The Washington times., 1917-11-06

their best employees. As q result OF
appeals from business houses to stop
the invasion of their forces the teie-
phone company, officials said. had
done everything possible to secure
operators and other employees without
taking them from establishments
sorely In need OF valuable help.
The complaints as to the telephone
service have been piIlng up in The
Times office for months. Undoubted-
ly this service has been agErGvating.
In some instances citizens have sworn
on from attempting to get telephone
connections and have contented
themselves with simply answering the
calls into their homes and Offices. The
sorest patrons have been those who,
trying to reach their homes or Of
nees, have been told that the tele-
phones were temporarily discon-
nected.
Patience Exhausted.
Realizing the enormous burden
under which the telephone company
has been working. people generally
have been patient, putting up with
whatever came along. Lately there
have been evidences of q wearing out
of this patispee. and some Of the
facts were laid before telephone Of
fcials today with a request for in
formation as to the future.
Manager Porter candidly admitted
that the service has not been all
that was desirable, but gave facts to
show that no other public utility in
the United States has been put under
such = great strain. The general
public has suffered because preference
has been given to the Federal Gov
ernment in the war emergency. It
has had frst call on all lines and re-
sources, and would have demanded
this preference had the company not
given Il, Mr.. Porter pointed out. Now
that the Government work is being
handled more easily the public is to
receive quick attention.
There are now over 1000 Govern
ment telephone stations in Washing
ton and its environs, and for months
the best operators the telephone COM
pany had have been turned over to
the United States.
what Company Has AeeOmDllshed.
january / Washington had tele-
phone plant equipped for caring for
q city OF $4,000 people" said Mr..
Porter. "Our needs had been ar
ranged for q year to come, including
provision for the 30 per cent increase
during the Inauguration period. 1t
takes months to obtain and install ad-
ditional equipment to switchboards
and twelve months to provide expert
operators.
Even before April 6. when war was
declared. our Officials had foreseen
the future and begun TO plan for 1t.
They did this when Ambassador Bern
storff received his passports in Feb
ruary We were almost overnight
confronted with conditions that would
In normal times require several years
to successfully cope with. Telephone
calls, unlike some other lines OF bust
ness, can not be deferred. They must
be attended to at once. With a IS per
cent. increase in business all at once
some idea OF the situation may be
had. This increase is now 20 per
cent. above normal and the long-dis-
tance business has increased 219 per
cent.
Responding to our calls for help.
the switch boards manufacturers
turned over their complete output to
Washington. This included all those
completed and near completion Every
equipment man who could be spared
from other companies and the best
building architects were rushed here
to remodel our buildings to accommo-
date the engagements and the addi-
tional personnel. We had to remodel
FIVE Of the six stories OF one OF our
buildings. Business increased faster
than the switehboards arrived, but