Government Telephones Author:James Mavor Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SUBSTANTIAL REDUCTION IN TELEPHONE RATES PROMISED UNDER PUBLIC OWNERSHIP Although the members of the Government knew nothing about the telephone business (a f... more »act which they admitted afterwards22), nevertheless throughout the campaigns which preceded the municipal election of December, 1906, and the general election of 1907 they continued to make high-sounding and reckless promises regarding the rate reductions which could be effected under their proposed policy. The chief spokesmen of the Government were the Premier and the Attorney-General. On September 5, 1906, the latter publicly declared that " the Government will be able to accomplish a result that will cut the cost of the telephone in two." 23 In an interview published on December 10, the same official said: " In the country the reduction will be one-half the existing rates." 24 On the same day the Premier said: " It is simply a matter of those who use telephones paying for them, and also, only to pay half what the Bell people now charge." 25 Three or four days later the Premier said: "We will more than cut the Bell figure in two";28 and, speaking in Neepawa on December aoth, he said that by oneyear from that time " they would be able to speak over a Government-owned long distance line from Neepawa to Winnipeg at less than half what is charged by the Bell Telephone Company at the present time."27 These glib promises are typical of many others which the Government asked the voters of the Province to believe. 22 Cf. p. 96, infra. 23 Speech before the Canadian Independent Telephone Association, September 5, 1906. 24 The Winnipeg Telegram, December 10, 1906. 25 The Winnipeg Telegram, December 11, 1906. 26 The Winnipeg Telegram, December 15, 1906. Some months after the Government had openly committed itself t...« less