The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-11-19


and the cost increases. As the num-
Der of subscribers increases, each OPP |
orator is able to give attention TO /
fewer subscribers. Another great
item of expense, he said. is the wear
and tear on the average switchboard.
which is a very costly appliance. He
said that the life of the average
switchboard Is ten years. In the To-
cal exchange there is one switchboard
which cost 10000. so that the wear
on this board costs $1,000 annually.
A telephone pole lasts on an av-
Ierage Of only Is years. II believe
you gentlemen will agree with me
when l. say that it would be unfair
to ask any telephone company 10 ask
from its subscribers anything less
than enought to meet expenses, pay
six per cent. dividend and have suf-
lficent surplus to rebuild the plant
when 1t Is worn out. | am frank in
telling this council that the Marion
County company has not paid six
per cent. and ! do not believe that
the gentlemen who have just spoken
lhdNO chlNWuhtoo w VII
able them to make money with
telephone company which furnishes
service for $50 and $1s year. ;"
J Mr.. CUTLERY said that in reality
the deal between the Marion County
and Bell companies has proven an
advantage to the people of the coun-
ty, since II has done away with the
double telephone system and has cut
down the cost of telephone service
in the store and office from So 80 a
month to SO 80 month, while the
cost of residence phones has not been
Increased for people who are willing
to be on party lines.
1T seems to me that nothing gives
the people as much for their money
as does the telephone company" said
Mr.. CUTLERY.
MIR. Mouser presents a peculiar ar
Sument when he says tha: even when
the directors of the Marion County
Telephone company saw that they
could not exist under the old arrange
ment they should continue to lose
money and break up. will admit
out experience and that out of all
the stockholders, was the only one
to make an investigation. The 9TH
er promoters wanted to furnish serv-
Ice all over the country for q dollar
"a month and told them it could not
be done.
Mr.. CUTLERY said that Judging from
,tha nf 81
are only>two institutions in the coun-
,ty, the Marion Steam Shovel and the
Huber Manufacturing companies,
which are larger than the Marion
County Telephone company. He said
that there is now almost half mil
lion dollars invested and all but $l0,-
900 is Marion capital. Whatever divi-
dends are paid circulate here.
''lf the gentlemen who have spoken
will agree to nperate'a telephone plant
here and charge only $50 and SIS
a month for rentals, we will sell them
our plant for just what It cost us
and will be glad to get rid of it,"
said Mr.. Cutlery. '"There is not so
much money in the telephone business
as we thought there would be when
we went into it We talked it over
the other night and there is not one
in the company who is not willing TO
SELL"
Mr.. Quigley came back with
CLOSING argument.
Coming in unDrepared az mfr.
IGuthery says he did, it seems to me
that he argues with a great deal of
Iverboslty.r 3 M
Mr.. Quigley, speaking of the serv-
ice furnished by the Marion County
company, said that there is no excuse
for girls being impertinent, as the
Operators of the local company are
lallowed to be,
ANY gentleman sitting here knows
that the service furnished by the
Bell company was better than that
LOT the Marion County company, be-
cause the Bell controlled appliances
which the Marion County could not
get and cannot get" said Mr.. Quig-
ley. "They say that as result of
the merger the people of Marion
Icounty are getting better telephone
service than they did formerly. The