The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-11-14

I the first step toward forcing the tele-
J phone company to contribute some
thing of its enormous profits to the
city. The telephone monopoly is EN-
joying tremendous privileges in San
Francisco. 1t receives for nothing exclu-
siVe rights which legitimately ought to
return to the municipality a handsome
yearly revenue. 1t escapes just taxation
and uses its advantages to abuse the
rights of the people. The gigantic evil of
this condition of affairs has been pointed
out by the Mayor and Assessor and now
the Supervisors, through a resolution in
trOduced yesterday by Supervisor Angel
finger, intend to remedy the injustice at
least in a measure.
The resolution, which was presented at
the meeting of the board yesterday and
which is now on its road toward adoption.
provides that a quarterly tax of 81 shall
be placed upon every telephone in the
city which has a nickel in the slot at
tachment. Further than this the tele-
phone company is commanded to submit
a truthful statement of the number of
such telephones in use. This measure.
which is the result of emphatic public
agitation, will force the gigantic corpora
ton to pay a closer proportion at least of
its just taxes.
The nickel-in-the-slot telephone as It
exists in this city has been a gross and
insolent imposition upon the public and a
source of tremendous revenue to the. tele-
phone company Many thousands of
these telephones are in use in homes
business houses and all sorts of local es-
adjustments. BY extensive advertising
and judicious representations the tele-
phone monopoly has developed its scheme
Of double revenue. Arbitrary prices have
been placed upon the telephones and
people have been forced to submit to the
eNacuons. They have paid and are now
paying i grossly exorbitant price for the
loan of each telephone and then pay an
additional sum for its use.
Even in this feature of the fraud 1Inon
the public the monopoly has shown dis
elimination. For what purports to be the
same service some patrons have to paw
q certain price and more favored people
have to pay a smaller one Merchants
have been made victims of a necessity.
but they dare not complain. When they
secure their telephones and pay for them
an outrageously high price they cannot
use them without paying five cents for
each switch.
Under even worse conditions thousands
Of these nickel-in-the-sIot telephones have
been introduced in residences, where they
remain an expensive and useless luxury
1t would seem that the local monopoly
would have been content to give some
service for its enormous profit from these
cke-in-the-sot devices, but the dis
agreeable experiences of thousands of
people prove that 1t has not been. The
service rendered through the system is
VIGOROUSLY insolent and a sham The
telephone company has simply used its
devices to descend to petty larceny 1t is
probable that the number of instances in
which people pay a nickel and receive no
service aggregate many thousands every
day. The agents of the company have
their instructions to exact a five-cent
"
a desired switch may be obtained. If the
line be busy or out of order, or If cen
trail be in an unamiable mood, 30 switch