Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1914 — MANY CONTRIBUTING TO FIGHT INCREASE [ARTICLE]

MANY CONTRIBUTING TO FIGHT INCREASE

Republican is Receiving Fifty-Cent Pieces to Aid in Getting Information for Fight. Has your fifty cents been left at The Republican to fight the raise in telephone rates? If not, then try to leave it Saturday. The contributions are coming .from -all- sections and there is reason to believe that the attorneys will be able to present to the Public Service Commission facts that will cause that board to dpny the petition of the Jasper County Telephone Co. to raise the rates. The further The Republican has gone in its investigation the more convinced it is that the company should make plenty of money at the present rates if the equipment was modernized and the service brought up to the standard in other cities. _ We are not opposed to any corporation making a fair interest qn its investment, But we are opposed and we believe every person should •be opposed to having this city and community forced to pay a rate that is certain to prove exorbitant and which is not necessary nor fair. We do not, as a community, or as individuals, owe anything to this company. It has been in existence a long time and it has not kept pace with the demands of the times and has not rendered service in keeping with the progress of the community. It does not do us any good to be told that the switchboard is old and worn out. When a press wears out in a newspaper office the owners have tobuy a new one if they expect to remain inbusiness. Every other business we have ever heard of is run on the same basis. If exception is to be made on behalf of telephone companies and the state is to compel the people to pay a rate that is too high in order that a corporation that has been indifferent for years about its property, then the law is wrong and should be changed. Come out to the meeting Saturday night and learn what has been done and what is being done to prepare to put the people’s ease up to the people’s commission. If you know of conditions in other cities and towns and the country surrounding them, come in and tell about it. We have yet to learn of any person who reports ever having lived in a community Where the telephone service was for years so abominable as it has been in this city. There is possibly a slight improvement at this time. The agitation is responsible for some greater effort. But this would soon die down unless the demand of the people is acceded to.