TELEPHONE SYSTEMS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 223, 8 June 1918, Page 8

TELEPHONE SYSTEMS

MR. 11. C. HOYLE'S STRICTURES ON THE AUTOMATIC

AUSTRALIAN CRITIC IN THE WRONG

STATEMENT BY DIRECTOR OF TELEPHONE SERVICES

To read the remarks of Mr. H. C. Hoyle, ox-Assistant-Treasurer and jiinisi ter of Uailways in Now South Wales, as republished in 'Piifi Dominion on Thursday, the casual reader might gather that the automatic telephone systems of the world had proved an absolute failure. "I regard it as a public outrage." Mr. Hoyle declared, "that the' Commonwealth- should now be about to expend over two millions sterling unon a system of telephones that has wen scrnnppd in America." Mr. Hoyle said that the Australian control of telephones suffered when compared to that of America. Among the advantages of the American system lie mentioned the boxes in public places in the cities where for 5 cents girls secured Ihe number any caller want»d, and bp rlid not pay his monev for tho ca'l till lie had used Hie tolephone. Mr. Hoyle contended that the automatic telephone was a defective system, anil that the extension of it was a.scandal.

As the New Zealand authorities have embarked on a scheme ti put in the automatic system wherever and whenever it suits them to do so (subject to existing conditions), the matter appeared to be important enough to refer to the officials of the Post and telegraph Department. As a matter or tact, the Director of Telephone. Services Olr J. Buckley) was sent to America and England to investigate thoroughly the whole subject of telephone systems manual, magnetic, common battery, and tho several automatic systems, and ho camo back fully convinced that the automatic system is the system of the future, and he has not had occasion to change h ; s mind. "

. "Of course,'" ho said, "the gentleman in Australia is all wrong. I don't say hat ho is wrong in saying that titers have been somo systems of automatic exchanges discarded in America. That may easily be the case; but they have 1 discarded because they are inefhcient, or of less practical value than the system that is ousting them. It may be for various reasons, and one has to understand the\telephone situation in America to get the matter in its proper perspective. For instance, one eompnny using the common battery system may buy out another in the same citv that happens to be automatic, and as it less perhaps to extend the battery system than the automatic, or it mav be "inconvenient to work both, an automatic system may be disenrdr i There may be other masons dictated by company or local reasons that would bring about tho discarding of a system—automatic or otherwise— but that does not impeach the value of a system, nor has it any bearing on the measure of its efficiency as a system i- to give every satisfaction to the public. In that regard the matler is scarcely worth discussing." What Chicago Thinks. Mr. Buckley, referring to a file, quoted from a letter from Chicago, dated March 15, in which the writer said: — "The general demand for automatics has increased, notwithstanding the war. As a matter of fact the war lias had the effect of augmenting the drift of sentiment towards the automatic system due to the extension of tho employment of women and the increase in wages together with shorter hours, i No one familiar with telephone equipment any longer questions the efficiency of automatic equipment. The whole drift in America, and, I think, throughout the world, is now towards automatics."' Mr. Buckley says that he was given ample opportunity of inspecting all systems in America and in Chicago, and he saw the automatic system working perfectly. Whilst he was there the Illinois Tunnel Company, holding a franchise for under,'youml transport tunnels or tubes, installed a 20,000 wire system tho automatic plan, and it turned out quite satisfactory. There were about 80,000 telephone subscribers in San Francisco, about 10,000 of the telephones being automatic. The automatic company was bought out. by the larger one, and tho newer system was discarded, but that was not to say that it did not do its work satisfactorily. ITe quoted Los Angeles as another city where the older and more (irmly-estnblishrd telephone company (they were all private business companies in America) had bought out tho new one, and had adhered to its old system. A good deal couVl he said that, way, but., it in no way casts discredit on automatic system. ■Evidence had aecumiilated since the outbreak of war that the automatic system had claims that could scarcely be refuted. In America at the present time the manual systems were suffering owing fn the calling up of the men, and the big increase in the number of girls employed, with their demands for higher wages and shorter hours, was giving telenhone companies much food for thought. With the automatic system the human element was pretty well dispensed with. Instead of a great number of girls, only a few exnert hands were needed, and they had to he paid reasonable wages. But in hi" exchanges, where girls were employed, they had to provide a hospital, luncheon room, retiring rooms, and special lavatories, which were not required when only a few women were employed. Then the manual systems took tp a great deal of room compared with the automatics, and could hardly be .said to give the same efficient service.

