The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1909-06-04


4 Member Eastern idaho Press Club.
THE TELEPHONE A PUBLIC NE
CESSITY.
Courts and legislatures are begin
ming to give official recognition to thu
public necessity Of telephones, ever
IN out OF the way places and fal
from centers Of population. It hal
long been recognized that the phone
IL handy, convenient, even indispen
sable. Now, however, 1t is illega
for certain corporations not to pro
vide telephone facilities for the pub.
lie. Nothing but publice demand
could have brought this about. Re.
representatives. Of the people in courts
and assemblies merely are rejecting
popular opinion when they give Of
hcial recognition to the call for uni.
versal telephone communication.
Iowa's general assembly furnished
perhaps the most striking example Of
this, when the following, very broad
in It's scope, was enacted last month /:
1T shall be the duty Of all rail-
way, companies on all lines Of rail
ways operated by them to install a
telephone In each passenger or
freight depot in any city or town
where telephone exchange is main
tanned for public service. Said tele-
phone to be connected with and for
the use of the patrons of said ex-
change, and 1t shall be the further
duty of all railway companies on all
lines operated by them to keep post
ed in the waiting room Of each pas
senger station n bulletin plainly show
ing the time of arrival and depart
ure at such station Of all trains car
rying passengers.
This provision repealed section
GOTTA Of the supplement to the code
of 1907.
The governor stamped his official
approval on the measure, and 1t Is
now a law of the state.
Something similar, though an iso-
lated case, is found in Oklahoma. The
corporation commission of that state
recently held that 1t is the duty Of a
railway corporation to supply tele-
phone for the convenience of its pat
rons, and the ruling was upheld by
the Supreme court If the state. The.
Aatchison, Topeka and Santa Fe road
was ordered by the commission to
equip its station at Skedee, Oklaho-
ma, with a phone. The Supreme court
in unfolding this ruling stated that
the telephone Is an Indispensable aid
in the conduct of the business of
common carrier. The State commits
sion had already held that the tele-
phone Is as essential to the comfort
and convenience of passengers as the
operation Of the trains
Railroad commissions in both Vir-
ginia and Nebraska have ruled that
all stations in these states must be
equipped with telephones. So 1t can
be seen that the new law in Iowa Is
not at all an innovation, sweeping
though 1t may be. The demand for
the public telephone, which has thus
been furthered by state eofficials, has
gone hand in hand with the spread
Of the private phone. 1t is the tele-
phone In the home, on the farm, or
In the office, whose popularity has
about this action in the leg
stature. The telephone at the rail-
'oad station gives farmers, planters
Ind ranchmen in rural sections the
for communication with
he outside world and with each 9TH
II which no other improvement could
fleet. For the far-sighted man who
las phone connections 1t means
seeping in touch with movements of |
rains and with all the affairs of his
community; the man who has not yet
installed telephone in his home has
ccess to the station telephone at all
lines, for his tits real boon.
The American farmer has-received
boon whose effects are bound to be
cit on his condition before very long.
he rural telephone annihilates dis
ances. Perhaps Mr.. Farmer wants
, buy new agricultural implements.
he weather Is bad. But does that
eter him? Not If he has his phone
n the wall, and even If he hasn't,
here's one at the railroad station. II
. has to be. The law says so. So ,
our up-to date agriculturist does his |
hopping by phone. /
But perhaps there's a fire. May |
2 the hay in the barn is going fast |
your farmer runs down the road I
get his neighbors to come to his Z
d, nothing will be left when he gets d
ack. Ii he calls up this man, then \
lat, then another, he can still be !
ghting the blaze when the good 8
sighbors come Gathering up and a
zip him save his house and perhaps b
s stock. This question of fire pro- t
ction forms the most vital argu- a
ent for the telephone. 1t is no idle b
lesswork to say that thousands of v
'es in the rural sections have been n
lenched because the owner had a s
'od, reliable phone around the i
'use. There's danger in doing with h
It one and that argument ought to s
driven home before something a
opens to cause regret that there
asn't phone in the house. O
The telephone is useful every day; v
helpful very often; is indispensable b
times and is always on duty. One b
usewife calls it her friend on the
H."
There's country In the South that :,
a movement to have the =
raj telephone extended to every =
m aafoad within tic hordorc ThiuJ