Telephone

Growth of the

the expiration of the basic telephone patent, a large number of so-called "independent" telephone companies, not affiliated with the Bell System, were established all over the country. In many cases these companies brought telephone service to places in which the Bell System did not operate. Some, however, engaged in competition with the Bell telephone companies in their localities ; and it required actual experience of the inconveniences of telephone competition to con vince the public of the fact that two telephone companies in a single community are a source of annoyance and unnecessary ex pense to the telephone-using public. The fact that one had to subscribe for both of the competing telephone services in order to be in communication with all of the telephone subscribers in the locality finally resulted in a popular demand for the unifica tion of the telephone service. In many communities competing telephone systems were consolidated. Other independent com panies were afforded facilities for physical connection with the lines of the Bell System. The linking up of these local telephone systems, which are now known as "connecting companies," makes possible interconnection among more than 99 per cent. of all the telephones in the United States. Subscribers of the Bell tele phone companies and of the connecting companies are thus alike afforded access over the long distance lines of the Bell System to almost any other telephone anywhere in the United States as well as to other countries in North America and overseas.

On Sept. 3o, 1935 the twenty-four Associated Companies, which with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company make up the Bell System, owned and operated 13,674,00o telephones and 6,766 central offices. In addition, the connecting companies, which number nearly 6,700 besides more than 25,00o Bell connecting rural lines, owned and operated 3,453,00o telephones and 11,900 central offices. There were also in the United States at that date 73,00o telephones owned and operated by companies not afford ing physical connection with the Bell System. The total in vestment in telephone plant and equipment in the United States was, on Sept. 30, 1935, over $4,750,000,000, of which $4,262,000, 00o represented the investment of the Bell System. During the year ending Sept. 3o, 1935, the Bell System traffic averaged daily 58,415,00o exchange conversations and 2,195,000 toll conversa tions, a total of 6°,61 o,000. In addition, the connecting and

non-connecting companies transmitted a daily average of 14,605, 00o exchange conversations and 285,000 toll conversations, a total of 14,890,000 conversations. The grand total of telephone messages for the United States during that year was more than 75,000,000 completed conversations a day. About 294,00o persons are employed by the telephone industry in the United States, of whom 245,00o are employees of the Bell Telephone Companies. In addition, some 20,000 are employed by the Western Electric Com pany, which manufactures standardized telephone equipment and apparatus for the Bell System. The Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., which conducts research along lines connected with every phase of the electrical transmission of speech, employs a total of about 4,200 people.

The telephone industry in the United States has attained its present development in response to a rapid growth in public de mand for telephone service throughout the country. This is illus trated in the following table showing the increase in the total number of telephones in the United States since 1877: Coincident with the severe recession, the number of telephones declined between 193o and 1933, but growth was resumed in the fall of the latter year. The table indicates the extent to which the American people have acquired the "telephone habit." The usefulness of the telephone is largely increased by the fact that it has become almost universal, so that practically any point can be reached by telephone. Business concerns find it profitable to make the telephone service an integral part of the organization for the administration of their business, thus keeping their main offices in direct, constant touch with branch establishments and travelling representatives, and making systematic use of the tele phone in sales campaigns. The uses of the telephone for business, social and other purposes are, of course, too numerous to be men tioned in detail. In newspaper work, in connection with police and fire protection, in train dispatching, in the operation of taxi cabs, in finance, in personal shopping, the telephone is filling an ever wider field of usefulness as an instrumentality for promoting efficiency and economy.