The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-12-02

panies. In 1890 there were 483,79O in
strument in use. BY 1900 this had in
creased to 1,952412 instruments. In
1904 it stood at 3,665,5S2 instruments
and on the first of July this year there
we're 4,365,245 Bell Telephone sta
tons, which does not include extern !
sions within a given office, plant or
building, not connected with distinct
trunk lines, to the central Office. OF
course the telephone trust had had its |
troubles. Some of them were expert |
enced in 1907, when the increasing |
strengency of money monditions made !
1t more and more difficult to finance
the ever-growing requirements of the
business which demanded that mil
lions upon millions of new capital
should be raised every year to string
new wires, lay new conduits and in
stall new exchanges and instruments.
Mr.. Vail at the Head.
In the spring of that year, Freder-
ick P. Fish, who had been president
of the American Telephone and Tele-
graph Company for a number of
years, resigned, and the directors, in
something of a quandary as to who
should succeed him, turned again to
Mr.. Vail, who years ago had made all
the money that he thought he needed,
and more than he could possibly
nd had n q
up in Lyndon, Vermont. They found
Mr.. Vail devoting his untiring mind
to experiments in scientific soil cul-
ture and dairying, and thinking that
he was having the best time of his
| life At first he refused; he said he
was too old; he was sixty-two years
old, but the telephone directors were
insistent, and as he was one of their
number, always having retained his
place on the board, he finally yielded
and went back into the harness.
Then started the present period of
telephone development. 1t was some
trouble to raise the twenty odd mil
lions required in June, 1907, and the
telephone stock sold down to 1922
in the process. 1t was the lowest
quotation ten years. The underwrit-
ing syndicate that had taken one hun
dred millions of telephone bonds had
to make a further call on it's subscrib-
ers the same year and then came on
the panic. But the telephone com
pany had its immediate needs financed
and it went through the panic with
out difficulty and on into the year
1908. In that year it established a
record. 1t was the only one of the
great corporations in the industrial
field that came out of the years de-
Ipression with increased net earnings
and in December a year ago, there
was no hesitation when $5O,00O,OOO
more telephone bonds were put out
to the public, through J. p. Morgan
G. Co., and Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
Seeing Mr. Vail in His Office.
And now we have, perhaps, be-
come sufficiently acquainted with the
telephone situation to make it worth
while to look in on President Vail in
his offices in New York or Boston, sc
that in leaving the matter, until the
| next time we call up central, we may
! take away a bit of a picture of the
imam who dominates it. Strange tC
say, this will be exceedingly easy tC
do, for Mr.. Vail hasn't surrounded
, himself with any of the barriers tina
, are employed by the heads of mos
, big corporations. Our names are
taken in by his secretary, and i
there isn't somebody actually IL
there with him we go in at once.
He is a striking figure sitting there
at his desk, his snow white hair set
ting forth strong, acQuiline features
j, and a rudy skin showing that HI
;. hasn't lost the benefits of the years
of playing up on the Vermont farm
even with all the cares that he has
> had since he put on the harness
again.
well, what can l do for your il
the greeting, as the busy man look'
p up from his papers. 1t is greetin:
S that has neither asperity nor the tom
e of patronage about it. 1t is a greet
[ ing that invites the visitor to sit dow
j and tell his business in a straight
: forward way with the assurance tina
d he will get the consideration he de
: serves. Only there is something abou
: the man, probably not conscious
d mannerism, that advises anyone no
e to waste time with non-essentials.~
: Mr.. Vail turns around and look
n you in the eye when he talks. Not tn
d glance of the man who thinks to i'm
: press you with his own greatness
: but the frank regard of one who as
e sumes that you are his friend an
= who wants to be yours. Now he need
1 a paper that is over on the other sid
D. of his desk. He doesn't press but
e ton for a secretary or assistant sec
/ rotary He gets up and goes owe
+ there and digs it out himself from on
q or another portfolio, talking 10 you al
: the while he is looking for it, so a
to waste none of your time just as h
doesn't expect you to waste any q