The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1915-03-12

ganized out OF n pubIic-spfrffeu mo-
tive. He declared that he felt his
own responsibility for the welfare
OF the company more keenly as
member of the board OF fifteen d.
rcctcrs, than he would IL he owned
the whole property. He saw no like
lihood of anything occurring that
could inilict great financial damage
on the company unless somebody
should come forth with an invention
that would render the whole system
OF telephones obsolete.
Judge Cray Reminiscent. J.
Judge Lorin Cray recalled to mind
the experiences that the people OF
the city had just before the time OF
the organization OF the company.
He spoke of the independent Atti.
uide OF the Bell manager, and how
people were given to understand that
IL they did not like the way their
telephones were operated they could
have them taken out. Then came the
plan OF connecting up with the Blue
Earth Valley system and the Bell
manager grew very cordial and Of
fered to put telephone free of
charge in the quarters OF the newly
organized Young Mems Investment
company. Then the Blue Earth Valley
scheme fell through and the Bell
manager would not put in that free
telephone, declaring that he had never
made any such offer.
w. ID. Willard said ne thought few
OF the present stockholders realized
the experiences the new company
had when il was first organized. Il
was like David going up to Goliath.
lie remarked that the company was
now putting by money for a rainy
day. III bargain should be made
with Tie automatic people. 1t would
mean big throwing away OF the
company's present equipment. Still
1t might be that the local company
would have to come to Il.
DIR. J. II. James, a former president
OF the company, spoke of the efforts
that the Bell company had made tn
light the new company by putting I'm
Tree telephones. He spoke Of one
menace to the welfare of the Citi-
zens' company and that was the bin
that had been before the legislature.
limiting the profits OF any public
service corporation to five per cent
on the investment.
Heart-to-Heart Talk.
EarpnSpn rn,nanar Of a..
Mankato Citizens Telephone COM
pany. spoke In an entertaining and
instructive manner as follows:
For some time past have been
wondering what kind % a report 10
make ut this meeting. ] decided that
a lot of figures and data would be
rather dry and tiresome and I there
fore concluded to place on the menu
card the financial statement show.
ing the increase for the year etc.
think you are more interested In the
fact OF whether the balance is on the
right side OF the ledger than hearing
lot OF figures that perhaps mean
very little 10 you. And if this bal.
ancc is on the right side, I think
you will be charitable with me and
overlook my short commings as an
after-dinner speaker. I will therefore
| just mention a few things that have
added to the success OF the company
during my connection with ID. Dur.
ing the past six years we have had
Ia net gain of 1896 telephones which
practically doubles the number OF
telephones in operation i'm 1909. The
largest gain was made this past year
being 316 telephones. 275 of these
being in Mankato and the balance
at the sub-exchanges. I must con-
Tess that did not expect any sucl,
development when ! came 10 Man.
kato. I recall the time when IL was
necessary. 10 raise the rates a few
years ago. / was your wire chief at
! that time. | tried to persuade the
board through the manager to hold
OH NDtn the new storage batteries
were installed and we could give
efficient service. but for some reason
they deemed il best TO act at once.
4 SSHHSStCu WIN 0dttCFtSB.
Their action caused me to sleep
i'm the battery room nights with a
string tied from the circuit braker
| To my wrist To waken me when the
power gave out I knew we Just had
To give better service IL we In
tcndef to raise the rates and keep
our subscribers. You can imagine
how we welcomed the new batter
les when they finally did arrive. We
lost only $50 telephoncs that year
In spite of the fact that the Bell
company put i'm a large corps of
solicitors to take advantage of our
predicament. Since then we have
been going ahead steadily each year
increasing our subscribers and re-
ducing our Indebtedness which
amounted to nearly s59.0O0.O0 then
to s12,7OO.OO today +,