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Newspaper Page Text
WPWWJBi THE' SPECIFIC OBJECTS OF THE CHICAGO C TELEPHONE USERS' ASSOCIATION -. " ?tA reader pf; The Day Book has re quested that Mr. Harold D. Stroud, commercial superintendent of the Telephone Users' Association, ex plain the purposesof the association. Mr. Stroud in presenting the objects made the following statement: By Harold D, Stroud, , First That a contract had been made between the Bell and Auto matic companies, July 7, 4912, to sell the system of the latter to. the Bell. Second That the Chicago Tele phone Company, owned by the Bell, was not the purchaser because, un der the ordinance, they would have to operate the Automatic if bought Third That the parent Bell Co. is to buy it because, having no fran chise, they win not be bound, nor could they operate it Fourth The Automatic ordinance says they must not sell or enter into any agreement that will injure com petition. Fifth That the contract of July 7, 1912, Is contrary to the law, and that as a result the Automatic has stopped all new work, laid most of the men off and declined to install large contracts, among which were the American Express Co. and Ried, Murdock & Co. automatic exchanges. Then an order was issued, effective August 1, abolishing the commercial traffic departments of the HI. Tel. & Tel. (Automatic) Co. Object No. 1 To arouse the Inter est of the people of Chicago who are all telephone users and are interested in the better telephone service and have them protest to their alderman against permitting the sale of the au tomatic property that belongs to the city by the action of the forfeiture clause of the I. T. & T. (Auto.) Co.'s ordinance, which property if sold un der the proposed plan will be aban doned, and about $5,000,000 could be charged on the capital account of the the telephone users of Chicago. l Object No. 2 To urge by every proper means the action of the mayor and city aldermen in acquir ing the automatic property by the city, to run it in the interests of the people and Issue bonds for extension purposes on 'the St. Paul plan, when the citizens can purchase bond cer tificates drawing 4 ier cent interest and with their own money build the automatic- system- all? over Chicago and give-us this model'Jelephone ser vice paid for -at the rate of one cent per call, which can be done beyond question of a do'ubfc: 'Objeot &o, S To maintain a ser vice bureau during the settlement of the telephone questions above men tioned so that the many firms who are buying, or win buy, their auto matic private'now insialled in nearly 75 large offices' and factories, and which have become Indispensable for local use on account of their speed and secrecy- of their service, may be properly maintained and kept in oper- i tion. For instance: Number of Telephones About Insurance Exchange 300 Montgomery Ward & Co 100 Hotel LaSalle : . . . 100 The Hub Store 100 C..B.&Q.R.R 50 I.C.R.R 50 N. Y. Central Lines 60 C, M. & St. P. R. R. 65 Taylor-Critchfleld Adv. Co 40 Chas. H. Fuller 30 Am. Steel & Wire Co 35 Butler Paper Co 40 Chicago Paper Co 25 Cont & Com. Bank 40 First Natl Bank 25 Chicago American 30 Chicago Examiner .'.... 30 Chicago. Record-Herald 30 Chicago Journal . . 25 Chicago Inter-Ocean 25 Central Trust Co 55 Chicago Railway Exchange..'.-3Q Bell service and paid on in rates by jtmttmmmm