The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1910-10-07

t%- III average man using a
.fA telephone probably doesn't
XAph y know any more about it
&XEK than that when he takes
~SSs the receiver of the hook
and soft voice from
some far-away place says: Mum
Der. please" and in a few sec
onds he is talking with the per-
son he asked for. If questioned about
the employees and the chances for his
boy to get job with. the telephone
company and through it develop into
prominent and wealthy citizen, he
would probably shrug his shoulders
and say: "Oh, there Is no chance; for
all the people they use are a few
men to string wires and an army of
Hello Girls"
But there are numerous chances for
boys In telephony, and as promising
an outlook as In any big business in
the United States.
When 1t Is considered that the first
telephone was established in New
York In 1873. and that now there are
100000 In use In the country, and
that the conversation over the 13,0OO,-
900 miles of wire number eight to ten
thousand million annually; that the
total revenues Of the telephone COM
panies are $185.000,0oo a year, and
that this business gives employment
to a hundred and twenty thousand
persons. as compared with a paltry
twenty-four thousand employees In tel
egraphy-when the father is told all
this. he is apt to think some and to
wonder If. after all, it wouldn't be
good thing for his boy to go into the
phone business.
He would be right. And another
thing: The multitude of Jobs that
are possible to tho boy are by no
means all technical. though the bust
ness itself may seem at first flush to
require a great deal of technical
knowledge.
It is fact that the boy, without
knowing in the beginning telephone
from a foghorn, may start and work
up to be general manager OF one OF
the big telephone companies. and 1t
is even possible for him to become
president ultimately.
| Well, father and son have been read
Ing about the colossal business and
earnings Of telephone enterprises and
their growth to all parts of the coun-
try, and decide to take the plunge.
This boy knows no more than the
average, and has no more than the
usual common schooling; but he
wishes to get out into the world and
BIO a man.
He finds at once that telephoning is
divided into three great branches, the
commercial. or contract branch, the
plant. and the traffic. The first GOV.
ers all relations of the company with
its real or prospective subscribers
Tine plant includes the technical peo-
ple who install the phones and fix
them when they get out Of order.
The traffic department makes the
connections with the people you
wish to talk to and includes the Gen.
trail girls.
Our boy doesn't care for machin-
cry, or the technic of anything, as he
thinks he Is better fitted naturally
for straight business life. So he gets
into touch with the commercial, or con-
tract, department and asks for a Job.
Knowing nothing in particular, he
will get nothing in particular-prob-
ably he will be given job as messen-
ger and his duties will be to run
errands, answer the telephone, carry
messages and do such work as gen.
orally falls to the lot of office boys.
His pay will be about five dollars q
week.
But che boy is determined to get out
of this position as rapidly as he can,
and looks toward the clerks longing
|ly. studies their methods of figuring
and bookkeeping, and improves his
penmanship. Of course here, as else
where. his employer-in this instance
the chief clerks watching his efforts
to make progress and as soon as the
hoy Is worthy of 1t, will put him on as
one of the junior clerks at slight in
crease in salary. probably paying him
eight dollars a week at first.
The boy attends strictly to business,
being more anxious to improve him
lself than to join too much in the So
'cial chances that may come up, and
gradually gets into little better grade
Iof Junior clerk, finally, after couple
of years, earning probably as much
AS SIS week.
Then the chief clerk Of this particu-
lar Office Is promoted or goes away,
and your boy. being the most compe-
tent of the juniors, gets the place at,
|say, $25 week, with the Office boy
and several lesser clerks working un-
der him. The logical promotion from
this position. after he has studied into
the broader phases of clerical work, is
TO chief clerkship of one of the large
departments, which pays anywhere
from $4,000 to as high as $4,000 year.
And that Is about the limit of the ad-
vancement along this line.
Our boy, however, has discovered
this long since; for he is not the kind
Ito run into a rut, and has aspired to
become an agent, the big end of the
commercial department. AS clerk, he
had to take care of the accounts turn
ed in by the agents, and SO he became
familiar in general way with what