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Show SHOULD NOT BE TWO 'PHONE COMPANIES. IBlMlH The telephone company will put its magnifl- "lll.HI cent new switchboard in service tonight, and fol- i 'iiljHj lowing this will give all subscribers in the city iliiliHI new telephone instruments. liuBI This brings to mind that the establishment of 'tiilfll an independent, opposition telephone company in I nHH this city is periodically agitated. Beforo this is j jfiUHH permitted the matter should be understood thor- ranfH oughly. It is always promised that rates with the 1 flaBBM new company will be greatly reduced. This has 'IffiSBI not been the experience of other cities; the reason iHJIHH is apparent enough. Where this has been tried it HIH has proved an utter failure so far as business men, HHH Hb ftj and flrras are concerned. It has proved, more- B - over, a disastrous experiment to the independent B d telephone company. Suppose two companies were B ; I' already established with an equal number of sub- BH i scrlbers to each the companies not interchange- H ( able. No business man could afford to cling to B one company. He could talk to Smith all right. B lL but if he wanted to call up Jones he could not. B j l "Where two such systems have been tried business BE " men have been obliged to take telephones from j both systems, with a materially increased cost B a per month or annum over the old single system. I HIP ' In cities larger than Salt Lake will be fifty ( years hence the independent companies that obtained ob-tained charters solely on promises of reduced cost i have petitioned the city authorities to amend their charters by striking out the clause which limits their maximum charges. The reason is that the ; more telephones in use, the greater the cost of ; each telephone. This seems strange at first i glance, but a little reflection makes the reason clear enough. Suppose there are 3000 telephones i r in use in this city, and 100 more are installed to- B j i. morrow; the last hundred have a pull over the Hi; r whole three thousand, and the ratio of calls is : I ' vastly increased. H ' S J ' I XV The result is that many of the independent B i I I companies are now in the hands of receivers; B i I , others are now petitioning to have that clause B ill which fixes their maximum rates repealed. B; '11 t ; Of course, the assumption is that a telephone B' M & company has a monopoly, and that only competi- I i Ql tion can check the avarice of such men as have B k m monopolies. A monopoly is a bad thing. There is 111 - only one thing worse, that is two monopolies; and B m ft the result of establishing independent telephone B It companies in opposition to the first monopoly has B S K been increased cost to patrons, no end of confu- H I sion, and generally the final crushing out of one Bl, I I or both companies. jf ' h Mayor Tom Johnson of Cleveland, O., has a na tional and international reputation as a friend of the people, and as opposed to the arrogance of the power of concentrated wealth. He says: "Two telephone companies in the -same city are an absolute ab-solute nuisance." He thinks the two in Cleveland Cleve-land should be permitted to consolidate, and further, that a rate should be established for each telephone in a system of ten thousand; that after that the rates of patrons should be increased. The same report comes from cities north and south in the United States, and like reports come from Canada, and in such volume that they seem conclusive. con-clusive. Nothing is said in the foregoing about added poles and wires, for they could be borne if any advantages were to accrue. But without exception, excep-tion, where two companies have been tried in the same town, the tolls to business men and firms have been invariably increased, and many of the new telephone companies are either now in the hands of receivers or they are petitioning to have the restrictions on their rates removed, until the concensus of opinion is, when reduced to words, an echo of Mayor Johnson's declaration that "Two telephone companies in the same city are an absolute ab-solute nuisance." Salt Lake City should go very slow before taking any chance of making a mistake mis-take in this matter, and keep in mind what the wise man said, when the "will is puzzled," that it "Makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of." |