Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-25
TELEPHONE COMPANY
The Other Side of the Recent
Poor Service.
A F E w G A q Sc s
BETTER THINGS LOOKED FOR In
NEAR FUTURE.
Mr.. Crenshaw Gives the Operators
Side of the Matter
New Exchanges.

There are. of course, two sides to every
subject, and this applies to the telephone
question in this city. There is the sub
scrber's side and the companys side
From the first standpoint the situation in
the last few weeks has been almost unen-
durable, and would have reached that dis
NAL point If hope had not remained that
things would get better. From the COM
panys viewpoint the situa tion has likewise
been more than unpleasant. The Chesa-
peake and Potomac Telephone Company is
made up of high-grade citizens Its stock
holders and officers are able and energetic
business men, and 1t has without doubt
been an extremely unpleasant experience
to find the company's service entirely mad
equate to meet the demands That the
company will not permit this condition to
continue is the hope of all-nay, is the de-
mand of every subscriber. That this hope
is we'll founded is shown by a comprehen-
sive letter to The Star from Mr.. A. P.
Crenshaw, secretary of the telephone COM
pany. Mr.. Crenshaw points out some in
accuracies in the published stories, explains
causes of the bad service and expresses
confident expectation that in brief time
conditions will become normal. This is
good news, and all telephone subscribers
will join the company in hoping for the
speedy realization of the expectations
mis- promise ltScll Is d SOOu SHl iSlhido
present.
Company's Side.
Mr.. Crenshaw's letter is as follows:
Relative to the article published in your
paper of the 23d instant, entitled Service
Is Poor and the editorial Wires Busy
feeling that you do not Intentionally wish
to misrepresent the facts beg to call your
attention to several statements contained
therein.
vfno ha rot fnd in q m
with those in Baltimore, you state that
the service for which the Washington SUBJ
scriber pays $50 per annum can be obtain
ed in Baltimore for $1S per annum. This
is altogether incorrect, as the $36 service
referred to, providing for 600 messages to
be sent during the year, applies in each
city. There is, however, in Baltimore a
general party line service at &1S, which
only provides one call per day on a guaran-
tee of S1.JO per month, there being an ad-
dtional charge at the rate Of cents each
for all messages in excess of thirty.
You appreciate, that, until Congress
passed an act in 1902. authorizing this
company to lay additional conduits, the
company was unable to formulate any plan
for extension or growth. AS soon as this
law was passed, immediate steps were
taken to provide additional exchange IA
cilities and extend the conduit system
which has since progressed rapidly; also. on
account of the rate litigation. we have not
been able to fully revise our rates. How
ever, there seems to be some msunder-
standing on this point. as our rates are on
q graduated scale in both Washington and
Baltimore, the average charge per tele-
phone being about $50 per annum in each
city.
Your reporter does not seem to have
gotten from our superintendent of traffic
a clear idea to the cause of the trouble
nor the steps being taken to remove the
same, the impression being given that the
condition will not be relieved until next
May, when the new exchange on 18th street
near G is opened. The congestion he spoke
of occurred in the main exchange before
the north exchange could be made ready for
service. The complaints of the service since
the latter exchange opened were caused
principally from the fact that 1t was neces-
sarS to change $500 subscribers numbers
in transferring them to the north exchange
(thereby relieving the congestion in the
main exchange), 1t being also necessary to
replace with new equipment all of these
subscribers telephones.
THE new switchboard being of a different
and improved type, the operators were at
first not as familiar with nor accustomed
to It's workings as the old switchboard.
Naturally the troubles incident to the above
mentioned conditions temporarily impaired
the efficiency Of the service This condition
is being rapidly improved and our service
tests Indicate that the service is far better
now than 1t was a week or ten days ago.
1t is rapidly improving and we confidently
expect within the next week or ten days
that the conditions will be normal. The
exchange building. which we are erecting on
18th street near @ street, is to enable the
company to install the most up-to-date
equipment known to the art and the re-
naming telephones in the main exchange
will be transferred thereto, the capacity
OF the new board being ample to take care
OF them and a large future growth"