Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-02-13
POOR TELEPHONE
SERVICE TOLD Of
Blame Laid to Sickness, War
and Demand tor High Wages

AT an informal hearing given by
the Public Utilities Commission of
the State of New Jersey at the re-
quest of the New York Telephone
Company, j. l.. Swayze, general
counsel of the company, appeared to
state the conditions affecting tele-
phone service WITHIN the state and
made the following statement in
part:
W have been impressed with the
growing uneasiness on the part of
me public toward the telephone serv-
ice and we are desIrous OF presenting
the facts at as early a date as POSI-
bic. The problem may be to
three general heads: What is the
present condition of the service;
what is being done to overcome the
condition; When may relief be ex-
pected.
I'VE admit frankly that the tele-
phone service is not good and is far
from being the service that we have
been accustomed to supplying to our
patrons in New Jersey. We do not,
however, believe that h service Is
as bad as some people have painted
1t.
The reasons why the service has
not been kept up to it's former STAN
dard are directly attributable to war
conditions and to the present econ
"a uplltoNo oil NlliSll IC1NoSNI Ia VI
naturally followed the war.
During the war the United States
government held that the commercial
telephone was a non-essential indus
try and we were unable to get the
supplies and materials. The result
of this was a shortage in telephone
facilities so hat we are confronted
now in some places in New Jersey
with a situation where we are unable
to supply the demands for service.
During the period of the war, the
cost of living was increasing very
rapidly, u men were drafted or vol
unteered for military service and we
were unable by reason of business on
ditions, to readjust wages promptly to
meet the increased cost of living.
I'VE are short about 26O operators,
which, having in mind the fact that
thirty-one per cent. of those now en-
ployed have less than six n eX-
~perience, represents O shortage of
eleven per cent. of the total force.
eve believe that we were going
along fairly well with the traffic sit
uation in New Jersey up until a short
time 6 when We expressed a fur
Their shortage of operators, due to ILL
ness of over 200 operators, making a
total shortage of seventeen per cent. Of
the whole operating force.
I'VE found that we Were not re-
cruiting new operators as rapidly as
possible. In order to overcome this
difficulty, We have raised the pay of
operators four times within the year
1919 and. finding that was insufficient,
we ave just put into effect another
raise, effective early in February. The
aggregate amount Of the wage raises
during the year 1919 was over $780,
900, and the recent raise was SILL
900.
1T will require over six million dol
lars for the plant during the year
1920, as compared with plant expen-
ditures in 1915 Of three and one-half
million dollars. OF course, any pro-
gram of this kind requires planning
in advance. Sites AVE to be pur-
chased, new buildings contracted for,
switchboards and other equipment
planned and additions made to exist
ing central offices. In order to expend
the money efficiently and economi-
cally, it is necessary to provide for the
future growth. as we'll as for the pres
ent requirements. We have made
our plans and are moving forward to
carry them out to meet the situation,
but we cannot expect to see the results
for some time to come and II we
should meet with an abnormal devel-
opment, the situation might well be
come very serious as to the supplying
of service to new subscribers.
1.-THE executive personnel Of the
company is the same as was response
BILE for the magnificent service which
was supplied to the people of the
State Of New Jersey prior to the war,
and while we have lost a considerable
number of operators.
"R~ecognizing that the service con-
dition Is not good. we are DESTROYS of
doing everything to improve 1t and
would welcome cooperation of this
commission, through its engineer and
trained assistants, in trying to find
some way that we have been unable
to discover by which the service can
be improved. We hope the commits
sion will be able to see its way clear
to cooperate with us in an investiga-
ton of his situation either inform
ally by means of its force or form
ally by means Of hearings, or both"