Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-08-21
WITHIN THE TOWN.

| - The telephone row now on in York
vile is very little else than the re-
opening of an old sore that first began
to matter in the summer of 1905; but
which Is not to be finally healed until
the Bell Telephone company gets,
through its subsidiary, the Piedmont
company, franchise to do business In
Yorkville for twenty-five years. The
controversy was preciptated when the
Piedmont company acquired the
rights of the Bedford company and
gave notice Of proposed ma
terial increase of rates. In response to
call signed by Messrs. ]. S. Brice,
John R. Hart, NJ. B. Jennings, Thos. F.
Mellow, w. B. McCaw and w. w.
Lewis, there was a warm meeting In
the court house on the subject on the
night Of July 7, 1905. Mr.. O'Lcary pre-
sided, and in explaining the object OF
the meeting to be to protect the tele-
phone subscribers from extortion Mr..
Brice had some pretty hard things to
say about the Bell Telephone company,
declaring that it was a greedy corpora
| ton with no regard for the rights or
the people and that it's sole object was
to get money out of the public no mat
ter how. There was a lively tilt be-
tween Mr.. Jennings and Mr.. Maupin,
and Mr. John r. Hart suggested
| that I'VE appoint a committee to
go before the city council and
request the annulment Of the
| franchise, or, in the ev:nt the city
council is not able to give relief, to pro-
ceed in the courts on the ground of
poor service" AS the upshot of that
| meeting it was decided to appoint
committee Of five ito draft telephone
| franchise, calculated to conserve the in
terests of the community in the most
satisfactory manner possible, and to
offer the franchise to the Bell, Pied
mont or any other company that could
give an acceptable guarantee of its
ability to live up to the terms of the
contract. Otherwise the committee
would report back to the citizens for
such further action as might be deemed
proper" The committee took the mat
ter up and after considerable delibera-
ton recommended the organization
among the subscribers Of a protective
association with the idea OF keeping
the telephone company up to good SER
vice and reasonable rentals by means
Of withdrawal of patronage in the event
Of dereliction. In its recommendation
the committee specified maximum
rental of $500 for business phones and
s1.OO for residence phones. 1t was re-
uuired that all lines coming to the cor
pOrate limits of Yorkville should be ad-
mitted to the exchange at these rates
and that the $500 rate should entitle
subscribers to all connections in the
county. Mr.. Maupin met this PROPOSE
ton with an offer to give all local res
idence phones for s1.25 a month, all
the lines owned by the Bedford Phone
company for $500 a month and all
the lines in the county for $3.50 a
month. Later on there was a virtual
agreement with the telephone peo-
pie that the rates should be as follows:
Residence phones with town and
country connections at s1.25 a month;
business phones $500 a month: all
connections in the county for $3.50 al
month" After this the committee was
discharged and the telephone people
continued from time to time to i'm
perfume for a franchise. From what
had been said all along that was really
what they were after all the while.
The council, however, continued to re-
fuse. The matter comes up again now