Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-06-24

tna9 Hno pr<e1t "a c. pei4h8 =
man who required both telephones to
practically double his payments. Mr..
Ward replied that the sum named was
merely maximum, but that the prac-
tical price would be- in all probability,
much less. Some maximum price had
to be fixed, and he pointed out that the
Bell Company was unrestricted as to
its price. and might charge anything
it pleased.
At about this point Mr.. ]. J. Coniff
took the floor and stated that at the
last meeting of Council he had pre-
sented petition for a franchise for a
telephone company, and understood
from the public prints that at the last
meeting of the Committee it had been
agreed to lay these matters all aside
until they could be taken up together
He said his ordinance was not quite
ready, but could be handed to the So
licitor to-day, and added the important
information that the maximum charges
proposed by his Company was $24 for
business telephones and SIS for resi-
dences. He had no objection to any of
Mr.. Nesbitt's suggestions, and would
accept them.
Here Mr.. Bradbury moved to dis
pose of the National ordinance, and
Mr.. Williams said if the National peo-
pie wished to come in let them come.
Mr.. Bradbury then moved that the Ma
tional ordinance be recommended to
Council with the changes proposed by
the Solicitor, and after some discus
sion General Caldwell, who represented
the local Bell Company, took the floor.
Mr.. Caldwell prefaced his remarks
by stating that the had some little
knowledge of the telephone business in
Wheeling, and of the c., D. & P. Com
pany. When it came here and entered
the field with an overhead system the
telephone business was in its infancy
and the people were not used to it. 1t
was not then the essential to business
and commerce that it now is The old
pole system of the Bell Company would
never be allowed now. The world had
progressed since it was put in. The
history of the underground system
commenced with very general public
clamor about the forest of wires on the
streets, and particularly on Main and
Market streets, between Tenth and Six
tenth streets. That public clamor
forced the Company to accept the pres
emit ordinance, and remove the menace
to the property of citizens, and to meet
the requirements of the fire depart
ment. Those things compelled the
time in the original ordinance, but for
the veal of the city the Company was
compelled to put it's wires under
ground
The Company had given the city thir-
ty telephones absolutely free, and with
the knowledge that the business of the
city would expand and grow, and that
needs which could not be forseen would
come into being, had made solemn
compact and agreement that as many
more telephones as the city might need
would be furnished at the nominal fig
ure of SIS each. That Company had
fought through the heat and burden of
the day, and had demonstrated the util-
ity of the business, and now, under the
plea of cheaper telephones, there APP
peared on the scene a Company with a
capital of $500, and report read as
to one of it's stockholders did not
pledge that man to put in more than
$100-the price of one share In Cen
eral Caldwell's opinion, the proceeding
was an unheard of one.
Mr.. Caldwell took up the subject of
rival telephone companies in other cit
les, and recited Newark as city where
a rival company was not allowed to
come in until it had a definite number
of bona fide subscribers. He said that
in every public or semi-public enter
prise the remunerative business was
within a certain circumscribed area,
and recited, years ago, the experience
of the Citizens Street Railway Com
pany, which hauled its cars north of
Twelfth street and south of Brice's
drug store at a loss. He also recited
the history of public franchises in this
city, particularly as to the railway
companies and the bridge companies
over the river, and called the atten-
ton of the committee to the fact that
each additional corporation empowered
to do business simply meant an in
creased drain upon the citizens with
out corresponding advantages. He
agreed with the City Solicitor in his
suggestions. and thought there should