Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-07-07

7. G. Patrick and son, Bruce; Rev.
]. M. White, Miss Florence White
Sides Miss Ola Barron, Rev. John
A. White and John B. Presley, Miss
Addie Huey, Miss Rosa Caldwell.
THE TELEPHONE SITUATION.
The meeting that has been called to
be held in the court house tonight
concerns one of the most important
propositions that has been before the
people Of this community for good
many years, and 1t Is the duty Of
every citizen who Is interested In the
common welfare to give his assistance
in arriving at the best thing to be
done. ...
1t Is unnecessary to say that we
have had but an Indifferent telephone
system all the while. Everybody knows
that. But we all recognized that 1t
was a kind Of mutual affair under
the control of fellow citizen, and
everybody felt that they could afford
to make allowances. 1t Is a fact that
the patrons have all along been exceed
ingly generous to the management Of
the telephone system and refrained
from many kicks that would have been
forthcoming had the situation been
on a different basis. 1t is fact also
that the management has suffered no
little imposition from dead beats, who
have never hesitated to make free use
Of the conveniences within their reach
without ever thinking Of rendering
proper compensation. .
But this transfer of the rights and
privileges Of the Bedford company to
the Piedmont company, otherwise the
Bell company. confronts us with a new
condition Of affairs, that must be met
with intelligent firmness. There Is no
doubt about the fact that the Bell
company is smooth. grasping and
greedy. Its policy all along has been
to lull the people to sleep with fair
promises, and to then set In to stead
lily, but surely bleed them to the limit.
More than once the Bell people have
entered a town In which a local ex-
change was supposed to have the field
and given the people free phones. That
frequently proved a good way to buy
the unsuspecting public. Then, as
soon as the local exchange was starved
out or in case the people did not de-
sert It. and this frequently happened,
bought out, rental prices were raised
to SO, 81. and IS a month. This Is the
history of the coming of the Bell In
Spartanburg and numerous other
towns.
Telephone development Is one Of the
most striking features Of the civiliza-
ton of the present day. Go back only
fifteen years and there were not a
score Of telephones in York county
Now the whole country Is covered with
a net work Of wires. Continued devel-
opment in same proportion will In q
few years more, bring us to the time
when there will be a telephone in every
house.
Nobody more fully comprehends the
possibilities of developments along this
line than does the Bell Telephone COM
pany. The best illustration Of this
assertion is the freedom with which 1t
spends its money to accomplish Its
ends. This also accounts for the
roughshod manner in which 1t over
runs competitors and tramples the
rights Of private citizens in the dust
Its methods are similar to those Of the
old time pirate, and in many instances
Its objects are exactly the same.
The town Of Chester Is the only one
Of which we have any knowledge that
can be said to have made Its future
secure as to the telephone problem
Down there they have system where
by each subscriber has stock to the
amount Of his own phone and little
over and pays a small assessment for
operating expenses and betterments.
We know 1t to be fact that numerous
efforts have been made to get control
of the Chester exchange by buying out
the subscribers as a whole or one at
a time; but all these efforts have fall
ed. When the exchange was first
started there were some doubts about
it's success; but now all doubts have
disappeared. Chester has as good an
exchange as there Is in the state, and
the subscribers get their service at
cost, and pay much less even than
has ever been paid in Yorkville.
What the people Of Yorkville are
not know. There Is a choice between
two things. One Is quiet submission
to the Bell company, and the other Is
the organization of an independent
company. There Is no middle ground,
for any kind Of a compromise with the
Bell people, no matter how fair may
be their promises, means that we Will
eventually belong to the Bell, and that
1t will thereafter treat US as 1t pleases.
We have information that people In
different parts Of the county, especial
ly In Bethel, are anxious for YorkVllle
to establish and maintain an independ-
ent system with the view that they
might connect with the same immedi-
ately, and If Yorkville will only pre-
serve her liberty in this matter, 1t Is
not difficult to see how she can easily
so manage matters as to soon become
the centre of one of the best telephone
systems In the state. What that Will
mean as compared with being hope
lessly fettered to the cupidity and
greed of the Bell. ought to be clear
to every intelligent citizen who Is rea-
sonably familiar with the surroundings
under existing conditions.