The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-12-08
MOVE TO CHECK
Big WIRE TRUST
INDEPENDENTS WILL INVOKE
TAFT AND THE COT aTs.
HIGH RATES EXPECTED
WITH MONOPOLY.

/ new YORK Lee. S.---Declarfng that
President Taft AMI the highest courts
in the land will be invoked to check
the monopoly OF communication that
Is threatened by the billion dollar COM
bine, recently announced by the Bell
telephone truE', representatives of the
independent telephone interests
throughout the country are planning
in this city today a national fight for
the principle of open competition.
With $400,000.000 of the savings Of the
people Of almost every locality invested
in the independent telephone plants
that the new wire trust is determined
TO rule or ruin, leaders in this move
ment assert, the interests of the pub
Tic demand that the government take
immediate acton agains the giant
merger. AT a convention OF the Inde-
pendent Telephone association that has
been called In Chicago for Dec. z. rem
resentatives OF the $4,000 companies.
that with 100000 subscribers are to-
day competing with the telephone trust.
Will make formal protest to Wash
ington against the restraint of trade
that they believe will be affected by
the absorption of every telegraph in
terest by the Bell system.
To the attorney general of every one
OF the many states in which they as
sert Wall street money is now being
used to Illegally force a Bell monopoly.
the independent telephone forces are
today proposing to appeal for protec-
ton. Suits to prevent the acquisition
by the telephone trust of important
systems built by the people of Ohio
Indiana, Missouri, Iowa and Michigan
have already been instituted In st
Louis and Cleveland, and the independ
ent leaders declare every similar move
to throttle competition will be fought
to the last ditch. Unless the new wire
trust Is at once prevented from carry
ing out its schemes to illegally absorb
all competitors throughout the CONT
nent, the independent telephone men
prophesy, the people of the country
Will soon be forced into the power OF
a monopoly greater and more arbitrary
than that of either the oil, beef or
sugar trust.
AS possible rival to the billion
dollar communication trust in the tele-
graph and long distance telephone
fields, independent forces are today
preparing to build a trunk wire sys-
tenn that will reach from the Atlantic
seaboard Of the Miss uri river, for the
benefit of the people who use the tele-
phone exchanges they have built in
dependently at home, as well as for
general telegraph buziness. Unlike the
Bell system, this enterprise will seek
not to kill competition but to foster
and increase 1t, 1t is declared. AL
ready $50,000,000 have been subscribed
toward this plan for preventing the
proposed monopoly Of the wire trust.
That the cost of both telephone and
telegraph service will be In reaseS If
the new wire trust obtains a monopoly
ts proved already by the past history
OF Its promoters, the independent tele-
phone men declare Exorbitant rates
and either poor service or none at all
were offered by the Bell combine in
all the years of its former monopoly
through patent rights. 1t is pointed out.
AS these conditions brought about he
birth of the Independent telephone
movement, they must resume on the
instant Of its death, 1t is argued.
we feel that we owe a moral as
well as a business obligation to the
army of Americans throughout the
country who have placed $40O ZOO, 900
of their earnings in the home telephone
plants. built to rid them of the Bell
monopoly" said e. FL. McUlton, presi-
dent Of the Independent Telephone as
ISOLATION, in this city today. eve shall
exert ourselve: in every possible way
to show the government that it, too,
has an obligation to protect these in
vestors as well as the 20,000,000 con-
sumers in independent telephone sys-
TENS. We shall not stop our fight for
the right Of competition, even with all
the Wall street capital of this new bill
lion dollar trust arrayed against us
but will push 1t to the highest courts
and administrative authority"