The Holly chieftain., 1910-03-04
THE TELEPHONE THE FORERUN.
NER OF CIVILIZATION

Senator Clarke of 'Wyomina recently
made ,4OO-mile trip over his state
in wagon. He was away from the
railroads all OF the time, and great deal
OF the time was miles from the nearest
telegraph. But there never was an eve
ming on the whole journey that he did
not call up his home at Evanston by
telephone.
Speaking of this personal experience
with the progress of the telephone in a
new country, due in a large messute to
the pioneer work of the telephone com.
panies, the senator said:
1T shows that this western country
is growing at an astonishing rate. 1t used
to be that the railroad was the forerun.
nSr of civilization, but now it is the
telephone. Everywhere in my state
telephone lines run and in most of the
branch houses one can step in and call
any part of the state, as also Utah. The
best there is can always be found in this
western empire of ours and there is no
convenience that we do not have the
moment that it comes upon the market.
The east, af course, is up-to-date and its
people hra& of what they have, but this
wild west" where we live is aIway, At
the 'front.'
There are many other interesting
examples of the importance of the teIe.
phone in the west. In the pioneer days
country had to face were the tremendous
distances. First came the railroads TO
reduce this handicap, then telegrash lines,
which made possible quick communication
among the more important centers, and,
lastly, the network of telephone lines the
senator found so convenient in his trip
around Wyoming
Because it is actually means of instant
communication, because everybody can
use it and because it reaches into places
inaccessible to railroad or telegraph lines,
the telephone will readily be classed as
the most important of the three. 1t has
played part in building up the new sec
tions OF the country second to that of no
other a&encp. 1t is difficult to imagine
what the ranch sections of the west would
be without their telephone systems to-day.
The helplessaess of any farm or town
whose service is seriously crippled by
storm or fire gives one an idea of the
| dependence of the entire country upon its
connections by wire.
And this is most especially true in the
west. A group of western cities which
includes Denver, Dallas, Spokane, Los
Angeles, Portland and Omaha stands
supreme in telephone development That
is, more telephones in proportion to the
population are found in these centers than
in any of the big capitals of east. In the
matter of farm and ranch telephones the
west is making great strides. The state
ment is made by the Western Electric
Company, manufacturer of the "Bell''
telephones, that more than lO0, 900 of its
rural telephones were sold last year. A
great proportion of these went into the
west
Along the Pacific coast and in the
northwest the telephone has been used
with Great success to fight the spread of
forest fires. The government S telephone
lines in the national forest have opened
up tracts of'iand that had never before
seen a settler. In Utah and Colorado the
fruit growers use their telephone service
to ward off the ravages of frost. Its use.
fulness to all the western states has often
been demonstrated.