The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1920-02-06
rate RAISE FOR PHONES
LOCAL MAN DISCUSSES
SITUATION
Price of Labor and Material
Have Both Taken Tremend-
Gus, upshoot

ia.
"In the clamor about the proper
legislation for the preservation of
the railroads after their return to
their owners" said representative
of telephone Company today, zone
is apt to forget that all the telephone
systems of the country, taken over
bodily by the government during the
war, were turned back on short not
ice just few months ago-and with
out any remedial legislation. would
not minimize the seriousness of the
railroad situation, (. which is one de-
handing careful consideration, but
the problems of the telephone COM
panies are in their way just as SER
ious. The telephone company has it's
troubles, too"
Much Money Invested.
There are in this country several
hundred thousand citizens with there
money invested in telephone proper
ties to an aggregate Of something
like two millions of dollars The
business employees about 100000
people. About sixty cents out of every
dollar Of the cost Of running the aver
age telephone system goes for wages.
and the people engaged in the bust
ness are no more immune to the high
cost Of living than those in other
lines of work-and as it has cost
fhoro s,,oro apd moro RI live fhoir
pay has had to go higher and higher,
The equipment and material the
company must buy to keep up it's
plant has increased in cost from 80
Per cent to 800 per cent-an average
of perhaps IS per cent to IS per cent
for the things used most frequently
Sundry expenses-the hundred and
one miscellaneous items of expense
in the business-they have all in
creased, too; they average around
GO per cent higher than in 1914. Is it
any wonder that it costs more to
make telephone pervice now than 1t
did in the good old days before the
warp
Labor Difficult to Obtain.
ut has Eeen practically impossible
to keep the service up to- pre- war
standards in most places. The difficul-
ty of obtaining labor and materials
for maintenance work during the war
prevented many companies from
maintaining their plants to the old
standard; every telephone company
is going to need considerable money
during the next year or SO, to put
its property back to the old before
the-war standard OF efffciei1cy.., 2
The aggregate OF increases Ia
telephone rates Throughout the
country since 1914 has bean TAR less
than the total increase In expenses.
The increases in exchange rates
will generally. hardly average 20
per cent according to the best statis-
tics available"
income Must Be Satisfactory.
"No utility can manufacture even
a reasonable satisfactory service
when its income is inadequate for the
purpose. The telephone company
possesses no magic power by which
it can obtain present day labor and
meet present day expenses at pre-
war prices. The telephone company Is
not free agent; it's income is limited
by the rates tits allowed, by regul-
alton of public authority, to charge
for its services. When the rate is too
low, the service must inevitably fall
below the standard Of efficiency
needed and demanded by the Ameri-
can public"
Telephone service has become too
and too essential in our
everyday life to allow it to become
impaired or rendered less useful
when usually SO moderate an aG-
vance in the cost OF the service to
each user in all that is necessary to
keep the business going and the ser
vice satisfactory, even in these days
IF the high cost Of living, -