Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-08-04
Independent Companies Will
Raise Immense Fund to Meet
Monopoly's Competition !
AIM TO PREVENT BELL MERGER
Test Cases Already Started in Two
cities-oId-Line Politicians De-
pended Upon by Combine to Defeat
Independents = Lively Contest for
Business Life.

llON iUelllS dhSSd ~ eiiS 11SAh SSA''
parry, the officers OF the International
Independent Telephone association
have authorized it's committee on liti-
CATION and legislation to begin pro-
ceedings under the antitrust laws.
Charles Lindemuth, who has re-
signed as president of the national
body of independent telephone men,
will act in an advisory capacity to the
committee, being named as counsel.
Mr., Lindemuth is in a position which
annoys him greatly, as his associates
in the Richmond Home Telephone
Company have just merged that con-
Germ with the Bell.
Hide Deal from Lindemuth.
As president of the international In
dependent Telephone association, Mr..
Lindemuth has been leading the
movement against the mergers and
recently delivered an address widely
quoted, upon illegal Mergers" His
position was SO well known that the
Bell stipulated that he should be kent
in ignorance of the Richmond deat,
and this was done.
Mergers with independent tele-
phone companies elsewhere have been
accomplished by tie Bell in this same
way. usually by alliance with subser-.
Went leaders of the old political par
ties.
Two of the five points where the
independent companies are to try to
the unlawful combinations
between the Bell and its independent
rivals are Dubuque, Iowa, and Rich
mond, Ind. 1t Is deemed inadvisable
to announce its moves farther than
this.
Eminent lawyers have held that tel
ephone mergers violate the Sherman
act just rs much as do combinations
between railroads or competing oil
Telephone history has
proved that wherever such mergers
are effected telephone rates go up
with a bound.
Seeks to Regain Monopoly.
Millions have been poured out from
Boston by the Bell company in a vain
endeavor to again monopoliZe the tel
ephone business, and if the mergers
stand and the movement spreads until
the Bell again resumes CONTROL it is
predicted by the leaders of the inde-
pendent movement that !, 1t will cost
more to use a phone than it ever did
in the past.
Resistance to the Bell will come from
the people. Stocks in the independent
companies are owned principally by
small investors in the middle west.
The democratic machine is fastened
up to the telephone trust just as tight
~ as is the republican machine. The
independence party alone is in a posi-
ton to declare for independent tele-
phones and against the destruction by
fraud and trickery of honest telephone
competition. a.
Just as the Bell got hold of the Rich
mond Telephone company without let
ting It's president, Charles Lindemuth,
know Of the merger. so two years ago
1t seized the Independent lines of Indi-
ana and Ohio controlled by Hugh
Dougherty, working the scheme thru
Dougherty's associates.
Same Tactics in Chicago.
In Chicago the Bell has adopted sim
liar tactics. buying up the Kellogg
Switchboard and Supply company Sc
cretly during the absence of it's presi-
dent. Milo G. Kellogg, who was sick
in California
For two years the factory was run
by the Bell, and yet 1t was pretended
that it was Independent and was SELL
ing equipment to the Bell .competi-
tors. t,5
Kellogg discovered that his property
had been given over to the Bell at
midnight and has fought in the courts
to get 1t back. He got a favorable de-
cision in the circuit court, was re-
versed in the appellate. court and
now before the highest court in the
state
In indianapolis the Bell hand is hid
den. The Independent company there
had won in a practical telephone war;
getting many times as many subscrib-
ers as the Bell in the city and holding
the surrounding territory.
Business grew out Of all proportion
to the rates and the independent com.
pany was forced to ask new fran.
chise fixing rates commensurate with
the increased service. Subscribers had
been enabled to reach many times as
many telephones as at first ar we're
not paying for it.
This new franchise is being fought
by the Bell in the Indianapolis courts.
The public prosecutor, however, inau-
gurated the proceeding. The Bell has
also acted thru committee Of 'bus-
mess men, this committee bringing in
a report bearing all the Bell ear
marks and urging merger of the two
telephone companies of indianapolis.
Tries for Merger in indianapolis.
This is backed up with a letter
from the Bell in which it makes an
offer. with a spring to 1t, agreeing to
pay $4,000 for the independent plant
If the Bell can get thru a merger
in indianapolis it would be worth 81
100000 to the telephone trust.
Only one state, Iowa, is more
strongly organized by the independ-
ent telephone men than Indiana. In
Indiana the independent telephone SO
far outnumber the Bell telephones
that the telephone trust is a poor
second. Even the mergers so far OBJ
tanned by the Bell have not changed
the totals materially.
The most profitable business, the
toll line and long distance business,
has also been gained by the independ-
ents. who own the copper circuits
reaching all over the state.
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