Evening star., 1938-09-11
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star

"The argument used by persons inter-
ested in continuing and extending the
,, overhead system of
Property Rights electric wires instead
and Electricity. OF burying all this
conducting appara-
tus." says The Star OF September 3,
1888, "that expert electricians are agreed
that no commercially practicable method
has been brought to their notice by
which high-tension currents can be
placed underground is really no argu-
ment at ALL The use OF that term COM
mercially' rests wholly on the assumption
that public electric service Is designed
wholly for the pecuniary profit OF its
owners as distinguished from the con-
venience and advantage of the populace.
This is fundamental error. If the
apparatus for the service were confined
within building or yard or other inclos-
have a perfect right to say what they
could and could not afford to do. But
on the contrary, poles are raised in the
public thoroughfares, the State exer-
cises its right of eminent domain in many
instances to enable them to be planted
even on private property and other spe-
cial privileges are granted with the i'm
piled understanding that the project is
for the public good primarily and only
incidentally for the profit of the persons
owning the line. Now the people step
forward and assert that, in various parts
of the world, experiments extending over
several years have proved the possibility
of doing away with the offensive poles
and the resort to underground conduits
instead and the best answer the other
side can make is that such a scheme is
not commercially practicable'! That is
not matter of any concern to the pub
lie. There is no reason why electric Serv-
ice companies should be exempt from the
rules which govern persons and corpora
tions in other trades. A company which
builds a market or wharf, or starts a
railroad, does not expect to be paid back
any considerable share Of its original out
lay the first year, or the second, or the
fifth. 1t considers itself lucky indeed, II
1t does not have to follow up its first
expenditure with others for some time
before the venture can be put upon a
paying basis. The electrical company,
whether 1t furnishes telegraph or tele-
phone messages, light for lamps, or
street cars for transportation, ought to
be content to do the same thing"
"The new library project received an
other backset last week." says The Star
y;h. OF September 4. 1885, lin
Va the refusal of the House
Congress. to consent to the Senate s
appropriation. The mat
ter will 60 into conference again and
all that the most Sanguine friends Of
the library hope for is compromise
agreement on the expenditure of 81 ,OO0,-
900 to carry forward the work on the
west front and the tie or elliptical con-
nection. between the west and east fronts
This would be better than nothing, but
1t is pitiful thing to contemplate, never
theless. Here is Nation of sixty million
people; plan for an improvement which
has been agitated in a Congress of their
representa- for some fifteen years,
and huge excavation, covering the
entire area Staked out for the building,
every uncovered part of it must be either
filled up again. at very heavy expense or
allowed to stand as the bed of q pool,
useless to the Government, unSightly
from an artistic point of view, unwhole-
some for the neighborhood and a serious
menace to the solidity of any work that
may be done there at future date. The
entire business wears an air of candid
afterthought which will not be dispelled
till Congress has at least consented to
carry the work on the whole building to
point where it can be taken up in sep
arate parts and completed as needed,
without undoing half that has been
done and wasting the money spent up
to date"
"A party of anarchists were roughly
handled at Cleveland last evening" saws
Anarchists and ber m 4 ia 1885, b. "for HepSe ven-
Workingmen. turing too near a
workingmen's process
sion with their red flag That is some
thing the right-minded American laborer
will not stand. He knows that in the
flag Of his country is the hope of real
liberty-that which not only enables the
poor man to earn his dollars without
hindrance but inSures to him their peace
able possession when they have once got
into his hands. The red flag represents
to him nothing but the destruction Of
social order and the rule that the man
who is industrious and thrifty shall
divide his hard-earned income with the
lazy and shiftless"