The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-23

keep pace with conditions at an enor- nous expenditure of money.
 5. The cost of furnishing service in Birmingham at this time Is greatly
 in excess of that at the time present schedule of rates was put into effect when Birmingham had about 1000 tel ephones. It now has over 10000 of the Bell system.
 6. The Bell company has lost over S200,000 on its operations in Birming- ham during the past 10 years.
 '. We have not earned a. fair return on the gross investment in 10 years.
 8. We believe that our company is entitled to earn a fair return on our investment here.
 g. We believe the fair-minded people of Birmingham will view the matter in the same light
 10. We believe our request Is so mer- itorious that it will meet with instant approval.
 that the rates now in effect were author ized in 1900 when the company only maintained 1435 telephones here. Vast ex- penditures have been imperative to care
 for the public and although thousands of dollars. have been spent no increase has been requested.
 The company has now 10000 subscribers here and 1t is their contention that an | increased rate is imperative to keep the
 operating cost within the income and net
 a fair eompensation.
 Gentry Discusses Increase
 Col. W. T. Gentry in discussing the pros
 posed increase said:
 "The increase we propose to make in
 six classes of telephone service is due, l as stated to the commission to the rapid growth of Birmingham, which has
 made it impossible for to operate
 remuneratively our extensive plant at the present rates.
 ''The rates now in effect were estab- lished in 1900 when there were 1433 sta- tions connected with our system and when the population of Birmingham was less than one-third of what 1t is today. No one could foresee the wonderful develop ment in store for Birmingham and few of us dreamed that the area of the city would reach it's present bounds fin less period than 25 years.
 'As a consequence the Southern Bell company has operated here at loss dur ing the past ten years. The demands for new capital to meet the growth of the city was constant and in construction of the plant 1t was necessary to enlarge the original plans to include a territory which would ordinarily have been grad | ually provided for.
 "Busniess men and other citizens have | doubtless observed our extensive work
 and have see., our system grow from a | single exchange to magnificent exchange
 with four branch offices, Our plant for
 exchange purposes only, represents an in-
 vestment of more than $1,2000o0, not in cluding real estate. working capital and toll investment. With 1t~se three items the total investment Is moiaa than $1,6o0.. 000 The telephone plant which this | capital represents Is one of tho. most mod. 1 ( | constructed with view to ga ng effici-
 ent service to large and grot ing city. | 'I have always felt that the citizens of Birmingham would be willing for thfx im- portant public utility corporation to eAarn a reasonable return upon its investmeht- Our rates are lower here than In othdN large cities and we have realized thak an increase would be necessary. The in- crease is not unreasonable and I believe the business interests of Birmingham will appreciate that the rates are still low.
 There were five and one-half times as many subscribers to our system last year as there were in 1900, when the present rates for service became effective. The population has increased almost two and one-half times and the area of the city has been extended very widely. Our plant today is a mammoth affair compared with the plant of 1900 and the value of the serv- ice to every subscriber has increased ao- cordinR1y.
 "The only fair way to secure a return commensurate with the value of our service and the actual capital invested is to adjust the rates on reasonable basis. The unusually extended area of the Birmingham exchange service rend- CTS costs here greater than for exchanges of the same number of stations elsewhere For this reason the proposed rates would have afforded us less than s per cent re- tw...1 xY.- hal been in force for the past three years.
 You will note that only one class of residence service Is increased, and that very slightly. The four party service re- mains unchanged so that the man of small means who must have telephone service can get 1t without additional cost
 The necessity for the increase is so urgent and so reasonable that hope we shall have the cooperation of the citi- zens of Birmingham in making this change"