The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-16
Competition Made
Telephone Service
Poor.
PRAYED FOR CONSOLIDATION.
Petition Of the Worcester
Company Will Be Re-
ferred To a Committee.

Monday night it is expected that the
petition of the Worcester Telephone
Company will come before the board of
aldermen for action of some kind.
Competition is said to be the life of
trade, and the first thought of many,
when the Worcester Telephone Com
pany put in it's petition, was that COM
petition in the telephone business was
just what the public needed to bring
about cheaper rates and better service.
But as the matter has been threshed
over, 1t appears that this rule does
not apply to the telephone business.
That is a public service which is the
exception to the rule, and has been so
shown by experience.
1t is undoubtedly fact that the SER
vice of the New England Telephone
Company is the best in the country.
and that means the best in the world.
1t is nonsensical therefore to believe
that it's service can be improved by
compelling it to cut rates, which of
course means cutting wages and en-
ploying inferior help. The New Eng
land company declares that it has al
ways employed American labor at
American wages, and as over so per
cent of the expenses of the company
goes to labor, according to statements
by officials, the only way a reduction
can be brought about to meet a cut in
10 NV
The history of the telephone business
is not SO long but that many of those
who are now using telephones are IA
miliar with it, and that is why so many
of the business men of the city are
opposed to new telephone company.
1t has been stated by some of those
interviewed by The Spy, that in the
( early days of telephones in this CITY,
there were different companies, and
subscribers were obliged to main ain
three telephones, where now they have
only one with a service incomparably
superior to anything they had then
with several instruments.
What is true of this city is also true
of others. In Cincinnati the same
thing happened, and recent reference
in the Cincinnati Enquirer to the days
of chaos when there were numerous
4 telephone companies in that city, is
worth reproduction in this connection.
Here is a recent editorial from the En-
quirer, the paper owned and managed
by John C. Mclean, who is a possible
presidential candidate on the demo-
cratic ticket:
The Enquirer says: Twenty
years ago, when the telephone
business was in it's infancy, two
telephone companies were fighting for
supremacy in Cincinnati-the Edison
company, operated by the Western
Union and Gold and Stock Telegraph
companies, and the Bell company, OPP
Grated by the City and Suburban Tel
egraph Association, a company made
up of local capitalists.
Each system had a struggle for ex-
istence. Neither was overburdened with
an abundance of patronage, and no list
of subscribers was issued to the pa
irons. Calling by number was an un-
heard of responsibility.
1.-THE subscriber called the exchange,
and the operator did the rest. After a
search through list the not too pleas
ing reply would come back to the per-
son waiting at the other end of the
line: We have no such subscriber Inn
patiently he would go to the other tel
a similar reply.
This mixed state of affairs was very
trying to the business community, and
petitions and requests came pouring in
urging a consolidation of the two COM
panies as the only remedy for the NUS
ance. This state of affairs existed not
only In Cincinnati, but in every city in
the union, and continued until the year
1880, when the parent companies, real
izfnpr ne pOnnprfad action
to make the telephone effective, took
the matter under consideration, with
the result of uniting the two interests
into one.
ION September 8, 1880, the Edison
plants in this city and Hamilton o.,
passed into the hands of the City and
Suburban Telegraph Association by
to Its newly acquired subscribers in
1881. All the other Edison plants
throughout the country were absorbed
in a like manner.
1.-THE consolidation marked a new era
in the history of the telephone. The
character of the switchboard was revo-
lutionized and, in fact, each year made
the apparatus of the preceding year a
back number. Singleg grounded lines
gave way to metallic circuits, and UNI
slightly poles to subways
hThe talking distance increased in
proportion to the efficiency of the APP
paratus installed and toll lines, both To-
cally and to long distance points, were
equipped at an outlay of millions OF
dollars.
1.-THE telephone long ago ceased to
be considered luxury but business
necessity. To return to the state of af-
fairs of 20 years ago would paralyze
commerce. II the users of the tele-
phone 20 years ago found concentration
of forces necessary when there were
comparatively but few telephones In
use, how would a separation into two
4 or more distinct companies affect the
commercial community now?
THE value of a telephone, and the
cost of operating and maintaining it
4 depend entirely upon the number oil
subscribers, cities, towns and CONNER.
cial communities that can be reached
from any one telephone and not in the
mere fact of having a telephone outfit
on the wall.
Under the present existing condi-
lions 1t Is possible for any of the sub
B scribers to the local exchange to com.
municate with over 5000 local subscrib.
ers and more than 200,0 900 subscribers II
other cities and towns, reached by
a means of the local and long distance
toll lines This possibility was not the
creation OF day or a year, but tho
elimination Of years Of labor, and Il