The herald., 1897-03-25
ANY UNFAIR DISCRIMINATION
MIGHT THROTTLE A NEW AND
INVALUABLE ENTERPRISE
A Very Large Outlay of Capital, Cal
culated to Save Telephone Users
100000 Annually


1.-THE Home Telephone company is
corporation properly organized unde
the laws of the state of California;
close corporation made up of well know
local business men who have, during tn
past eight or ten years, made recor'
for themselves, locally and abroad, =
which each and every one of them fee
that they can refer with pride.
"The enterprise of developing ant
building a competing telephone system
which will knit together closely all th'
business communities in Southern Cali
fornia, is one which has been most heart
ily welcomed by the business men II
every section where the proposition has
been placed before the public, thus in
dicating that the people at large ars
anxious to assist in bringing into this
end of the state improved and cheap
ened telephone service.
after most exhaustive series OF
investigations we satisfied ourselves
that telephone system uniting all the
business communities of Southern Cali
fornia can be constructed that will rem
der service satisfactory to all parties
at rates very much below the rates now
charged by the Sunset Telephone com
pany. and at the same time produce
satisfactory returns for the investors.
THE rates named by the Home Tele-
phone company, and which have proved
attractive to the users of telephones, us
is evidenced by the fact that our COM
pany has thus far signed contracts from
about 1400 telephone users in this city,
which contracts cover telephone service
over a period of three years, will make n
net saving to the telephone users Of
Los Angeles of from $4,000 to 500, 900
per year.
The preliminary work has been pros
ecuted with vigor in all of the towns Of
Southern California outside of Los An
gees and the number of contracts book
ed show that we have as large ratio
Of contracts in the outside communi-
ties as we have secured in the city and
while it is our intention to start the
work of construction in Los Angeles,
we aim to do construction work
throughout all of Southern Cali
fornia simultaneously if at all feas-
ible. thus endeavorng to complete the
Southern California system and enable
the different communities to converse
with each other in the shortest possible
time.
"Some opposition has been encounter
ed from various directions, not wholly
unexpected. and the apparently hostile
position of the city council in insisting
upon the granting of franchise with
out any pole privileges whatsoever IN
what is termed the conduit area, or If
pole privileges are granted to hamper
the franchise with clause that Will
compel the Home Telephone company TO
put it's wires underground within twelve
months, is an obstacle which we had not
calculated upon. We certainly expectei
to be granted equal privileges with 9TH
ers doing business in the community
but at the very beginning recognizing
the fact that many property ownersand i
business men objected to the continued
increase in the number of unsightly
poles on business streets, we arranged
our plans and specifications for con-
duit system on the leading business
streets of the city, and asked privileges
only for very limited number of poles,
the least that it was possible to get along
with. viz: Six to the four sides of each
block so distributed as TO place only two
poles on each long side of the block and
one on each short side of the block
These six poles we deem absolutely
necessary for the proper distribution Of
the wires and to secure the necessary
telephone service for the business
houses. While it is our intention in time
to have a strictly underground system
throughout the business portion of the
city, it is at present not feasible or prac-
ticable as can be demonstrated to the
satisfaction of the most critical investi-
gator.
All that We ask is that the council give
us the opportunity to do business on
an equal footing with others already
In the field, but at the same time we do
not ask for unlimited pole privileges;
and, further, we are willing to take our
chances on putting wires underground
simultaneously with the placing un-
derground Of all other OVERHEAD wires"
A. B. CASS.
A. B. Cass, vice president of the Home
Telephone company, was also inter-
viewed, and said:
There seems to- be a misapprehen
sion in the minds of the public as to
what the Home Telephone company
wants as to the pole proposition. We
expect to use a conduit down either
Broadway, Main or Spring, and branch
down the side streets, as our drawings
submitted to the board of pubic works
will show simply using poles to take
the wires out of the ground, and distrib-
uting them to the various buildings in
the block, and not carrying a continu-
GUS line of wire along the streets
1.-The council it seems TO me, has beer
misled, and while we believe them hon
est in their convictions, we hardly see
how they can think it consistent to say
the Sunset people cannot afford to cut
their rates and make it pay, and in
less than two weeks refuse a company
of responsible home business men
franchise, who offer to cut the rates
In two and save the two thousand sub
scribers to telephones in this city an
average of 50 per month, or 81, 600 per
year on the total two thousand now il.
use. The new company has fourteen
hundred Ar5scribers among the best
people of the city, and will have tWen-
ty-fve hundred before the system is
completed. This fact we think in itself
the greatest of petitions, and an appeal
which the council should recognize. We
believe the council is not only doing
US great injustice but a greater wrong
TO two thousand of the best taxpayers
BY imposing burden on them greater
in proportion than any other tax they
pay, and to say the opposition, we re-
celved from them was a surprise does
not express 1t. Consistency, thou art
Jewell
II the council VIII put us on an equal
OASIS with the Sunset people, we will
spend a least half a million dollars. and
rive Southern California fba hoe.s .<-,.t-.