Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1911-08-05
council I'VE years ago IL not forgot.

Au0 pH1Uu8e OL tue pI0BOuI OEUIs
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 % hO
ought to be.
The Chicago American Of June 20
contained the following vigorous Or.
ticle on the subject Of q merger:
The New York Times announces
that there 10 hope Of telephone com.
petition in New York City and that
Armour, the great packer Of Chicago.
Is said to be back Of the plan.
The idea 10 to buy up certain fran.
chises in the State Of New York, %.
pecially to get an entrance into New
York City. and to give to the citisens
the beneft Of telephone competition
and Of actually cheap service.
The idea Of cheap telephone service
ls going to grow in the United States.
and eventually It IL going to be 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 a time in the United
States when private individuals OK.
plotted the mails and when the citi.
zen writing a letter paid from ten
cents to dollar or more to have
It delivered. Government ownership.
economical. businesslike methods.
have reduced the price Of sending lot.
ters to two cents all over the United
States-even in the Klondike. where
the 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 40 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 10 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 .
communication ticket. The railroad
carries his two-hundred.p pound body
back and forth twice Q day for
twenty-five cents q day. II he wants
to talk to his house twice q 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 %
much to carry over . wire . human
voice. which weighs nothing, - 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 tho telephone. the
mans own voice is the chief power
involved.
Armour Of Chicago is q man who
could give the people Of this country
the beneht Of cheap telephone service
III he should make up his mind to do
II. He has proved his ability % an
organizer: he 10 a man Of great
wealth and Of unusual industry and
application. 1t 10 notorious that his
working hours are from seven In the
morning until six In the evening, and
that work is his only amusement.
The idea Is not 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 a 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 $s5 a year-about one.half the
charge OF the Bell monopoly. They
give unlimited telephone service tc
private families for less than thirty
dollars a year. With a full extension
Of their system even the poorest fam
iliee will use the telephones, and bt
better OF at the end of the yea
through the saving of carfare.
| The charge for pay stations will
this new system, which is backed b!
Armour and the others, is three cent
per call, and the intention is to lowe
this rate eventually from three cent
to one cent. At one cent the prod
would be enormous, with the econC
mics OF the automatic telephone ant
sufficient number of subscribers.
The right plan would be, of course
for the business men of New Yorl
who pay enormous tolls to the tele
, phone monopoly to get together, L
bind themselves to take new servic
Ian automatic cheap service wit
certain guarantees - and througl
pressure OF public opinion compel tn
, granting Of franchise to an auto