Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1899-02-07
TELEPHONES.
THE CITY TO BE SUPPLIED
WITH COMPETITION.

The Construction to Begin With,
Thirty Days Barring Unlocked
For Hindra ees, aid tie Promo
tiers Hope FOR Com ,eii.ivs Ser
vice BY July IA Surprise or
The Public B st of Con
stluction ana Material Who th,
Promoters Are.
AT last Richmond seems inclined K
| kick out of the traces of the monopo.
| lies and TO take unto herself some oi
the advantages that are hers by righl
| OF her sZa, character, age aud location
Hitherto she has done her talking over
the lines of one telephone company
paying that company's own prices and
accepting the service through neces-
| sity. She has shipped her lighter
freight by the lines of one express
company, paying that company's plen-
teous charges and accepting Whatever
sort of service was rendered with as
good grace as was possible; and she
has been shipping her human freight
and other bulky goods over lines con-
trolle by single railroad com
pauy, submitting TO whatever has been
put upon her, though murmurlng sore
ly st times.
The time has come for the worm 10
turn. 1t is nov turning. We are TO
have other railroads. That will mean
new express company. The charges
for lighter and pGlkier freigats re-
spectlvely will be necessarily lesseDed.
The service will be improved. The
manners of some of the employees will
be softened and bettered. This will
be nice. But the one improvement
that now seems nearest, in the way of
competition and the dissolution of
monopoly, is in the telephone business.
as per the franchise granted last night
by council and mentioned in or coun-
ell report in another column of today's
issue.
The new company is composed er-
tirely of home people: John NJ. Lontz
j. W. Moore. Perry j. Freeman, Web
ster Parry and Arthur C. Lindemuth.
That these men are in earnest is
proved iu many ways. They
orde red quite lot of mate
rial 70 be shipped on condition
that the franchise should be granted
by council. the franchise itself was
drawn up some time in advance and
submitted to every member of the
council, including the city attorney
and the mayo. and every concession
asked by any member was made
promptly and cheerfully. The ordi-
l..
night is believed to be one of the most
Gus to the city that has ever
been passed. The council members
ali showed commendable home loyalty
in granting such privileges to an ex-
home capital company.
The promoters state that, barring
any unlo oked- for accident their work
will begin within thirty days The
very best mntarial uiA be used IN the
ss--1i
The charges for
private telephone at a residence is $I5
per year, no party lines te be estab
lished. Whereas the present charges Of
the Bell company are SIS per
annum for party line, on which one
is frequently shut out for good while
when he is in the biggest sort of a
hurry, to say nothing of getting social
mixed with the grocery
orders and Doctors calls of other
patrons of the line. The charges for
business telephones are fixed at maxi
mum rate of $50 per year by the new
company, against the S42 per year of
the Bell. There will be to each tele-
phone under the new system, double
wire, going and returning, and all of
the construction will be of the best.
The promoters pro hise that. barring
accident, the new system will probably
be working by July l. A plant capa-
BILE OF sustaining l 800 phones will be
put in.
The people in general are much in
crested IN this departure, and wish it
success.
In connection with long distance
system already chartered, the new
company expects to. o.constitute a COM
pleted competitor for local aud outside
service.