Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1912-01-27
crease Of rates will be branded % he
ought To be.

crease Of rates will be branded % 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 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 citizens
the benent Of telephone competition
and Of actually cheap service.
The idea Of cheap telephone service
10 going to grow in the United States.
and eventually II 10 going to be real.
lied. despite the power Of any mon.
opoly or the profits Of any group Of
individuals.
II costs less. or under proper man.
agement would cost less. to send a
telephone message than TO send q
letter.
There was time In the United
States when private individuals ex.
plotted the mails and when the citi
zen writing letter paid from ten
cents to q dollar or more to have
It delivered. Government ownership
economical. businesslike methods
have reduced the price Of sending let
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
tion Of the telephone system Of this
country. with the latest uptodate 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 10 n,
worse form OF cxtortion among all tn,
extortions in the United States.
A man who lives in the suburbs
thirty miles from q big city gets I
communication ticket. The railroad
carries his two-hundred.pound bod,
back and forth twice q day fol
twenty-five cents Q day. II he want,
to talk to his house twice q day the
telephone company charges him sixty
cents. and charges for the wire bs
sides.
In other words. the telephone mon
opoly charges more than twice al
much to carry over q wire Q human
voice. which weighs nothing, 40 the
railroad charges to carry q two.hun
dred.pound man over thirty miles oi
solid steel rails.
And the railroad has to have ter
minais. and locomotives. and power;
whereas, with the telephone, the
mans own voice Is the chief power
involved.
Armour Of Chicago 10 q man who
could give the people Of this country
the beneht OF cheap telephone service
If he should make up his mind to Dc
II. He has proved his ability % a.
organizer: he 10 Q man Of grea,
wealth and Of unusual industry and
application. II Is notorious that hia
working hours are from seven In the
morning until six In the evening, and
that work 10 h's only amusement.
The idea b aot 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 sS5 year-about one-half the
charge OF the Bell monopoly. They
give unlimited telephone service to
private families for less than thirty
dollars year. With a full extension
OF their system even the poorest fam
ilies will use the telephones, and be
better OF at the end of the yeal
through the saving OF carfare.
The charge for pay stations with
bhAo Nv" byotO"p 70 puChCu W
Armour and the others, Is three cents
per call. and the intention IL to lower
this rate eventually from three cents
to one cent. At one cent the profI
would be enormous. with the econo
mics OF the automatic telephone and
a 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. Il
bind themselves to take a new service
an automatic cheap service Will
certain guarantees - and through
pressure OF public opinion compel thu
granting Of a franchise to an auto
matte company charging the Lowest
possible rate.
But II 10 difhcult to get business
men to unite: dihcult TO make them
resent effectively even the most pal
pable estortion.
The chief hope lies In the courage