The Paonia progressive and the Paonia newspaper., 1911-07-27
NEW TELEPHONE co.
CONTINUED from Page l j

ury stock. An extremely OptlmlStlc
management built exchanges and
toll lines considerably in excess OF a
dividend earning capacity, and since
dividends which would attract suf-
ficient funds to provide additions
and betterments were not forthcom-
ing, the company has been forced to
borrow the money needed for its
growth, and the only market for
stock has been in the neighborhood
of sixty cents on the dollar.
The debt has reached a figure some
thing like six and n half millions of
dollars: butit Is understood that in
assuming this debt The Mountain
States Telephone and Telegraph com
pany expects to fund it in stock at
considerably lower figure. BY do
ing this, and in purchasing the pro-
perty from the stockholders at an
equitable value. 1t would seem that
The Mountain States Telephone and
Telegraph Company will have no
difficulty in making this portion of
it's property earn dividends equal to
those heretofore enjoyed by the
stockholders of The Colorado Tele-
phone Company and The TriState
Telephone and Telegraph Company.
Several prominent stockholders in
The Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone
Company have expressed themselves
favorably on the terms OF the sale.
Said one OF them: Better to have a
sixty dollar Investment paying IA
steady income than a hundred dollar
investm mt whose greatest earning
capacity merely allowed it to pay
interest on its debts"
In an interview given today to the
Associate Press, President Field said
in part:
''This merger IL in no sense the
formation of a trust or moncply, as
no competing properties are included.
1t is merely the natural outcome OF
our experience of the past two years
with The Tri-State Telephone and
Telegraph Company. For many
years there was "A distinct line OF de-
marcation In the conduct of all lines
of business between Colorado and
New Mexico and Arizona,-a frontier
or borderland, II you please, across
which but little trade flowed. Our
own affairs seemed particularly sus-
ceptible to this, but we finally solved
our difficulty by giving The Colorado
Telephone Company and The Trl-
State Company joint management
whereby the needs of the two COM
munities We're viewed in common.
The results were remarkable; the
frontier disappeared almost by mag
ic. So that it was felt that a joint
ownership was equally logical.
Business men of all OF these noun
tain states are daily making invest
ments in Denver, Salt Lake, Butte,
Helena, Boise. Albuquerque, Las Veg
as, Roswell, Bisbee, Douglas and other
cities, thus making universal tele-
phone system connecting them toget-
her. commercial necessity.
The new company will operate it's
exchanges and tolllines in Utah, Wy
oming, Montana. Idaho, Eastern Ar
izona, New Mexico and Colorado.
There is a strong inter-relation OF
business in this great territory we
cover, and we hope to meet the tele-
phone needs and requirements OF this
vast area, which covers some 66O, 900
square miles, or nearly one sixth Of
the total area OF the United States,
more intelligently and more exten.
sively than we could expect to do
with three separate corporations.
We already count 160, 600 subscribers
stations. and I expect to see this
number doubled within five years.
To do this will require large sum Of
money, and to get such sums we
must market "A safe. stable and con-
servative stock. This we expect to
do. wish to call attention to the fact
that the issued capitalization OF the
three companies combined is less than
the capital liabilities OF those three
companies separate. In other words
the safety OF the investments is in
creased and the benefit to the public
is alike apparent since itinsures mod
crate and reasonable rates to care
for the decreased dividend and inter
est requirements