The Mankato free press., 1916-03-17

hustle around and get one more
telephone subscriber. He said he
himself had two in mind whom he
was going after and intended to, get.
Mr.. Patterson followed up this
thought by saying that if every stock
holder did this there would be an ad
dition of A07 telephones. to those that
the company was already operating.
He called attention to the fact that
Mr. Ferguson had reported an in
crease of SO telephones for the first
two months of this year.
Dr.. ]. II. James, another former
president Of the company started the
discussion along new and very in
teresting line, when he spoke of the
practice that was being carried on by
another company of giving free tale-
phones at residences to those who
were subscribers for business tele-
phones. DR.. James said this practice
was Illegal, since the passage of law
on the subject by the last legislature,
and he wondered why the law was
not enforced
Manager Ferguson said that law
made discriminatory rates illegal.
The matter was up at recent meet
ing of the directors of the Mankate
Citizens company. He called atteI-
ton to the fact that the independent
company at Austin was forcing the
issue by bringing an action against
the Northwestern company for just
such a practice. Mr.. Ferguson said it
would be well to wait the outcome of
this fight. The Northwestern COM
rpany had the majority of telephones
at Austin
Henry E. Hance referred to the
low priced and excellent service that
the people at Mankato had under ex-
listing conditions.
S. B. Wilson spoke of the great
waste of having two telephone sys-
tens in the same field. He said this
cost the people of Mankato $4,000
more every year than they ought to
be paying for their telephone service.
He said the law required the com
panies to connect together for long
distance calls, he was in favor of such
an arrangement as would obviate the
necessity of anybody being obliged TO
pay for two telephones. The time had
gone by when any company could
ride rough shod over community,
if that one company had the exclu-
sive field, for the state railroad and
warehouse commission could be ap-
pealed TO compel good service at
reasonable rates
Mr..
telephones that were being installed
in many large cities and he supposed
the time would come when it would
be necessary to make that improve
ment here and keep up with the ad-
vance of the electrical age.
Opposed $4,000 For Bridge.
Mr.. Wilson spoke in opposition to
the proposition that the company
should give $4,000 for the new bridge
over the Minnesota river. To be sure,
the, company would probably wish to
use the bridge, but no more should be
paid for that privilege than it was
worth. For $500 the company could
cable the river.
G. B. Randall. secretary of the
Tri- State Telephone and Telegraph
company of ST, Paul and Minneapo-
lis, urged that the stockholders of
the Mankato Citizens Telephone
company and the people of Mankato
in general do all in their power to
assist the independent company at
Austin to win in the movement that
it was making against the sort Of
competition that was being practiced
by the Northwestern. at Austin. Mr.
Randall gave numerous instances in
various towns of the Northwestern
giving telephone service at less than
cost so as to drive out competitors,
and he declared that this was clearly
IN violation of. the law. The law
should be invoked to prevent such
| competition. He said that at Lanes
boro the Northwestern was waging
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