The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1910-10-27
DAVIS ANSWERS
DR.. MCDANIEL
PRESIDENT OF MINOT LIGHT AND
TELEPHONE co., SAYS RATES MAY
BE LOWERED AFTER THE FIRST
OF THE YEAR.

! peCteQ from the writer Oh tuo III
DR.. A. ]. Mcdaniel has attacked the
! light and telephone rate problem OF
the city of Minot, and solved it with
a facility which must bring the blush
of shame to some Of the ardent work
ers who have labored on this same
problem for three or four years with
out success.
His method is simplicity itself. He
simply goes to Grand Forks and
adopts it's rates as a standard. Any
rate that agrees with the Grond Forks
rate is all right. Any rate that diff
fers from the Grand Forks rate ID
all wrong. His formula for making
rate schedules should be more gen.
orally adopted. Expressed in words
it is, "Take the rate schedule of the
nearest town which has q lower
schedule than your own town as the
correct schedule" (Note) Be care
full and pay no attention to nearby
towns whose schedules approach SIM
ilarity to that of your own. 1nciden-
tally the doctor does not tell his read
ers that Grand Forks has two tele-
| phone systems, and that the one hav-
ing very much the larger number of
subscribers has the same rate sched-
ule as has Minot, nor that the fran
chise of the Twin Cities system whose
rates he quotes. expressly provides
per phone after it's subscribers num-
| Der 1000, which is about the number
we have here in Minot. Nor That per-
sons wishing complete telephone con-
| nection with all telephones In the
city must pay for two telephones at
full rates.
Having arrived at a correct sched-
ule Of rates which is much lower
than the one now in force in this city,
the doctor proceeds to show how 1t
may be enforced His method is o
, compel our company to live up to tho
provisions of the ordinance He pro-
poses that we should be compelled to
do away with guy stays. Being a
trained medical man, he speaks with
authority when he says poles should
be placed four feet in the ground 80
they will be self-supporting. 1t NAV
| and after guying and double guying,
"a NJ ~ f0
none Of our main leads have the poles
set less than 5 10 to IL feet deep.
it is with great difficulty that the
leads are kept in line and the poles in
place, sustaining as they do tons in
weight OF metal high above the
ground, exposed to wind strains and
at times enormously increased in
weight bv sleet accumulation.
The doctor would make fortune
very quickly If he could devise some
way Of sustaining pole lines without
the use Of guy stays, which are very
expensive to install, and are always
avoided where possible.
| Then We would like the doctor to
figure on the problem Of starting at
the top Of a IS or 10 It. pole, At the
curb line, crossing q Sc or 80 It. street,
with service line, and entering =
house with 9 #. posts, below the g.
Bile point without dropping below the
81 It. height above the sidewalk a.
prescribed by ordinance. The Job
can be done by sticking up a service
I pole in front OF the house served,
which would mean many extra poles
along some streets.
Now, l have ridiculed much Of the
article written by DR.. MCDANIEL, for
the reason that I do not consider it
worthy OF dignifled treatment. It was
written with a mind absolutely filed
with bias and with no disposition to
be fair to the company.
It was only recently that pub
lished in the advertising columns On
the Reporter statement showing the
investment and earnings Of the COM
pany for the year 1909. This state
ment showed net earnings Of 9 $1,000
per cent on the capital invested. DR..
MCDANIEL told me personally that he
had read and studied those state
ments. From the tenor Of his arti-
Gle he must believe one Of two things,
either that the percentage disclosed
is more than our company should be
allowed, or that the statements made
were untrue.
II the first is the case I have moth
ing further to say. If the latter, I
would suggest that his line Of attack
be along the lines OF an investigation
Of those stateents with view to es-
! tablishing their truth or untruth. If
my published statements are proved
untrue, then certainly our company
has no ground left to stand on, and
It would be suicidal to refuse to make
rate rnhrcfionR II fakoA M arp1l.