The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-07-04
WHAT BELL COMP ANY
PAYS UTAH IN TAXES
Something About a Corporation
That Employs an Army
of Men.
HOW THE SYSTEM HAS
BEEN EXPANDED IN WEST
Some Facts and Figures About
Corporate Interests That
Help State Of Utah.

When you take down your telephone
receiver, and because the line is busy
and you accidentally were plugged IL
on a wrong number, because your enun
cintion was not perfect, and you lei
out few cuss words. you forgot that
the operator might have been Just as
tired as you were; that the tempera.
ture was just as high in the room where
the switchboard is located as It was
in your office; that the voice which
answered you was that OF q gir!. your
friend 8 daughter, that she had 10 an
swer 400 other cranks Just like you
during the eight hour shift at this
switchboard; and that you had not the
least excuse for swearing at woman
no man has.
But you Just swore, and then you
carried out your grievance and cursed
the corporation. This is a right that
is accorded to everybody. for every
oody knows that n corporation has no
soul, and that its only mission is to take
everything in sight, give as little as pos
sible IN return, TO pay no attention 10
its employees, but the grind them down
20 a pittance in pay for work done.
This. of course, is the popular notion.
Demagogues have preached il so long
that the general public has come TO be.
warrant this belief? Is it true'
Need the Corporations.
What woIld Salt Lake do without
corporations? What would n great army
of people in Utah do without corpora
tions? Suppose all these corporations
would suddenly stop their pay roll in
Zion IN Utah, what would the business
community do7 People forget these
things: forget that these corporations,
whlle paying out wages to n great
army. also pay their share to-
wards supporting the governments of
state and county and city and village
and hamlet, But corporations do all
thisi
of the RoeIy Mo%ntan Mount s Ben Be- 'S Telephony H o1
company. OF this number 31j, or more
than half of the total, are employed in
Salt Lake. These employees in Salt
wages, that is. $5775.07 every week,
s25,750.3o every month, $3i1. .12s.65
every year. This money is spent in
Salt Lake, as is the larger part OF that
pair out IN wages throughout the state
Salt Lake City is the headquarters
for the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone
system. This system covers four states.
Utah, Idaho. Montana and Wyoming.
In these four states the company EN-.
ploys 1850 persons. 1t has oG75 miles
of poles in these four states, of which
mileage 2270 is in Utah, and the money
invested In the four states is somewhat |
in excess OF eight and a half million
dollars.
Service in Mountains.
The telephone first came into use IN !
1867. Four years after the invention
of the telephone the Rocky Mountain
Bell Telephone company was giving tel. |
ephone service TO patrons in a territory |
that is largest in proportion to popula !
tion, and the second largest in actual !
area of all the telephone companies in |
the world, with as high a ratio OF de-
relopment to population as many thick !
ly settled eastern communities, although |
TO get that development the company |
had TO build in some instances dozens |
of miles of line 10 one in the eastern |