Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1902 — TELEPHONE SYSTEMS. [ARTICLE]

TELEPHONE SYSTEMS.

It is rumored that the HaHeck Telephone Co., has induced a Mt. Ayr citizen to put a thousand dol-. lars into the concern, and that after paying something like 1400 which the company is behind, we are told, the balance will be used to put in more phones in Rensselaer, if any are wanted. We do not believe the Halleck Co., will ever be able to give a satisfactory service in Rensselaer or make much inroads into the business of the old company, so long, at least, as the latter continues to give its patrons the excellent service we now have. There was a time when the people here were ripe for taking other phones, and many would have replaced the Bell with the Halleck had the latter people carried out the promises made at the time they were granted a franchise. But that time has gone by, and to-day we doubt very much if there is a family or business house in the city that would take out a Bell phone to make room for one of the Halleck.

At present, we understand, there are adout 20 Halleck phones in the city, one each at the elevators, at some of the law offices, one at the Makeever House, one at the Court house, etc., and two or three at private residences. Except possibly the latter, each of these places have the Bell phones, and the latter company has a service of over 350 phones in the city and about 50 at farm residences in Marion, Barkley, Newton Gillam, Union, Jordan and Hanging Grove townships, all free, to offer its patrons, in addition to reaching all, or practically all, the Hallack phone subscribers. Therefore the Bell subscriber has about 375 more phones at his service than can possibly be had over the Halleck lines. The same is true of the toll service. The slight difference in rates of the two systems (40 and 80 cents per month) is no inducement to subscribers to make the change. To sum the whole thing up in a nut-shell, if satisfactory service can be had at reasonable rates, it is a foolish thing for any town of medium size to have two telephone systems—a fact which we know from about 18 months personal experience with a Halleck phone. If you want to call up Jones you tind that Jones has the other system, and Jones experiences the same trouble in calling you up. If Mrs. Smith wishes to tell Mrs. Jones where the sewing society is to meet she experiences the same trouble, and vise versa. True, all could put in both systems —and all the business houses would be compelled to if the new' company ever attained any great number of subscribers—but even then it would be found a great nuisance and the expense would practically be doubled. The fact is—and anybody who has ever lind any experience will tell you so—two telephone system in the average town or city is a confounded nuisance and very unsatisfatory to the patrons of each system.

A comparison of the tax levy of Jasper county and Rensselaer with neighboring counties and county seat towns, makes the following showing on each SIOO valuation, the figures the in first column representing the levy for county purposes only, and the latter column.the total town, county and state levy. The state levy, of course, is the same in each county (29§ cents) and by subtracting the state and county levy you get the town or city levy; Jasper $ 50Vi Reims-in er $2 52 Benton 201;, Fowler 240 Pulaski 47S Wiuumac 2 90 Starke 71 'a Knox 3 77