Telephones

"The people of Kalamazoo have had fcwo telephone exchanges for the and with a few individual excep tions the business men have reaped but little, il" any, benefit from the competition, beeause it has been necessary to have both 'phones in order to reaeh the pe 'i'e with wliom it was desirous to do business. Mr. Doyie conducted the exchange in a very ereditable nianner and gave. the people locally nmch better service tlian lias the old company. The old company had things their own way so long that tliey were not accustomeil to competition which required tliem to be strictly un to date. Mr Dovlp. has disposed of his interests to a new company which comes in with glaring promises and inducements, not so mueh to the subscriber as to the person who wil] join tliem in a flnnncial way- ake some of tbeir $1,000,000 capital stock at par. They promise 15 per cent on the inveatment on the supposition that within a year they will have [5,000 'phones.in one great system in the state in opposition to the gigantic 15ell octopus which hadthepeopleattheirmercy for years. The price at which they propose to fiood Michigan with 'phonea is an average of 20 per annual rental An exhaustive investigation of the telephone business in Michigan shows that such a r-tte woukl not pay a cent on the investment nor be a pirofitable venture. The Bell company, which has been operaung excnanges in Michigan for 18 or 19 year.s, claim that the minimum cost of managers and operators alone in nearly every exchange in the state, exceeds the amount per telephone that these people claim wilt be the maximum expense to opérate them. There are also other items in the new eompany's prospectus which deserve investigation bef ore investors tak e them as facts. In some exchanges operating expenses greatly exeeed the amount stated, local conditions governing this to a large extent and they can say without fear of contradietion by any one possessed of knowledge of thé ousiness that there is not an exchano-e n the entire state of Michigan that can be successfully operated at the figures ?iven ín this prospectus nor can any valul reason be shown why it is possible at the rates proposed, to make the plant yield operating expenses. The cheap phone experiment has )een tried in inanv statps :mrl in nuriv everyone the results have been disastrous. The promoters have usunlly sueceeded inniaking their profitswhi Ie i tlie local invesiors have beea the losers Ten or 15 per cent invt.;tnu .its are not usually peddled about prpmiscuously, and befere the Kalamazoo citizens invest their dacata ia their allurinoschemea it would be wise and good business precaution to satisfy tiiemselves that the ciaiins made in the prospectus issued by the new State Telephone company can be carried out. - Kalamazoo Ga7.ette. We print the above not as a matter of endorsement, but as a matter oí nformation. Tart of the art iele will not apply to Ann Arbor- that with reference to poor service. Ann Arbor has nothing to complain of. Jio cómpanv will give us better service than the Bell Company, and Manager Keech is entitled to great credit. As to the matter of maintaining an adequate service at the rates the new State Company proposes, the Bell Co. assert that it cannot be done. In the Ann Arhor exchange, for instance. the mere cost of operatin"amounts to about .S12.-1U ter year, and L-iuiiiui uu urougiit mucn under that and give good service. Improvements have been made from time to time to keep the equipment modern and up to date, and the company propose to so maintain it. At the same time they do not care to run the exehange at an actual loss, and nobody would desire them to. On the other hand the State Company says they are prepared to come in here' equipa iir-t class exehange, give and maintain án adequate service, and do ; it at a cost much less than is now charged. They claim that at a proper and reasonable rental Ann Arbor is ! good for at least twice as inany phones as are at present in operatioa. " As between two rival concerns striving for business, Ann Arbor is not interested. If one or both choose to do lusiness at a loss, that is their own concern so long as we get good service at a roper rata As between two conditioiis, one of which gives us good service, and one poor, we are concemed. We do not want an irresponsible concern to come here and wreek the business now being done, and not be ible to. give us good service in return. We know the present Company can give us good service, because they'have done so, ;md are doing so now. Consistency. The Ypsilanti Sentinel of last week ontüins The Demoobat's write up of Jrof. DeWitt, Democratie Candida te of Commissioner of Schools, lacking only the cutand the credit. You should ! have sent for the cut Jïro. Woodrufï I and made it complete. Probably you did not nol ice that your adjoining column contained a similar instance of copying your matter, over which you placed the significant heading "Theft Rebuked. ((ir l'umous Frlend. Owosso Argus: Louis J. Lisemer, of Ann Arbor, editor of the Washtenaw Evening Times and Die Washtenaw Post, was a pleasant caller at the A rgus today. Mr. L'isemer was on his way to spend Sunday with a friend in Saginaw. In addition to his newspaper work Mr. Lisemer has found time to write a number of interesting novéis which were published by the leading papers of the country.