The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-14
COMMISSION HEARS
BARBER AND PERCY
AT SPECIAL MEETING
CONTINUED from Page Five)

| Bell Telephone company or of the Amer
| lean Telephone and Telegraph company
against Mr.. Barbers assaults. Through
out his entire discussion Mr.. Barber has
| impressed me as being entirely honest and
| sincere. and while his remarks have
seemed to be lacking in coherency and
| in accuracy. | have been impressed by
his manifest zeal, enthusiasm and civic
| spirit.
| "The only part of Mr.. Barber's speech
which l desire to refer to is the part
| which relates to the recent sale made
| by the Peoples Telephone company to
the Southern Bell Telephone company. [
was employed in connection with the con-
tracts between those two companies and
| in the litigation incident to the sale by
| the Peoples Home Telephone company.
| My interest in the matter was simply
! as attorney for the Peoples company. AS
a result of my professional connection,
/ am probably as we'll informed with
| reference to the facts connected with the
sale by the Peoples company to the Bell
| company as anyone in the community.
Believes Barber Misinformed
II believe Mr.. Barber is honestly msn-
formed as to this. transaction, and l be-
| leve that there exists in the minds OF
many citizens of Birmingham an erron-
| eous impression rs to the real facts.
From time to time | have heard the 'tele-
phone deal spoken of as if the transae-
tion were In some manner sinister, i'm
proper or illegal. | believe good many
of the people of Birmingham are under
the impression that in some manner
somehow, the city's rights were not ade-
quately protected in connection with this
transaction and the citizens of Birming-
ham have suffered as a consequence. |
must say, in all candor, that | believe
this impression Is to some extent the re-
suit of the activities of certain cheap pol
iticians who are unfriendly to our present
commission form of government and who
have never lost an opportunity to seek to
poison the minds of the people of Bir-
mingham against the commission form of
government and against some of the COM
missioners now in office. There is moth
ing hidden, nothing mysterious, and, in
my opinion. there was absolutely nothing
whatever that was improper in connec-
ton with the sale by the Peoples COM
pany to the Southern Bell, and l know as
certainly as I know anything that the
commissioners of Birmingham were
guided in their relation to that transact
tion by no other consideration or interest
than the public welfare. Let me state
briefly what the facts were.
History of Transaction
Something like a year and a half ago
the Southern Bell Telephone company no
titled the commissioners of Birmingham
that increasing costs of operation would
render it necessary for them to increase
the price of telephone service. The city
of Birmingham had no contract with the
Bell company providing for the prices to
be charged by the Bell company. The city
refused TO agree to the advances that the
Bell company desired to make. The Bell
company nevertheless announced that 1T
would advance its rates and stated the
time in which the advance would become
effective Members of the commission,
finding that they had no authority to pre-
vent the Bell company from raising its
rates. appealed to the state railroad COM
mission to come to Birmingham and If
possible to prevent the raise. The mem
lbers of the state railroad commission, purr
suant to this request, came to Blrmlng-
ham and after hearing the arguments of
counsel, decided that under the law as II
now stands the state railroad commission
had no authority to regulate the rates of
telephone companies. Judge Lane then
filed bill on the equity side of the cir
cult court to prevent the proposed raises.
After the suit was filed, Judge Lane and
the other city officials interested in the
matter were reluctantly forced to the con-
clusion that the success of the litigation
was doubtful, and the result was that the
city officials simply utilized this suit to
secure from the Southern Bell company
| the best contract that they could possibly
obtain.
1.-The same causes that had led the Bell
company to ask for higher rates CONFRONT
ed the Peoples company. Both companies
were feeling alike the burden of higher
| labor costs and increased operating ex-
| penses. The rates of the Peoples COM
pany were lower than those of the Bell.
| The officials of the Peoples company
| were in serious quandary. If they asked
and obtained an increase of rates, such
/ an increase would probably result in a
| loss of patronage. However hard they
| might try, it was a physical impossiblity
| for the Peoples company to give tele-
| phone service as satisfactory as that of
| tho Bell. The long distance feature of
| the Bell service gives 1t an overwhelm-
| Ing advantage against any possible com
| petition. The raise in the rates of the
| Bell company aroused certain amount
| of dissatisfaction among the business men
| of Birmingham. Many of the business
| people were also dissatisfied and dis
| gruntled because they were practically
| forced by the demands of their business
to subscribe for the service of both the
| Bell and Peoples companies. The raise
prospect of similar raise in the rates
of the Peoples company made those peo-
| pie who had to take both telephone serv-
| ices still more dissatified with the situa-
| ton.
There developed general feeling in