The Hawaiian gazette., 1909-11-09
AGREEMENT UP
FOR ARBITRATION
Tedious Methods OF Supervisors
Call Forth Decisive
Proposition.
PROPOSALS TURNED DOWN
Telephone Company Leaves 1t to
Merchants Association
to Decide.
PROPOSALS TURNED DOWN
(From Saturdays Advertiser.)

Temporizing and procrastination still
Z hold the boards in the pending conduit
negotiations between the board of super.
visors and the Mutual Telephone Com
pany, the former, By its special com.
mittee of five, still pumping out pro-
posals of its own and turning down
proposals of the telephone people.
Yesterday the committee decided that
they could not recommend the accept
ance of the telephone company's
counter proposal without backing down
from the antagonistic position in which
they have chosen to place themselves.
That the telephone company is tired
of these methods is evidenced in a
letter addressed to the board by them
an which they give up all their at
tempts to reach a compromise directly
with the board, and offer to abide by
the arbitration of the merchants as
}sociation. The letter, which has not
yet received the attention of the COM
mittee, is as follows:
"Gentlemen:-As you have not ac-
cepted the proposition which the tele-
phone company made to you in its letter
of November 4, which was the result
of our conference with a committee of
the merchants association, we now do
submit to you the further following
proposition:
"That the telephone company and the
board of supervisor Is submit the subject
matter of their difference to the com
mittee of the merchants association for
arbitration and settlement. The tele-
phone company on its behalf agrees to
lie bound by the result of such arbitra-
ton. Yours truly The Mutual Telephone
Company, BIZ George r. Carter, its
7 treasurer |'s
Whether Ay. tt, Cox, Kane, AHA and
Mcclellan, not TO mention the mayor,
will accept this fair-minded proposition
is another matter. There is a gentle
touch of hopeless despair in the tone
of the letter, that would seem to in
dirate that the company would not be
sdlrprised if this proposition, like all the
rd,st, would be antagonized by the Solid
Six.
The counter proposal of the telephone
Itcompany in answer to the four made
Y by the board was identical with theil
N original offer except that it provided
u for a cash deposit on its part guarantee
ing the proper relaying of Tue streets
The new proposition of the board
winch is appropriately dubbed the fifth
as a conglomeration of all the othel
four 1t reads:
"The board and the company to en-
fer into an entirely new agreement
whereby the board shall pay the com
fpany fifteen cents per duet foot, il
I place, for such length as may be de
/, sired, the city and county to>have thu
right to a duet in future extensions
the rate of fifteen cents per lineal foo
in place The board further to repea
that portion of the ordinance requiring
:, the furnishing of free duct by thu
! company, and to exempt the compan!
from the payment of permit fees unde
/ the ordinance for a period of one yea
only
From the tone of the letter of tn
telephone company, it does not seem a
if they were willing to consider tn
I ABOVE bit of craftsmanship but offe
II proof of their good faith in expressinI
themselves as willing to leave it to tn
representative organization of the elias
| of citizens which the board is also sup
1 posed to represent. The work of layin
the conduits is still progressing.