Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1909 — ’PHONE SYSTEM IN BOONE CO. [ARTICLE]

’PHONE SYSTEM IN BOONE CO.

Patrons Get Entire County Service Without Extra Charge. HAVE OVER 1,300 ’PHONES In County, and Rates On Mutual Lines Average About 50 Cents ■ Per Month—All Are Mutual Lines Outside of County Seat, and Are Connected Up With Lebanon Exchange Without Any Charge Whatever—Advantages of Such Connection Considered Equal By Both Mutual Lines and Company Exchange.

The writer visited Lebanon, the county seat of Boone county, Last Saturday to learn about the telephone systems in operation in that county, and it certainly is a model plan they have in operation there. Lebanon itself has a private company operating the system in town, and a few adjacent farmers are furnished service by this company, but generally speaking the entire territory outside of Lebanon is covered with mutual—or “co-operative” is th® term mostly used there—lines. The Lebanon company has about 700 phone patrons, and there are about 600 patrons of the mutual lines. The rate charged by the Lebanon company is sl.2s per month' for residences; $1.75 for business houses, and $1 to the few country patrons it has. Every patron has the free use or privilege to talk with every other patrons in any part of the county without extra charge —1,300 of them. In other words, there is no toll rate whatever in the county to the patrons, and a patron of a mutual line who happens to be at the county seat or elsewhere and wishes to call up anyone at any place in the county can step in to any phone and do so without a penny’s expense, and vice versa. There are several local exchanges in the county operated by the mutual companies—Hesselrig, Thorntown, Reece’s Mills, New Brunswick, Big Springs, Elizaville, Terhune, . Advance, Fayette and Royaltown—some of which are quite fair sized towns. Thorntown has a population, for example, of 1,600. The expense of keeping up these local exchanges, for operators, switchboard, repair of lines, etc., we were told, was an average of about 50 cents per month per ’phone. The mutual companies keep up their own lines and their various local exchanges, and the Lebanon company does likewise. There are several separate and distinct mutual companies, in the county, but all lines are connected up together, and along the county border some of the mutual lines are connected with mutuals in their neighboring county, and not only get free toll service with the 1,300 phone users in their own county, but also get free toll service in considerable portion of their adjoining county. This arrangement seems to be perfectly , satisfactory all around. The Lebanon company admits that being able to conect its own 700 patrons with 600 mutual phone users in all parts of the county is a great advantage to it and the farmer or smaller town dweller, who is a patron so the mutual lines finds it a great thing to be able to sit in his • home, no matter what part of the county he is located In, and talk to anyone at the county seat or clear to the other side, of the county without having to pay toll rates. This very satisfactory agreement between the county seat and mutual lines was brought about some years ago, we were told, by the latter preparing to put In an exchange of their own in Lebanon, which would have been the death of the old company, for It would then have had no connections for Its patrons with the country districts, which were all covered with mutual systems, and the phone user In town wants to get out into the country almost as much as the country user wants to get to town. Through the courtesy of the officers of the Lebanon exchange we were shown all through their plant. Their switchboard is of 800 capacity and then they have somb "drops” for connecting the country lines. (We are unfamiliar with telephone terms and will not attempt to name the different contrivances.) There were some 10 girls at the switchboard, tWo girls at the toll desk, one girl In the outer office, and the superintendent has a private office of his own, and we judge stays at the exchange all the time, or during the day, and does no outside work

at all. It seemed to us a very complete plant, having the automatic call system and apparently being most up-to-date in every way. And yet we were told that some members of the company were then away inspecting a new system, called the central energy system—whatever that i§ —and it was the intention if found as recommended, to put up a new building of their own—the company owns a lot adjoining its present quarters in the rear—and put in this new system, which would mean the discarding of the present switchboard and practlcvally all the present paraphernalia. Indirectly we have been told that the Lebanon company started out some 15 to 18 years ago with but $250 capital. This was soon found Insufficient, and $250 more was put in. Not another dollar has ever been invested except the earnings. No dividends have been paid, but a large and valuable system has been built up in less than 20 years on an investment of only SSOO.