The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-05

Eew York. Nov. 4.--The last stray
xIers returning from the summer season
on the Con .inent are proclaiming loud
or than ever, this year. their JOY at
getting home again.
att may be the land of the big stick
ana the almighty dollar" said one globe
frotter. when he stepped from the snip
10 the shore, but after all the Dig
stick IL emblematic of the American
spirit Of getting something done, and
the almighty dollar can buy some OF
the real comforts of life on this side OF
the ocean. On the other side, they can
only guess at what either means"
Two things specially call forth the
pbloquy of the homecomers-foreign
railroads and foreign telephones: In
railway travel we seem to have the ad-
vantage not only in the matter OF COM
fort, in which no comparison Is to pc
made, but in speed, in regularity, and
in transportation charges. the teIe-
graph has been developed in Europe to
a point not yet attempted in this coun-
try, but in England and on the Conti-
pent the telegraph is practically the
only means of quick communication.
Things that are done there by telegraph
are done here much more easily, quick
ly. and economically by telephone. The
European has no comprehension OF
what constitutes telephone service as
we of the United States know 1t from
daily experience.
A couple of months ago the director
the technical department of the gov
ernment telephone and telegraph lines
of Hungary and one of his prominent
fellow countrymen from Buda Pest
were touring the United States to study
the methods of the Bell Telephone COM
panies. They visited New York, San
Francisco. Chicago and other cities. and
before they went away one OF them
said:
"The city of Buda Pest has 5000 sub
scribers to it's telephone service. We
have a population of 10000, SO you can
readily see that the telephones are not
as extensively used as in this country
We have the latest American improve
ments in the telephone and we procure
all our supplies from America We have
$4,000 miles of toll lines, and we car
telephone from Buda Pest to Berlin,
distance of $50 miles"
An American city half the size of Blu
da Pest would have at least 10000 tel
ephone subscribers. Boston, with only
two-thirds the population of the Hun
garian capital. has five times the num-
her Of telephones: and New York with
ave times the population, has abou'
fwenty-eight times as many. The
greatest user of DIR. Bells invention or
the Continent is Sweden. yet the whole
of sweden has only about half as many
subscribers as the single Bell company
which serves northern New England
here. The city of London, with it'
5000, 900 people. has 9S,59S telephones
while this city. with its 100000 has
220d55.
The reason for this disparity is tha'
foreigners know, neither how to run
telephone system nor how to use one.
is not that they are unable to get al
good equipment for the most progress
i've among them use Bell Instrument
and switchboards. But American re
sourcefulness and American progress
lveness have made the difference be
tween the possibilities that nave peer
worked out of the telephone here ant
In the other hemisphere.
The European regards the telephone
as a luxury. the American as neces
\ sity. The foreign telephone compan!
s operates apparently on the principi