The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-15

Spartansburg were cut off from the world for several hours on Friday night and Saturday morning. The center of the storm seems to have been in Anderson. No wire communication out of this city has been obtained since Friday night.
 Tt will be observed that the new switchboard was immediately sent; 40 men hurried to the scene and others were en route when the story was written, and while the plant was completely de- stroyed by fire, few dayss only and things arc again running as of yore. We insist that such a system is worth while; it is worth more money than smaller one; it is a, rnonopoly-but always under the regulation of sworn state officials SC it is one monopoly that must be conceded by many men to be a blessing.
 "A special dispatch to the Atlanta Con- stitution thus tells of heavy blow dealt the Bell company fand also records it's methods of doing things as follows:
 "'Gainesville, Ga, February 3.-(Spe- cial)-As the linemen of the telegraph and telephone companies are enabled to get further out from the city on their wire work, the destruction from Fridays sleet storm grows accordingly. The South ern Bell Telephone and Telegraph com pany is the heaviest loser. About 20 miles of it's poles and wires are down between Gainesville and Suwanee. Not only are the wires and cables down, but the poles are broken off near the ground The Western Union Telegraph company has s52 poles down between Gainesville and Suwanee and the Postal Telegraph com pany is also a heavy loser by the sleet storm.
 ".On the Gainesville Midland railway, between this point and Athens, the South ern Bell Telephone and Telegraph com pany, which built this line with new poles last year, suffered much damage. No poles are down. but the wire Is broken fearfully. Between Gainesville and Bell mont, distance of 10 miles, there are S7 breaks in the wire. The larger force of the company is at work on this line repairing 1t, as trains on this road are largely operated by the phones of thls system.'
 "All this is worth ones time to think about. It suggests that the Bell Tele- phone and Telegraph company is out for business; if misfortune overtakes it and it loses thousands of dollars 1t does not try to patch up and make out-but it goes to work, has force of trained and skilled workmen always ready for any emergency and immediately restores the lost lines or the lost plants, and the peo- pie, the general public, are not in the least annoyed and business is delayed but a few hours or day or two at the least.
 s.In recording these facts we hope we will be forgiven We know in these days of red fire effects and plays to the grand stand 1t is sorry wretch who dares speak out for deserving corporation, but we feel that as events have vindi- cated us and proven our position of couple of years ago we will be forgiven. Our publication was the only one that dared speak above whisper for the rail- roads year ago. everything seemed to cry fcrucify-but we note that time also yindicates us on that score, and we have lived to see legislature called in special session to reverse itself and go on record as saying that our contention was just and equitable and all these things have a tendency to make us feel that we have not gone far astray."