The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1916-11-30
MADE
in Phone TOLLS
COMPANIES TAKE ACTION AT
TER INVESTIGATION BY
STATE COMMISSION
BECAME effective DEC.
STATE BODY PROMISES FUR
THEIR INQUIRY INTO REA-
SONABLENESS OF RATES

SONABLENESS OF RATES
Thousands of telephone patrons in
Minnesota will obtain substantial ben
eft through the new rate schedules
Of the two big telephone companies
iii the state-the Northwestern Tel
ephone Exchange Company and the
Tri-State Telephone and Telegraph
Company-as these schedules make
reductions in approximately 1000
rates and affect all tolls for distances
up to and including IL miles. The
new rates become effective December
first, 1916. These reductions are
the direct result of an investi-
cation by the Minnesota Rail-
road and Warehouse Commission of
the toll business of the Northwestern
Company in Minnesota, which led the
commissioners to believe that the
minimum charge of 20 cents is Excess
sive for short haul messages. Upon
the commissions insistence that the
short haul rates be modified, the
Northwestern Company reduced their
rates to Is cents for all distances up
to and including IL. miles.
The former standard minimum rate
was 20 cents for distances from 0 to
II miles. Under the new schedule, a
Is cent rate is established for dis
tances up to IL miles, the old 20-cent
rate remaining in effect on hauls be-
tween IL and II miles. Of the North
western rates, 1926 are affected by
this reduction, and of the Tri-State,
LOTT. Every exchange and every
town in Minnesota directly connected
with either company is affected and
consequently all of their patrons are
benefited.
One result, as far as the companies
are concerned, will be to reduce the in
come from the short haul business,
because the new rate, like the old,
will include a terminal charge of five
cents at each exchange and hence the
companies return will only be five
certs where they formerly received
ten cents. The terminal charges are
based on contracts between the toll
companies and the cooperating ex-
changes, and are not affected by the
new rates.
The mileage included in these rates
is not, as many may suppose, based
on the length of pole lines required to
convey the messages, but on air line
distances and in many cases the ac-
tral haul will be from two to four or
five times the geographical distance
between points.
"It must not be assumed that the
State Railroad and Warehouse Com
mission accepts these rates as reas-
enable charges for the telephone ser
vice performed" said Commissioner
Charles E. Elmquist, in discussing the
new rates. "We authorize them solely
because they make substantial re-
duction and will, in our opinion, prove
beneficial to the patrons of the tel
phone companies. We expect that the
smaller toll companies will follow suit
in this matter, in fact, one company
already has made announcement to
this effect.
eve are not in position, as COM
mission, to say what is reasonable
rate for any class of telephone SER
vice, because we have not at our COM
mand the facts and the data neces-
sary for ascertaining what should be
a proper charge that the companies
could exact for their service. Steps
are being taken to obtain this infor-
me ton, but the undertaking will be a
long and laborious one, and after it
has been gathered, there will be an
other long task in arranging and an
alyzing the statistics and applying
them to the problem of rate making.
When the work is done, however, the
Minnesota Commission will be in a
position to decide whether certain
rates are reasonable under the law
and, if necessary, to make and put
into effect proper rates.
"The present reduction is in line
with the policy of the Commission to
establish rates which secure to the
company just return and which will
develop and encourage rather than
restrict the telephone business"