Evening star., 1930-05-24
TELEPHONE HEAD
SOOTHES Nerves
. OF TIRED SENATORS
Declares Dial Use Optional
Under System Recently
Installed.
TWO Representatives
BACK SPEEDED SERVICE
Prominent Business Man Takes
Trouble to Explain Proven Ad-
vantages to Carter Glass.

The Chesapeake g. Potomac Tele-
phone Co. today sought to soothe the
nerves OF members of Congress, frayed
from the use of the new dial telephones,
by assurance that "it was not contem-
plated that the placing of dial tele-
phones in the Capitol should make 1t
necessary for any Senator or Repre-
sentative to use the dial unless he
preferred to do so," and mo operators
employed on permanent basis were
released because of the installation of
the dial system"
Meanwhile. with the Senate on rec
ord as opposing the use of dials In
the Senate Office Building and in the
Senate side of the Capitol. and a reso-
luton for the removal of the dials
from the telephones used by the House
OF Representatives before the House,
some House champions of dials gave
voice to their approval of the device
yesterday.
Representatives Fiorello H. La Guardia,
New York. and Royal C. Johnson,
South Dakota, put their stamp of ap-
proval on the dials yesterday, both Of
whom took filings at senatorial I'M
patience with the dials.
Stone Writes Carter Glass.
Senator Carter Glass of Virginia, who
started the rumpus about the dial
phones on Capitol Hill with his resolu-
lion, adopted by the Senate. calling upon
the sefgeant-at-arms of the Senate to
attend to the removal of the dials on
phones used by the Senator's, received
q letter yesterday from william r.
stone, mead of Stones Merchantile
Agency. VINO claims his firm is the
largest private user of telephone calls,
over individual lines in the District.
Stone. who said members of his force
make an average of 10000 telephone
calls a month, came to the defense of
the dial system.
He wrote Senator Glass, in part:
The experience of my Office shows
that the average time consumed in get
Ting party on manual telephone was
approximately As seconds, whereas the
DIAL system has reduced the time to
about 80 seconds, eliminating errors and
controversies, as well as useless conver-
sation with the operators-all of which
took time not figured in the 45-second
average"
The dials continued to find cham
pions and opponents throughout the
city among the merchants and business
men,
The text. Of the statement issued
by President Lloyd B. Wilson of the
chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co.
follows:
I'm view of the questions, which have
been raised with regard to the operation
CT the dial telephone system in WASH
lngton, It seems proper to make brief
statement to clear up any misunder.
standing which may exist
Dial service Is not a new and un.
tried experiment. It has been in opera
ton in various parts of the United
States for the last IS or 80 years. It Is
In use in nearly all of the larger cities
of the country and many smaller ones
and at the present time over 4,000, 900
telephones are on dial basis. All ex-
perience has demonstrated that dial
service is dependable, satisfactory, and
expeditions service. except for certain
unavoidable difficulties that are some
times encountered during q short in
troductory period.
LAS regards the effect of dial service
on the number of telephone operators
employed in Washington, no operators
employed on a permanent basis were
released because of the installation Of
the dial system.
Senators Need Not Dial.
1.-THE telephone system at the Capitol,
which is operated by the Government,
continues as E1anually operated
private branch exchange now connected
with one of our dial central Offices in
Washington. 1t was not contemplated
that the placing of dial telephones In
the Capitol should make 1t necessary
for any Senator or Representative to
use the dial unless he preferred to do
so. Dials were placed on the telephones
so that those who prefer can make
their calls by dialing.
1T Is the earnest desire of the Chesa-
peake & Potomac Telephone Co. to give
q constantly improving telephone service
acceptable to the public"