Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-11-23

| TOWNS TO BE CONNECTED UP.
The. long promised telephone compe-
tftion for Wheeling and the other cities
and towns in the Ohio valley, is coming
nearer and nearer, and within a very
short time representatives Of the Fed
eral Telephone Company, backed by
| many millions of dollars and headed by
! men who mean business, will ask the
| City Council Of Wheeling for a fran
| chise which will ensure low rates and
an underground system. The represen-
tatives of this great corporation, re-
Gently formed, have already looked over
| the ground here, and the franchise to be
asked for has been formulated in gem
! eral terms-a fact which has been well
| known to the Register and a few of
| our citizens for some weeks past.
The following, from yesterdays Pitts
burg Dispatch, throws a food of light
on the plans of the Federal Company,
| and shows the scope of the enterprise
now under way:
| There is some promise of lively COM
| petition in telephone rates for Western
Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio within
| the next few months, or just as soon
| as the Federal Telephone Company has
put into operation its system of plants
that will be used to form a circuit Of
this territory.
The Federal Telephone Company, ac-
cording to it's present plans, does not
only intend to connect Pittsburg with
all the important towns within a radius
of about 100 miles of this city, but 1t
will establish at least two trunk lines,
one of which will reach from Washing
ton, d. c., to st. Louis.
Fred DeLand, President of the Fed
| eral Telephone Company, is busily en-
gagged these days buying in all the
local telephone exchanges that are ON
the market, besides securing franchises
| in the towns where no local independ-
emit plants are established. Besides
this, the company has applied for char
| ters in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, for
the establishment and operation of its
| lines in those States.
| With the completion of the system OF
! the Pittsburg and Allegheny Tele-
phone Company, the Federal Telephone
| Cimpany will have connection with this
city. While there has been no direct
| for the joint operation of their sys-
TENS, yet the Federal Telephone Com
pany, by reason of it's purchases of the
various local independent plants, has
secured agreements that will give its
exchanges connection with the Pitts
burg and Allegheny Telephone Com
pany's system in this city. The latter
company is busy laying its underground
lines, but the completion Of the work is
somewhat indefinite. An officer of the
company said yesterday that 1T hoped
to have it's lines ready for operation in
the early spring.
In the meantime the Federal Tele-
phone Company is perfecting its sys-
TEN. Established local exchanges have
been secured in the following towns:
Coraopolis, Leechburg, Hyde Park, Az
onmore, Freeport, Carnegie, Canons-
burg, Letrobe and Moundsville, W. Va.
In addition to these franchises have been
secured by the company at McDopald,
Williamsburg, Derry, Youngstown, O.,
and Washington, Pa. At the latter
place a fine cable plant is to be built,
and plants will also be Immediately 10
Gated in the other towns where fran
chises have been secured. Negotiations
are also on for the purchase by the
Federal Telephone Company of the
local plants at Steubenville, O., Green's
burg, Pa, and several other places.
Mr.. DeLand said yesterday that his
company proposes to establish trunk
line reaching from st. Louis to Wash
ington, D. c., by way of Indianapolis,
Columbus, and Pittsburg, and that an
other trunk line between Cincinnati and
Washington by way of Wheeling wouid
also be built.
THE enterprise is backed by New
York and Chicago capitalists" said Mr..
| DeLand, "and our plans are being push
ed with all possible speed. Our inter-
ests in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and
| Ohio are being looked after just as they
are in Pennsylvania. We are buying
the plants outright and are paying
| cash for them in every instance, so that
the only agreement TO be reached is
with reference to the price"
| A CRITICISM.