Joseph McKenna

“ Stress is put upon the words 'system,' 'within,' 'through,' 'in,' and 'near,' and it is insisted that they were necessarily intended to accommodate the residents of the city and to give them the facilities of local and long distance telephone service and that something more was intended than to give them a mere right to carry long distance telephone wires through the city.
The contention has its strength and persuaded the District Court, but it is countervailed by other considerations. ”

“ The court rejected the contentions and held that under the Constitution of the state the city had the right to grant or withhold its consent to the use of its streets, and it necessarily had the right to grant the same upon such terms and conditions as it might to choose to impose. ”

“ The case centers upon the ordinance. The telephone company contends that it gives the company the right to operate not merely long distance lines, but a local telephone exchange within the city. In other words, the contention is that it superseded ordinance No. 135 and became a new source of right, a right both of long distance and local exchange. The city opposes this construction and insists that it, the ordinance, confers only the right to maintain a long distance system; that the right to a local exchange was given by ordinance No. ”