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Show TELEPHONE COMPANY PROMISES TO IMPROVE THE SERVICE GIVEN THE PEOPLE OF OGDEN That the Mountain States Telephone .v Telegraph company will Immediate' ly put forth every possible effort to better tbe te'ephone service in Osdeu city and Weber county, was assured 1.1st evening after an Investigation by the city commission as to the cause for tho poor service. In short, the representatives of the telephone company assured the commissioners com-missioners and a number of complaining complain-ing business men who were present that all complaints made of poor sen ice immediately would be traced to the bottom and remedied, and report back to the commission periodically fhelr success in this line. Mayor Browning was most emphatic in his declaration that such service as the telephone company had been giving giv-ing to Ogden citizens will not be tolerated tol-erated in tho future, if there is anv j power vested by the commission to j prevent it City Attorney W H. Reeder Jr , (p-ened (p-ened 'he hearing with a report on his investigation of the present conditions and conferences with 'he telephone of ftcials in this city. Mr. Reeder stat:d that the telephone officials' principal excuse for the poor service was that they were unable to securo efficient help to handle the business in tbe j heaviest" part of tho day. The of-1 the girls were being united in the holy bonds of matrimony faster than new firls could be trained to care for the business. Mayor's Statement The mayor then took up tbe subject of the purpose of the hearing and stated: ' Numerous complaints have been brought to our attention by a great many citizens, that the telephone com - 1 pany, generally in the evening and during dur-ing the night, gives very poor service, and on several occasions instances J have occurred when connection could 1 not be secured for about half an hour. There should be some remedy for this situation The telephone rates have jbeen increased from 20 to 40 per cent I and the people are paying for poorer service." F. W. Carroll, district manager of the telephone company, stated that he I agreed with some of the points brought j out by Mayor Browning and others, 1 and practically admitted that the Berv-ice Berv-ice was not what it should be. He I stated that the night force of the com-1 pany in Ogden had been increased trom four to six operators, but that all of the most experienced operators 1 could not have handled the calls that l were registered on the night of the I fire at tbe Union Pacific ice house. He failed to explain, other than that trained girls could not be found, as to j why the service was so poor generally.! "we have sufficient help but all are not trained as they should be to give proper service. The company is now conducting a school for operators In this city, but the service cannot be remedied over night as it takes about twelve months to train girls to tbe point where they are considered experienced ex-perienced operators. On fir? nights we cannot expect to handle th 1 increased in-creased load As an example, 'ast Tuesday night, our telephone calls Jumped from normal to about 6000 in an hour, and our force of operators was not able to handle it and as a . . . 1 , r. - 1 1 . r 1 , 1 1 . U'.lrO Tin I iKlr. t r get connections for a considerable period." per-iod." Mr. Carroll said. Numorous instances were given by those present where they had found k much quicker to do an errand on foot than to wait for telephone connections H L Hcrrington, president of the t'lah Canning company, and also one hi tbe chief complainants, explained to Mr Carroll that the general complaint applied to normal nights as well as fire nights, and in fact at all time.-. Fie made the remark that If the insurance insur-ance companies knew of ;be terrible telephone service in this city, half of the present fire insurance policies car nod in this city would be cancelled. W Cockerill. district traffic super-j fl intendent of the telephone company, who is from Sal Lake, attempted to explain to the commissioners in a tech J r.ical way the reasons for the pcxir service. ser-vice. He was given to understand by, the mayor that the commissioners dld:j not desire excuses of this sort Thefl wanted to know why they are paying j for telephone service and failed to ? it Mr. Cockerill told tho commissioners that the company would be glad tore- , ccive all complaints from telephone subscribers, and would assure good service in the future. The question whether the Berrk was poor because the company had itt ' competitors in the field, was asked br a the mayor. He stated that it had been-l his experience that before the hide pendent company was taken over b?(J the Mountain States company the ser-r J vice was excellent, and after the mer- I crcr the. servicp raniMlv hoimr! tn df- cline, I Mr. Carroll denied this. When the telephone officials mide the claim that they were unable to get experienced help, Secretary' Janes i Wotherspoon of the Shupe-Willhmi l I Candy company, said: "You can get the girls if you pa?" 1 I them the right and just wage," and he I suggested that the company not blame -. 1 the matter all on to the "hello girls' j but take some of the blame thec- j I selves. I Jhe companv officials announced 1 that they would appeal to the publk j not to use the telephone on "flwl nights" to find out where the firt Is 1 or put in any other useless calls, anJ1 j thus give a clear path to emergency calls. |