The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-12-02
WAR TO The END
Independent Telephone Companies Plan
to Fight The Tru-t
MAKE NATIONAL FIGHT

MAKE NATIONAL Fight
They VIII Appeal to President Taft
and VIII Invoke the Aid Of the
Courts in Their Campaign Against
the Billion Dollar Telephone and
Telegraph Merger.
Declaring that President Taft and
the highest courts in the land viii
be invoked to check the monopoly
of communication that Is threaten
ed by the billion-dollars combine
recently announced by the Bell tele-
phone trust. representatives of The
Independent telephone interest
through the country ure planning In
New York national fight for the
principle of open competition.
With S40o,OO0,O00 of the savings
Of the people of almost every local.
ty invested in the Independent tele-
phone plants that the new wire trust
is determined to rule or ruin. iead-
ers in this movement assert, the
interest of the public demand that
the government take immediate &C
ton against the giant merger.
At a convention of the Indepen-
dent Telephone association that has
been callei in Chicago for Decem-
Der: z, representatives Of the $4,000
companies, that with 100000 sub
scribers are now competing with
the telephone trust. will make for
NAL protest to Washington against
the restraint of trade tnat they be-
lieve will be effected by the absorp-
tion of every telegraph interest by
the Bell system.
To the attorney general, Of every
one of the many States in which
they assert Wall street money is now
being used to Illegally force, 3 Bell
monopoly, the independent tele-
phone forces are proposed to appeal
for protection. Suit 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 independent lead
ers declare every similar move to
throttle. competition will be fought
90 the last ditch. 80
Unless the new wire trust Is at
once prevented from carrying out Its
scheme to illegally absorb all COM
petitors throughout the continent.
the independent telephone men
prophesy, the people of the country
will soon be forced into the power
Of monopoly greater and more ar
bltFary than that OF either the oil.
beef or sugar trust.
AS g possible rival to the billion
dollar Communication trust In the
telegraph and long distance tele-
phone fields. independent forces are
preparing to build trunk wire
System chat will reach from the
Atlantic seaboard to the Missouri
river. for the benefit OF the people
who use the telephone exchanges
they have built independent at home,
as well as for general telephone, bus
mess. Unlike the Bell system, this
enterprise will seek not to kill COM
petition but to foster and increase
it, it is declared. Already S50,000.-
900 have been subscribed towards
this plan for preventing the pro-
posed monopoly OF the wire trust.
That the cost Of both telephone
and telegraph service will be. In
creased IL the new wire trust obtains
q monopoly is proved already by the
past history Of Its promoters. the
independent telephone men declare.
ExcNb.tant rates land either poor
service or none at all were offered
by the Bell combine in all the years
of its former monopoly through pat
ent rights, It is pointed out. AS
these con 5itions brought about the
birth of the independent telephone
movement, they must resume on the
instant of its death, it Is urged.
I'VE feel We owe moral as
we'll as business obligation to the
army of Americans throughout the
country who have placed $4O0,000,-
900 of their earnings in the home
telephone plants, built to rid them
Of the Bell monopoly" said E. H.
Moulton. president of the Indepen-
dent association. I'VE shall exert
ourselves in every possible way to
show the government that 1t, too,
has an obligation to protect these
investors as well as the 20,000,O00
customers in Independent telephone
systems. We shall not step our fight
for the right of competition, even
with all the Wall street capital Of
this new billion dollar trust array
ei against US; but will push it to
the highest courts and administra-
tive authority