Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-03-03
STORM ARGUMENT
FOR CONDUIT BILL
AssembIyman Bloom VIII Use
Fatality to Force Measure
Out of Committee.

The loss of life and damage tc
| property as a result of falling wires
during the recent blizzard will be used
as an argument by Assemblyman Jo-
seph B. Bloom, of Essex, to have his
conduit and subway bill reported out
| of committee Immediately.
The bill provides for the establish
ment of subways and conduits by mu-
inequalities, thereby forcing the re-
moval of overhead wires. He declared
| last night that the results of the
storm furnished one of the strongest
arguments possible for his bill. He
| declared he would use every effort to
have it brought up for another read
| ing at the next meeting of the AS
| sembly.
Here is a storm that has tied UP
| traffic in a manner out of all proper
ton to the severity of it, he said.
1.-The trouble is almost exclusively due
to the falling of poles and overhead
wires. In other words, If there were
no overhead wires the weather condi-
tions would have been met by the
public service companies just as read
lily as they were in a more severe
storm two weeks previous.
IF an object lesson was needed to
bring home to the people and the leg
islators the necessity of empowering
cities to remove the overhead wire
menace they surely have it in this
storm and its effects. The saving Of
even one life is a sufficiently strong
motive for passing the law. The I'M
fortunate man who was killed in Cen
trail avenue on Sunday died victim
to the overhead wire menace
fRrha nOint ahout his death fhol1rh
is that we are all to congratulate
ourselves that no more were killed in
the same way. Several others were
shocked in a similar way by the same
wire that killed Louis Ferrari. With
the large numbers of wires down all
over the city the escape of others Dor
ders on the miraculous. l am led to
believe that the police of this city
were expecting more fatalities, and /
believe fear of the wires kept many
thousands of persons indoors today
THE wires that fell were not even
the trolley wires, which would not be
affected by my bill. They were the
wires carrying currents of small po-
ttItiality, not dangerous ordinarily,
which became charged through fall
ing across live wires. If those wires
were underground, where they belong,
these things could not have occurred.
There is a wire crossing my back
yard in Stanley avenue now so
weighted down with snow that it
touches the ground. None of us in
my house know whether that wire is
in contact somewhere else with a live
wire or is live itself. The conse-
quence is that none of my family will
venture into the yard for any pur-
pose, and the children have to be kept
indoors"
Assemblyman Bloom will move to
have his bill reported out of commit
tee as soon as the House is in ses-
sion. He will make a motion to that
effect il the House convenes tonight.
The bill, known as House Bill No SO,
is now in the hands of the Assembly
committee on municipal corporations.
At hearing on it and other similar
subway and conduit bills held last
week representatives of the various
electric, telephone, telegraph and troll
ley companies opposed it on the
ground of cost.