Omaha daily bee., 1905-10-01
MORAL QUESTION INVOLVED
Two Telephone Systems Injuries More
People Than it Can Help.
RESPONSIBILITY RESTING ON CITY COUNCIL
Possibility of Extending Service
Small and Certainty of In
creasinE Cost to Users
Unavoidable.

The members Of the city council and the
citizens OF Omaha will recognize some
important moral questions involved in the
second telephone proposition as they be-
come familiar with the facts. one of these
questions is:
Is It right to give any company the
power to force the second telephone into
about $500 business places in Omaha and
thus levy an additional expense Of about
$4,000 year upon the business men of
the city7
have shown by the presentation Of
facts pertaining to the experience of
other cities that wherever there has been
telephone competition in a city as large
as Omaha the Bell telephones have not
been dispensed with, but have increased in
number; that the Bell rates have been
generally maintained and that competition
has placed many thousands of dollars OF
additional expense upon the business men,
who are required to have both phones
But. It may be argued. the business men
will receive an additional service COM
mensurate with the additional expense put
upon them, for they will be placed in
telephone connection with many residencer
which are now without telephone service.
For the sake Of argument we will grant
that the independent company. II It starts
In business, will have many as 1000 ex-
elusive residence phones, meaning that IL
will succeed In placing its phones in 1000
residences which are without the Bell
phones, although this is scarcely possible
in view of the low residential rates of the
Bell company here, and IL the business
rate of the independent company is TO be
S54, as has been intimated, 1t would cost
the business man Just that sum per year
for these 1000 additional residence connec-
tions or 54 cents per connection The ex-
orbitance of this charge may be appre-
ciated by considering the fact that at
present the business man with an indlvid-
ual line phone in the Bell exchange pays
ss4 for a service with 5000 residence con-
nections, or only IL cent per connection.
The additional service to be gained in
Omaha from the establishment OF second
users a great deal more, per possible con-
nection, than the present service of the
Bell company costs. This is indicated
clearly by the foregoing illustration and,
further, it is the established fact in every
city where there are two companies in the
field
II the independent company comes in
with residence rate of $50 per year, as
has been intima ted, and 1000 residences use
It's phone to the exclusion of the Bell
phone the aggregate annual saving to
these 1000 householders would be 5000, be-
cause 1000 residence phones in the Bell
exchange. at $50 each. would cost Just 5000
more than 1000 residence phones IN the IN
dependent exchange, at $50 each Now, II
$500 business men can be beguiled into put
ting In the independent phone at $54 each,
they will be taking on additional tele-
phone expense aggregating S126,0o0 per
year. So, in order to save one class Of
users 5000 a year, the independent tele-
phone proposition means to assess $126, 900
a year OF additional expense against an
other class of users It is just such ex-
perience as this that prompted Alderman
John F. Domhof OF East st. Louis, ILL.,,
In a paper presented to the League of
American Municipalities to say:
I'm voting franchise to any public serv-
ice corporation 1t is the duty OF the city
government to protect the interests of the
whole, and not merely a part, OF the com
munity. city government has no right
to impose a burden upon one class OF citi-
zens in order to bestow a benefit upon an
other class"
Alderman Domhon showed by figures
that telephone competition in East st.
Louis saved one class of users $500 per
year and cost another class SIS, S54 per year.
And every city OF any Importance which
has two telephone systems is having the
same experience in this respect.
II. ]. GONDEN.