The Holly chieftain., 1913-12-05

trustees of the property, for the stock
holders, and none of them are rich men,
nor have they very heavy holding of the
stock. 1t is true that certain reputed
rich men have large holdings of the stock
OF our company some OF them being on
our Board OF Directors-but not one of
them has made any money whatsoever
out bt dealing in our stock. They have
all paid dollar for dollar, in cash, at par,
into the treasury of our company, for
every share they hold, and they have
simply come into our company because
they believed it to be safe investment.
There is, too, upon the part of the pub
lie, a belief that the company is largely
engaged in politics. We imagine this
feeling is caused by the fact that in the
past. simply from the standpoint of SELF
preservation, certain corporations were
almost compelled to be in politics; but in
these days. when the tendency is TO place
all corporations and trust affairs into the
hands of a central body, such as the Inter.
state Commerce Commission and local
state commissions, etc. to deal with the
conduct OF businesses such as ours, being
in politics, as believed by the public,
would be foolish thing and entirely un-
necessary. This is, therefore, to state
rectly or indirectly, in politics, in any
way, shape or manner, and shall not be.
We are going to attempt to give you
the entire story as to our rates. We have
been told, when stating to some Of the
public that we proposed starting cam
paien like this, that our efforts would be
futile; that our subscribers would turn
out to be selfish and only look toward the
end OF getting as cheap telephone rates as
possible. We do not believe this. We
believe that the great majority OF the
public are inclined to he fair and that it
is. not SO much the question OF what our
telephone rates are as II is that when we
make statement regarding them, and
show our true financing, that we shall be
honest, and that the public shall know
that we are honest. That when we make
statement as to our prohts and earn
ines, showing Just where the dollar tina:
our subscriber pays us goes, the public
may know that we are not trying TO de-
ceive them or keeping anything back that
should be shown. When we honestly do
this and our position seems to be just and
right. we believe that the fairness of the
public will sustain US.
We are going to set forth the inherit
difficulties of giving universal telephone
service lnese articles ana letters are
not to be piece o! special pleading or
adroIt use of words, but a clear, busines,.
like setting forth of facts. We hope, he.
fore we get through, both ourselve, uni
the public will understand each other
better. There is at least no harm to be
done in trying to accomplish this desired
result.
1t is our aim to educate. please and
he liz fn h. aJr tod
selves, 1t seems to us that every cor.
poration has the right of self. defense, the
same as an individual. The public has
the same right Listen to our defense
and we will listen to yours. No problem
has ever been harder for us than just how
we were going to let the public know
truly about us, but we believe that no
problem was ever more important to
both. If we really can make you feel
that you are partner in our business,
shall have accomplished much A large
part of the problem will be solved, if we
can only bring the public, through educa-