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