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Show TO'PUBLIC SERVICE SER-VICE COMMISSIONS - ! S. V. Pcct Sees Only Unneces sary Expense and Graft us Probable Results. ' DISCUSSES QUESTION FROM PUBLIC VIEWPOINT Side Lights Thrown on Recent Telephone Tele-phone Fight in Salt Lake County and People's Remedy Shown. Editor Iron County Record: In your paper of April 14th is an article by Mr. J. S. Woodbury iivping the public pub-lic utility commission fot Utah Now why should Iron or any other outlying outly-ing counties desire a public utility commission when thoy rave no public utility to regulate? Why increaso the . taxes of Iron and other counties to &, pay the expense of such a hampering 'i piece of "Political machinery." In i"t "any of the states the Utility Com- mission costs over one hundrccl thoup- v and dollars per year and if Utah hat. one it shoulcf be one of the best. Nine ty five per cent of Utah's Public Utilities Uti-lities are in Utah, Salt Lake, Davis, K ; Weber, Box Elder, and Cacho Coun- ties. Now why doe3 Mr. Woodbury desire to increase Iron County's taxes to regulate the public utilities of the above Counties? Senator Seegmiller, Senator Lunt, Representative Day of Iron and Washington Counties and , many others, saw that it would in- ' crease the taxes of their counties with out bringing in any returns, so they justly and properly voted against such a commission. Salt Lake County ! knows what it wants, and on the 2Cth of this month the Commissioners of this county established a County Pub-; Pub-; ' lie Utility Commission to attend to their own business in their own county, coun-ty, without asking Iron, San Juan, or any other of the outside counties to please help them. Ntak. Dox Eldcr County Solved it. !" County. A remonstrance was sent to i the company to restore the old rates i but without avail. Mr. John Summers - of Tremonton and a few other hustling - farmers of that county, got together t and organized the Bear River Valley t Telephone Company. The first year L that company did a good business, rates in the country districts were one I dollar and seventy five cents per L month for phones. In the towns, two dollars per month, including business $. phones, all unlimited services. Many , i of the subscribers were stockholder 1 L in the company. Each year the Beav River Valley Company extended itf aervice and to-day it extends from Beaver Dam on the cast to Snowville , on the west, and from Corrinno on the s south to Black Pine, Idaho, on the north-west and Pocatello valley, Ida- ho, on the north. The Bolle Telephone Company waB mighty glad to conned i with the Bear River Valley Telephone '' Company exchange for long distance ! ! tolls. The Bear River Valley Tele- , 'H- phone Company is not only rendering , V, cheap and efficient service but what f profits acrue do not go to a foreign ' company, but into the pockets of the i farmers who financed it. What Public Utilities Dread. L What any public utility mostly P. dreads is competition by the people i who patronize it. The fight just won T by the people of Salt Lake County i over the Mountain States Telegraph and Telephone Company, is the best evidence in tho world that Utah does not want a public utility commission At the mass meeting hold at Murray k a few days ago diplomacy and argu- ment were thrown to tho winds. The people said we want good service, two t ' dollars flat rates per month and free service to Salt Lake City. The Telephone Tele-phone Company said it could not give such scrvico to Salt Lake free and stuck to it until tho people at that meeting said "all right, you take out J your phones and we will organize o ' ' company of our own." That was a sixteen inch shell exploded in the Telophone Company's camp. It gave the management of that company the f "Blind staggors" and they gavo in at ' - once, and said wo will servo the DEAR k people at the Bnmo old rate, not i ' charge for tho timo tho phones have been disconnected, put the phones back free and do it immediately. If ' the Mountain States Telephone Com- E1 pany ever prayed for anything durinjr m t SJio past three weeks it was for thr V lflSte Public Utility Commission. Tho ft telephone company knew that a utility t commission could and would not or- Sf ganize a competing company. It I would have had only three men to deal with in a "Deplomatic" manner instead in-stead of twolve hundred people and half of that number irate womou. What Might bo Dono. With a public utility commission the Tolephono Company might have ' ordered a largo and commodious auto- v mobile and with their shrewdest lawyer as a guido would have invited the commissioners to view the grounds. In that automobile would have been a case of "FiBhers American Beauty" on ice, a dozen or so "Sunny Brook Ponies" bottled in bond and two or three boxes of "Royal Havana Fillers." ' Thoy would have been introduced to ' half a dozen "ixed" subscribers in i wwaaw c Hi' would improve the service. They would have returned to Salt Lake in a happy mood, had a plank steak with mushrooms at Hotel Utah and when they adjourned the Commission would have put in the Salt Lake Papers how thoy had compelled the Telephone Company to spend thousands of dollars dol-lars to improve its system just for a measley little five cent toll rate to Salt Lake City. I am .not putting this too strongly. I positively know that such methods have been "used in other states and thoy might be used in Utah, if tho occasion oc-casion requires it. The street car com panies of Philidclphia I'a., charge five cents straight for a ride on their cars and three cents extra for a transfer which Is three cents more than any othor city In that state. Tho people of Phllidelphia knew it vas a holdup They held mass me& s and demanded de-manded a Public Utility Commission to correct tho abuse. In nineteen hundred and seven the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed a Public Utility bill and appropriated one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for Its first ycarB expense and today after eight years timo and expense the people of Philadelphia are still paying pay-ing five conts straight for car fare and three cents extra for transfer, on the same old road and in the same old way. Yours truly, V. S. PEET. Salt Lake City, April 27, 1010. |