El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-08-09

flash in the pan and the Bell com
pany continued to grow
The automatic had, meantime, formed
a working agreement with the owners
of the toll lines between FL PasO and
Las cruces and the latter point and
Silver City and by reason of this ar
rangement, got cOnsiderabl support,
but the Tri-State company was organ
lied about two years ago to take over
the f PasO plant of the Bell company
and make extensions. 1t Immediately
bought up the Las Cruces, Silver City,
AlamogOrdO and other exchanges and
took over the toll lines. 1t also ex-
tended throughout the southwest This
confined the automatic company to op-
eratlOns in FL PaSO alone and it failed
to make Roadway. The concern has
been IN the hands Of a receiver for sew
eral months, and, as the receiver ad-
mits, has been losing money regularly.
Several stockholders have thrown the
company into the courts on several oc-
casions, on various pretexts, and the
company has been in more or less legal
diffic lilies since its construction.
Owned by Automatic Electric Co.
1t is understood that last July the
Automatic Electric company, of Chi
cagO, which is controlled by Col
Lapp, and which was the holder Of
the local company's bonds, bought out
all the stockholders and took charge
From the turn Of events, 1t is apparent
that even this concern could not make
a success Of the proposition. a. R
Wilson, attorney for the Chicago cor
pOratiOn, has been in the city for the
past few days making final arrange
ments for the cessation of operation.
Before going out of business Thurs
day night, the automatic company tele-
phOned its various subscribers, in
forming them that it would quit at 9
o'clock, so that they would not be in
cOnvenienced by trying to use their
phones and fail It is understood that
the plant is to be disT antled at once
and shipped away
DismantIinG the Plant.
LInemen for the Southern Independ-
ent Telephone company early Friday
morning commenced the work of dis
mantling the entire plant iE compliance
with instructions received by manager
j. H Morgan.
One crew is removing wire from the
poles along Second street, while an
other commenced work on the switch
board al the plant headquarters on
South oregon street
When the wires are down the poles
viii be removed, cables taken from the
conduits, although the four miles of
conduit work, which consists of wood
and fiber construction, will be left
underground. Manager Morgan esti-
mates the conduit work as being worth
between SIS, 600 and $4,000.
y didn't anticipate anything like
this. said the manager, in comment
ing on his instructions to discontinue
service and dismantIe the equipment.
The Il employees of the company will
continue on the payroll until manager
Morgan receives further instructions.
The work of removing the wires,
cables. poles and other equipment will
require between three and four weeks
time
TrI-State Is Ready.
e. T. Stratton, general manager of
the Tri-State Phone company. when
asked regarding the suspension of the
Automatic, said today:
Il am not surprised that the Auto
matte company has decided to close
down. For the past six months we
have been filling orders for service
from subscribers who formerly used
the automatic exclusively. The rapid
growth of our exchange has made
necessary considerable addition to
our switchboard and cable plant and,
while these additions to our equipment
are not fully completed, I think we are
in a position to accommodate those
deprived of telephone service by rea-
son of the shutdown. The only diff
Guilty I anticipate is the increased traf-
fic load which viii naturally result.
We are always short on operators at
this time of year, and our force is
particularly low just now. I am afraid
that the additional subscribers taken
on in a body may have a tendency to
overload our present force and cause
a slight deterioration in our service,
but this Will only be temporary and
YOU may be sure we Will take every
possible step to insure high grade of
service and still meet the demands
that are laid upon US. No expense will
be spared in the matter"