The independent-reporter., 1910-12-22
THE FARMERS TELEPHONE co.
Continued from Page One.

Trust; they are 30 organized that the
stock cannot be cornered by sharks;
no stockholder can vote by proxy.
Thus no enterprising fellow can con-
troll stockholders meeting, without
bringing the stockholders themselves
along with him. At the beginning of
the second years business of the Som
erset Company there was bonded
debt of $1,000 and some 5000 more of
unpaid accounts.
During the last five years all this
! indebtedness has been wiped out with
tidy balance to the good besides, due
to 1t from its subscribers.
The Franklin Company, which is
one year younger than the Somerset,
Is now carrying an Indebtedness of
about $4,000. The Kennebec Farm and
ICity Telephone Company carries a
bonded debt of some $1,000.
We have nothing for a standard by
which to judge of the financial sue
Scoo Vi tnt OollcI5 5el It al hSiS Soih-
pany, no criterion except the Franklin
line, because both the Kennebec and
the Oxford are new companies.
The Franklin Company at first
elected farmer as business manager.
This mans term of Office was short,
when another farmer took his place.
His term also was of short duration
when the stockholders, thoroughly
aroused to the fact that the company
must be placed in the hands of an eff
| ficient business man, elected f. E
Voter, an attorney of Pennington, as
business manager. Mr.. Voter is ca
pable and honest and under his man
agement, Franklin County has been
pretty thoroughly covered with inde-
| pendent lines.
Now why is it that the Somerset
Company is out of debt after seven
years, while the Franklin Company
after six years owes $4,000?
Either the Somerset Company has
been better managed or else the
Franklin Company has $4,000 more of
property. The Franklin property
cannot be so large as the Somerset,
The fact is that the Somerset COM
pany got down to a system of ac-
counting sooner than the Franklin.
The change of managers who were
unfamiliar with accounting systems
for public service corporations, held
the Franklin line in the air, until Mr..
Voter was elected to take charge of
its affairs.
Now for the moral The Somerset
Company has been managed by the
same man from its incorporation
With but moderate natural ability by
the adoption of strictly business me-
thods, he has been able to make good
| financially, the affairs of the company.
The telephone business is a nerve
racking job with a great multiplicity
of details, requiring the utmost pains
taking and patience in listening and
attending to the complaints of sub
scribers. There is great tempta-
tion too in this business to spend more
money than receipts will warrant. be-
cause of the great number of places
for improvements and extensions
which arise
Lewis Goudy of Portland promoted
a large Independent telephone COM
pany, the North Eastern with head
quarters in Portland, covering a large
part of Western Maine. He was a
great promoter, but he brought in
foreign capital and loaded his com
pany with SO much debt, that he could
not make good. He was turned down
by his foreign capitalists, his company
could not pay interest on its bonds
and finally went into the hands of a
receiver and was sold at auction to
the telephone trust, and thus all his
good work was obliterated and came
to nothing.
For seven years | have labored
way to put great public utility in
the hands of the people of Somerset
County. Many people at first scepti-
cal, have come to see the fallacy of
the universal service claim of the
New England Telephone Co. trust.
Financed by capital from outside of
Maine, the trust is in our State for
the sole purpose of making money.
Like every other trust, their eyes are
green with envy at the success of a
competing concern. They would lay
their hands on 1t and destroy compe-
tition by an insidious claim that a
connection Of lines is desirable for
our subscribers as well as theirs Our
independent company is now hand
ling the cream of the telephone busi-
ness in Somerset county. 1t can hold
that business, II its stockholders are
constantly on the alert to prevent two
things:
First A connection with the New
England Telephone Company OF with
the Maine Telephone Company which