Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-03-13
TELEPHONE Taxes
Growth Of Phone Business Re.
quires New and Equitable
Method Of Assessment.
Multiciplicity of Lines Makes 1t
Hard to Reach All For
Taxation.
County Auditors Often Fail to Re.
port Rural Lines.-Indepen-
dent Lines.

kOAS 6ASA &AA ASAAA SSSoTA ~ ~ - tsSA II
dent Lines.
Special to Times Republican.
Des Moines, March 13.-There ought
to be some better way of keeping track
of the telephone business in Iowa and
providing for reports and the proper as
sessment of telephone property, Until !
I.quite recently this had been matter Of
! little consequence because the telephone
be reached. But the telephone business
os growing rapidly in Iowa. The asso-
hciation of Independent companies doing
/ business in Iowa has a map prepared by
-. III. Carpenter. of Iowa City, for tile
( special use Of the association showing
| the number of companies operating IN
dependent lines and the routes of the
Wires over the state. This map is a curl
| osity and a study. 1t shows that the
telephone business has covered practi-
Icaily every county OF the state, that in
! many counties practically all the small
Towns are reached by The independents
l lines and that in the hstter settled POI
tions of the state it is now difficult To
get far away from the telephone lines
and exchanges. That the method OF
< reaching these companies for assess
slnent purposes is crude GOES Without
saving. Recently the state auditor sent
hout circular letter to county auditors
isIelus sting the names OF all companies
doing business in their respective coun-
ties. Most of these lists have been re-
4 TUNED. Fourteen counties have as yet
failed TO respond. These are Wayne
4 Powes eshiek, Polk. OsE3rien, Montgomery.
i Monroe Lucas. Jones. Heniy Haneock
IGrundy. Dickinson. Decatur and Cali
thnun. The auditors are supposed 10 res
turn the names of the companies with
1.-THE secretary's name and address. In
some Instances the information re-
ties have a large number of companies
reported as for instance, winnesniek K
with thirteen, keokul with fifteen,
& mostly farmer lines. and Madison with.
ten. Some of the counties make reports
of the nnlnher of conlpa MEG as follows:
= Benton six, Blackhawk three. Boone
i three, Buchanan FIVE Buena Vista four,
Fuller FIVE, Cerro Gordo FIVE, Cherokee
feur, Clay. two, Einnet three. Franiliins
three, Green thres. Hamilton four,
4 Hardin four. Howard nine. HGmboitlt.
two IIcssurh four. Marshall two. Osce-
4 cla one, Palo Alto four, Plymouth FIVE.
II lPccahontas four. Sac seven. Sioux five
3 Story six, Webster eight. Woodbury.
three and Wright six. OF course the
same company is reported by several
auditors in many Instances.
But that this list fails to represent
really all the companies doing business
i i'll the state is certain. The rural lines
ere not reported. The auditors are sup
i posed to report only those that charge
for service. The auditor of Franklin
lscouniy reports that he is looking up the
mileage Of each company BECAUSE that
I last Year was not correct. The auditor
of Louisa county says that there are
! Several rural lines thruout the county
i operated wholly within themselves Tor
their own convenience without any rev.
enue connected Herewith, and no off,
slcers. as he understands the farmers.
sIsccrstruct their own lines and buy their
Iown Instruments for operating, and
4 every one on the line talks free of
/ charge The report comes from Linn
Ecounty: u have not reported any pri-
1 vate or farmer lines for the reason that
lit would be impossible 10 do anything
moro than approximate these lines or
i guess how many there are without
canvass of the. county and visit to
several portions of it There are dozens
of these lines some portions of the
county being a network of Them and
rev ones being put up every day. This
4 ILLUSTRATES how difficult it is for tfle
fa ali +y,Jo
lnhone business. When the auditors have
lreported the names OF the company Off
GERS blanks are sent out and the Off
ioers make reports on which the assess
srlent is based. They are supposed to-
4 report the mileage by assessment dis
ltricts so that it can be certified back to.
4 the counties for collection. but this is.
4 almost impossible. The assessment is
made in July. The whole scheme Of
Ismaking the assessments is clumsy and
a needs revision.
i The Independent telephone men, al
! their annual convention. are feeling
1 good President Bellanly, of Knoxville.
reported that there ara many new insia-
lpendent companies in the state and the
old ones report prosperity. The success
of the owners ~ The Berllner patents iii.
defeating the isell monopolists in the
i higher courts oe important patents af-
4 footing the e.tire telephone business is
Encouraging. The independent men will
no longer be ienipte1 70 join the mo-
4 nopeSstic combinations to prevent
i Threatened suits for infringement of
patents. The telephone business is
made free. The Bell people have had
their day and the independent people
i ere now doing the smiling President
Bellamy also urged that the owners of
Exchanges in the smaller towns should
not attempt to manage the long
4 distance lines, hut that thsse should be
|cperated by independent companies. and
Is.hat arrangements be made for connec-
4 tions with all the independent ex-
4 changes. The report of the secretary
4 and treasurer showed the association to-
be in good financial condition. There are
about fifty members representing about
/ forty independent companies in the
state. Meetings will be concluded to-
day.
Lyman Daniels Morse head Of the
Lyman D. Morse Advertising Agency,
lis dead at his home in BROOKLYN.