The Greeley tribune., 1905-07-27

get half the service in number.
Therefore, nine times out Of ten 1t
Is cheapest for the business man and
better for his customer to have one
telephone sytsem that covers the
county and state. Whether that
company be the Bell or an indepen-
dent company matters not in the
least to the writer or to anybody else
except the fellow with the colt to
sell. The Colorado Telephone Co. is
about as soulless as the average cor
poration, and is apt to put ON all
the traffic will bear: but whoever
accused George J. Spear, j.. Willis
Hill or c. II. Ramsay Of being phil
anthropists? Who ever heard of
either of them spending dollar
for the good of the community un-
less there seemed certainty of get
ting two dollars for their own pock-
cts out of the deal? Yet these men
who saddled colt onto the public
four years ago in the shape of an in
dependent telephone system that
was warranted to knock out the Bell
in no time, extend all over northern
Colorado and charge the consumer
only half what the Bell asked for
its service are today trying to force
the public to buy another colt.
At that time the eloqunce of
Spear prevailed, local capital was
interested, an independent telephone
system was built in Greeley and
hundreds of instruments put in.
Through the increased efforts put
forth for business by each company
and the natural growth of the tele-
phone habit, almost the whole country
has been connected up by one COM
pany or the other. At first the Bell
lost lots Of phones, / ut it did not 60
out Of business in Greeley or else
where, and it was but a short time
until progressive business houses in
Greeley found that they had to have
the Bell phone, both for long dis
tance talks and because there were
just as many residences and ranches
on one system as on the other. In
other words, their cheap colt couldn't
do their work, so today they are
feeding two horses instead of one.
Meantime, all has not been smooth
sailing In the Independent fold.
1t was easy to rent phones, and while
the equipment was new the receipts
easily exceeded the expenditures, and
with nothing for reserve fund an III
per cent dividend was declared and
paid. This looked good, but some of
the local stockholders saw good
chance to let 60 and did so. Heavy
storms came, entailing damage and
expense, and repairs and replace
ments ate up all the profits and then
some. Dividends failed to pile up,
but debts did, and it became evil
dent that Spear had sold them a
pretty poor colt. Meantime Spear
got his alleged rakeoff on the cost of
the equipment, turned his stock into
money and only held nominal in
terest in the concern. With more
expenditures than income it soon be-
came necessary for Messrs. Gray, Pot
ter and Williams, the heaviest stock
holders, to go down deep into their
pockets and bolster up its tottering
finances with their own personal
credit. which was, and still is, AL.
They finally tired of this and mort
gagged the plant for sl5, 900 to take
care of the money they had advanced
and debts they had assumed. When
the mortgage came due the plant
was sold, subject to redemption.
The buyer we do not know. He may
be acting for the Bell, as many allege,
He may not. We have no proof of
it except the word of the man who
sold us the woolly colt. But the
system remains in existence, the
charges are the same, the service rem
dered is the same, and with no debts
and no gratters in it, it may
pull through and even make lit
tie profit sometime.
Meantime Spear put other fran
chises through the council, promoted
a gas system, promised us cheap gas,
which he failed to deliver for more
than few months, when the charges
were advanced 33 l-3 per cent because
the system wasn't satisfactory
(How much did he get for foisting a
bum plant on the stockholders OF the
gas company?) The company went
bankrupt, and three or four of the
heaviest stockholders had to put up
and buy the concern at mortgage sale
to save themselves heavy loss. Next
Spear attempted to promote an cleo