Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1916 — BETTER SERVICE AT NO GREATER COST [ARTICLE]

BETTER SERVICE AT NO GREATER COST

Telephone Agreement Makes the Dollar a Month Rate Possible for Four-Party Line. .The terms of compromise offered by the Jasper County Telephone Co. to the. subscribers and their representatives Tuesday were virtually accepted after the matter had been discussed by a number of the patrons and .a 'Tew details were worked out. While the increase asked was virtually accepted and is to go into effect at the end of tert days, provided it is accepted by the Public Service CommisSion, a plan is provided by which persons can still have the dollar per month rate by going on to a fourparty line. The installation of this service will cost the company a considerable amount of money and will require new instruments and some time for installation, but it is a service that is popular in the larger cities and persons acquainted with the telephone business say that it is sure to be accepted here with favor. Attorney Hglleck, who was engaged in the telephone business for a number of years and who appeared as the legal representative of the patrons’ who were protesting the raise, states that the service will prove entirely adequate and satisfactory in his opinion. The system is to be what is known as the “selective” ringing magneto service. Only the telephone rings that is called, the others on Lhe line not getting the call. The same is the case with ringing the central office, none of the other telephones on the line are “rung” when central is called. With only four on a line conflict in the use of the line will be infrequent.

While it was not made a part of the agerement as printed herewith that the telephone company is obliged to employ a competent supervisor that was left out after considerable discussion and its omission urged by Attorney Halleck, who declared that it was better to accept the pledge of the company for improved and adequate service and let the company work it out in their own way than to bond them with an order from the Public Service Commission to employ a supervisor. Mr. Halleck contended that if the wages of the girls in the office were raised and enough operators employed to take care of the service there would not be any need of a supervisor. J. K. Johnkton, who came .as an expert telephone man, was very fair in his statements. He said that, the company had invited him to come here and recommend to them the things needed to improve the service here. He had made several recommendations including the one for a supervisor, which he declared to be the most important deed.

An argument was made to adjust the rates for residence on the basis of $1.25 per month for all telephones, no matter what kind but this was not accepted by the company. In fact, the hearing came up on the petition of the company for an increase in certain rates and not a petition of subscribers for reduction—and- it is probable that the commission would have held that it was not a proper demand. Certain other matters were adjusted, as set forth in the tentative agreement herewith. One established the rate of $1 per month for business phone extensions and 50 cents per month for residence phone extensions. Some of these have been paying at the rate of $1.25 and 75 cents per month. It was also definitely settled by a statement made by Mr. Kent, who officiated atthe hearing, that toll charges may be reversed if approved at the other end of the line. t The practice here and at many other places in the state has been to decline this, but in the future any company that declines to reverse the charges after ascertaining that it is satisfactory with the person to whom talked, is liable to prosecution for their failure to do as requested. Mr. Myers, president and general manager of the company, estimated that it would take several months to complete the installation of the full metallic service in Rensselaer. Several ■ables will have to be put in, poles removed, etc. ,

While it was not brought out in the evidence it was shown that the estimate of the Public Service Commission on the value of the local plant was in excess of $40,000. The annual report of the coinpany to the commission shows that the salaries of Mr. Bott, the secretary, treasurer and superintendent, and of Mr. Myers, the president and general manager, are $l6O per month each. The salaries of the operators is 10 cents per hour, not enough, subscribers agreed at their meeting, to secure the best

results. » The following is the agreement as framed and signed by the telephone officers and by Attorney Halleck as the representative of the subscribers:

AGREEMENT.

Whereas, at a hearing jon the. question of rates of the Jasper County Telephone Company, set for trial February Bth, 1916, at the court house at Rensselaer, Jasper county, Indiana, it was suggested by Mr. Kent, representative of the commission, that it was the desire of the Public Service Commission of Indiana that the petitioner and respondents enter into an agreement of settlement of the questions in issue between petitioner and respondent and that the matters in issue be adjusted and settled between the parties without the taking of any evidence; therefore, the petitioner and the respondents, present and represented by counsel, entered into the following tentative agreement, subject to the approval of the Public Service Commission of the State of Indiana: That the following schedule of rates may be charged by the petitioner in the City of Rensselaer, Indiana: 4-party line, Residence telephone, full metallic selective signal, SI.OO per phone per month. Individual residence, full metallic, magneto sl.2u per phone per month. Portable desk phone extensions, 75c per month. Business extensions, SI.OO per month. ? Residence wall extensions, 50c per month. All individual business magneto telephones $2.00 per phone per month. Individual residence automophones, $1.50 per phone per month. Buisness automophones, $2.50 per

phone per month. It is understood that for those phones for which full metallic wiring has now been provided and which are on the full metallic service a charge of $1.25 per month for individual residence magneto telephones, and $1.50 per month for individual residence automophones shall be made. The petitioners shall have a right to charge $1.25 per month for individual magneto, full metallic residence phones, as soon as petitioners make said lines full metallic. • It shall be ordered that any citizen of Rensselaer who is a patron of the telephone company may become a subscriber to the 4-party line service at the rate of SI.OO per month, and after the expiration of thirty days from the time such subscriber orders said 4-party line, the company, in the event of their failure to furnish said party line service, shall charge the subscriber no more than the party line rate. Any subscriber who shall have Ordered and caused to be put in either of the classes of the service above enumerated and shall within the expiration of less than twelve months thereafter change such service to some other class shall be required to pay the actual cost of making such change. A deposit equal to three months’ rental shall be required from all new subscribers, the same to apply on the first three months’ rent. The petitioners shall as soon as practicable provide a full metallic service for its patrons within the City of Rensselaer. This agreement shall become in full force after ten days, unless objections thereto shall be filed with the Commission." Jasper County Telephone Company, Per Geo. M. Myers, President Dated February 8, 1916.