Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 82, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1909 — STRIKE A TARTAR. [ARTICLE]

STRIKE A TARTAR.

Monticello Telephone Co’s. Attempt to Boost Rates MET WITH STA66ERIN6 PROPOSAL. y* Of Tippecanoe Electric aiuK Power Company to Install a Much Mo/e Modern System Than They Pro* pose and At Same Old Bates, If the Company Wishes To Go Out of Business.

That there was concerted action taken at a recent meeting of telephone men at Monticello to use the late sleet storm damage as an excuse to boost up the rates to their patrons, Is becoming more and apparent, and at the meeting of the ' Monticello town council Tuesday night the Monticello Telephone Company asked for a change in their present franchise to permit them to raise rates from sl2 to s2l per year for residence phones, and $24 to $33 for business houses. Representatives of the company had gone among the patrons with the plea that they could not furnish service at the present rates withoutlosing money, and many were induced to sign their petition to the council to grant them the franchise asked for. In this franchise the company agreed to put in the metallic system and automatic call, same as our own telephone company propose, and also would erect a building of its own. The matter was presented very pathetically by the company’s attorney, who made a clever talk about a “patched up system” such as must result if the company was compiled to go ahead at present rates and repair its lines, “nothing was too good for the Monticello people” (if they paid for it) and they had outgrown the obsolete system now in operation. After the attorney got through Mr. Postel, of the Tippecanoe Electric and Power Co., of Monticello — which is now supplying that city with electric service-got up and proposed that if the present Company wished to go out of business rather than continue at present rates, the Electric and Power Co., would be glad to have a franchise at the present rates, and would agree to put in an automatic dial system dispensing not only with the crank but the “hello girl,” and guaranteeing absolute privacy in phone communications. Mr. Postel said he agreed with the telephone company’s attorney as to a "patched up system” and that was just what the town would avoid if his proposition was accepted. The council took the matter under advisement. , The people composing the Tippecanoe Electric and Power Co.,- are experienced business men, and if they did not believe there was good money in the telephone business there at present ratfes they would never have made the proposition they did. Now the above statement of what can be done in Monticello for telephone patrons and at the prevailing rates, shows what can be done in Rensselaer, and our council will do well to reject the propostlon made by the Jasper County Telephone Co,, for a new franchise at 50 per cent higher rates than we are now paying.