The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1903-03-06

their lines thereY Did they build then
| lines under one organization, or did each
road control its own line2
j. Ii. Shoemaker-Each road built it:
own line.
G. E. Markham Did each road have
a line man?
j. II. shoemaker-No, sir, none Of
them.
G. +. Markhanl-Are they all smart
enough up there for electricians?
j. H. Shoemaker-Ye | guess they
must be, / never heard word of com
plant as to the service and | talked to
more than SO people.
N. G. Evans--Is it the purpose to con
duct the system here the same as al
Newberg2
j. II. Shoemaker don't think they
can put in system here in the same
way they have in Newberg.
N. G. Evans--Why?
j. H. Shoemaker-The conditions are
entirely different here from what they
are there. They have Level
country, while ours is billy. There
they have their system all around the
town and coming in from all directions
1t would require different construction
here where all the wires come in ON one
side. Our land being hilly and rough
will make the work reconstruction more
difficnlt and expensive, and those who
| live 20 miles back, it would work a
hardship on them and they are too poor
to build their lines all the way in. I'm
der one organization, each one will bear
| his part and it will not be a burden to
any one. What we want is the. great
est good to the greatest number. 1t is
not fair to make a man living off in an
isolated place build his line all the way
| in alone.
N. G. Evans--If we run line out
here say four, five or ten miles, and a
man or several men 20 miles up the
valley bring their line down to ours,
can't they run their wires in on our
poles?
j. II. Shoemaker-Yes, but for how
much?
N. G. Evans Well, that is what we
pay $500 an acre for our land for, be-
cause we are near town and have these
conveniences. They who go out 20 miles
for cheap land must stand the conse-
quences.
Chas. Davidson--Is this to be a coop
erative system?
j. III. Shoemaker-Y Yes, sir They
charge enough at Newberg that they
are able to put by little for sinking
fund, or emergency fund ! don't know
what they use it for.
Roswell Shelley-Haye you any way
Of estimating the cost of maintaining a
line for say 10 years?
j. II. Shoemaker-No 10 they have been
running but six months
Roswell Shelley--Can't you give an
approximate estimate?
j. Ii. Shoemaker-No, but the cost sc
| far has been nominal.
G. f. Markham-Who furnished the
line connecting the different towns?
j. HI. Shoemaker-Thatis is one ques.
tion did not ask, and ! am sorry | did
not think Of it at the time
Here Mr.. Shelley made quite an ex-
tended speech, the purport of which
seemed to be to introduce j II. Thatcher
Of Portland into the discussion. Mr..
Thatcher represented the Bell Tele-
| phone company's interests. After some
opposition on the part of couple Of
the leading ruralists the chairman in.
vited Mr.. Thatcher to present his side
Of the question, ,and in response to numer-
GUS calls from all parts OF the hall, Mr..
| Thatcher arose and made the following
proposition:
j. II. Thatcher-Mr. Chairman and
gentlemen: 1t is true that there are tele-
| phones manufactured that are almost as
good as the Bell, but do not think Mr..
| Shoemaker is correctly informed in re-
gard to the cost of such machines. do
not think phone can be bought for
| less than 500 that will meet all the re-
quirements in long distance telephone.
So far as we are concerned we would like
to have the farmers construct their own
| lines and connect them with our ex-
change. We have no i'll feelings against
the farmers and trust that they have NO
i'll feelings against us. | have propo-
| sition to offer You which | am sure is
cheaper and will give better satisfaction
to the farmers than for them to own
| their telephones. We will furnish them
and put them in your houses at so cents
month, six dollars year, and we will
| furnish the first set of batteries, which
will last about a year, after that the
farmers would buy their batteries which
we will furnish at aboutl5c. The farm
lners to construct and maintain their line
aud will connect you with our exchange
without extra cost to you and give you
direct communication with the long
distance telephone and our city sub.
| scribers. Six dollars per year, SIS for
three years, which is certainly cheaper
than for you to furnish your own tele-
phones. Ii your telephone becomes in.
jured or gets out of order bring it to our
office in town and we will give you a
new one in place Of it. II it burns up
we will furnish another in place OF it.
Connecting with our exchange places
you in connection with every one ol
our subscribers in town and try
and in direct communication with Taco
ma, Seattle or any other OF our long dis
tance towns you wish to talk with
Furthermore, we will give you the bene-
fit of our experience in keeping your
wires up and lines in good working or
der. You understand you are to take
care of your wires and poles and we will
keep the telephones in order. We start
ed some years ago country line here,
at So a month and voluntarily reduced il
to 81 a month as soon as we were able
to do SO, and lately we have reduced the
rates throughout the city generally,
without requests from subscribers, and
whenever we find any other means OF
decreasing the cost of our business to
our patrons we will doso. Ibelieve it is
cheaper, better, and more satisfactory
to the subscribers on these lines than to
buy the telephones and care for them
themselves. The first big outlay is the
phones and materials for your lines, and
1t is considerable of an outlay. We will
save you about $50 out of every $25 in
the construction Of your lines by this
proposition.
j. H. Shoemaker-Do | understand
that the people are 10 build their lines,
set their poles and string their wires?
J. ii. Thatcher-Yes. YOU build and
maintain your lines and We furnish and
maintain the telephones.
j. II. Shoemaker-How long win a
I ell. l..sS..