The Beaverton enterprise. (Beaverton, Or.) 1927-1951, July 26, 1946, Image 6

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    THE BEAVERTON
ENTERPRISE
FRIDAY, JU LY 26, 1946
AFR
1
I
O OUR SUBSCRIBERS
Our reason for existence is to render telephone service to you, for
your business use and for your social convenience.
No one is better able
AFTER V-J DAY
than we are to appreciate the fact that the quality of our service is of
the utmost importance to you and to the entire community.
Our objec­
tive, now as always, is to make your telephone service the best possible;
that is vital to our welfare as an operating telephone company.
IN THE PAST
- - - - - we have been justly proud of our service. It was fast and
reliable. Before the war our service in Beaverton was on a par with
the best in any comparable city in the United States.
DURING THE WAR
T hru ra m « H itler'» mad rush in to 1‘oland in 1930.
In com m on with every other civilian service, the ade­
quacy o f our telephone service steadily declined fo r rea­
sons quite beyond our power to ulter. G overnm ental reg­
ulations, plus the com m on urge o f patriotism , dem anded
that we should serve the needs o f the arm y, the navy
and associated war industries first, at whate\er sacrifice
o f con venien ce to ourselves or to you. Our every re­
sou rce in m oney, equipm ent and m an-pow er was thrown
Into the e ffo r t to win the war. O rdinary civilian require­
m ents hud to take secon d place.
There Has Been No Let-Up!
During the first 5 months of
1916 there were placed 637.136
long distance as compared with
420.053 calls during tli first 5
months of 1943.
W e have a waiting list o f over 9,000 applicants for
telephone service, nearly 823 o f them in Beaverton. W e
want to serve them as soon as we can. If only fo r the
obviou s com m ercial reason that our Inability to serve
them Is costing us perhaps $50,000 every m onth, over our
entire system.
C onditions are slow ly Im proving, but we still have
too many com paratively new and Inexperienced opera­
tors. Our standard o f e fficie n cy has naturally declined
despite the hardest and m ost nerve w rack in g w ork by
the sm all group o f fully experienced em ployees w h o have
rem ained throughout th e w ar period.
W ith a progressively w eakened fo rce o f operators,
and no new equipm ent w hatever, we handled a rapidly
m ount! * load o f tra ffic everyw h ere In our system. T he
fIgu resVepcak fo r them selves
D uring the war period, our installations o f the few
telephones that have been available have been regulated
hy governm ent orders. T hat con d ition still holds. W . F. B.
O rder U-2 dated Septem ber 27, IMS, sets out certain rules
and schedules o f priority to w hich we are legally required
to adhere.
In the Forest Grove district,
which includes Beaverton, 730,-
G reat pressure has been exerted by som e people
who apparently felt that their needs should over-ride the
general good and the governm ental regulations. W e have
done our best h ow ever to allot ou r available services
regardless o f personalities, in accord an ce with the let­
ter and the spirit o f the law. W e believe these various
regulations are in the best interest o f the m ost people;
in any case, they are the law to w hich we must con form .
403 Long Distance calls were
In 1945 there
were placed 1,367,754 calls,
Since 1939, all over the U. S. A., the num ber o f lon g distance calls,
both placed and actually com pleted, has Increased beyond the pow er o f
an yone to predict and beyond the power o f any com pan y to handle
prom ptly w ith the personnel and equipm ent obtainable. A t the same
tim e, ow in g to w ar con ditions. It becam e vastly m ore d ifficu lt fo r our
op erators to put through and com plete the calls that w ere placed.
The Tempo Is Not Slackening!
A t the sume tim e there began a rapid dissipation
o f our fo rce o f trained operators und technicians. Many
o f the best o f the people upon w hom we depended for
operation and m aintenance o f our plants left us. They
went either Into the arm ed fo rce s o r Into war Industries
with w hose inflated w age scales we cou ld not com pote,
as our own w age scales were held at fixed ceilin gs by
the governm ent.
paced in 1939.
W hen the war ended, we all heaved a sigh o f relief and looked
forw ard to the early return o f norm al conditions. W e placed our or­
ders fo r new telephones and w ire and sw itchboard equipm ent and hoped
for a let-dow n in the tra ffic load. So far from V -J day having brought
us any relief, ou r orders fo r new equipm ent, excep t fo r a few driblets,
have not been filled and our over-loaded facilities and overw orked per­
sonnel are called upon to handle an ever-increasing load.
an
But we can not serve them until w e can obtain
new telephones, line m aterials, new sw itchboard facilit­
increase of 37.2 per cent.
ies all the appliances that are essential to a big In­
crease in our service. T he sam e reasons that are hold­
ing up supplies o f every sort all ov er the United States,
have made the m anufacturers o f telephone equipm ent
unable to meet the trem endous post-w ar dem ands o f the
industry. In short, the w ar tim e con d itions that im paired
you r telephone service are still w ith us.
I luring Uie war period, It was Im possible to ob ­
tain materials to meet this groat Increase In civilian
telephone service requirem ents; quite properly, the gov ­
ernm ent Imposed drastic lim itations upon supplies for
other than m ilitary and war Industry needs.
In other words, as the w ar-tim e load Increased hy
leaps and bounds, our ability to co p e w ith It w as taken
front us, through no fault o f our own. T hat con dition,
of course, was not con fin ed to this c o m p a n y ; It w as na­
tion- wide, |tart o f the price that we all had to pay to
serve the arm y and the navy and win the war.
Supplies are trick lin g In slow ly how ever and with
a return to anything like n orm alcy in m anufacturing
con ditions, the situation should im prove rapidly from
now on.
F or six years our entire industry fa ced these con -
di t ions:
•
VASTLY INCREASING
GOVERNM ENT.
DEM ANDS BY
ARM Y, N A V Y
AN D
•
RABIDLY MOUNTING C IVILIAN
ARY TELEPH O NE SERVICE.
•
A VOLUME OF TELEPH O NE TR AFFIC FAR BEYOND OCR
W ILDEST P R E-W AR DREAMS.
•
RAPID AND PROGRESSIVE DEPLETION OF OUR FORCE OF
SKILLED MEN AND W O M EN . TECHNICIANS AND OPER­
ATORS.
•
INABILITY TO OBTAIN EQUIPM ENT
MEET CIVILIAN REQUIREM ENTS.
DEM ANDS FOR ORDIN­
OR SUPPLIES
TO
It is not surprising that our service to the public deteriorated
during that period: on the contrary, we have every reason to be proud
of our war record, proud of the fact that despite the magnitude of our
war effort, we were still able to serve the civilian public as well as we did.
In every other country at war. little attempt was made to maintain tele­
phone service at anything like a pre-war basis; civilian telephone service
was ruthlessly curtailed or eliminated altogether, as it happened to suit
the plans of those responsible for war operations and war industries.
IN BEAVERTON
New telephones have been ordered and will be in­
stalled as soon as the manufacturers can deliver them.
New switchboard facilities have been ordered and will
be installed as soon as we receive them. Our plans include
additions to the exchange building and many new line ex­
tensions.
You may rest assured that we are very much alive
to the present inadequacies and shortcomings of our ser­
vice. which are common to telephone service all over the
United States at this time.
Until normal conditions return, we and our subscrib­
ers alike are the victims of conditions which are affecting
practically every business and service to some extent in the
entire United States.
These conditions will not last much longer and we are
determined to restore the service to its former efficiency at
the earliest possible moment. Meanwhile, we ask you for
your patience and reasonable consideration.
WEST COAST TELEPHONE COMPANY