The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-10-06
TWIN CITY COMPANY
PRESENTS ITS CASE
Asserts Legal Right to Pole
System Until Courts Pass
on Question

Strainlng the city from interfering with
the wires, and poles on Hague avenue
was heard by Judge Bum yesterday,
| Attorney o. E. Holman for the COM
pany concluding his argument. Corpo-
ration Attorney Michael will be heard
this morning.
| Chief among the points made by the
company is that the sixty-day notice
given by the city was insufficient; that
the order of the city council was un-
reasonable, as the ordinary life of the
poles was ten years, and they had
been standing but two and one-half
years; that the wires and poles were
placed by authority of the city council
at great expense, are not a nuisance,
part of the distance between Victoria
and Lexington avenue having but few
| houses; that the poles were lawfully
on the street and the city does not
possess the power to arbitrarily re-
move them; that there is legal dis
elimination against the company, and
! that the company should have re-
straining order until the case is decid-
ed in the courts.
Presents Affidavits
| In behalf of the company Attorney.
Holman presented ,affidavits from l.. l..
c.. Brooks, vice president of the COM
pany, r. L. Barry, the ST. Paul man
ager, and others, in which the position
was taken that 1t was impossible for
the company to carry out the order of
the council in the time specified 1t
was eontended that the necessary ma
terial had been ordered, but not de-
liVered.
Time was required. it was contended,
in which to prepare plans for the con-
duit, and secure the consent of the
board of directors Of the company to
do the work. 1t was the intention of
the company to carry out the order of
the council at the earliest possible mo-
ment, letters being submitted from
factories saying that the material could
not be delivered until two weeks after
the city engineer began removing the
wires and cutting down the poles.
For the city Corporation Attorney
Michael presented two sets of affida-
Wits. Those of A. r. Starbey, assistant
city engineer, and F. D. Varnum, city
electrical inspector, contradicting the.
assertions of the company that it was
found impossible to secure the mate
rial.
1t was held by them that it would
have been easy for the company to
have secured the necessary pipe and
cable in st. Paul with slight delay,
and that the excavation could be made
and the cable inserted in from ten days
to two weeks. 1t was said that sixty
days was an abundant time to allow
for the placing of the wires under
ground. tA~
States city's Case
In addition Mr.. Starkey asserted that
| the Northwestern company had agreed
to remove their wires and three poles
| on Hague avenue as soon as the Twin
| City company had taken down their
poles, and that the Northw estern com
pany had voluntarily constructed a
| conduit on Selby avenue, from Dale TO
lsSnelling, and had agreed with the city
engineer to place the wires under
ground in the near future. He showed
| that the Northwestern company now
has in the city $4,000 feet of conduit,
as compared with $4,000 by the Twin
| City, and held that this tended to show
| that there has been no discrimination
against the Twin City company,
It was pointed out that the Twin
City company had in one year con-
structed three miles of conduits, and
| yet claimed that is should have had
| two years to put in the half mile on
| Hague avenue from Victoria to Lex
ington. Commenting on the three
! Northwestern poles on Hague avenue,
Mr.. Michael said that he had BEEN
(! 1QlOII1lGQ SlHCG COlulIl5 1AbO COu4I LAeAI
! the Northwestern company is removing
| them.
Affidavits were also presented from
! Aldermen Matthias BantZ, ]. w. l..
| Corning and M. j. Moriarty showing
| that when the resolution was before
| the city council ordering the removal
| of the wires and poles on Hague ave-
nue. there had been no claim on the
part of the company that sixty days
was not sufficient time in which to
| do the work. The aldermen stated
! that there was no disposition upon the
| part of the members of the council
| to inflict a hardship upon the COM
pany, and that if the company had
claimed that the time was too short
they would have agreed to an extern
| sion.
Company Claims Legal Right
| Attorney Holman argued the case at
great length, claiming that the right
] of the city to remove the poles should
| have been established in court before
| the removal began, and that the COM
! pany should be given the protection
! of a restraining order until the points
at issue have been adjudicated. He
/ said that the fact the company was
being Disseminated against was ap-
parent BY discrimination he did not
mean that the city officials were show
! ing undue or prejudicial hostility to
| the company but that the act of ar
| bitrarily removing the wires of the
most important lead of the company
| in st. Paul became legal discrimina-
ton that was apparent.
Under the ordinances of the city
| the district in which it is necessary to
have wires under ground does not ex-
tend beyond Dale street. The only
conduits west of this point is the one
of the Twin City on Hague avenue
from Dale to. Victoria, and that of
the Northwestern on Selby avenue
from Dale to Smelling. 1t was evident,
he argued, that conduits are not needed
/ west of Dale street. The charge that
| the Hague avenue lines are dangerous
because of the electricity that they
carry, that the wires obstruct the
/ views from the second story windows,
and that the noise made by the wires
in the winter constitutes nuisance,
/ he pronounced as baseleSs.
He declared that there is no danger
! from electricity, that the wires are
above the roofs of the houses, and that
the noise made cannot be any worse
than that caused by the Northwestern
lines on Selby avenue. In proof Of his
lclaim that conduits are not needed
on Hague avenue, he cited the fact that
there are but eight houses in the block
between Oxford and Lexington, four
on each side of the street.
i One of the points at issue was whether
is is reasonable for the city council
to order the removal of the poles after
they had been standing but two years
and a half, whereas the natural life of
the poles was ten years. He thought
the company should be permitted to
- L IL =