TELEPHONE SECURITIES 
219 
Any telephone system failing to meet these require 
ments falls short of satisfying the public. Never 
theless, notwithstanding this fundamental prin 
ciple, a host of independent companies has sprung 
up all over the country so that there was a time a 
few years ago when the total number of “Inde 
pendent” telephones exceeded the total number of 
Bell telephones. This has resulted in fierce com 
petition both as to rates and service. 
A city where the Bell telephone has been the 
sole company, for example, has been charged nearly 
fifty dollars a year for a house telephone private line. 
An independent company is organized which starts 
out with a rate of about twenty dollars a year for 
the same service, or less than one-half that of the 
Bell Company. Of course, the Bell Company may 
have been charging too much, but the independent 
company doubtless is charging too little to provide 
for proper maintenance, depreciation and over 
head charges. The Bell companies have wisely 
very seldom come down to as low rates as the in 
dependent companies; but in instances like the 
above mentioned, the Bell sometimes cuts from 
fifty dollars to about thirty dollars. Of course, in 
the case of a family having only one telephone, this 
is an apparent saving; but as a large number of 
families and especially all business houses, under 
such circumstances, are obliged to install both tele 
phones, the total cost is in excess of the cost under 
the one company, the subscribers being also sub 
jected to the double nuisance of always finding that 
the party desired has “the other phone.”