Morning journal and courier., 1884-01-31

The next evening we mentioned this incident | to another old gentleman also about eighty years of age, and seated in his dressing l gown in his arm chair, his rheumatic foot
 resting on foot rest, when he surprised us | by saying. 1T was one of the boys that led
 the horse" We are now patiently awaiting l another surprise, which comes in order-an introduction to the horse himself!
 The Telephone
 l Very Lively Review of the Situation The recent meeting of telephone managers l in this city has drawn attention to the suit 1 between the Bell company and those who are | trying to wrest from them the laurels and
 profits pertaining to the business. It is the | old story of men who wish to reap what oth
 CTS have sown. Those who are tempted to | buy stock in some of the companies opposed 1 to the Bell will be interested in the following | sharp review of the situation by writer in | the Boston Transcript:
 When the operations of the alleged friends 1 of that Pennsylvania Dutchman martyred to
 science. Daniel Drawbaugh, confined their 1 epterprisipg operations to maintaining, first in | the newspapers and secondly in the courts, that there are other claims than those of
 Alexander Graham Bell to the invention of 1 transmitting speech by wire and electric ap- paratus, we are content to listen, applaud
 and encourage either or both parties to
 such contest; but when the friends of Dan
 iel Draw baugh come before the public and
 invite the ignorant and the learned, the wise
 and the simple, to subscribe to a stock enter prise, the matter is quickly upon another footing and IS judged from an entirely differ
 ent and more searching point of view. The Drawbaugh Telephone and Telegraph company, organized under the laws of the
 State of New York for operation in Pennsyl
 Nax nola
 the District of Columbia has 8 capital of
 300, 900 shares, of $50 par value. or $15, ,0OO,.
 900 capital, and is endeavoring to sell its
 stock in New York, Philadelphia and Boston
 at $15 per share. For this purpose it
 has allied itself with a very reputable bank
 ing house in Philadelphia. The most talk
 ing thing about this company is that it bears
 the name of Hon. George F. Edmunds of
 Vermont as counsel. It is largely upon such good connections that people investing in the Draw baugh stock. But who ever heard
 of a lawyer declining to engage in legal contest where the fee vas large and leash down." whatever the moral or financial as counsel? And it should be neither to the credit of the Draw
 baugh company nor to the diseredit of Senator Edmunds that he Is counsel therefor. The Drawbaugh company, which has capitalized itself at $15 ,OO0 GOO, and is Scill0 4Ib SbOCh hS OU per CSAb C1 1tS ChtlLhI- ization, or upon the basis of $4, 500, GOO, is only local company, covering the States above named and paying tribute to the par ent Drawbaugh company, the same royalty tribute every sub company now pays to the American Bell Telephone company. or within one dollar per telephone thereof. Now will agree to accept a reasonable com mission for the purchase of the entire tel iphone interests of theStates above named as at present existing, including telephone plants costing several million dollars the result of five years' experience, the use of scores of patented telephone improvements and all contracts and franchises, for considerably less than the capital of the Drawbaugh com pany proposing to operate in these States.
 If the claim of the Drawbaugh company that the invention of the telephone does not belong to any monopoly, but is open to the public, is maintained, what Is 1t that the Drawbaugh Telephone company is selling part of for $4,5OO, GOO? And if the Drawbaugh is to be 8 monopoly super seding the American Bell telephone, what has it now that is worth relatively so much more than the existing telephone properties in this section of the country?
 It is reasonable to suppose that the Draw baugh company holds out to the investors who buy into its lawsuits at 30 per cent of their face value the expectation that their in vestment may be worth the par value. Now what are the chances, even in the event of successful litigation, that the DrawbaRgh Telephone Telegraph company of New York, Pennsylvania, etc., will be worth S15, COG. .OOO? The existing telephone plant in these places is selling for less than S10,OOO, GOO. To pay six per cent upon $15, 900, 900 would require $900. 900 of net earnings, or about 50, 900 telephone subscribers paying the usual profit of $2O each.
 Now there are not in this entire territory, after five years of progress, many more than kzI.- bers. Sangutne indeed must be the expecta- tion of telephone promoters who expect in 8 brief time 10 get all the existing telephone business and as much more besides.
 The control of the telephone business of the United States, as represented in the American Bell Telephone company, is today selling for less than $15, ,O00 0OO yet the Drawbaugh people. with no other asset then a lawsuit to throw open to the public the telephone business of the country, has the solid effrontery to invite subscriptions to a local or sub company. capitalized at S15,O00 OOO and for which $4, 500, 900 in cash is the modest price asked. John Law and his South Sea colleagues were gentlemen in comparison with these schemers.
 The nominal object of the Drawbaugh Telephone company is to throw the tele- phone open to the public, and this would be the practical effect of legal decisions in it's favor; but the real object of the Dravbaugh telephone people is by demonstration in the courts and the frightening of the Bell Tele- phone company stockholders to force the Bell TeIephope company into an alliance by which both parties shall procure by act of Congress a patent for Daniel Drawbaugh, which the Bell Telephone company shall purchase, and which will extend the Bell telephone monopoly for several years beyond the expiration of it's present patents. It is not an enterprise to benefit the public, but to enrich a few schem- CTS by the practical extension of the existing monopoly. The Drawbaugh people seek in the most outrageous manner to capitalize po- litical influence, not in the interest of the in- ventor or the progress of invention, but to enrich themselves and prevent the telephone becoming public property. The managers of the American Bell Telephone company would not be held in the high esteem they are at present in this community if they entered into any such alliance.
 The estimated gross earnings of the Amer 1can Bell Telephone company for the year ending March 1 are $2, 100000, against S1,- 5o0, ,000 last year. The net is estimated at S1, ,315, ,OO0 against $972, GA last year.
 The company is now earning at the rate of 17 per cent. per annum.
 Sc long as the telephones in use increase as they have for three years past, the net earnings will increase about per cent. on the capital per year.
 If the output of new telephones should stop now, the net earnings would increase about two per cent. year till they reach about 27 per cent, and then remaln stationary till the number of telephones in use began to in- crease again.
 Peoples Telephone sold at Il 50 to day. A few days before the Philadelphia post ponement" it sold at Il, and yet the Draw bsugh people have the hsrdihood to declare that they have a 'decision'' in their favor.
 A Massachusetts paper says that all Texas citizens wear their hats over their ears- HOW do you suppose they'd look if they wore them