The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1911-09-28

tIt NiIty.
In Sundays Caucasian, in an arti-
Gle directed to the Commissioner OF
Public Utilities, information to be
given through the press was desired
on the right of the Cumberland Tel
ephone and Telegraph Company to
tear up the streets and alleys with
out legal authority.
Having prefaced the inquiry with
pertinent details, it was desired to
know:
First Has the Cumberland Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company been
or is it operating under this char
ter of the Great Southern Tele-
phone Company, whose existence is
Of few days, and if it is, under
what authority could the streets
and thorOughfares be torn up to
have placed underground the wires
of the Cumberland Telephone and
Telegraph Company?
Second: IF the ordinance of April
1895, not signed by the mayor, and
this ordinance is as that in the case
cited, where is the legal authority
of the Cumberland Telephone and
Telegraph Company to use the
streets and alleys of the city?
These queries were and are based
70 huf In hnn to nd
Telephone and Telegraph Company
derives its authority TO operate its
service in Shreveport from the citi-
zens Co-operative Telephone Com.
pany of Shreveport, which il ac-
quired for $4,000.
Preceding the transfer of the
home company an ordinance intro
duced by Councilman Herold was
adopted April II, 1895, granting to
The Citizens Cooperative Telephone
Company the right 10 use the
streets and alleys, but this ordi-.
nance is unsigned by the mayor, as
il appears on page 23i OF the city's
records. and is therefore of no eff
feet in law.
1t has been suggested that the
Cumberland Telephone and Tele-
graph Company was operating on
the rights and privileges granted in
the. charter of the Great Southern
Telephone Company, and also of the
rights and privileges vested in the
Red River Telephone Company, but
On investigation ii has developed
that the charter of the Great South
|ern Telephone Company is about to
reach its end in few days, and that
theterminus of the Red River Tele-
phone Company is fixed at Shreve-
port is not possessed of any rights
and privileges reserved therein for
the use Of the streets and the alleys
of Shreveport.
In view of these facts which are
of record, the conclusion was
reached that if the Cumberland
Telephone and Telegraph Company
lis not possessed of all necessary and
legal requirements, it then becomes
the plain duty of the city authori-
ties to exact and to demand from
this corporation adequate compen-
sation for the rights and privileges
lit would enjoy from the city of
Shreveport in operating its tele-
phone service.
AS stated in the Sundays issue of
the Caucasian it is not the purpose
of the Caucasian to be unfair to the
Cumberland Telephone and Tele-
graph Company, which should be
placed in the attitude of an indi-
vidual seeking favors from the
community, but we hold that there
remains to the city of Shreveport
equal rights and privileges which
have a direct value and which
should not be given away, nor
granted for a song.
What is there left to the city,
and that little, some individual
would give away on the simple re-
quest of interests who have been
and are fattening as it We're on the
proceeds of the revenue they OBJ
tain from the people.
II would seem that these in
quiries, which it was expected the
Commissioner of Public Utilities
would answer, have aroused a conn.,
motion which is being unnecessar-
| lily aggravated, especially by the
threat that if the right to use the
streets and alleys is denied the
| Cumberland Telephone and Tele-
graph Company, they would take
| the material, implements and con-
struction men elsewhere, leaving
the Shreveport Improvement for
another day, may be year hence
or longer"
Such threat is familiar in sound,
but is without terror. especially
to citizens who would be fair TO the