Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1911-10-07

Of their duty. Any alderman who
votes for an ordinance favoring the
Telephone Trust deserves the ignom.
my which he will certainly receive.
The telephone monopoly In Chicago
has grown to bc an unbearable nuis.
ance.
The service 10 rotten.
The scandal attendant on the pass.
age Of the telephone ordinance by the
council five years ago 10 not forgot.
ten.
The passage Of the present ordi.
nance will result in something more
than scandal for the facts will be
easier to get at.
Any alderman who votes for an in.
crease Of rates will be branded as he
ought to be.
The Chicago American Of June 26
contained the following vigorous or.
ticle on the subject Of merger:
Tho New York Times announces
that there 10 hope Of telephone com.
petition in New York City and that
Armour. the great packer Of Chicago
10 said to be back Of the plan.
Tho idea Is to buy up certain fran.
chises in the State Of New York. es.
pecially to get an entrance into New
York City. and to give to the citizens
the beneht Of telephone competition
and Of actually cheap service.
The idea Of cheap telephone service
IL going to grow In the United States.
and eventually It Is going to no real.
ICED, despite the power Of any mon.
opoly or the profits OF any group Of
individuals.
It costs less. or under proper man.
agement would cost less. to send
telephone message than to send q
letter.
There was time In the United
States when private individuals ex.
plotted the mails and when the citi.
zen writing letter paid from ten
cents to dollar or more to have
economical, businesslike methods.
have reduced the price Of sending let.
ters to two cents all over the United
States-even in the Klondike. where
tho letters are carried on dog sledges.
And sane. businesslike administra.
ton OF the telephone system of this
country, with the latest up.to.date au.
tomato methods, would make tele.
phoning as cheap as writing letters.
and cheaper.
That will not come at once. but q
very great Improvement will come,
and right away.
The price charged by the Bell mon.
opoly II preposterous-there 10 no
worse form Of extortion among all the
extortions In the United States.
A man who lives In the suburbs
thirty miles from a big city gets a
Communication ticket. The railroad
carries his two.hundred.pound body
back and forth twice day for
twenty-five cents a day. II he wants
to talk to his house twice . day the
telephone company charges him sixty
cents. and charges for the wire be.
sides.
In other words. the telephone mon.
opoly charges more than twice as
much to carry over wire q human
voice, which weighs nothing, as the
railroad charges to carry q two.hun.
dred.pound man over thirty miles OF
solid steel rails.
And the railroad has to have ter.
minals. and locomotives. and power;
whereas. with the telephone. the
mans own voice Is the chief power
involved.
Armour Of Chicago is a man who
could give the people of this country
the beneflt Of cheap telephone service
If he should make up his mind to do
It. He has proved his ability 40 an
organizer; he is a man of great
wealth and OF unusual industry and
application. It is notorious that his
working hours are from seven In the
morning until aix In the evening. and
that work 10 he only amusement.
The idea ~ aot visionary, for Ar
mour, associated with others-with the
Hartman estate. with Kennedy Todd
and De Forest of New York. and with
the receivers of the Chicago subway
as body-has already begun the
work OF giving genuinely cheap and
efficient telephone service to the city
Of Chicago.
In Chicago the receivers of the sub
way have installed already more than
twenty-five thousand automatic tele
phones. They give an unlimited serv'
Ice for $85 year-about one-half the
charge Of the Bell monopoly. They
give unlimited telephone service to
private families for less than thirty
| dollars year. With full extension
| OF their system even the poorest fam.
lies will use the telephones. and be
better OF at the end of the year
through the saving of carfare.
The charge for pay stations with
thia new avatovn which n hackaA nv