St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1908-10-28
The Telephone Situation.
The Conference between the Two Sides
Statement from the Committee of Re-
mOnStrantS.

~~--~--
mOnStrantS.
The first conference between the two Z
parties at issue in the telephone contro-
versy was held at the Avenue House
Thursday afternoon. The committee
from LyndonviIle consisted of E. ]. Blod- |
gett. "A. Norton and B. G. Morrison.
The St. Johnsbury petitioners were re-
presented by DR.. T. K. Stiles, c. M.
Berry, F. A. Scott, l.. N Smythe and A.
H. Gleason. The Telephone Company
was represented by F. W. Story, vice
president OF the Company, General Man
ager c. A. Brown and Manager Healey
The matter of the proposed changes
was discussed in detail MIR. Story pro-
duced trial balances, traffic agreements,
and numerous statistics showing the
operations of the company and sup
porting the claims heretofore made by
the company's representatives to the
effect that the company's business with
the present rates has been Improbable.
The questions by members of the COM
mittee were answered with the utmost
| frankness, and their representations rel
ative to the service and rates as affect
ing the telephone users of ST. Johnsbury
were listened to with attention. The
decision Of the company's representa-
tives was, however. in substance that
the company feels obliged to adhere to
its purpose.
Ameeting of the signers of the petitions
was held at the St, Johnsbury House
Thursday night at which arrangements
were made for notifying the company of
their decision and Monday night Man
ager Healey was waited upon by the
committees from Lyndonville and St.
Johnsbury and given the petitions.
! The two committees have issued the
! following statement to the public:
/ To the Passumpsic Telephone users and
| the public generally;
To inform YOU OF the situation and to
correct some misstatements regarding
the telephone war we make public this
| letter.
In the first place we have a list Of
sgners representing over 500 Passump-
! sic telephones who agree to have their
| phones removed whenever the new
schedule of prices goes into effect, and
| there are many more who will sign when
! they have the opportunity to do SO and
| your committee has notified the com
/ pany To remove the phones represented
in this petition, This includes nearly all
of the business subscribers in St. Johns
bury and Lyndunvlle. We und, rstand
| that similar move is being made or
contemplated at Barton, Barton Land
ing and Newport, and one was made at
! WOodsville, where they were successful
and the company have or will put back
! the phones removed and will continue
the old prices with this change only,
viz, if the patrons pay before the 18th
of the month.
| Your committee met the representa-
tives of the Passumpsic Telephone Co.
and fully discussed the matter and found
! them courteous and considerate to a
fault, but not yet ready to make any
concessions. 1t is quite generally re-
ported, we understand. by those who
are getting signers to the slips that only
a few have signed the petition TO have
| their phones removed and most of those
who have will have them put back in a
| short time or not have them taken out
at all, This we consider an outrageous
| imputaton on the honor and honesty of
the people who are making this protest
and one that should be resented at any
cost or inconvenience by losing their
! phones which at most will be slight as
the Citizens Telephone Co. have agreed
that they can and will take care of the
pnblic indefinitely at their present prices
of $12 and SIS for phones. They are
already putting in cables in the village,
extending their lines, adding to their
switchboard and in every way improv-
ing their system and will continue to do
so, thus as we have said making the in
convenience very slight. There has been
held three meetings of the petitioners
| and at the last two a unanimous vote
was taken to stand pat" or in other
words to stand solidly together and in
structing your committee to present
your petition and order the phones re-
moved according to the tenor thereof or
whenever there was a raise in the prices.
Your committee have performed this
duty in good faith and believe every
phone user who has signed this petition
will stand by them with the result (as
in Woodsvlle) that their phones will
not be removed.
1t is also expected by the committee
that the petitioners and the people
generally will cooperate with and assist
them in every way possible and will cut
out or refuse to use their phones after
the advances in prices take effect. We
wish to say also that the Telephone
people would not agree to continue the
new prices for any definite period so that
we might expect another raise in price
whenever they thought the conditions
more favorable. The only improvement
in services at this time is the cutting
down the number of parties on the same
line to six or less and we have in our
possession several slips calling for a ten
party line so that it would appear that
even this change was not contemplated
over the entire system. Thus all things
taken into consideration your committee
does not feel justified in recommending
anything except to urge every signer to
stand by the declarations setforth in the
petition.
Signed
5: : 81 \ ss'5s:; is55: S=s:4, St JoAo.sDry
In. SMYTHE, Committee
A. H. GLEASON.