Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-10-19
CITY City COUNCIL
ADOPTS PHONE
MERGER REPORT
Special Committee Recon-.
mends Physical Connec-
ton of Local Exchanges.

An exhaustive report OIL the CottlHiit-
tee on physical connection of tele-
phone lines was read by City Attorney
Geo. A.. Bangs. The report which
tool IN a number of technical and
other details, also outlined the results
Of the recent trip of observation made
nv member of the committee to r
ious Minnesota and Wisconsin cities,
and conluded in a series OF recon-
,nendations to the effect that the com
,nittee be authorized to confer with
the Northwestern and the Tri-State
telephone companies for the purpose
OF obtaining. if possible, physical con-
nection Of their exchanges in this city
for both local and toll business; fur
Their. that if the committee fails in
effecting such an arrangement, 1t. be
empowered to demand it in behalf
Of the city, and hat it also be au-
thorized to present the matter to the
board Of railroad commissioners II
both amicable negotiations and de-
mands prove futile.
Rates May Remain As Now.
Upon finishing reading of h re-
port, the city attorney said that 1t
was the purose of h committee to
attempt to persuade the telephone
companies to retain the rates now
in erect on the ground that the charge
made now is high enough to justify
physical connection without Offering
n additional compensation.
G. w. Rees, local manager of the
Tri-StAte company, who was present.
said in reply to a query. that there is
practically no difference in the equip
ment and instruments of the two tele-
phone lines. The only thing which
would have to be done in order to
creating physical connectio I, would be
AhAg lo-i~o 1oxyn IF a a0.~a11a6 trunk
line or underground trunk cable
which might be lone at a nominal ex-
pense.
The operation of the two exchanges
would, in practice, be h same as be-
tween the local and the East Grand
Forks exchanges. and very slight
changes in the personnel Of the COM
panies would be necessitated by the
proposed cooperation.
Alderman Williams moved that the
report of the telephone committee be
granted the authorization it had rec
commended. This motion was unan-
imously carried by a viva voce vote
whereupon the council adjourned.
The report, somewhat abridged,
reads as follows:
THE ideal of telephone service
would exist if all members Of the
community within the range of the
extended human voice were brought
into connection with the service, i. e.,
were subscribers to the system; any
thing less than this is incomplete tele-
phonic service; one who receives a
is not Al all interested in other GUS
toners Of the utility which furnishes
it but the reverse is true as to tele-
phone service; the value of the serv-
ice depends upon tthe number of the
other members of the community who
are customers Of the same system.
Hence the telephone is a true mon
;opoly; there may be duplication of
service but there cannot be real COM
petition; for the existence of two tele-
phones in the same community pract-
ically' prevents the possibility Of all
being subscribers to the one system,
thus necessarily it takes both systems
to furnish a complete service; connec-
ton with n of W exchanges is con-
nection with but a part of even the
telephone users of the community;
W telephone systems in a community
necessarily divides the telephone pop
ulation into two parts each served by
a separate system thus necessarily re-
curing a duplication of system in
order to obtain service and pre-
SSllIS d CilOlCe VI evils Tor n must
have either a half or fractional sery-
ice or pay a double price; it is as
though these were two gas companies
or water companies operating in the
community neither Of Which BILE
{ to supply all Of the required gas or
water to any one consume who was
thereby compelled to take service
from both in order to obtain full serv-
ice; two systems in the community
means waste because of increased
capitalization and overhead charges
and the public must Deal the burden
OF his waste for the property of the
telephone companies cannot be con-
fscated.
The first telephone exchange was
Installed in this city in 1882 by ex-
G. Woodruff, Geo. B. Winship and d
u. Webster; this exchange was ope-
rated until about July, 1883, and was
enen sold to the Erie Telegraph & Tel
phone Co., which continued such
operation until the fall of 1aaA ,uha.