The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-03
s. N. E. I. cos SIDE OF
 TELEPHONE SITUATION
Continued from First Page. )

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 better than the automatic system. The Strojer automatic system was put on the market over ten years ago, and it was in operation and has been for number of years in operation in Fall River, Mass, and New Bedford, while later it was installed in Portland, Me. The Manual system in it's practical operation was better in the first place because it gave a community the most useful telephone system, because it was the largest system. At Fall River and other cities they have not been able to get as many telephones as they could in the Manual system.
 Everyone knows what bad telephone service is because We are yet close to the introduction of telephony when lit 1 tie was known of how to get the best service.
 At very substantial cost for equip ment a complicated arrangement had been made to perform automatically what the telephone girl does by the manual system. In one case the labor is performed by a subscriber and in the other by the so-called operator A lack of skill in using the automatic system means that often the wrong number Is called. The little factor of skill on the part of the operator Is substantial factor. The automatic people have been attempting for many years to per feet their system over times of high re- sistence. They have also been attempt 1 ing to make one line serve more than one subscriber. In the installation that he had examined especially in Augusta, Los Angeles, New Bedford, Fall River and Portland no substantial develop ments had been made in rural places and all rural communities had to re- sort to the manual system. In reply to question MT. Pickernell said regard ing the secrecy of the automatic sys- | tenn that the great claim In this regard was due to the contracting of single line system as compared with party wire, If | the automatic system marked out it's party line system it would be possible for four or five to listen in on a sys- tenn
 In reply to a question as to whether there were difficulties, mechanical and electrical in the Strojer system, MT. Plckernel said that there were decid edly substantial difilculties-muc1 more SC than in the manual system. The manual system was faster in the mat ter of service also.
 Regarding the smallness of exchanges and the effect on the toll charges, the speaker said the larger the area of any exchange the greater the cost of pro- duclng the service, and the greater cost of exchange likewise the greater diff culty in procuring subscribers owing to | increased rates. If q flat rate was made to give everybody in the state fine service it would of necessity be a high rate. The state was now divided into fifty or sixty sections. The flve-cent toll in effect in this state was lower than anywhere else; in fact, tle mini- mum toll rate elsewhere was ten cents.
 One statement he would like to make was that this state was the first to use long distance telephones, and while there were not as many rural tele- phones as there were in western states, it was because in tGle west the farmers purchased telephones and maintained their own companies The introduction of another telephone company would Increase the rate of development, md a great part of the development would be a duplication,
 In Fall River, in order to get $50 sub scribers, over 600 were Implications, and that would be the result here, In the long run Connecticut would pay more and get less than under tie present system.
 Where farmers would put in their own telephones and maintain them the rate would be s6 a year in Connecticut that being the rate fixed by the South ern New England company. In the west some exchanges charged, under tire same system, only $l year.