The Telephone Monopoly to Seattle: Don’t Print This
Seattle’s phone company keeps billing the old rates after the city council orders a cut, and its manager asks the press to keep quiet about it.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Sunset Telephone Company, notwithstanding the fact that the city passed an ordinance lowering its rates from $6 for stores and $4.50 for residences to $5 and $3 respectively, continues to charge the old rates. The company studiously ignores the terms of the law passed by the city council and offers the excuse that it would lose money if the rates fixed by the council were to prevail. A Post-Intelligencer reporter yesterday saw a number of telephone subscribers and most of them expressed the opinion that the rates which the company collected (not those fixed by the city council) are too high. They further said that they did not see why the ordinance reducing the rates was not enforced. The company still collects $6 for stores and $4.50 per month for residences. Arthur J. Clark, the manager of the Sunset Telephone Company, was asked if his company was collecting the old or the new rate, and he replied: "Yes, we are collecting $6 per month from stores and $4.50 from residences, but you do not want to say anything about that just now. We do not want this fact mentioned in the papers at this particular time."
“We do not want this fact mentioned in the papers at this particular time.”
A century before modern utility-rate and net-neutrality fights, Seattle’s telephone monopoly treated a city ordinance as a suggestion. The manager’s plea to keep the old rates out of the paper is a reminder that corporate pushback against regulation is not a new story.
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