The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-07-01
TELEPHONE STOCKED.
Unreasonable summit omeials Oppose :
Phone service Desired By tho Peeple.

UNREASONABLE SumufLt OmclaAs oppose 4
Phone Service Desired by the People
Summit, up-to-date In many respects,
however has no telephone service as yet.
The New York and New Jersey Tele-
phone Company, which is rendering
such efficient service in Morristown, is
willing to give the same service to our
neighboring village, but the authorities,
it would seem to us. are apparently de-
termined to block the introduction of a
telephone service by the slimmest kind of
pretext. The following from the Sum-
NIT Herald is a fair statement of the
case:
So much has been written and said in
spirit of hostility to the New York and
New Jersey Company, in connection
with efforts to supply Summit with the
advantages of telephone service. that we
have thought it highly desirable to pro-
cure authentic information of the other
side of the case, which in all fairness is
entitled to be heard with candid consid-
GRAFTON.
1t is well known that there has existed
for several years well defined and Just
desire on the part of our leading business
men and citizens that this town should
be provided with telephone exchange
both for local convenience and for close
communication with Newark and New
York and with the general telephone
systems of the country. In this respect
we have been up to the present at a de-
clded disadvantage as compared with
the neighboring towns. even those
smaller and less important than Summit.
This deprivation cannot have failed to
react unfavorably upon the business in
terests and general prosperity and values
with us. The entire business and life of
this country is so bene6cially inter
woven with the modern telephone ex-
change system that the loss of its advan-
tages in any isolated community serious
ly handicaps local progress and
enterprise.
Preceding the present season the last
negotiations with the New York and
New Jersey Telephone Company oc-
Cured in the summer and fall of 1895.
/ At that time. in accordance with the
general desire. the Telephone Company
endeavOred to perfect an agreement with
| the Mountain Electric Company. under
which the electric poles then standing
could be utilized for the necessary tele-
phone wires.
The Telephone Company states that
the propositions maintained by the Elec-
| trio Light Company were such as to be
virtually prohibitive of the telephone
business, and that the officials of the
town having declared against making an
independent contract with the Telephone
Company, the whole matter was dropped
indefinitely.
1 fhn W &l,a
phone Company was in receipt of numer-
Gus applications for telephones in Sum-
nit. These applications increased in
number and urgency and were accom-
panied by such expressions of individual
opinion that within the past winter ne
gotlations were reopened, which, at one
time, promised to result in satisfactory
ordinance under which. with fairness to
itself and advantage to the town, the
| Telephone Company could establish here
a fully equipped and active exchange.
In regard to the failure of these nego-
tiations the officers of the New York and
New jersey Telephone Company refrain
from making any criticism of the posi-
ton taken by the town officials. The
.company's statement of its own position
is that by the terms of the proposed
ordinance to which the company assented
the Township Committee secured for
Summit both in respect to the amount
and cost of underground construction
and in the number of free telephones and
free service, and in the free use of poles
and underground conduits for fire and
police wires, more favorable conditions,
considering the size of the town and the
present and prospective telephone bust
ness, than it has ever been found possible
/ 70 70 Ofb IN,
New Jersey. The company feels that by
further stretching these conditions it.
would be assuming burdens unwarranted
/ by the most hopeful expectations of bus
mess here. and that the successful de-
velopment and maintenance of tele-
phone system up to the standard of other
towns would be rendered too difficult to
be safely undertaken.
Under these circumstances the tele-
4 phone company, listening to the urgent
requests of number of citizens of Sum-
NIT who feel severely the immediate
want of telephone service, has recently
arranged to utilize license which it has
to run lines upon the railroad property.
and to procure consents or licenses from
individual property owners. and by these
means to make connections with as many
subscribers as it may be able to reach
without encroaching upon the public
streets or interfering with or comprolnis-
ing the rights of the town in any respect.
This course is received with express
sions of great satisfaction on the part of
those who thus have an early prospect
of telephone communication; and the
favorable attitude of the citizens who
own property will enable good proper
ton Of those who desire it to get the
service.
This spirit of liberality toward the
running of private lines must be taken
as indicative of feeling that the opera
ton of the telephone service will reflect
favorably upon general property inter-
ests.
The representatives of the New York
and New Jersey Telephone Company
earnestly disclaim any such animus in