Evening star., 1922-11-29

Hello! Number, pleasew The
! preacher is out of date. for there is
| something new under the sun. Here
comes a great corporation-a public
| utility corporation-the kind that
has no soul. but goes on living after
all of a generation is dead and
buried. This peculiar corporation.
right here in Washington. begs the
! iiprivilege-if it may be graciously
ivouchsafed-to reduce its charges to
us poor. common mortals. The tele-
phone company wants to ease up on
us and donate six dollars a year to
each of it's unlimited" subscribers.
Thanks. awfully. That will buy a
new hat-for the boss. I do not mean
a hat for the better half-dear me.
no-but for the boss-er. well. you
know which I mean-if you get me.
And why should the Public Ctil-
tiles Commission be so slow about
| it's permission to make the reduc-
ton? The telephone company says
the reduction will cost over 100000
a year. Possibly so. The gross cost
undoubtedly is what is referred 10,
but the net cost might easily be con-
verted into net profit, II the reuuc-
ton brings enough additional pa
posed reduction of the price of the
unlimited service Is that the two
narty line service is becoming bur-
den some. and either the price OF that
class must he increased or that OF
the unlimited service decreased. so
as to lure more of the cheaper serv-
ice into the ''unlimited'' class. In
stead. them of raising the price OF
the two-party line service, they want
to reduce the other.
That shows sound business logic
and soothes US all in our nervous
fears that the management Of the
telephone company had become TOO
ideaiistic for ha ardheaded business
men to comprehend. since there had
been 80 special public demanu for
reduction. There is a tremendous
business lesson in the situation.
which other public utility companies
might often take to heart: 1t is. that
raising rates is not the only way to
increase profits. I'aradoAicai as 1t
may seem. sometimes lowering rates
VIII increase net profits far more
than increasing the cos. to the pa
irons will accomplish.
X !. X x
Nor is the telephone company's act
forced upon it through lack Of pa
tronare. The city Of Washington is
growing so rapidly that the tele-
phone company is already swamped
with demands for new connections.
which a lack of instruments prevents
it from making This statement is
not based on hearsay: the writer has
been making life a burden to the
telephone company's construction de-
partment for more than a month be-
cause it has delayed putting in the
telephone asked for about the mid
die of October. and the only excuse
is that they can't get instruments
fast enough to supply the demand. for
Washington is growing too fast. No
nrosrert of our instrument. there
fore unless somebody dies or moves
away-and that hardly ever happens.
If the construction manager reads
this-"Number. please"
A few years ago the whole country
was aroused by propaganda. headed
swat the Fly" That campaign was
financed by one Of the merchant
princes of New York. and all the
propa ganda which flooded the news
papers was written. at first. by
young man skilled in publicity. if
not in flies. Later the campaign re-
ceived the Endorsement of scientists
of the agricultural colleges. and bill
lions of flies were slaughtered. The
coming Of the automobile and partial
elimination of horses have helped to
reduce flies. for their choice breeding
OF propagauing grounds were heaps of
manure.
In the course of the "Swat-the-
f1y'' campaign, many prizes were
offered to school children to enlist
their aid in destruction. and bushels
of dead flies were brought in by them.
x * X
Now similar campaign Of swat
ting pestiferous insects has been in
aueurated in Washington to induce
children to swat the tussock moth.
which is pest. destroying trees.
Nature-study teachers are inspiring
their students to hunt the cocoons of
the moths. and this has already re-
suited in the gathering of 26.266
cocoonS.
A peculiar phase of the campaign
is that in the suburban regions the
children were unable to find any OF
the cocoons, though they made most
diligent search of the trees. All that
were gotten were found in the trees
located in the busy part of the city,