New Telephone Rates.

Telephone subscribers in Altamont are receiving with their July 1st bills the notices announcing the changes in telephone toll rates that go into effect July 1st and the extension of the “Number” method of making toll calls to nearby points in New York State.

An examination of these notices shows that telephone toll users in Altamont will save a considerable amount annually on their telephone talks to towns and cities in this section. Considering its territory as a whole, the New York Telephone company estimates that the reduction in its toll charges amount to over $650,000.00 a year, which, of course, is a corresponding saving to telephone toll users.

The extension of the “Number” method of making calls, by which calls from Altamont to nearby points may be made just like a local call, will serve to bring the toll service into even more general use. The “Name” method is still in effect, but the “Number” method not only gives quicker service but it is also cheaper service.

Several reductions in rates are shown; for example, the rate from Altamont to Albany has been reduced from 15 cents by name to 10 cents by number... Altamont to Clarksville from 15 cents by name to 10 cents by number…Altamont to New York from $1.00 to 95 cents.

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Free Scholarships.

The Ithaca Conservatory of Music, with the desire to advance the study of Music and Dramatic Expression, offers two scholarships to applicants from each congressional district of New York state, and two scholarships to applicants from each other state than New York. These scholarships are awarded on the basis of competitive examinations and are good for free tuition in Piano, Voice, Violin, or Dramatic Expression for one term of twenty weeks, beginning with the opening of the school year, Sept. 11, 1913. Anyone wishing to enter these examinations or desiring further information should write to Ithaca Conservatory of Music, Ithaca, N.Y.

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Noted as an Arbitrator.

Judge William L. Chambers, chairman of the arbitration board in the wage controversy between the locomotive firemen and fifty-four eastern railroads, probably has helped to settle more disputes between capital and labor than any other man in the country.

“The most unusual experience I ever had in arbitration was on the Denver and Rio Grande road about four years ago,” said Judge Chambers the other day. “The firemen on that line, mostly running over mountainous territory, had demanded an increase, and I was chosen one of three arbitrators. After hearing testimony for several days I decided that without being familiar with the region through which the road ran I could not properly grasp the situation. So I suggested that we be given time to go over the road. Arrangements were made for a special train of an engine and four coaches. Railroad owners, representatives of the firemen, witnesses, stenographers, newspaper men and the members of the arbitration board boarded the train, and for a week or more we held the arbitration proceedings right on that train, thus getting our information first hand.”

Judge Chambers is a native of Georgia, sixty-one years old and was admitted to the bar in 1873. He was president of the company which founded Sheffield, Ala., in 1888.