Arizona republican., 1917-12-19
The Use of the Telephone

Without committing ourselves for the present as to the general petition of the Mountain States Tele- phone and Telegraph company to the Arizona Cor poration commission for permission make changes in its methods of conducting it's business there is request in the list that should receive favorable feverish attention. That should be dssociated from the other prayers of petition so that it may be acted upon promptly and not be subjected to the delay incident to the deberation that precede decision by the state commission upon the other proposed changes which may be of doubtful benefit, the public.
 The request of the company which we endorse is o be granted authority to limit the length of versaton to five minutes duration" By all means let this be granted and Not only should author ty be given to limit conversations but the mission should issue positive order REQUIRING the corporation limit them and should fix pen- alty for it's failure to do
 Many persons pervert the use of the telephone the loss of the company, the incommodng of the public and the annoyance of all who happen to be in proximity either end of the line The telephone intended for extended conversation for the retail ing of neighborhood gossip for courting between silly young people and equally foolish older It doubt believed by Dr. Bell when he perfected his device that he had prepared great convenience for people who desired to communicate quickly and who would know precisely what they wanted to say before beginn:ng to saY if,
 Five minutes seems to us to be extremely liberal limit, unnecessarily The writer has willingly used telephone two minutes at time though he has been the victim of five, ten and twenty minutes and what seemed him to be eternal conversation He has sometimes breathed upon the memory of Dr. Bell for his devilish ingenuity and has lamented great talents not better employed.
 ha n five minutes less But we suppose that some concession should be made to those who are congenitay so equipped that they talk longer; who approach the telephone without knowing what they want to say, who are incapable of expressing themselves succncty and have no means of knowing when they done. Such persons are unfortunate anl shalld be denied such means ur communication the telepnore affords
 We suggest that the company be required to put in a device by which the conversation would be au- tomatcaly cut off at the end of five minutes, but that it might be extended indefinitely. minute al time by putting silver dollar in slot at the end OF each minute after the first five minutes.
 We have sometimes thought that the plan ot charging flat rate per month for telephone service was wrong and negotiable We have believed tha. the company should arrange system of charges for the actual use of the telephones That would involve either slot system each conversation to be paid fot at the time else device for automatically record- ing the time the telephone is in use, the charge al the end of the month or the week to be based on that record. Either of these plans would shut out the eosspers the silly lovemakers and others who have nothing to say but take up the time of really busy persons in saying it.
 We recognize the state corporation commission as judicial or, at least, quasjudcial body. There fore we do wish appear improperly to be trying to influence its decision in any pending matter bu. as a member of the suffering public we claim the right to intervene and shall do regardless of the proprleties or the laws against contempt