public point of view or in the financial interest of the company, that the fares paid in traveling between points in the central district and these communities should be raised 100 per cent. In changing from the established system of charging to a radically different plan, some adjustments are necessary, even if they involve inconsistencies, to avoid too harsh a break between the old and the new.

Viewing the situation as a whole, the plan recommended will, in our judgment, produce the best results for the community and is just and reasonable. Whatever inconsistencies it may involve are not of major importance and are far less pronounced than those which have existed for years under the present system. Doubtless experience will show that improvements are possible and desirable, but these may be made later as the need develops. What amount of additional revenue this change in fares will yield no one can forecast with accuracy. It is dependent upon the effect on traffic, the extent to which tickets are used in lieu of cash, and the extent to which each of the two classes of tickets are used. No traffic counts are available which make possible an estimate such as was submitted by the company in the case of its own proposed method of readjusted fares. Reasoning by analogy from the company's estimate, however, it seems probable to the Commission that the zone system recommended will yield upwards of $300,000 additional revenue and that, adding the amount obtained from the outlying divisions, the total will approximate the $400,000 reasonably required. If this should not prove to be the case after a fair trial, the matter can, of course, be brought up for renewed consideration. The history of the company and the effect of the share for share consolidations with outlying lines make it just and reasonable that any increase in fares in the central district should be conservative.

An order is entered below cancelling the rates and charges I stated in the schedule filed with the Commission and now under suspension. The company will be permitted, however, to file a new schedule embodying the modified changes in fares above outlined, and an order will be issued permitting this schedule to become effective on short notice. Before issuing such an order, however, the Commission must be satisfied that the schedule conforms to its recommendations and reserves the right to require any minor changes, consistent with the essential features of the plan, which may seem desirable in the application of the plan to the territory affected.

ORDER.

Notice of the Springfield Street Railway Company of proposed increase in rates of fare upon its railway.

It appearing that on August 10, 1917, an order was entered suspending, until November 1, 1917, the rates and charges stated in the schedule described in said order; and that by subsequent orders said rates and charges were further suspended until April 1, 1918; and it further appearing that a full investigation of the matters and things involved has been had, and that the Commission on the date hereof has made and filed a report containing its findings of fact and conclusions thereon, which said report is herein referred to and made a part hereof,

It is

Ordered, That the Springfield Street Railway Company be and is hereby notified and required to cancel the rates and charges and changes of fare limits and transfer privileges stated in the schedule specified in said orders of suspension.

It is

Further ordered, That a copy of this order be filed with said schedule at the office of the Commission and a copy hereof be forthwith served upon the Springfield Street Railway Company.

By the Commission,

ANDREW A. HIGHLANDS,

MARCH 30, 1918.

[P.S. C. 1860]

Secretary.

HOTEL TELEPHONE RATES.

In the matter of an investigation by the Commission upon its own motion concerning telephone service at hotels and the rates charged therefor.

GEORGE R. GRANT

CLARENCE G. McDAVITT

}

for the New England Telephone
and Telegraph Company.

JOHN A. SULLIVAN for the Boston Hotel Men's Association. This investigation was instituted by the Commission upon its own motion as the result of information and complaints to the effect that at certain hotels in Boston the rates or tolls for local messages had been increased from 5 cents to 10 cents each. A public hearing was held on December 20, 1917.

It appears that prior to the date, July 1, 1915, when the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company filed its rate schedule with this Commission, under the provisions of chapter 784 of the Acts of 1913, telephone service was furnished to hotels under special so-called "hotel contracts." No provision for such contracts was made in the schedule which was filed, no new contracts of similar character have since been entered into, most of those which then existed have been discontinued, and it is the intention of the company to discontinue them all. Their temporary retention has been permissible under a provision of section 20 of the aforesaid act.

The telephone service of the hotels may be separated into two parts, viz.:

(1) The service furnished to the offices and rooms, which may be called the "room service."

(2) The service furnished to booths located in the lobbies or corridors, which may be called the "corridor service."

Under the rate schedule filed with the Commission, the "room service" is furnished under the standard form of contract for private branch exchange service. The hotel pays a stated sum per year for switchboard and equipment, for each trunk line and for each telephone instrument used, and an additional amount

based upon the number of messages. The actual rates for number one system, Metropolitan exchange service, are as follows:

Additional messages, in excess of minimum, used within the contract year, 3 cents each.

The telephone company furnishes all the apparatus and wiring, while the hotel supplies whatever operators may be necessary.

Until recently the "corridor service" has been furnished directly by the telephone company upon the public pay station basis. Space has been leased from the hotel and the station has either been operated upon the coin box plan or through an operator supplied by the telephone company. Under this arrangement no direct connection has existed between the "room service" and the "corridor service," intercommunication being provided only through the telephone central office. To some extent this is the plan which is still pursued, but a change has been made in a number of cases during the past 12 months, which seems likely to become general if no obstacle is interposed by public authorities.

The "corridor service" is taken over by the hotel under this new arrangement and combined with the "room service." Both are operated from the same switchboard as parts of one private branch exchange system. The telephone instrument in a corridor booth has the same status as an instrument in one of the rooms and is operated in the same way. It follows that the "corridor service," upon the theory of the telephone company, ceases to be public pay station service and that the hotel is free to charge what it pleases to those who may care to use it.

The immediate result of the change in every case has been that the charge for local messages, which is 5 cents at public pay stations, has been increased to 10 cents, and coincidently the hotels have made a similar increase in the charge from their rooms. The proprietors submitted evidence to show that under the former arrangement they were losing money, and this was the sole reason offered for raising the charge from the rooms. In the case

of the "corridor service," however, they claimed that the object of the increase was to confine the telephone service to guests, so as to give them better service than they had received under the old system. It was alleged "that the only practical way to accomplish this object was to exclude the general public by raising the rates; that the increase had excluded many persons, not guests, who had used the hotel telephone under the lower rates; that practically no complaints had arisen from guests on account of the increased rates; that the service from the guests' standpoint had been greatly improved; that no signs were displayed to indicate that the hotels were furnishing a public service, or that the public was invited to use it, or that the rate was only 5 cents; that in some of the hotels a sign is displayed showing that the charge is 10 cents; and that in the immediate vicinity of the hotels in question there were public pay stations in sufficient number to meet public demands at the 5-cent rate."

It was also alleged that guests can now call up their rooms from the corridor booths without charge, an advantage which they did not formerly possess. Under the new plan the hotels own the booths, which are often specially constructed to harmonize with the surroundings, and the further claim was made that the extra charge is in part levied as compensation for the additional service, not available at public pay stations, which they render in the way of clerical assistance, in following up calls to obtain desired connections, and in paging guests, and for the other incidental expenses not involved in the furnishing of regular public telephone service under standard conditions. It was admitted, however, that service from the booths in the corridors is not confined to persons who are guests of the hotel, but is open indiscriminately to all persons who are willing to pay 10 cents for local messages.

At the hearing the representative of the telephone company stated that it is now and always has been willing to establish and maintain public pay stations at hotels, in conformity to the former practice, charging the usual public pay station rates for all messages, but that this cannot be done without the consent of the hotels and that there are numerous public telephone stations within 500 feet of every hotel where the new plan is followed, at which service can be secured at the regular rates. In the brief subsequently filed, the company makes no claim whatever relative to the right of the Commission to regulate the rates or tolls which hotels shall levy, and takes no position either for or against the