Evening journal., 1912-09-10
22,OOO,OOO,OOO
CALLS PHONE
RECORDFOR YEAR

PHILADELPHIA. Sept. 10.-There
arc IA telephone conversations a year.
for everyone Of the earth's inhabit-
ants. Even the benighted savage of
darkest Africa or the fur-wrapped
Eskimo at the Pole can be credited
with IA telephone messages we're they
divided among the entire human race.
There are enough for all-22, ,0OO,OOO,-
900 conversations year. These mes
sages have I'm nearly every case been
sent from the more civilized countries
-66 per cent. of the total, or 14,5OO,-
600. .OOO from the United States alone.
a phamphlet prepared by w. S. Git-
~ ford. statistician of the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company,
which has lately been made public by
p L. Snalding, second vice-president
and general manager Of the Bell Com
pany here. is authority for the figures.
II gives much other telephone infor-
nation and comparisons.
There we're approximately 12,453,-
600 telephones and 29.566,000 miles of
telephone wire in use in the world on
January 1 1912 This is an increase
OF 10 per cent. in telephones and 3
per cent. i'm wire Over two-thirds Of
fhc number of telephones-to be eX-
act. S.362, ,000-were in use in the
United States. Canada talked over
335 GOO; entire Europe got along with
3,-3o .O00 and all other countries used
1000 telephones.
The 29.556.00 miles of telephone
wirc could be wound around the
earth some 1860 times.
a careful estimate places the
worlds telephone investment on jan
uary /, 1912, at about S1,729,000,O0O,
which is very nearly the value of all
gold coin and bullion in the United
States. The annual number of tele-
phone conversations may be placed
at 22,O00,O00.o00, which is about five
times the annual number Of passen-
gers carried by all the railroads of
the world.
1lirty-tiye I Years Old
The year 1911 was the thirty-hfth
since the invention of the telephone
BY Alexander Graham Bell. A sur
vey iustifies the statement that all
civilized nations have awakened to
the value of the telephone in CONNER
cia and social life.
OF the various economic and social
forces that underlie recent telephone
Progress outside of the United States,
one of the most important is the grad
ual abolition of. rate systems that
have proved inadequate to the rapid
popularization of the telephone, and
the adoption Of systems approximate
ing that in the United States. The
telephone service Of most European
countries has suffered from the reten-
ton of rate systems not suitable tc
the needs of the public.
Now, however, the difficult problem
of adapting charges Justly proportion.
ate to service rendered, thus equaliz.
ing the charges among various classes
OF consumers, claims the attention
of the telephone administrations oi
important European States. Austria
is emerging from a thorough revision
of the old rate system adopted at the
the opening of the service. the revised
schedule having gone into effect OF
January l, 1912. In Belgium, evel
ince 1908, considerable agitation has
prevailed for more equitable rates
After a careful study Of the problem
the minister in charge Of the posta
and telegraph administration submit
ted, September, 1911, a new telephon,
rate law for the approval of the King
upon the adoption of which an era o
rapid development is predicted.
The German telegraph administra
bon, on the other hand. has not We
ucceeded in obtaining the approva
Of the Diet for the proposed change @
telephone rate. What the final out
come will be is a matter of conjecture