St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1908-01-01
copyright. 1904, by Frederick Upham Adamsl
XII.

who are complaining of extor-
Tomato rates for inferior service As
usual the Scotch metropolis was the
first city in the kingdom to challenge
he supremacy of the telephone trust,
hich in Great Britain goes by the
name Of the National Telephone com
pGny
The fight for a municipal franchise
was a complicated and interesting one.
In 1911 the imperial government
through its postoffice department pro
poses to take over the control of the
telephone system of the United King
dom At that time the National Tele-
phone company will be compelled to
surrender its property at its actual mar
ket value without a penny additional
for good win or franchises. The mu-
inequalities expect to arrive at some
agreement with the general government
by which they will be left ia partial
control of their plants and to share in
its profits. Be this as it may, the last
privately owned telephone will disap
pear in about six years from this date.
1t is more than ten years ago since
Glasgow proclaimed revolt against the
high charges and bad service of the
private telephone company. \ commit
tee of the city council reported in ia
yor of establishing a municipal plant,
and, without going into details, it may
be stated that on March l. 1900, elias
gov obtained the first license ever
granted to a city for the purpose Of
constructing and operating a telephone
system.
The work of construction was begun
in July 1900, and up to the present
time Glasgow has expended $1.350,000
on its telephone plant While the city
contains only twenty square miles OF
territory. the telephone wires reach out
over nearly ten times that large dis
trict.
Under the old telephone company nc
effort was made to reach the suburban
area. The private company catered
only to the congested district and i'm.
agined that it would lose money if il
improved the service, extended the
scope or lowered the rates. Under its
management the average annual cosi
Of telephone was $50 or more. L
took from one to ten minutes to ms k
a connection
The Glasgow telephone service is tht
best | have ever inspected. / was in
formed that statistics showed that thu
average time required to make a con
nection was less than fifteen seconds.
made test on my own account ant
| called up ten subscribers. OF the nine
who responded the average time from
| unlocking the receiver to answers from
those addressed was fourteen seconds
1t should be explained that the tele
phone booth Is practically unknown il
the office of a Glasgow business man
The instrument is on the edge of his
desk, and the receiver and transmittel
are in one piece.
The rate to a subscriber for a serv
Ice with an unlimited number of call.
over the entire system is $3.50 a year
There is no installation charge and nj
dues of any kind other than the annua
payment Of this amount A toll serv
Ice is rendered for ST wear, with al
additional charge of penny for eacl
outward message, with unlimited In
ward calls free. On party line will
more than four subscribers the rate IL
Sc per annum, with an unlimited mum
Der of calls.
There are 1000 subscribers to the
municipal telephone system of Glas
gov. The private company predicted
that the insanity Of the management
In reducing rates and giving decent
service would result in financial ruin
but the investment showed a profit Of
100000 year.
The cleansing department of Glasgow
is an interesting institution. 1t owns
thousands of acres of farm lands where
once were nothing but bogs and marsh
es. To these farms are conveyed the
refuse products of the streets. On then
are stone quarries and brickyards own
ed and operated by the city. There ar,
also great factories Connecting thu
factories and the farms is a system Of
steam railway, the city owning more
than 700 railway cars and large mum
Der of locomotives.
In 1892 Glasgow purchased the small
private electrical plant for about $780,
600. From this modest beginning II
has developed comprehensive system
modern In every particular. 1t now rep
resents an investment exceeding So
100000, and the profits last year
amounted to $4,000. This does not
include $4,000 paid for taxes. AS has
been stated before, all public enterprises
in Great Britain pay taxes and are thus
on the same footing for purposes OF
comparison as private lustries Even
a y