The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1904-01-16
Mr.. HUME DEFENDS
THE CUMBERLAND
Another Chapter in the Telephone
Controversy.

NASHVILLE, Tenn January 0, 1901.
To the Editor Of the Commonwealth,
Greenwood, Miss. Dear Sir: | notice
Col. Harvey Myers "Warm Reiolndcr"
appearing in your issue of the 2nd in
stant.
At the time | wrote my former com
munication the fact escaped me, but !
quite agrco with him that "tbe truth
always hurts" especially whom one is
crying to fool the people, and the great
length and labor OF Col Myers warm
Reiolnder" clearly indicates that he is
badly hurt.
] raised no objection in my article to
the building Of opposition lines. They
have perfect right to build MS many as
they want. The thing that was obIcc-
tionablc was having to listen to all of
these "hot-air" stories OF Col. Myers,
lie has bccn the most active "talker" in
the business, and his ratio Of work to
'hih hNdhb0 HDDut db ] 10 IUU,
Now, to boil this whole thing right
down in nutshell, 1t is this Col
Myers shows by his own statement that
he was laboring under the impression
That it was fixed policy on the part Of
the Cumberland Telephone & Telegraph
Company to buy out opposition. We
think he had this In mind when he cx-
plotted his ventures at Memphis and
Greenwood, and are justified in the pre-
sumption by his repeated efforts TO sell
the Memphis property to the Bell Com
panies.
NO beadway has been made in dispos-
ing Of this property to the Bell inter |
ests hence these tears. Col Myers is
evidently a very much disappointed
man. There is nothing in his Memphis
situation 10 give him encouragement.
The action recently taken by the Gayoso
Hotel Company in throwing out several
hundred OF his telephones, after years
trial, and substituting therefor the in
struments Of the Cumberland COMPANY.
tells the tale too plain.
The failure Of tho Bell Company IN
Michigan was brought about by It's
atliliation and endcavor to assimilate
lot OF opposition plants, which pulled
the whole structure down and, while
he refers to this one failure Of the Bell
Companies, every State in the Union is ,
'trewn with the wrecks Of opposition
'aiiures. They are so numerous that II
Is idle to attempt to enumeratc them.
is full of such instances.
Jackson, Meridian and 50 ON
without end.
1t is not necessary to cNpatiato upon
he subject Of two telephone companies |
u one town the business people of /
brentwood have an object lesson right I
lnder tholr own eyes, and it speaks for
tseIf.
AS to the capitalization Of the Cnm. {
'erland Company, referred to by Col 3
Myers, ! have to say that its twelve
Millions of capital is BONA PfDR paid-up
money, and that as it has over 100 000
ubscribers, any school boy can Agura b
ut that that is only about $4,000 Der ,
ubscriber OF capitalization. =
AS il is well known that the COM
any has large sums Of money Invested v
n great network OF toll lines. az n Fl
latter Of course It's capitalization per -
ubscriber Is very much less. -
Col. Myers Memphis Company has
ONE s9OO,OD0 of stock and bond capj. j
alizatlon, and something like 2JO0 sub N
cribers no long distance lines hence n,
is capitalized ON something like 500 V
er instrument; or something like three r'
nd half times as much as the Cum II
erland Company. in
Col. Myers IL very shifty man with
is pen and talk, but not much AZ a
dilder, and less as an operator
Yours very truly, az
LELAND HUME. re