The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1949-04-01

cent nave elecCrlc power. Inc
proportion of farm telephone
ownership does not represent a
steady increase during the SO
years that the American Bell
Telephone Company has been
Incorporated. 1t is, instead,
lower than it was in horse-and-
buggy days.
In the early 19O0's the country
was we'll strung with telephone lines.
A group of farmers would get to-
gether and construct their own tele-
phone system in a cooperative way,
financing it themselves. The census
shows that in 1912 there was 2,233
such lines, and by 1922 the number
had increased to 57,253. Shortly
after World War |, the Bell COM
panies began to take over the more
profitable territories. From that
time on the number of separate lines
or systems decreased rapidly. Rural
telephones dropped from 2,498,493
in 1920 to 1,526,959 in 1910.
One Million LESS Phones
in 20 Years
AS the Bell System gradually took
over the larger Independent opera
tions and gained control over most
of the city switchboards and the
long-distance service, the less profit
able rural systems remained unde-
veloped. The farmer-owned coop
eratives that had previously worked
out a switching arrangement with
an Independent company in the local
trading center found that the indie
pendent either had been taken over
directly by the Bell system or had
yielded to the Bell-sponsored pro-
gram of high rates. I'm 1922, E. K.
Hall, then vice president of AT&T,
said in a public speech: "There is
only one mistake that the Public
Service Commissions can make about
rates, only one-and that is by keep
ing these rates too low. They never
can make a mistake by making them
too Highly Even by lowering rates,
the farmer systems could not hold
their subscribers because they could
not give the needed exchange or i
long-distance service. The farmers i
were left with antiquated lines and
inadequate equipment. In 20 years {
one million telephones in farm homes i
were disconnected. S
ART Promised-But, Did
Nothing
AS the monopoly of AT&T and the :
deterioration of farmer-owned mu-
tual systems reached a critical point :
in 1915, Sen. Lister Hill Cd, Ala.) :,
and Rep. w. r. Poage Cd, Tex :
came to the farmers aid. They in :,
troduced legislation authorizing the 2
Rural Identification Administration =
to make loans to finance expanded .
telephone service in rural areas. The
bills, never reported out of commit
tee, would have allowed newly or
ganiZed co-ops, existing mutuals, pri b
vately owned systems, Independents, IL
or any operator providing rural serv e
ice, to borrow funds to establish or L
improve the service on 35-year terms W
at two-percent interest rates (as ar Z
ranged under the present self-liqui- te
udIlHg TuIetf-tleCbl PlOS diiiJ "
The wartime shortage of telephone tt
equipment plus AT&T's promise to nj
remedy the situation as soon as pos nj
sible gave the senate and house COM II
mittees an excuse to shelve the Hill w
Poage proposals. 81
Same Old Song-More Promises ~ u.
Democrats now in control in the o1
house agriculture subcommittee, si
headed by Representative Poage,
have put this legislation first on the b6
''fair deal for farmers" program this 81
session. To those familiar with the oy
early days of the rural-electrification ell
program, the hearings on the tele- 1T
phone measure have been strongly FL
reminiscent of 1885, when the REA tu
was born. Like the power trust, an
AT&T lobbyists cried out against Sc
government intervention, declared do
that telephone service to "substand- th
ard rural areas" is not feasible, pre- ha
l;o+od +bot ,,rivate industry would