The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-15
SOUTHERN BELL MAKES RECORD
 IN REPAIRING SHEET DAMAGE
Story of How Men and Material Were Quickly Se- cured to Meetthe Unusual Emergencies of Serious Fire and Heavy Damage Caused by Sleet Storm.

The Greensboro, N C.. "Everything" makes interesting comment upon the work done by the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph company in repairing the dam age of the sleet storm of January 3, which destroyed a great amount of the companys property between Greenville, S. C., and Atlanta, Ga. During the midst of this storm the Southern Bells ex- change at Anderson s. C., was destroyed by fire. The following article in Every thing tells how the Southern Bell com pany met an unusual emergency and re- stored service in record breaking time:
 .Aln these days, when the cry of cruci- fixion rings out against every corpora ton, it occasionally becomes our duty to stand up and defend the right, al- though 1t appears to the destructionist who measures other men by his own yardstick that we have been subsidized. In other issues and in other years we have pointed out the fact that the South ern Bell Telephone and Telegraph com pany was the most desirable telephone system for a community, because it was a great organization; that it occupied large territory and was prepared to give a service unexcelled and unequalled by any other corporation or individual. We have pointed out the fact that when dis aster came, storms or confiagrations, the Bell people, because of their equipment, could restore service in few hours, where an individual or a smaller con- cern would either be put entirely out of business or hold the business world up. for weeks.
 "We noted this because of several dis astrous sleet storms We personally wit messed in this section of the country, and once or twice we have been accused or presenting imaginary happenings to bol- ster up contention. But we note Tn our exchanges the past two weeks the records of many storms which dealt the Bell people a heavy blow and we also noted with pleasure that they seem pre- pared for any emergency.
 We will cite a couple of cases in point The following from the Anderson, s. C., Daily Mail Is worth reading:
 "'Wtihin two weeks the local telephone service in Anderson will be restored said Superintendent R. M. Lewis this morning. We have about 40 men here working on the plant inside and outside, and we intend to be able to give some sort of service shortly. Our long distance service will be on this afternoon.
 ".After fighting fire all of Friday night and after doing all any man can possibly do to save the telephone plant from the sleet storm on the same night, Superintendent Lewis left Anderson on raturday morning on the first train to c. arlotte to secure assistance. MT. Mu- roe, who is at the head of the construc- tion force here. was dispatched to At lanta for assistance also. The results are that 40 men arrived here Saturday, night and Sunday morning and two carloads Of equipment.
 ..As stated in this newspaper on Sat urday, the entire plant of the telephone company was destroyed by the storm and fire. It is necessary that an entirely new plant be installed. The switchboard which had capacity of 500 subscribers, was a complete ruin. A new board with q capacity of 750 subscribers arrived in the city from Atlanta yesterday morn ing
 'The storm on Friday night did much damage to the wire service in the Pied- mont section of the state. Greenville and