El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-10-05
TELEPHONE SERVICE
SUBJECT OF REPORT
Chamber of Commerce Finds That the
Company Is Doing the Best 1t Can !
at Present-Can't Keep Girls.


Because of the complaints about poor
service of the telephone company in Ell
Paso brought to the notice of the di-
rectors of the chamber of commerce by
director Crawford Harvie, committee
was appointed by the association to
visit manager c. f. Stratton, of the Tri-
State Telephone company. He showed
the members of the committee over the
plant, told them what the company had
TO put up with at the present time and
the reason for the present service The
report of the committee has just been
made to the chamber of commerce The
committee was composed of James G.
McNary, chairman, and James A. Dick,
". H. Austin. Crawford Harvie and
Claiborne Adams
The report follows:
Your committee called on c. z.
Stratton, general manager of the Tri-
State Telephone company, and spent
several hours in consideration of the
service, and also interviewed other en-
ployeS of the company and made
thorough inspection of the plant. After
a full and careful investigation, we
arrived at the opinion unanimously thar
manager Stratton has been doing his
utmost to bring the telephone service
up to proper standard regardless Of
expense, and that he has been and is
doing everything in his power to give
the people of FL Paso the service that
they are entitled to. Mr. Stratton en-
tirely agrees with your committee that
Tor some time past, and particularly
since the closing down of the plant of
the Automatic Telephone company, the
service has been as unsatisfactory TO
him as it has been to the public but
he presented very forcibly the Difficult
ties which he had had to contend with
in mis- efforts to remedy this condition.
Briefly stated, the unsatisfactory
condition of the service is due to three
causes-inability of the management
to employ and retain the necessary
number of telephone girls to handle
its business; the inability to secure
promptly additional equipment in the
form of switch boards, and the large in
crease of business due to the sudden
closing down of the Automatic Tele-
phone company's plant.
Can't Get Operators.
Manager StTatton showed your COM
mittee that the salaries paid the tele-
phone girls at this exchange are higher
than the average throughout the cOun-
try; also that the management has
taken particular pains to make the SER
vice attractive and comfortable as pos
Sible by providing, among other things,
at considerable expense, a cooling sys-
TEN to make the temperature Gf the
switchboard room more bearable dur
ing the heated months. and a comfort
able rest room for the girls. equipped
with the current literature and
efforts to secure a sufficient number of
girls, they had advertised in the pa
Ders, secured copies of the waiting list
of the principal dry goods stores in
town, applied to the Y. ". c. A, and
had written letters to every minister
in this city asking their assistance in
securing girls to operate sWitchbOards.
He pointed out to the committee that,
not only was it necessary to have
sufficient number Of girls, but that in
q n
degree of proficiency. they had to re-
main in the service of the company for
a considerable length of time. The rec
ords CT his office showed that on Sep
TENDER LIST, out of ~ girls employed,
u, or % percent. had been with the
company less than one month; "A, or
As percent, less than six months, and
only 10 had been with the company two
years or over. He said that the same
evening that the article appeared in the
press criticising the service of the COM
pany five of the central girls quit.
Need SwitchbOards.
'The second difficulty encountered
by the management is the absolute in
ability to secure additional equipment
within a reasonable length of time.
Manager StrattOn advised US that ad-
ditional sections for the switchboard,
which had been ordered several months
ago. were not yet ready for delivery,
and he did not believe he would be able
to secure them from the factory until
next March or April This condition,
he says made il necessary to plan esti-
mates for increasing the service far
ahead and that the increased equipment
ordered some months ago would pro-
vide for an iE5rease in the plant of SO
percent which they had expected to in
stall during the year 1912, and that
they have also ordered another in
creased equipment for the year 1913.
which will give them an increased ca
pacity of another % percent
Sudden business Growth.
1.-The third difficulty with which they
have most recently had to contend is
the sudden increase in business, due
to the closing down of the Automatic
Telephone plant. In a few days time
the number of daily calls increased
from 80. 600 every "A hours 10 $1,000.
and this. coming at a time when they
had an unusually large number of new
and inexperienced girls on the switch
board, makes it absolutely impossible
for them to give the public satisfactory
service
THE conclusion reached by your
committee is that the officers and en-
ployes of the Tri-State Telephone COM
pany are doing their best under the
conditions which prevail, to give the
people of FL Paso service which meas
ures up to the highest standard"