Electric Power on the Elevated

The Contract Not Yet Let to the Westinghouse Company — Visiting the Plant.

[Special Despatch to The Evening Post]

PITTSBURGH, June 14. — F. K. Hain, Frank Jay Gould, and William Northrop of the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company went out to Brinton and Wilmerding to-day to inspect the plant of the Westinghouse Electric Company, in connection with bids for an $8,000,000 contract for appliances and supplies. They deny the report that the contract has been let to the Westinghouse Company. F. K. Hain, speaking for the party this morning, said:

"There is not a particle of truth in the report that the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company has let this big contract to the Westinghouse people. The contract has been let to no one, and we are not even prejudiced in favor of the Westinghouse Company and against the General Electric. We have asked for bids, but the matter has gone no further. Our purроse in coming here is to inspect the Westinghouse plant, that we may be fully informed in connection with the bids."

At the offices of the General Electric Company it was said that the reported signing of the contract for the equipping of the Manhattan system with electricity was incorrect. It was further intimated that the General Electric Company had been and still was a party to the negotiations. If their offer should be accepted, the equipping of the road would, it was said, take about a year, but would offer no obstruction to traffic. The cost to the Manhattan Company was placed roughly at about $7,000,000.

A prominent official of the Westinghouse Company said: "The statement that a contract has been entered into between our company and the Manhattan is premature. The two companies have been in conference off and on for some two years past in regard to this matter, but definite action has been deferred at the suggestion of our company pending the perfection of electric motors under the Tesla patents. The time is now about ripe for supplanting the steam locomotives with electric motors. I can say nothing more about the matter at present."