Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1905 — MUTUAL TELEPHONE LINES. [ARTICLE]

MUTUAL TELEPHONE LINES.

Petitions have been circulated and quite generally signed in this and neighboring counties for the formation of a farmer’s mutual telephone company, to build and operate mutual telephone lines, and The Democrat has been requested to publish the following newspaper clipping regarding the operation of such a system in another state: C. N. Lyon, Hexton, Wisconsin, writes: “Old-line telephone companies have misrepresented the cost of building and maintaining lines to discourage farmers from building, but when investigation is made it is found that farmers can build and maintain their own lines much cheaper than to pay some company sl2 a year rent for the use of the phone and line. The average cost here as far as we have gone has been only $35 each. The line that I am on cost but s3l each to build. The nearer tof [ether the farmers the less the ine will cost, of course. When we put in our line we called a meeting and selected men to solicit subscribers to the line through the territory we proposed to go. These men told the farmers that the cost would depend upon the number who became members of the company, as it was co-operative and no phones would be rented to any one not a stockholder and those who joined the company later would have to pay as much as did the charter members and their money would go into the treasury instead of to build the line. This induced most farmers to become members at once. The next move was to select officers and lay out the line, which was about eleven miles long. We divided the number of poles required by the number of stockholders and found that it was necessary for each member to pay for 14£ poles. Then each subscriber purchased a phone and put $lO in money in the treasury. When the line was completed we had SBO left in the treasury. “As others oame in then 1 money

y (with the exception of price phone) went into the treasury. We pay our central manager $1 each per year, which is all the expense we have had so far. “New batteries cost but 40 cents a set laid down, and for ordinary use a set will last three to five years. After the poles are set, the brackets, insulators, and wire can be put up for sll per mile at prices wire is selling for now. Farmers will have to live long distances apart if it costs them over $36 apiece, and large companies charge farmers sl2 per year and business men $24. Just imagine the intererest we pay when we give sl2 to $24 annually for the use of $36. If a company tried to rent a seeder costing $36 to a farmer for sl2 a year or for even half that sum, they would be promptly told that the farmer would buy his own seeder. “There cannot be too much said about telephones being handy. They save enough time every year to pay for themselves. When we want help to thresh, butcher, haul wood—in fact, to do anything—we don’t have to go out of doors to get it; we can talk to the whole community’at anytime from our own firesides. Farmers should build and own their telephone lines.”