The independent-reporter., 1922-01-05
ANNUAL SESSION OF
FARMERS. S. TEL. co.
{ ,0BFNs6N's ADDRESS

phone Company
As this is our annual meeting the
officers of this Company are supposed
to render an account of their stew
ardship for the past year The man
ager will no doubt give you figures
showing the financial standing of the
company and as money is about the
only thing that talks in an Institution
OF this kimi. So my theme will be
money and how to get it. But the
purchasing power of money has de-
creased so per cent or more.
We have in our bylaws clause
which reads:
Art 6. Forfeiture of Rights.
Each quarterly assessment shall be
come due Immediately upon being
presented to the stakeholder by the
business manager. If any stakeholder
neglects for two weeks from date Of
receiving notice of any quarterly as
sessment. to. make payment of same
he shall after five days from the date
of service of a proyable demand upon
him by the business manager be dis
connected by said business manager
from the main line by having his
wires cut OF from the same. No per
son who has been so disconnected
from the line of the company shall
be regarded as Il member of the com
bany or be entitled to a vote at any
meeting of the stockholders or any
further privileges of a stOckholdef
until lie las paid his arrearages IN
full, after which he shall be- entitled
to all his former rights as n member.
This is one of the most important
articles in the by Laws and one that
has never been lived up to, therefore
our company has become. almost
bankrupt in one sense Of the word.
W4ent,I game into oqicG along WITH
Il ncaflY" new executive hoard We
foilnd Nodrly $4,000 Of old accounts.
When We fprocceded~ 10 check these
bills up we found 90 per cent of tIiem
absolutely worthless, either through
deaths, bankruptcy or non resident.
Many Of ghsse bills. only needed pre-
senting To probate court for collection
but had been neglected. therefore lost.
We started in To clean the slate OF
these old debts and found many queer
reasons for their existence.
will only cite one of the many
cases: George Washburn with debt
of some $14S.00 to this company, when
we finally got this bill settled Mr.
Washburn paid us $4,000. He had
bills against the company ranging
back through three administrations Of
managers for boagd, horse hire, etc.
a}ut not a. bill shpWing on our books
that we owed ,hlMs al cent. not very
good way, for public accounts. TO be
fdpi. and this issariy one o.r bhoks
have shown from 4par to year b cred
It of these accouf1fse therefore. they
read false and gaze. the patrons the
impression that We. Md a large fund
which really did 2hdt'exist. A good
many of these accounts after vain eff
forts to collect were put into collect
tors hands and then we found if they
collected Them they, didn't split fifty
fifty with ts, aftet all the fees they
could legME take. The courts, at
tofney fees. and our part was pretty
small. II they failed to collect we
paid the fees anyway SO by this means
our Sc 900 OF mote. slp1wing on the
books will hook like thirty cents when
collected.
SO our executive committees have
decided in The future to have the no
more bad de6ts but to live up to our
iBy Laws snt use pair of sharp wire
cutters, feeling that we had better be
without patrons than have to go to
court to collect.
As our, hooks will show we have
succeeded in getting those old debts
reduced some. but even this years
collections have been behind so that
at our last meeting our books did
not show up we'll. Our patrons are
to blame for :hat for they are Informed
every quarter tho amount due the
company.
Now we know our telephone ser
vice is anything but perfect. There
are a great many reasons for this.
One is ELECTRICITY. .gWhcnever we come
in contact with tlfe Light and Power
Company on high. teritien@ines the
induction is so great with ground
Irytre systsna#anttisw swhishl w,exRge laTgely
to us through our ground The only
iremfdy fys-tseat IL 3metalic circuit,
+ Now for: The soci&l asnect. we have
1.-THE greatest system, for privileges of
an telephone company in New Eng
land. Fancy being able to talk for
afty miles in any direction from your
home for $1.00 per month, no tols.
One Of the reasons for our poor
tservicc is -poor batteries. People for
get to renef& them and also forget that
especially in dry seasons their ground
wire is very likely out of water. or
any way IF getting moisture.
ground wire to be any good must
get to damp earth, lots of them are
hitehed to their water pipes with the
spring and the spring dry.
Some of Our patrons probably never
have taken the pains to read that
lclaase III the.By Laws which says lye
minutes, shall be the length of con
versation. T have known some. pat
rons to take twenty minutes or more
for famiIy gossip when other patrons
were waiting for the line for business.
Another drawback to good service is
when ene patron rings. a third or
more of the patrons on that line take
down their receivers to find out what
Mr. JoAes -. is, going to say tos Mr.
Brown, tfen If any of those peoples