Council upon
this recommendation, and will thence
be referred, in the natural sequence of
things, to the Committee on Ordi-
nances, where further proceedings will
be had, and where a more or less live
ly time is anticipated.
Because matters have lately been
quiesent, however, is no sign that
there has not been lively work done
within the past few days. In point of
fact, the trial of strength is now going
on between the Company making ap-
plication before Council and the
Wheeling Railway Company and its
collateral interests. The Peoples
Company asks for a franchise permit
ting it to construct and operate a
road from the extreme northern end
of the city to Forty-eighth street,
having single track on the north side
of the creek, paralleling the track of
the Wheeling Company from Eleventh
street to Twentieth, and a loop line on
the South Side, over route which has
heretofore been explained in detail.
1t is, as a matter of course, to the in
terests of the Wheeling Company to
block this enterprise, if possible, and
the struggle is on.
There is every reason to believe
that, say week ago, the Peoples
Company had command of the situa-
ton and its promoters and managers
felt assured, and not without cause,
of a majority of each Branch of Coun-
Gil. Since that time the Wheeling
Railway Company has appeared upon
the scene to great purpose, and the
present standing of the contending
parties is very uncertain. Each party
to the controversy claims a clear-cut
majority of votes of Councilmen, and
each is prepared to prove the PROPOSE
ton by names and figures which adj
nit of little argument when inspected
alone. Which claim is right is doubt
full. The truth probably is that Meth
er side can wholly command the sit
uation, and that a few gentlemen in
Council, divided between the t9o
Branches, hold command of the field.
AS was the case in several late in
stances where franchises of value were
before Council, there are rumors of
the use of money, influence and poll
tics, and there are charges and count
er charges more or less direct which
may be taken for what they are
worth. Reports and statements as to
offers of money are rife, but both
sides disclaim with emphasis that any
such influence has been used by them
although ''the other side may
be guilty. Members of Council are
very reticent, and generally con-
fine their remarks, when made,
to channel fitting the one with
whom the conversation is held, and as
a natural result little of tangible ma
ture can be ascertained by any system