The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-24


 The committee on cities and boroushs this afternoon gave a hearing on the bills providing for reduction in tele- phone tolls. M. F. Tyler, president of the Southern New England Telephone company, opposed the scheme. He said:
 New Haven is an exchange of over 100 subscribers, and each subscriber uses his telephone on an average of six times a day. New York has 10000 subscribers and there are an average of fifteen calls on each telephone per day. The exchanges of Connecticut are of three classes. The exchange of the first class is made up of New Haven Hartford, Bridgeport, and Waterbury; second class, New London, New Britain, Derby, etc., towns of 10000 or more, and for the third class, towns with popula- tions under that. For the first class there is to be revision to lower the rates to some extent. No arbitrary rule can be made, however, and be made just. Our New Haven system we could not take to Buffalo and be made to pay, and in New York 1t would not pay the switchboard expenses. The opportunity to talk with 1000 subscribers is worth much more than a system of only fifty or 100 The reduction comes at this time because the patents are expiring, We have taken up the rates and re- duced them as far as possible, and we are giving no reduced accommodation We have gone ahead faster than many other lines, with the long distance ser vice telephone and the copper wire, so that there is no superior system to the Southern New England company in the United States.
 eve have been doing our telephone business at a low rate of compensation and when the blizzard of 1888 came it practically wiped out our lines and have had to rebuild them. With a lower rate we should have to reduce our service and could not pay the in- terest on our bonds. Each telephone last year cost us $67.571s to maintain and under the proposed bill we would not receive the cost of maintenance. We have since put into the plant in Connecticut $750,OOO which is per manent debt, and have also put in from $30, 900 to $75 900 per year in net earnings, Our stock in ten years has not sold above S3 and we are now paying divi- dend of per cent.
 "We still pay the American Bell com pany a royalty, but it is considerably reduced. We cannot build line with out using the American Bell Telephone company's property They are keeping the highest kind of expert labor for the express purpose of examining every thing of value regarding telephones and everything new that comes up from time to time To-day the Bell company is trying to get return battery sys- tenn, so that one can be placed in in- stant communication with the main of- flee and this Is an improvement that is surely coming. The long distance transmitter is the third transmitter instrument that has been invented. We have in New Haven a business f1f- teen years old and have had to rebuild the switchboard five times. The life of a switch board is on an average of only three years and then an improved system comes along. The storm of No vember 1894, destroyed our line from New Haven to New London, and it cost us $35,OO0 to rebuild it; the line destroyed cost only $15,000.
 In New York the cost is $240 for which we charge $125 for. Tn New York you can get telephone for $80 year, but limited to connections with only 800 telephones. We may now offer a limited amount of these tele- phones for $30 a year, but for smaller l systems it is not practicable. In an l exchange the size of New Haven we | use 1,400 pairs of wires. This cannot | be provided for overhead and many of | them are placed underground, costing | five or six times as much as those | erected on poles. The matter of labor | and rent costs more in large towns. | Tn Bristol we have one woman in the | central office; in New Haven with ten times as many telephones we have | eighteen in the central office. The | New Haven exchange has not been | closed an hour since 1888. Our income | 7oes not increase with an increased | business. With an increased number 1f telephones, however, the value to 1 each subscriber increases, but our ex- oense also largely increases"
 Attorney John W. filling also appear ed for the company and questioned President Tyler regarding the telephone iervice. The hearing was largely at ended.