The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-14
Telephone Company's Edict
Stopping Accommodations:
WOE FOR THE DRUGGISTS
PHARMACISTS MEET TO ACCEPT
NICKLE-IN-SLOT PHONES.

Patrons of the drug stores have so
abused free telephone courtesies in the
estimation OF the company that il has
put forth the edict that the privileges
must not only be cut off. but that here
after every drug store must be
equipped with a slot phone solely for
public use This is the unpleasant sit
uatiOn that cOnfronts the prOprietOrs
of the Salt Lake apothecary shops. The
new rule must be obeyed. 1t did not
take long for the drug men to reach
this conclusion last evening at meet
ing held at the KnutsfOrd.
Not long since O'COnnOr, the man
who fills prescriptions. dispenses soda
water and sells postage stamps at
told by the telephone people that d
long check kept on the number of calls
from his phone showed that his instru-
ment averaged tWenty-SiX daily for &C
commOdation purposes, while his own
business calls numbered several hun
dred Der cent less. The company laid
down the proposition that many of
these calls for connections were from
nearby merchants, who had been i'm
pOrtuned to rent phones for their own
use, but had declined TO bite so long as
they could get their talking for moth
ing at the drug stores.
All Drug Stores Affected.
When told that this thing must STOP
Mr.. OConnor made q little canvass
among the fraternity, with the result
that ne learned that other drug stores,
While willing to continue to suffer the
nuisance of extending telephone cour-
tesies, were in the same fix as the orig
n Nf1r NE
warning from the company to stop the
free and indiscriminate use of the in
struments to store patrons.
But OConnOr was marked more by
the telephone than his rivals in bust
ness were. At the meeting of the drug
gists association last evening the Main
street apOthecary related that he had
been 'sewed up by the telephone COM
pany. He was allowed only an aver
age of four calls a day, although he
pays the drug store rate of 500 a. wear
for the rental of the instrument. Last
month the Rocky Mountain Bell com
pany had placed a device upon his in
strument which rudely shocked all of
his patrons who wanted to use his
phone.
Have Your Nickle Ready.
The effect of this was that whenever
he called for more connections than he
was allowed, or when any patron of
the store used the phone, the operator
at central would say, Have you reg
iStered?"
Registered? What's that?" would
be asked.
Drop your nickle in the slot, please,
before the connection will come
Of course. this is very annoying for
the druggist and more so to the store
patrons. A remedy has been devised
by the telephone company, if remedy
it can be called. The company pro
poses. if not insists, that every drug
store shall be equipped with a nickle-
in-the-slOt telephone independent Of
an instrument for purely private uses
Of the drug store proprietOrs. The
company has indicated that it would
allow commission of 50 per cent to
the stores on all of the nickleS col
lected, but this the drugmen feel is not
at all cOmpensating for the new order
of things.
Drugmen Accept Ultimatum-
1t was for the purpose of considering
this question that the druggists held a
conference last evening. They agreed
that the telephone cOmpany's edict
must be Obeyed. 1t was either this or
the company would charge for all con-
nections made, nickle each. 1t was
also the concensus of opinion, rather it
was hoped. that the public would soon
get into the new order of things. Just
as is the rule in the eastern cities.
While all agreed that they would
cross their hearts and hope to die if
they broke faith with each other in
keeping the compact, treating all pat
rons of the phones alike. it was de-
clared that all other StOrekeeDerS must
have no favOrites in the matter of use
of telephones
Inasmuch as the telephone company
had not tacitly agreed that the drug
gists should have half of the nickies
collected, a committee, consisting of
President Hill and F. A. Druehl, was
appointed to close up a contract with
the author of their woes. The senti-
ment was expressed that if it had
come to a question of nickles, the
aDOthecarieS want their share.