Albuquerque evening citizen., 1906-10-02
THE TELEPHONES
TO Be CONSOLIDATED
And Ii Will Mean Much Better
Service to the
Patrons.
OFFICIALS ARE NOW IN CITY
The Colorado Telephone Company
Lifts Mortgages and Are
Now owners.
OFFICIALS ARE NOW IN CITY

lNOW OWllCIO.
A. H. DeNike, special agent of the
Colorado Telephone company. accom-
panied by A. d. Graham, district man.
ager, called at The Citizen office this
morning and stated that active opera
tions have already commenced to-
ward taking over to the new system
of the Colorado the patrons of the
Mutual Automatic Mr.. DeNike states
that he has put in the field this morn
| ing representatives of his company
who will personally call on every tele-
phone subscriber in Albuquerque and
explain to them the advantages of the
consolidation In order to fully ex-
plain the situation to the citizens of
Albuquerque the following interview
from Philip Hamlin, presidents spe-
cial agent of the Colorado Telephone
company, to The Evening Citizen is
submitted as follows
Il think the fact has been pretty
generally known in Albuquerque for
some time that the Colorado Tele-
|
Mutual Automatic company. | think
too, that most of the business men are
aware that some of the heavier stock.
holders in the Mutual Automatic COM
| pany got under cover as soon as they
learned of this fact. There was fur
tner reason than this, however, for
| their action, and that was that the
company's liabilities were discovered
| to be much heavier than anyone had
anticipated. Our company was aware
of this when we purchased the bonds !;
and we also, at that time, got options
on large portions of the stock, with
view of ultimately consolidating the
two companies.
Il think nearly every one will agree
that since the changes in manage
ment the service has been fully as
good, If not better than before, but in
spite of this fact the Mutual Auto
matte has been laboring under a heavy
| Durden and in order to safeguard our
mortgage, which is covered by the
bonds, we are beginning formal fore
closure proceedings. Our people re.
gret very much that this was neces-
sary, but even though we have been
pretty lenIent in the matter of col.
lecting the bond interest, it has seem.
| ed impossible for the company to rid
itself of the large floating debt and
| at the same time provide for the
bond interest, and also the sinking
fund provided for the retirement of
the bonds.
| 1T is our hope to complete neces.
sary legal proceedings in time to
have all Of the telephone subscribers
OF Albuquerque in one system at the
time our new plant is completed; and
with this in view We are about to
send out some representatives who
are TO call upon every telephone user
in town, lay before them the several
classes of service and the rates and
arrange for the consolidation. | find
that most of the business men are
emlnently satisfied with our intended
| action in the majority of cases the
business men will effect a consider
able saving in their expense by having
but one telephone rent to pay, instead
of two, and at the same time reach an
equal number of subscribers as over
the lines of both companies hereto
fore.
There may be some regret on the
part of a few as to the doing away
with the automatic service, but we
feel that after the common battery
system, which we are installing, has
been thoroughly tried this will be en-
tirely done away with. The automatic
service is more adapted to a country
town than to growing city such as
Albuquerque. 1t is practically impos-
sible to give good toll service in con-
nection with the automatic system,
and large number of the merchants
are now availing themselves of our
toll lines.
Subscribers who have heretofore
paid a rental to 10 one company will
have the additional advantage OF
reaching all of the subscribers of the
other company as we'll hereafter.
Il feel that this little talk is, suffi-
cient to explain our reasons for send
ing out solicitors into the field at this
time. | estimate that the people of
Albuquerque Will save some three or
four thousand dollars per annum on
telephone rental when the two sys.
TENS have been consolidated.
Undoubtedly, it will take some
time to get the new plant started;
new machinery cannot be made to do
its best from the beginning but it
has been our experience everywhere,
that as soon as the inequalities of
the service have been cared for the
service is much better than ever be-
fore"