Image provided by: Chetco Community Public Library; Brookings, OR
About Brookings-Harbor pilot. (Brookings, Curry County, Oregon) 1946-1978 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 1946)
BRO OKIN GS-HARBOR PILO T, BRO OKIN GS. OREGON -THURSDAY, AUGUST • M - n n y AUGUST 8» 1946 _gROOKINGS-HARBOR PILO T. BROOKINGS. OR EGON Home of the Croft Ltly Hi A Frank Statemenlo O ur Subscribers: Our reason for existence is to render telephone service to you, for your business use: ir social convenience. No one is better able than we are to appreciate the fact that the quality o f our service is o f the utmost impoi id to the entire community. Our objective, now as always, is to make your telephone service the best possible; that is vital to our wel »rating company. IN THE P A S T ............... . . . . we have been justly proud of our service. It was fast and reliable. Before the war our service here was on a par with the best in any comparable area in the United States. compete, as our own wage scales were held at fixed ceilings M the government. This situation is improving, but we s till have too many coal paratively new and inexperienced operators. Our standard of ef l ficiency has naturally declined despite the hardest and most nerd wracking work by the small group of fu ll experienced employe«] who have remained throughout the w ar period. W ith a progressively weakened force of operators, and no ne» equipment whatever, we handled a rapidly mounting load of trail everywhere in our system. The figures speak for themsetor D U R IN G THE W AR T hen cam e H itle r’s m ad rush into P oland in 1939. In com m on w ith every’ o th e r civilian service, the adequacy of o u r telephone service steadily declined for reasons q u ite beyond o u r pow er to a lte r G overnm ental regulations, plus th e com m on u rg e of p a tr io t ism, dem anded th a t we should serve th e needs of th e arm y , th e navy and associated w a r industries first, a t w h a te v e r sacrifice of convenience to ourselves or to you. O u r every’ reso u rce in m oney, equipm ent and m an-pow er was throw n in to th e effort to w in th e w ar. O rdinary civilian requirem ents had to ta k e second place. A t th e sam e tim e th e n ' began a ra p id dissip atio n of o u r force of train e d operators and technicians. M any of th e best of th e people upon whom we depended fo r o p e ra tio n and m a in te n a n c e of our p lan ts left us They w ent e ith e r in to th e arm e d forces o r i n t o w ar industries with whose inflated w age scales we could not LQWGj DISTANCE¿CALLS? PLACE D * uarshfievd J ch ' strîct < 4 » hraolng the Coastal Ama frccr\ .«O.Hong«port. Ore., ar, little attempt was made to maintain telephone jndee at anything like a pre-war basis; civilian jephone service was ruthlessly curtailed or elim- lated altogether, as it happed to suit the plans of (lose responsible for war operations and war in- istries. FTER V -J DAY In our Marshfield District, which includes Brook ings 191,172 long distance calls were placed dm When the war ended, we all heaved a sigh of 1939. In 1945, there were 394,064 calls, an increase] kief and looked forw ard to the early return of of 106 per cent. pnal conditions. We placed our orders for new During the war period, it was impossible to ob jephones and wire and switchboard equipment tain materials to meet this great increase in civilian telephone service requirem ents; quite properly, the! hoped for a let-dow’n in the traffic load. So far government imposed drastic limitations upon sup-1 om V-J Day having brought us any relief, our plies for other than military and war industry needJ dersfor new’ etjuipment, except for a few driblets, In other words, as the war-time load increased by Ive not been filled and our over-loaded facilities leaps and bounds, our ability to cope with it wad taken trom us, through no fault of our own. Thai] |d over-worked personnel are called upon to han- condition, of course, was not confined to this com an ever-increasing load. pany; it was nation-wide, part of the price wea3| had to pay to serve the army and the navy an |Since 1939, all over the U. S. A. the number of win the war. ng distance calls, both placed and actually coin For six years our entire industry f a c e d these] ed, has increased beyond the power of anyone conditions: predict and beyond the power of any company ■ \ astly increasing demands by Army, Navy anc) handle promptly with the personnel and etjuip- Government. Mt obtainable. At the same time, owing to war ■ Rapidly mounting civilian demands for ordinar?) | étions, it became vastly more difficult for our telephone service. frators to put through and complete the calls 11 A volume ot telephone traffic f a r beyond out) it were placed. * U M 3 J IS M ; 1 9 « FOR B R O O K IN G S .................. New Telephones have been ordered and w ill be installed as soon as the manufacturers can deliver them. Rapid and progressive depletion of our forre) |S BROUGHT NO L E T -l'P ! In May. 1916. there ot skilled men a n d women, technicians < Iff 16.905 calls placed, as against 32,718, in Jan- operators. fri. 1916, in this d istrict. Inability to obtain etjuipment o r supplii I kav.? a w aiting list of o v er 10.000 ap p lica n ts for telephone meet civilian requirements. You may rest assured that we are very much alive Io the present inadequacies ai|d shortcom ings of our service which are common to telephone service all over the I n i ted States at this time. deteriorated during that period: on the contrary.'* have every reason to be proud of our war ree d MM2 S u pplies a re trick lin g in slowly, how ever, and w ith a re tu rn to a n y th in g like n o rm alcy in m a n u fa c tu rin g conditions, th e situ atio n should im prove rap id ly from now on. Additional new line extensions w ill be built as soon as the necessary materials are received. it is not surpris ng th a t our service to the pu; j ¡ 1 8 » j 1 9 0 ^1941 But we cannot serve them until we can o b tain new telephones, line m ateria ls, new sw itch b o ard facilities, all the ap p liances th at a re essen tial to a big in crease in o u r service. T he sam e reasons th a t a re holding up supplies of every sort all o v er th e U nited S ta te s, have m ade th e m a n u fa c tu re rs of telephone eq u ip m en t u n ab le to m eet the trem en d o u s p o st-w ar dm ands of th e industry. In sh o rt, th e w a r-tim e conditions th a t im p aired y o u r telephon«* service a re still w ith us. |THE TEMPO IS NOT SLAC K EN IN G ! PEACE wildest pre-war dreams. B allot o u r av a ila b le services re g ard less of p erso n alities, in ac co rd ance w ith the le tte r and th e sp irit of th e law. We believe these v ario u s re g u la tio n s a re in th e best in te re st of the most people; in an y ease, they a re the law to w hich we m ust conform . ne;irl\ o of th em in B rookings. We w ant to serve them as as vve can, if only fo r th e obvious com m ercial reason th at ■•i.îy serve th em is co stin g us perh ap s $50.000 every m onth, °ur • ntire system . pt iud of the fact th a t despite the magnitude of q ? ’ w ar period o u r in sta lla tio n s of th e few telephone^ 'a'" been a v a ila b le h av e been re g u la te d by g o v ernm ental * yhat condition s till holds. W. P. B. O rd er U-2, d ated Sep- i945, sets o u t c e rta in ru les and schedules of priority “!l'" w«* are locally re q u ired to ad h ere. war effort we were still able to serve the civile puolit as well as we did. In everv other country^ Pressure h as been e x e rte d by som e people w ho ap p aren tly - Ï *h r should o v er-ride th e g en eral good and th e 'Wntal regulations. W’e have done our best, however, to WEST COAST I ntil normal conditions return* we and our sub scribers alike are the victims of conditions which arc affecting practially every business and service to some extent in the entile I nited States These conditions w ill not last we are detrmined to restore the mer efficiency at t h e earliest Meanwhile, we ask you for your sonable consideration. HONE COMPANY much longer, and service to its fo r possible moment. patience and rea Pagi
