Jasper County Democrat, Volume 16, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1914 — Telephone Hearing On as Democrat Went to Press. [ARTICLE]

Telephone Hearing On as Democrat Went to Press.

Charles J. Murphy, of the Indiana Public Service Commission, came in on the 10 o’clock train yesterday and was holding a hearing in the court room on the proposed increase in telephone rates by the Jasper County Telephone Company, as The Democrat went to press. The meeting was quite largely attended, but the proceedings were rather dry, consisting of the reading of itemized reports by Delos Thompson, the president and general manager of the company, which had been testified to by Miss Gertrude Hopkins, the bookkeeper of the company, as having been prepared by her and being correct.

The statements or reports gave an itemized account of the different receipts and expenditures for the years 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912 and 1913, and showed that during some years the expenditures exceeded the income, while in other years there was a small balance left over. Mr. Thompson testified that during the past five years the company had paid a dividend on its stock of only 3 per cent; some years nothing at all and other years 6 per cent, making the average 3 per cent. E. B. Sellers, of Monticello, and George A. Williams and W. H. Parkison, of Rensselaer, were attorneys for the company and presented their side of the case, while John A. Dunlap and A. Halleck appeared for the remonstrators.