The Detroit times., 1914-01-14
JUST LISTEN
TO THIS FROM
Won SCHLECELL
Says Majority of Telephone
Users Would Save Money
BY Metered Service
COMPANY'S MANAGER
TALKS TO ADCRAFTERS
ACyitS New Plan Would In
crease Concerns Revenue
S120,000 Year

General Manager Arthur Won Schle
aeli OF the Michigan State Telephone
! Co, explained metered service 10 the
members OF the Aacratt ciuO. Wednes
1 day noon. and did very nicely. AT
the close oi his talk, which lasted
about a hat hour, ne answered qdes-
| tions tor anolner haii-hour. Most 81
! the questions were harmless anu
gave him little trouble With others
! lie had some difficulty.
why We're not the iour-party line
! four-party lines lid lAe company al
! low 33 900 of these lines TO be put
/ in" was one question.
I'VE are puTrfc service corpora
tion. and have 10 give the people what
they demand was Hlr. Won Schlegell 5
regly At the same time, we offered
one-party line. but the people de-
man led the cheaper 'phCne
why were not he fourparty line
( contracts uniting the number OF
calls, enforced?" he was asked
I'VE could have enforced them in
the beginning, but the service mas
reached TIE point where we can't" Mr..
Won Schlegell answered He explained,
also, that the contract regarding the
/ limitation OF incoming caiis cannot be
enforced. and never coulu be, because
tie man who paid for unlimited SER
vice would protest il he called a. four
party line and was told that IL had
used up It's calls for the day.
The general manager said that the
majority OF telephone users come un-
der the average established Dy the
m n
der metered service. He cited the
examples OF the Detroit-Wlndsor trai-
fic. which dropped from 100 to be-
tween 20 and % calls a day after a
toll OF cents was established, and
the service between Ypsilanti and Ann
Arbor, which was cut from 100 TO
eight calls day
He declared that under the present
system. one user pays as much as
another, no matter how many more
calls one has more than another.
You have no chance 10 economic
under the present system he said.
with metared service. you will have
that chance"
He declared that 30 per cent OF the
telephone users can save money
under metered service. and still use
their telephones as much as they do
now. Nevertheless. he said the COM
pany would make Sl20,000 n year more
than II does now.
MIR. yon Schlegell said that the In
vestigation of the telephone company
was not started by the company, but
: by the common council which soon
! found that il had no authority over
the company. Nevertheless, he said,
tie company had come 70 the council
prepared TO submit figures TO defend
! its position.
| we said then that we ourselves
were not satisfied with our service, "
he said. We were working night
and day, consolidating two telephone
systems. Every concern that employs
! girls knows how hard IL is to keep
I them during the summer months.
We were spending thousands in try
| ing to get the cream of the operators
! for Detroit But we were not sat
isfed we probably never will be sat
/ ishcd."
Mr. Won Schlegell accused The
Times OF misrepresenting the new
schedule OF the companys rates. He
had two charts, TO which he referred
with pointer, showing what the
rates would be under metered service.
! Commercial Manager Welch sat by.
but Mr.. Won Schlegell did not need his
services more than once, when he re-
ferred TO him for a figure.