The Monte Vista journal., 1913-12-06

Tor dollar. in cash. at par. into the
treasury OF our company, for every
share they hold. and they have sim
ply come into our company because
they believed it to be a safe invest
ment.
There is, too, upon the part Of the
public. a belief that the company is
largely engaged in politics. We i'm
agine 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 af-
fairs into the hands of central
body, such as the Interstate Com
merce 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 unnecessary. This is.
therefore, to state emphatically that
we are not, either directly or indi-
rectly, 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 pro-
| posed starting campaign like this.
that our efforts would be futile;
that our subscl ibers would turn out
to be selfish and only look toward
the end of getting as cheap tele-
phone rates as possible. We do not
believe this. We believe that the
great majority of the public are in
clined to be fair, and that 1t is not
so much the question of what our
| telephone rates are as 1t is that
when we make a statement regard
ing them, and show our true financ-
| ing. that we shall be honest, AID
| that the public shall know that we
are honest. That when we make a
| statement as to our profits and
earnings, showing just wnere the
| dollar that our subscriber pays US
goes, the public may know that we
are not trying to deceive them or
| keep anything back that should be
| shown. When we honestly do this
and our position seems to be just
and right, we believe that the fair
ness of the public will sustain us.
We are going to set forth the in
herent difficulties of giving univer.
sal telephone service. These arti.
cles and letters are not to be a piece
OF special pleading or adroit use OF
words, but clear, business-like
setting forth OF facts. We hope, be.
fore we get through, both ourselves
and the public will understand each
other better. There is at least nc
harm to be done in trying to accom-
plish this desired result.
1t is our aim to educate, please
and satisfy the public and to be edu
Gated ourselves. 1t seems to us thai
every corporate has the right O
self-defense, the same as an individ
ual. The public has the same right
Listen to our defense and we viii
listen to yours. No problem hal
ever been harder for us than jus
how we were going to let the publi'
know truly about us. but we believe
that no problem was ever more i'm
portant to both. II we really cal
make you feel that you are part
ner in our business, we shall hav'
accomplished much. A large part o
the problem will be solved. II W
can only bring the public. througl
education. to full understandin
t that there is mutual dependenc
between the public service corpora
tons and the public, and that publ
r prosperity depends largely upon tn