The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-03-27
TELEPHONE MONOPOLY
 ATTACKED AT HEARING
MANY CITIZENS FROM ALL OYER THE STATE AT THE
 CAPITOL.

Senator JudsOn Strongly FavOrs Bill
 for Board of Railroad and Telephone
 Commissioners Charges South
 ern New England of Being Afraid of
 It'll. B. Freeman, Jr., Declares
 Present Company Enjoys a Monopoly
 Such as No Other of Any Kind in
 the State Has-Advantages of Conn petition From the Independent Point
 of View.
 Hartford, March 26.-The 255 seats in the hall of representatives were occu- pied by citizens from all over the state at 2 o'clock this afternoon, when the hearing on a number of bills relating to telephone companies was begun. The first bill heard was the one providing for the establishing of a board of rail- road and telephone commissioners. Senator Stiles Judson appeared in fa- vor of the bill, and said he would like to have the bill considered on it's mer- its. He said he did not want any action taken on the other telephone matters to conflict with this. Whether In the future it would be an open field or a monopoly this commission was impor- tant, The Southern New England Tel ephone company was opposed to it, he said, and did not want to be called to account by a state commission. If this was the situation' he said, 1t came with bad grace from a company so well pro- tected, at present and in the past, by the state
 The initiative in the bill as originally drafted was placed in towns through 1 its officials. In this bill it proposes the merger of two important businesses in one commission. The board of railroad commissioners was not overworked at the present time, and while there is a tendency to oppose any more commis sions. the fact remains that these two interests are great public service cor lporations. The minds of these commis- sioners might well be directed to those allied interests.
 ] The salary proposed is $5,OO0, against $S,000 now, and the increase Is to get a thoroughly capable commission and the governor could be expected to select the commission wisely. In conclusion he urged upon the committee careful consideration of the bill.
 ! Judge Henry Stoddard, of New Ha- ven, representing the Southern New England Telephone company, said he represented this and other bills, and asked that all wilo favored any of the bills be heard first. This the commit tee decided to do, and Harrison B. Freeman, jr., of Hartford, was the next speaker. He said he represented one of the companies desiring a franchise, and it was only fair that the situation in this state be explained. Up to 1899 any three persons could organize, un- der the laws, a company to do tele- phone business. In 1899 several bills were introduced in the Connecticut leg islature, and passed, which practically gave a monopoly to one company which existed at that time without competi- tion. Without attempting to arouse any prejudice, he said that the law compelling a competing company to give three weeks notice before the leg islature convened gave the monopolistic company an opportunity to conduct a campaign of education, so-called, by its attorneys, officers and employees, for the purpose of teaching the representatives | the beauties of a natural monopoly. The present company enjoys a monop- oly such as no other company of any kind in the state had.
 Then it was necessary to prove that competing company was public Iconvenierce, and this meant endless ex- pense in the matter of engaging ex- perts and taking dispositions. It would be better, he said, to frame law giv- ing the Southern New England Tele- phone company a monopoly, because under the present laws it Is almost im- possible for competing company to get in here,
 The question boiled down was whether we are to have competition or monopoly in the telephone business in this state.'
 1 Tho independent telephone move- ment was fast growing, and any fair minded man would be forced to be- lieve that the independent movement would be gain to the public. This state was the only one that practically gives a monopoly to one company. The independent movement was never so strong financially and otherwise as it Is to-day. It was proposed to show that the Southern New England Telephone company was controlled by the Amer