Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1911-09-02

Drop a penny in the slot and tele.
phone"
Aid. Herman J. Bauler, who origi.
mated the Seventy Cent Gas league In
the mayoral campaign, proposes to
settle telephone rates now that the
league has completed its end Of the
gas price rates and left 1t for the
courts to say whether the 76 to 6S
cent sliding scale ordinance Ii fair.
Aid. Bauler insists that the penny
telephone idea is all right and says
he has worked out the idea without
the aid OF any expert like Edward w.
Bemis or W. J. Hagenah, who were
engaged in both the gas and telephone
rate investigations.
Aid. Bauler wants to change the
name of the Seventy Cent Gas League
to the penny Telephone League"
The alderman declares that the tele-
phone meter problem may be salts
factorily solved, although mechanical
experts throughout the country have
been endeavoring to solve 1t for years.
The telephone monopoly In Chicago
has grown to be an unbearable nuis-
ance.
The service 10 rotten.
The scandal attendant on the pass.
age OF the telephone ordinance by the
council Ave 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 a. he
ought to be.
The Chicago American Of June 26
contained the following vigorous ar.
ticle on the subject Of q merger:
The New York Times announces
that there IL 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 is to buy up certain fran.
chises In the State Of New York. e.
pecially to get an entrance into New
York City. and to give to the citizens
the benefit of telephone competition
and of actually cheap service.
The idea OF cheap telephone service
Is going to grow in the United States
and eventually It Is going to he real
ized, 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 Q
telephone message than to send 9
| letter.
There was time In the United
States when private individuals ex
plotted the mails and when the citi
zen writing a letter paid from ter
cents to a dollar or more to hav.
II delivered. Government ownership
economical, businesslike methods
have reduced the price Of sending let
| ters to two cents all over the Unitel
States-even in the Klondike. wher'
the letters are carried on dog sledges
And sane, businesslike administra
ton of the telephone system of thi
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 ,
very great improvement will come
and right away.
The price charged by the Bell mon
opoly is preposterous-there Is NJ
worse form OF extortion among all tn,
extortions In the United States.
A man who lives in the suburbs
thirty miles from big city gets {
Communication ticket. The railroad
carries his twohundred-pound bod,
back and forth twice q day fol
twenty-five cents a day. II he wants
to talk to his house twice day th'
telephone company charges him sixt!