The Sentinel=record., 1918-09-29
FEDERATION EXHAUSTED.

Announcement by the telephole company that in order to win the va and to conserve, and to do othtc things patriotic it will not in the fu- ture give the same service that may be expected of such franchsed COZ poraton. through the precedent tha was once set, is not a surprise.
 Don't call up to ask the time tn telephone company orders
 Another instruction that has beea placed on )le telephone subscriber s the refusal of the operators to gh3 a[ ~ssrmation in regard to fire call, Af business man sees the fire de- FsSss4 tment going in the direction of m ' 'plaee and calls Central as to the 10 cation of the fire he gets the reps We cannot give out any information - The telephone companies are nov ---in tho hands of the government in sort of way Some people eXpectc that this changed condition migb improve the service Instead t4 service is steadily declined from yel bad to worse than very bad until tla pspple now have com to expect little more from this corporation than tine eneonrageme of a disordered tem- per-and the privilege of paying th bills that you must go to the office to pay or have the service shut off"
 All the innovation is not local Rr the local service Is perhaps the wors any community of people have to dea with We hope none Is worse any where
 There was a time when the tcla phone company tred to give service There was d time when this corpora tion seemed to follow the example q other corporations and disabuse th public mind of the opinion that coz porations were Souless. that they grabbed franchises and holding them grabbed the people. But that time 3I almost forgotlen in the condition today.
 The telephone company Is incon- sisteney within itself
 It is going 10 prevent the housewiiaI or the businss man from asking cen tral for the correct time-but when the housewife or the business man wants the correct time they will aslI for Western Union or one of the 10 cal jewellers. and the central operator who will not slance up at clock anll speak the time. will make the connee tion with the jeweler or telegraph of- flee. and then after that conversation is over, the connection will be cut off Is it easier for the girl to answer thal correct time, or easier to make con-l nection and then disconnect? Orl would the Germans surely win this| war and defeat the purpose of maA- ing the world safe for democracy un- less central was saved from eivingI the correct time?
 Some time ago, and without 0ther excuse than the war, the telephone| company announced a raise in rates The people stood for that raise be- cause there was nothing else to do, The people wanted the world madei safe for democracy and the tclephoLeI company claimed because or the wsrI to have to have more money-so theI rates went up.
 Getting down 10 brass tacks Therel were some really competent operatorsI in the local office force before ;heI war and these seemed to have about all been sent 10 Little Rock Little. Rcclx WAS sorely in need of competentl operators, because of Camp Pike Incl Dnsiness men who saw their local service decline did not complain. Mostl of them, and any who enquired. knewI that The best employees were beiasI sent to other cities where the demandl waa taxing the capacity of the com pany-and that was all right. Hut would il have been unreasona- bie to expect that within the coursel of time other employees would have