Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1902-11-10
RATES
For Phone Ser
vice Rising.
Cleveland Will Feel the
Change First
But Akron May Be Included
Before Long. s.

An effort to increase rates for tele-
,hone service will follow the election
of f. S. Dickson to the presidency OF
the Federal Telephone Co. 1t has also
been announced, says the Cleveland
,eader. that the Federal Telephone Co.
will remain intact. and that, of course,
will also interest Cleveland people, IN
view of the fact that they own ma
iority of the shares of the corporation.
President Dickson said yesterday that
there was no disposition to sell any
of the Federal Telephone Co.
1--WE have sixteen companies out
right, and have heavy interest IN
several Others" he said. $50 far as
know at the present time, the only
thing for us to do is to hang onto all
the property and build up the COM
panies until they make a strong union.
The telephone companies that remain
in the control of the Federal Telephone
are Bowling Green, Toronto, Fostoria,
Columbiana, Findlay, Lancaster, Lima,
Massillon, Detroit, Logan, Stark coun-
ty. Youngstown, GAINESVILLE, Mansfield,
Cuyahoga, United States. In addition
to these we have a large interest in
the exchanges at Columbus, Akron and
Portsmouth"
Mr.. Dickson returned yesterday with
Manager Reber and J. B. Hoge from
trip of inspection Of the property or
the Federal Telephone Co. He said
that not all the companies had been in
spected and that the trip would be
completed next week.
What is true of Cleveland is also
| true of these other Cities" said Mr..
Dickson to reporter. "We are not
charging enough for the service we
give Here is the whole thing in a
nutshell. We said to the people Of
Cleveland we will give you service for
one year for certain sum of money.
We did not figure, however, on the
enormous increase in business. Instead
of doing business with 1000 persons,
we found we were doing business with
10000 1t does not take mathema-
tician to see how much more expensive
in proportion it is to take care of this
number of subscribers than 1t is with
the first number. The man who was
a subscriber under the original condi-
tions had only limited number Of
combinations. At the most he could
make only 900 calls If he called up ey
cry one In the city. The same sub
scriber with the present list of patrons
could call up 9,9e9 persons without
calling the same number twice.
"The people of Paris recently had a
fair sample of how this proposition
works out. Believing that the tele-
phone company in charging $120 per
year was charging too much, the muni-
cipality took hold of the company, op-
Grated the system as municipal own
. ership scheme, and reduced the rate
Immediately. What was the result!
The reduction In rates brought In lot
Of new customers. Where, under the
old arrangement, the company made a
profit, under the new one the city found
that every telephone put in meant a
loss of money. About month age
& the appropriation of large sum OF
= money to meet a deficit was necessary
u 1.-THE same is true at home. Every
new telephone that is put in adds II
), our indebtedness and makes operation
n more costly. AS the number of tele
A. phones increases, the number of call
~ multiplies in proportion. The addition
q. Of one telephone to the switchboar'
in makes it possible to have $500 NOR
u calls than would have been possibl
!. before the telephone was added.
or "At the present time the telephon
Y calls of the Cuyahoga company cos
|, $.O0S EACH This hardly pays the cos
II of operation. 1t may seem odd, but
is fact that we could cut off 200
subscribers from our list and max
N money and could make more money
Y we cut our list down to 5000"
An idea of the wonderful growth q
the telephone business IN Clevelan
/. may be obtained in the fact that fiy
= years ago there were not more tina
1000 telephones In the city. Now tn
y Cuyahoga Company has 5000 in II
main exchange and a total of 10,OI