Goldsboro weekly argus., 1909-01-28
TELEPHONES FOR FARMERS.
A County Where 1000. Farmers
Have Telephones in Their
Homes---How Secured.

Union county has, perhaps, the best
rural telephone service that can be
found in any county in the South We
have thirty telephone exchanges in the
county, twenty-s1x of which are in the
rural districts. There are approx
mately two thousand telephones in the
homes of farmers of Union county.
The service is not confined to land
owners. Many Of our renters own
their phones and enjoy this conven-
ience along with their more, prosper
Gus neighbors.
note with interest the article in
last weeks Progressive Farmer telling
of the convenience of telephone COM
munication. While you mentioned
the principal conVeniences,it 1T is impos-
sible tor even those who have the SER
vice to enumerate the many ways the
phone is brought into use in a rlral
community where complete tele-
phone system has developed.
ONE FARMERS PHONE SAVED HIM
$3.50.
In this county it would be re-
minder of '.'past ages" to see man
"going after the DOCTOR Ii the SER
vices of doctor are needed by a negro
family, or by one who has no phone
in the house, he steps out to the near
est phone and the doctor is called.
When q mule gtrays or the COWS get
out, the phone is used to locate them.
When prices are f1uctuattng the phone
is brought into use to keep in close
touch with the market. About two
years ago ono farmer in this county
saved &l5e on his cotton crop by sell
ing his cotton by phone when 1t reach
cd the highest point. When the far
mer leaves tor town with his chickens
and eggs and country produce he
knows what heisagoing to get tor them.
News of a sensational nature gets out
among rural phone owners before a
daily paper can pat 1t in type. When
Mckinley was shot farmers in Union
county knew it within an hour after it
occurred. And the social feature
alone Is worth many times its cost.
When the faithful wife grows weary
with the monotonous work in the
home, 1t is an agreeable diversion to
call up neighbor for few minutes
social conversation. It rests her ana
makes her task seem lighter. The
uses made of the phone by girls and
bows of eourting age can be imagined
better than described. But this Is
merely Incidental.
INDIVIDUAL EXCHANGES AND COOPER
ATIwE LINES.
You want to know how we organ
ized the rural system? Every tele-
phone exchange in this Ecounty. with
possibly one exception, is an inde-
pendent exchange, owned by an 1ndt-
vidual, or individuals, as an invest
ment We have no cooperative ex-
changes. We have hundreds of rural
ines that were button the co-opera-
tive plan. For instance, q farmer liv-
ing eight miles from town buys a
switchboard and putssit in room OF
his residence. He then runs line t"
town and connects with the town ex-
change ltree, On exchange basis.) He
then next proposes TO give his neigh
bors telephone service at;;20 OTIS cents
n month, il they will build their own
lines to his switchboard and buy their
own phones. Them several tarm~rs
along "a road go to work and build
IN
pense equally. We \ describe our sys-
tern correctly. then, when we say that
our exchanges are established by indi-
viduals for profit, while the rprai lines
are built in a cooperative way for the
service of those who build them. In
this way there is no company to or
ganize, unless you call the faEmers
who go In together and btaild "a party
line a company.
The system develops slowly. Farm
ers are conservative and they gener-
ally want plenty of time for mature
consideration before going into any
thing new, but if there is a switch
board put down in a community, the
telephone fever will spread all right
and the investment will be safe, if
made in an Intelligent, progressive
vicinity.
CITY CONVENIENCE AND COUNTRY
FREEDOM.
This modern systemsof quick com
munication is so valuable, and yet so
cheap that it is astonishing that farm
lutely no reason why we should not
avail ourselves of this opportunity to
remove the isolation of country life
and bring ourselves in touch with the
commercial world. With the develop