New Britain herald., 1926-08-19

til tllt ltSpuIlsibliltN IOT pTONiuE telephone service we are not per- mitted 10 pick and choose, but must take the lean territory with the fat and serve the unprofitable as well as the good customer. The limit of our obligation 10 furnish facilities is reached only when it's expense is so disproportionate 10 the prospec- tive revenue as to work an injustice in the rates to the other users Of the service.
 We have another peculiarity that acts 10 our disadvantage that in similar circumstances ether kinds of service never experience. If you go into a bank tomorrow morning 10 deposit some money and there were some 10 or 12 people ahead of you and you had 10 wait 8 little longer than usual you would not conclude that the banks service was terrible. Why? Because you could see what was going on. There is the differ cnce. We have all the same line to contend with, the same variations and peak loads. the same misunder- standings, etc. but you cant see them as you do in the bank, grocery store or barber shop. All you can see is a tTansmitter and receiver and you know that invariably you can get your number promptly and you sec no reason why you should not now. l say We have all the Condi- tions to contend with that the afore- said banker, grocer and barber has. Indeed the furnishing of telephone service is complicated and delicate task and 10 those who look behind the scenes the wonder is that there are not more errors, delays. or mis- understandings Right here l would like to say that all of you are in vited, in fact, I would like to urge you to come 10 our operating room and see our girls actually at work.
 "I would like to point out one more difference, a condition that not even public utility has to con- tend with. I know of no business where the cost per unit does not de- crease with an increase in volume. For instance your automobile today is within reach of the person in or dinary circumstances because of its vast production. It is true of all manufactured articles, even your electric light, gas, water and trans portation. The larger the telephone system. the more complex it be- comes and the more it costs per station to provide service. Every time station is added it must be made possible to connect that sta- ton with every station in the sys- tenn. A mathematical law causes the number of possible connections to increase by leaps and bounds as the system grows. In order to handle this increased load requires additional facilities. operators, and maintenance out of proportion 10 the number of subscribers added. There are about 10000 telephones in New Britain at the present time and in order that every subscriber may call every other subscriber q possible combination of S1 million conversation tracks are necessary.
 Great merchandising organiza- tions have grown up from corner stores to which the patrons had 10 come and await their turn in order to make their purchases.
 Even railroads fulfill their obli- gations when they prepare a sched- ue of the arrival and departure of trains and then carry passengers to designated places at designated times.
 "If our patrons could come to a central office and stand in line awaiting their turn to receive or transmit messages the construc- ton and operations of the plant would be considerably simplifled. If with all the ramiflcations of the street and alley to the offices and homes of our patrons and over long stretches of private right of way to other towns and cities. we 
 schedule of calls for each and every patron, the task of provid- ing the service and the investment in plant would be materially re- duced. But the standards of serv- ice already developed and the re- quirements imposed upon Us by the public regulation eliminate the possibility of any such restrictions. On the contrary, we unertake to set up a speaking track at any time to any place and handle just as many or just as few calls as any or all of our patrons desire to make.
 "In perhaps no other manner is there such a difference in a public utility and a private concern as in it's financing features.
 If we say that an industrial concern Is prosperous we generally mean that in certain periods, or in prosperous times. times that indus try makes large, sometime very large profits. Large enough in the fat years to fill the valleys of the lean years and very often large enough so that after paying req sonable dividends there are profits enough left 10 plough back into the business and build it up. Prac- tically the entire growth of the business in q thoroughly prosper ous industrial concern has often been provided by the excess profits from the business itself. The re- cent stock dividend of the G. NJ. Co. is a conspicuous example.
 The public utility is not at all like that A public utility never expects in any one year or period Of years large profits as men in industries and commercial estab- lishments consider profits.
 All we are entitled 10 get and all we are asking for is enough to pay cur bills, q fair wage 10 our em- pIoycs, fair return for the use of our stockholders money, and. one thing more reasonable margin