Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1913-12-04

Denver, Colo, November 80, 1913
The Mountain States Telephone and
Telegraph Company, in the cons der
alton of its future development, recoe-
nizes that its highest interests as a
public utility lie in establishing the
closest and most friendly relat onship
with the public generally, and with
its patrons in particular; therefore it
is the purpose Of The Mountain
States Telephone and Telegraph Com
pany, through this announcement, to
ipaugurate what may be termed an
advertising educational series of ar
ticles, both in the newspapers and in
the form of letters to its customers.
It is our hope that this campaign may
mark a new era in the relation o.
public utility corporations to the pub
lie they serve We want this edu-
cation to work both ways-that the
public may learn the truth about US,
and that we may learn how the pub
lie regard us, and how We may fairly
and efficiently serve the public IN
other words, what is just and right
to US and to the people, and to con-
vince the public that we will volun-
tarily remedy any wrongs We are
doing, if pointed out to US.
We shall show you our financial at
fairs, frankly and freely. 1t so hap
pens that our financing has been O.
such nature that is is easy for us
to clearly show to you this side OF
our affairs. What We mean by this
is, that We have absolutely no wat
er in our stock; we have no bonds,
nor any preferred stock and no mort
gage of any kind upon which to pay
fixed charges. We have more invest
ed in our plant at its present replace
ment 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 abb
sorb profits. We finance ourselves
from year to year by selling our COM
mon 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 small, made out of the man
ipulation of our stock-in other words
no high financing has ever been done
in connection with The Mountain
States Telephone and Telegraph Com
pany, or its predecessors. The stock
never has had any speculative value;
it has been, mad is now, simply
safe investment.
upon the part of the public as to this
side of our business. Persons with.
Interior motives, striving for office,
and newspapers wishing to gve start
ling news (see note below frequent
ly 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 COM
pany own the entire plant 1t is
absurd, for these executive officials
of our company are merely trustees
of the property, for the stockholders,
and none of them are richmen, nor
have they very heavy holding of
the stock 1t is true that certain
reputed rich men have large holdings
of the stock of our company some
of them being on our Boand of Direc-
tors-but not one of them has made
any money whatsoever out of dealing
in our stock. They have all paid
dollar for dollar, in cash, at par, In