The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1913-12-04

Denver, Colo, November 80, 1913.
The Mountain States Telephone and
Telegraph Company. in the consldera
ton of It's future development, recog
nizes that its highest interests as d
public utility lie IN establishing the cIo-
sest and most friendly relationship
with the public generally. and with its
patrons in particular; Therefore, it is
the purpose of The Mountain States
Telephone and Telegraph Company,
through this announcement, to naug
urate what may De termed an adver-
tisirg educational feries OF articles,
both IN the newspapers and in the form
of letters to its customers. Il is our
hope that this campaign may mark a
Eew era in the relation OF public utility
corporations to the public they serve.
We want this education to work both
ways-that the public may learn the
truth about Us, and that We may learn
how the public regard Us. and hoH we
may fairly and efficientiy serve the
public-in other words, what is just
and right to US and 70 the people, and
to convince the pnblic that We will
voluntarily remedy any wrongs we are
doing, il pointed out to MS.
We shall show you our financial af-
faIrs, frankly and freely, 1t so hap.
pens that our financing has been of
such nature that it 10 easy for US to
clearly show to you this side of our
affairs. What we mean by this is, that
we have absolutely no water in our
stock; we have no bonds, nor any pre-
ferred stock. and no mortgage of any
kind upon which to pay fixed charges,
We have more invested in our plant
and its present replacement value than
our issue of common stock. and we
have no other stock issued than the
common stock. There are no wheels
within wheels. nor companies within
companies, to absorb profits, We
finance ourselves from year to year
by selling our common stock to the
people, at not less than par. in the
states in which we operate.
When we tell you the story of our
financing. we will prove to you that
there never have been any fortunes,
large or ANAL, made out of the manip-
ulation Of our stock--in other words.
no high financing has ever been done
in connection wi tn the Mountain
States Telephone and Telegraph Com
pany, or its predecessors. The stock
never has had any speculative value;
it has been and is now, simply safe
investment.
These is great Misunderstanding
upon the part of the public as to this
side of our business. Persons with
Interior motives, striving for Office,
and newspapers wishing to give star.
tling news tsee note below frequently
publish stories of how rich certain
officials of our company are. Right
now this is being done in connection
with the new revenue tax. We sup
pose these stories grow out Of the
belief Of certain of the public that the
executive officials of our company owr
the entire plant. 1t is absurd, fol-
these executive officials of our com
pany are merely trustees of the prop
erty. for the stockholders and none
of them are rich men, nor have the,
avery heavy holding of the stock. Il
is true that certain reputed rich mer
have large holdings of the stock of ou,
company-some of them being on oul
Board of Directors but not one of then
has made any money whatsoever ou,
of dealing in our stock, They have
all paid dollar for dollar, in cash, a