The San Francisco call., 1905-04-04
He WITT SHOWS
A MILD SPIRIT
Does Not Appear Ready to
Fell Poles and Cut Wires
of Offending Companies
SUPERVISORS ARE ANGRY
Demand That the Electrical
Chief Furnish a List OF
Permits He Has Granted

The Board of Supervisors yesterday
adopted a resolution directing the De-
partment of Electricity ito f1le with
the board not later than April 10, 1900,
list of names of persons, companies
or corporations to whom permits have
been issued since March IL, 1901. TO
erect or lay telephone or telegraph
wires along or upon any of the pubic
streets of the city and county, or to
whom permits have been issued Incl
dental to the exercise of any other
privilege for which poles or wires are
required
L was very much surprised" said
Braunhart, who introduced the resolu-
ton, that permits have been granted
by the Department of Electricity to
various corporations to string overhead
wires. which permits are equal to fran
ch1ses that in some cases could not be
| granted by this board. 1t is an aston
ishing state. of affairs that a mere
clerk, without authority of law, has
! taken it upon himself to give away
/ valuable privileges without consulting
the Mayor or Board of Supervisors"
TIME EXPIRES TOMORROW.
Braunhart said also that the Direct
| Telephone Company had asked the Su-
/ pervisors for permission to string wires
i the board had refused the request on
= the ground that II had not the author
ity to grant it and that Hewitt had
J subsequently granted the company the
| authority asked.
] The order of Chief Hewitt for the
placing of wires underground was mis-
! interpreted as to the time when the
] work must commence. The forty-eight
hours notice extends to o'clock to-
/ morrow morning, the hour of the isSu-
! of hA faf A,yd6 q
a. m. yesterday
| A row between the various classes Of
/ corporations that find electrical wires
necessary in their business may de-
! velop from the Hewitt order. 1t is
/ claimed by one of the lesser companies,
but at the same time an important one,
/ that one of the larger corporations is
/ forcing the issue in order to freeze the
smaller one out of field that is work
I ed as side issue by the larger one.
! This matter will probably come out be-
fore the Board Of Supervisors. The
question of a corporation formed for
/ transacting q specified business leasing
it's wires for the transaction OF another
sort may be brought up in the expect
/ ed controversy.
The Western Union Telegraph and
the Pacific States Telephone companies
claim that they have been complying
with the ordinance for five years ex-
cept to a limited extent. The great
majority of their wires are underground
and the few that are not. they say.
they have plenty of conduit accommo-
dation for and can place them out Of
sight in a short time. The violations
| of the law that these companies are
| charged with are said to be due to the
/ fact that no attempt has been made to
enforce the ordinance against other
corporations that have been stringing
wires within the conduit districts.
CITY WIRES OVERHEAD.
"A peculiar feature of the situation"
said an official connected with one OF
the large electrical companies that uses
wires, lis that among the overhead
! wires are those Of the city. The mu-
nicipality is one of the principal vio-
lators of the ordinance. Another fact
/ worthy of note is that appropriations
aggregating $500, 900 have been made by
the municipality for the laying OF con-
duits to accommodate its wires, though
the franchises of the Western Union
and the telephone company provide
that the city shall be permitted to place
it's wires in them free of charge. 1t is
| claimed by electrical people that the
CITY system of conduits could have
been laid for about half what 1t cost"
This charge may be due to anger at
the new order to bury wires. but those
7 making it claim that investigation will
prove it.
Chief Hewitt when seen yesterday did
not talk or act like man who was pre-
pared to go out and hew. saw and
burn In fact, he said that nothing sem
sational would be done. This depart
rnent has been subjected to a great
deal of criticism, and we are going to
carry out the provisions of the ordin-
ance," he said, but the enforcement
will be based on a reasonable interpre-
tation of the law"
1t is said that the burglar alarm and
messenger systems have the most over
head wires. 1t was thought that mes
senger systems were excluded from the
provisions of the ordinance. and the
burglar systems got permits under this
head also, but Hewitt's order embraces
all these companies. One theory adj
vanced for this is that he wishes to
force the hand of the Supervisors in the
matter and make them admit that
these wires have right overhead.
I'VE will get underground when the
city does,'' said an official of COM
pany that comes under the messenger
service head LAS long as the municipal
wires are overhead I don't see why we
j can't keep ours there. What are we
going to do? Why, nothing, unless an
attempt is made to cut our wires; en-
| we'll take legal action"