Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-02-13
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Cooperative Telephone

Service.

Grating expenses would be, approx
mately. 50 year for each instrument.
Adding $3.50 to cover interest and de-
probation of plant, it is clear that an
income of % per cent. on the invest
ment was required. The rates were
adjusted to secure this income and at
the same time to maintain small
sinking fund TO provide for improve
ments in the service. Starting with
an exchange of So phones, the bus
mess steadily increased from year to
year, until at the present time there
are about 800 instruments in use, or
one to every II persons in the com
munity. This growth, it should be
noted. has in itself greatly increased
the value of the service to every pat
ron. since each phone communicates
with four times. as many persons as
could be reached by the old exchange
under monopoly management, for the
reason that the excessively high rates
charged by the monopoly prohibited
the introduction of phones in many
places where they were needed
After the cooperative exchange be
gan business, it soon became manifest
that Grand Rapids could never again
be exploited by private monopoly on
the old basis. The publication of facts
about plant and operating expenses
had made 1t impossible for any tele,
phone company to come into that town
and demand for the use of it's instru
ments yearly rental equal to the to-
tai cost OF installation. Nor could the
new company be bought up. Accord
ing to provision of its charter, stock
could be held only by renters of the
company's phones. AS soon as a
stakeholder ceased to rent a phone
for each share of stock held. his stock
was taken up and Cancelled. There
was no way by which the control of
the new company could be wrested
from the members. The monopoly mac
| other resources. however 1t was
strongly intrenched in the state, and
| 1t did not propose to give up it's hold
| on Grand Rapids without a struggle.
AS It's representatives frankly said, 1t
could afford to give free telephone ser
wee, If necessary, in order to drive out
the local company. 1t has not often
been forced to adopt this extreme pol
! icy, because there are usually other
/ expedients available; but in the case
of Grand Rapids it had TO do one of
! two things-win back the cooperative
company's subscribers by offering un.
usual inducements or abandon the
field. 1t preferred to stay, and for q
time some of the citizens cherished the
delusion that competition would really
| be wholesome influence; but only a
/ short experience was needed to show
! that competition was out of the ques
! ton.
Larger places than Grand Rapids
! have learned that duplication of tele-
phone exchanges in single center OF
population is only burden on the pa
irons of each. The telephone is ma
tural monopoly. There must be a
single service under a single manage
ment BY the time the Grand Rapids
people had come to full realization of
this economic truth, some progress
had been made by the outside COM
pany in its effort to drive the local
cooperative exchange from the field.
The immediate purpose was to induce
more people to use the private com
pany's phones than We're using the
Cooperative phones. 1t would then
soon become a business necessity for
all the cooperative subscribers to go
back to the private company's service.
To this end the old phones were Of
! fered rent free for a period of three
| years.
| Local Patriotism Aroused.