Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-26
President Bethel Says Com
pany Will Obey It.
TWO KINDS OF PHONES
RATIO bETwEEN BUSINESS AND
RESIDENTIAL USE.
Improvements to Be Rushed and the
Service Bettered in All
Possible Ways.

dltefUoOu Mr. u. IN. Detitcll, pEtSiuCAG Va
the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone
Company, explained the attitude In which
the company stands toward the amend
ment relating to the regulation Of telephone
rates in the District of Columbia, which the
Senate committee has incorporated in the
District appropriation bill, and outlined to
some extent, the plans Of the company for
the enlargement of the service in the flu
ture. The amendment referred to will fix
the rates as follows: Sixty dollars per an
mum for a telephone on an individual metal
lie circuit, $4S per annum for each telephone
on the same premises, there being not more
than two on the same metallic circuit.
. This includes certain telephones used by
the federal and District governments and In
private residences.
Will Comply With the Law.
Should the Senate amendment become a
law" said Mr.. Bethel. ''the company will
comply with its terms in good faith"
Continuing he said that the company
does not question the right of Congress TO
fix reasonable rates for telephone service
in this District but that on account of the
abnormal conditions now existing, due
largely to the long litigation extending over
several years. it had hoped that Congress
would not legislate in the matter until
more normal condition could be reached by
the company and thorough investigation
could be made of the whole question. II the
amendment passes with the bill and the
some. it will seek relief from Congress on
proper presentation of the facts at the
proper time:
AS to telephones in private residences,
the president said that the company has
always considered in the category of pri-
vate residence phones those used by ply
sicians and, dentists who have offices in
their homes, those in apartment houses,
and. in fact, any that are what is COM
monty regarded as family phones Re-
spect1ng the scope of the proposed law.
Mr. Bethel said that until about four
months ago the residence rate for the
class of service which the amendment
fixes at $50 was 500 a year, while that for
two-partY lipe was $72 a year. On ac-
count of the unfortunate litigation which
grew QUE .ofathe telephone rate law of
1898 the company was not free to modify
its rates sen esally, and consequently the
Development OF the service among resi-
dences wassnot as large relatively as it
would prebaRIy be in the future The
enactment ofpthe law. in the opinion of
the company, will have tendency to in
crease the residence development -~as
At present there are over Ii 600 exchange
telephones H. this city, Of which in round.
numbers A,000aare in residences. Some of
these are at higher rates and some with
limited serviceoat lower rates than those in
tho proposed law, but in the opinion of Mr.
Bethel, nearly]all persons now subscribing
for residence service will take advantage of
the new rates, and those paying lower rates
by payingba little more will secure better
service and be unrestricted in the use of
their phones, This does not mean, however
that the. COMPANY intends to interfere with
those, whes desire to- continue their present
contract at $36'a year. 80
1t is beIieved4that in the next two or three
years the SYSTEM win grow to include some
years" said President Bethel, "one-half of
the telephones in Washington, which is pc
culiarly a. residential city, will probably
be in residences. The proposed law, there
fore. will fix the charges for very large
portion of the total number Of subscribers,
especially when the probable growth in the
immediate future is taken into cohsidera
ton 3cS
Business Phones.
AS to business telephones Mr. Bethel
said the general opinion is that some grad
uated scale of charges for business places
in city as large as this is the only means
of developing the business with fairness to
all users of the service. OF the 1900 busi-
ness phones in the District the great ma
jOrity pay on the message rate basis. Sew
eral years ago the company had only one
rate for it's best class of service, that Is the
metallic circuit serving but one telephone.
This rate was s125 year. 1t treated the
users without reference to the wide differ
send in year. On account Of this varia-
ton of use the company adopted the mes
sage rate plan, SO that the charges would
vary with the rate of use. This is not Pc
culiar to Washington, but has been tried
successfully in large cities all over the
world.
A large number Of the present business
subscribers never paid the old $125 rate,
and have taken up the service because of
the lower rates obtainable under the new
system, and some who formerly paid the
old rate have changed their contracts. find
ing they could get all the service they re-
quired at smaller cost on the message
basis. On the other hand, many large
users. finding their service inadequate and
getting tired of being reported busy to
persons calling them up, have installed
private branch exchanges on the message
rate basis There are now only about 1O00
of the old fiat rate users among the bust
ness houses in the city.
Business Rates.
The present business rate is $4S year for
the right to send 600 messages, the charge
for additional messages ranging from to 8
cents according to the number used. AS
is we'll known, there are many pay stations
throughout the city for the use Of the public
at the rate OF cents q message. The pri-
vate branch exchange rates are purely on
the message rate basis, each telephone cost
ing 80 or less and the rate per message
being cents, with some additional charges
for the switchboard, trunk lines etc.
A. fiat rate for business telephones, pointed
out Mr. Bethel. would not be at all feasible
because of the variation in use. 1t would
especially work an Injustice to the small
user. and by, limitirg the growth Of the
system would when broadly considered be
detrimental to the large user as well.
President Bethel said further that the
present plans of the company were to
make the FtelepKepe system OF Washington
one Of tho Ghnest in the world. He pointed
out the work that Is being done In COM
pliance with thadenactment OF Congress au-
thoriziag the extension Of the underground
lines, referring to the satisfaction the Dis
trict ComHissi0qers had publicly expressed
over the progress made by the company
and the fact that more had been done In
this respect thaffwas required by Congress.
al Neg Buildings.
He then; mentioned the fact that the
company is nowt building q new structure
at the cornsr sotu2t and streets north
west and had fecentiy completed one at
18th and r streets: The work on the former
equipment. he said. had been unavoidably
delayed, but 1t IA being pushed forward to
an early completion.
The new equipment viii probably be in