The Forrest City times., 1909-11-05
Statistics for Telegraph and Telephone Systems Given. Wire Mileage Runs
 Into Enormous Figures.

As part of the third census of the
 electrical industries of the United
 States for 1907, bulletin has been compiled by Chief Statistician Steuart which will Ike issued shortly by United States Census Director F.. Dana Du- rand. Among the notable facts dis
 closed are the stupendous wire mileage of the commercial telephone and telegraph systems, the millions of messages carried over the wires, the almost incredible growth of the tele- phone system as compared with the telegraph, the enormous capital of
 the companies and the immense sums expended by them, and the difficult ties surrounding the development of the wireless system. The total length of single wire in miles, of all the tele l phone and commercial telegraph con-
 panies. is lJ,072, DO. of this the tele- phone systems controlled l2,999,39 miles, which includes 4S6, ,29i miles Of wire on independent farmer or rural lines Of the total of l42.723 wage earners lls,S7l were employed by the telephone systems, receiving wages amounting annually to S4s, ,9s6, 7o4, while the 23, ,s62 commercial telegraph wage earnerS received S15,0l3, ,3l2.
 Besides this, the 626 railroad tele
 graph systems operated s60, 324 miles of wire, employed an average 6s, l91 telegraph operators and diSpatcherS who receives in salaries and wages S37 ,242,479. These systems reported B, Al telegraph offices and 30, l5 tele- l phones, Ii is assumed that the tele l phone will come into more general use for train dispatching as, during 1 1908 two conventions of railway tele- graph Superintendents heard reports that the telephone would appear to be as safe as, if not safer than, the use of the telegraph and that the telephone actually expedited train movements because of its greater speed and tiexibility. (As matter of fact, in the two years that have elapsed since this information was compiled by the census bureau the use of the telephone by many rail- road systems has been very greatly
 increased, and the indications now are
 that the telephone in railroad service
 has come to stay and that it's employ ment will become more universal in it's adaptation 10 general railroad tratlic.) The grand tota of capital stock and bonds outstanding, par val ue, was sl 034,0ao,5 of which Ssl4,- 6l6,o04, was credited to the telephone systems and S22o 2a3,575, to the tele- graph companies The grand total income was S236, ,045,Gl5. of which tele- phone companies earned 1~44el tf7 and expended tlfo. N02 #o5, while the commercial telegraph systems canned s5l.5 .5s& >6N, eXpending S4Ls796l3. of the whole number of systems in napera- tion the telephone constituted 49a per cent, It k pointed oUt in thi> bulletin that the Federal Govern ment has realized the value of wire less telegraphy and the Bureau of Equipment of the Navy Department at the end of the fiscal year le07, had installed wireless telegraph apparatus on 73 naval vessels and II shore sta tions are open to the public for mes sage, and these are also received from or put on the telephone or telegraph land lines. Great development has occurred in the two years that have passed since these figures were prepar- ed and they are not fair index of present conditions, but for the period to which they relate they are highly