"It will be remembered that we called for tenders, and as the result let a contract to the. 'Western Electric Company on a time-delivery basis. The company then had one of its big factories in Antwerp, and as the war swept across Belgium they had to make arrangements to go elsewhere. They went to London, and there, as the engineering works were all being commandeered for munition-making, thoy centralised :nove in Hawthorne, Chicago, then in a neutral country. Now America is a belligerent State, and the trouble is repeating itself; still we uro getting a little stuff from them—we gut some last nionlh. Then, as you know, we have had some of the Sivowger automatics hero for some time in our "Wellington rxchange. Yon see, our system is not really an automatic one. "When we decided that the old 'system was done and would have to be replaced, something had to be got to carry on with, something to work in with our manual system. It was no good replacing ait obsolete system with new material of that system, so we put in Slrowgor automatics, until such time as t ho Western Electric automatics are aval.able. J.hen you will see us discard the Strowger automatics, but thev will not be scrapped. They will be used in some other rising town where a more advanced system of telephony is required than the old manual." What the Postmaster-General of U.S.A. Says. In support of his statements Mr. Buckley "put in" tne following newspaper clipping, dated last month:—"That the "Washington, D.C., telephone system is costing ;>O.'J3 dollars rer station per year to operate, while according to the experience of automatic exchanges in various parts of the country, a system of. this type could bo operated at the capital for much less than 20 dollars per station per year, is the conclusion readied by United States Post Oilice Department officials in a report submitted to a Senate Committee recently. Quoting tho Postmaster-General the Senate Committee further states: 'The automatic principle generally in use permits of any cumulative additions to the switching exchange which may be desired and as the needs occur, just as additions may be made to a sectional bookcase, and without scrapping equipment which is in use. The iioii-'.vutomiitic or- manual equipment is not cumulative; and so substantial additions to the service can not be made or great emergency requirements be met without displacement of the existing operations, and changes ill the

operating exchange structure, comparable with elmnying tne gauge 01 » railroad track. The uelay, llie waste of capital involved, are only less important in character than the operating expenses involved in the elimination of excliange operations by tho automatic. Not only is tho automatic principle susceptible of quick, and unlimited extensions to the service, but it carries an equally important element of economy in operation. In this regard and in efficiency, the advanced stale of the art, mechanically speaking, leaves little to bo desired, 'l'he automatic systems in use Ijy about 11)0 companies in the United States (and recently sent for u=o in France by our army) and in general use with the postal telephone systems, dispense entirely with exchange operators, the information and 'toll operators being alone required. Moreover, the operation of. tho system is such that secrecy of communication is maintained between the parties talking.'" Proof Against Strikes. The same paper relates how the automatic carried the load during a strike of telephone hands in Alberta County, N.W. Canada: "During a. little more than three weeks, from Hay 30 to June 21, 1917, the Telephone Department ollicials of the Province of Alberta, and tho employees in the southern portion of the province, including the cities of Calgary, Lethbridge, and Medicine Hat, were engaged in a discussion of working conditions and wages, and while the discussion was in progress practically tho entire stall'—a total of G1 men—remained away from their posts. Brief mention of this was made in 'Automatic Telephone' at the time, but during his recent visit to Chicago Mr. W. It, Poarce, General Superintendent of the Alberta telephone 6ystem, pointed'out certain interesting details of the incident.

" 'There was no animosity between the officials, and tho men,' Mr. l'earce explained. 'The men wanted certain conditions which we, for the good of the service, knew could not be granted, and we felt -that sinco all tho important exchanges involved were of the automatic type, we could afford to let (lie men walk out if they wished. They were moro surprised than wo when they finally quit about 2.30 p.m. on May 30. They really expected us to give in. But we pinned our faith to automatic, and waited developments. We explained the situation frankly and fully to the public through newspaper advertisement. We did not ask for mercy or patience or anything else. Wo just laid our cards on- the table, and by so doin<* and also, I think, because of the excellent service our automatic systems had been giving, we won the sympathy and support of the people in general. We did not try to run in men from unaffected parts of tho province, which' surprised the men somewhat. The men who quit picketed our exchanges, but had their trouble for nothing. We kept one man in each of our five exchanges and snt tight. " 'Eight days after the walk-out, on June 7, tho Provincial Legislation election was held and the traffic on all our exchanges was higher than ever before in our history, for we handle all election returns in Alberta on tho telephone. Still wo did not cry quits. We trusted to tho dial and the switches, and they carried the load as though nothing had happened. Complaints were normal, tho service was normal, and we just-waited for the men to see the futility of their course. Then a bit of luck favoured us. Shortly after election day, one of tho worst electric storms we have ever had paid us a visit, but the only trouble it caused was a few fuses blown, and they were, all in the exchanges. Service continued jnst as though our full staff were on duty as usual.

'"It was really uncanny. The men could not understand why wo did not give in, or import help, or do something. But there was nothing to do except sit tight and watch the switches carry the load. I don't know how long the situation could have lasted. At the end of 23 days we had only (j2 lines out of service, chiefly because of wire or cable trouble, and I believe the plant could have stood up another three weeks with no more serious results than a few additional stations out of service. As it was, our service was 99.5 per cent, normal, and so fur as the subscribers were concerned, no emergency existed. Well, when our men found out wo would not yield, of course tliev had to, and they returned to work under substantially the old conditions. There was more or less cleaning up to be done, bint within a month we were back to the old routine again, as though nothing had happened.

'"If wo had needed a demonstration of what tho automatic could do, this certainly furnished it, and you may be sure we thanked our stars that we had no staffs of operators to cause trouble. If we had been operating manually, the girls certainly would, have quit with the men, nnd then, of course, we would have faced real difficulties. Our public was with us beoauce we were right and also because the situation did not inconvenience them. If their telephone service had been paralysed, as an operator strike would have paralysed it. we very probably would have had a different story to tell".' Fortunately, the automatic which never goes on strike, was on the job every minute.'"