The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-03-08
THE RURAL TELEPHONE SYSTEM.
Editor Green Tells of It's Remarkable Success in Union
county-An Example That Every Other Progress
sive Community In North Carolina Should Make
Haste to Adopt.
Editor Progressive Farmer

Some time ago, at your request, I submitted
an article to you for publication giving a descrip-
ton of the rural telephone system in this (Union)
County. At that time there were about two hun
dred and fifty telephones in the rural districts of
this county. Now there are probably between live
hundred and six hundred telephones among the
farmers of Union County and the system con-
tinues to grow rapidly. The following will ap-
pear in Our Home this week, and it gives ex-
amples of how the rural telephones are brought
into use by farmers in the sale of their cotton:
"When the rural telephone system first began
to be extended in this section a question asked by
farmers was, Will it payY Some well-to-do
farmers hesitated because they were afraid it
wouldn't be a profitable investment, and some are
probably still hesitating on that account. Every
comfort or convenience of farmers is not sup
posed to 'pay'-to bring them in a profit. A new
buggy doesn't pay 1t would be cheaper to go
on wagons, but farmers have the buggies because
they are a convenient and comfortable convey
ance. There are times when the rural telephones
are brought into profitable use. Last week, when
wild speculation put the price of cotton up as
much as a cent a pound in one day, those who
had telephones keep right up with the market and
when it reached the high water-mark several far
mers sold their cotton by telephone. In this
way the telephone saved the farmers of this coun-
ty several hundred dollars, for by the time they
got to town to deliver their cotton, which they
sold by phone at 1880, the price was down to
1850. One farmer alone made about $3.50 in
one day by bringing his telephone into use in
selling his cotton. For the past several weeks the
greater portion of the cotton placed on this mar
ket was sold by telephone. Farmers ten or fifteen
miles from town stand in their houses and trans
act business with the merchants. A man who
would have predicted this sort of thing fifteen
years ago would have been called a dreamer and
a crank. Pretty good progress, indeed, and this
is the kind of progress that that helps the
farmer"
There are now twelve or fifteen telephone ex-
changes besides those in the towns of the county.
The whole system is connected, Ill fact, there are
different lines through which connection may be
given to the principal towns, SO that when a
patron calls for a line and it is reported "busy,"
there are other ways he can be given connection
through, if he is in a hurry. All the country ex-
changes are, with possibly one exception, owned
and operated by individuals who put in switch
boards and establish and operate exchanges at
their own expense, charging rents for connecting
lines and phones. Two or three farmers unite
and build party lines to the "central' and where
two or more phones are on the same line they
have to pay only fifty cents a month for each
phone. Therefore, the only expense the pro-
p~rietOr of the exchange has in its establishment
is the installment of the switchboard and the run
ming of a line to connect with the other systems.
He, of course, furnishes the operators. A child
ten or twelve years old can operate an ordinary
neighborhood central" Wire and phones are
cheap and it does not cost the farmers much to
build their lines and put III their phones. and the
low price of fifty cents a month phone rent is
not burdensome to ANYBODY. In towns where the