Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1912-04-20

vdeA for In an ordinance, on which
a common council committee began
hearings"
~6A
II is reported that the telephone
company has hit upon q new scheme
for the extraction Of the nimble nickel
from the clothes Of customers.
The new scheme is called the
short ring"
Heretofore when q call was made
the telephone bells jingled long
time or until they were answered.
Now, in some parts Of the city they
are barely tapped.
OF course II the party called does
not hear the mild ring or takes the
sound for q crossed wire." Or . mis-.
take" the caller has to try It over
again and drop another nickel.
This nickel movement IL q great
thing.
In fact, In Chicago the telephone
company has discovered the richest
nickel mine on earth.
~6A
The Telephone Trust doesn't want
much from the City Council.
It only wants the phone rates raised
q trife. They are not high enough at
present to swell the dividends of the
local and the parent company.
It only wants permission to install
pay.in.advance slot machines all over
the city. because people are not losing
enough nickels already.
It wants the people to bear more OF
It's earning expenses than they do now.
It wants them to deposit q nickel
before they can get police or fire pro.
lection on an emergency call.
It wants the city to give II free
rein to carry out It's designs on the
public.
Il wants q great deal moro.
What aldermen will sell out their
constituents to help this monopoly
The telephone company may have
silenced some Of the kicks about tick
tick phones. but the people are not
satisfied and demand lower rates.
OF all the notoriety causing meas
ures that Alderman Bigfuss has
helped introduce into the city gov
ernment the small parks scheme
probably makes the most noise. First
one Of the small parks officials wal
caught red handed as an embezzlel
and now one Of the leading employees
of the parks commission has beer
convicted Of open, direct and fragrant
neglect OF duty. Yet the fellow II
kept on the pay roll. Why?
>~
Abe Ruef Is telling some interest
Ing stories In o San Francisco papel
about the financial operations OF Ger
tain telephone ofIicials out In Frisco
which resulted In big criminal prose
cutions.
~6
Directors Of the Bell Telephone
system appear to be great favoritei
with the boys who draw grand juries
Hardly o month passes but one oi
these worthless IL chosen on the grand
Jury. The frequency with which trust
magnates are thus hon0red does moi
escape public attention.
The Cat Clubs can now listen to al
the addresses the City Forester car
deliver to them on the relation o.
caterpillers to payrolls. The suffrage
amendment was beaten at the polls.
We are going to the bottom of thii
Small Parks Commission graft, II 4
takes all summer.
Taxes are high and getting higher
Yet Chicago has to have City For
ester at high salary. The trees arr
dying all over since the city relieve,
the people who planted them Of an!
responsibility for their care. Th'
forestry In the small parks Is mainl,
and properly confined to swings
climbing ladders and turning poles
The City Forester spends much o
his time talking to "out door an
never-at.home" w0man's leagues an,
writing for daily papers while tn
poor tax payers are working hard t
earn money enough to pay the bi
salaries of the city forestry depart
ment.
~
Judging from the records the Jur
Commission of Cook County ha
worked overtime ON past occasions
In picking out trust oficials for men
bership on the Grand Jury. Tn
Commission may imagine that tn
people do not notice these things. bu
they do just the same.
~
Here is one fad that should b
Topped of the city pay roll in tn
interest of taxpayers:
City Forester. @2.500 per yeal
Supposed to plant and trim trees o
city streets. Does neither. Ordir
ance creating this Job should be r,
peAled. BY virtue Of its provision
property owners are forbidden
either trim or plant trees on oit