Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1913-09-30
MUTUAL RELATIONS And INTERESTS
OF THE BELL system and The PUBLIC

versal ntercommunication justify and
require some services partly at the
expense of the whole for the benetlt
of the whole.
| We believe that this highest com
imercial value can only be attained oy
! one system under one common control
and that it cannot be given by indie
pendent systems unless they are oper-
ated under agreements which result in
one common control and one common
interest in effect making them a
single system.
! We believe that rates should be so
adjusted as to afford the company
sufficient revenue to pay such wages
and compensation as will secure the
most efficient service; to maintain the
very highest and most advanced stand
ards of plant and apparatus, to carry
on such scientific and experimental re-
search and inventions as to apparatus
and methods as to insure the highest
standards, and to carry to reserve and
depreciation such amounts as will en-
able the company at any time to re-
place old plant and old methods with
new plant and new methods as fast as
they may be developed and found to
be to the advantage of the service.
We believe that in addition, such fair
charges should be paid upon the in
vestment in plant as will enable the
company at any time to obtain money
necessary to provide the plant re-
quired to meet the continuing demands
of the public; and in order that waste
and duplication of effort may be
avoided and uniformity of purpose
and common control be enforced, that
there should be a centralized general
administration in close communication
with and having general authority
over the whole on matters common to
all or matters of general policy.
We believe that any surplus beyond
that necessary to equalize dividends
on fair basis should be used by the
company for the benefit of the public
and should be inalienable for any
other purpose, and should be either in
vested in revenue-earning plant until
necessary to substitute plant which
may become inadequate or obsolete,
Or should be used to make the service
cheaper or better
We believe that under proper gov
ernmental control and regulation the
profits from promotion or operation
allowed to be distributed should not
! be so large as to warrant or tempt
complete duplication of plant and or
ganization, with its duplication of its
capital charges and its organization,
operating maintenance and deprecia-
ton expenses; and we do not believe
that utilities giving at fair rates an
En;a hAr N i ID
universal service should be subject to
limited competition, not giving sucn
service. Competition which ignores the
obligation to furnish a complete and
comprehensive service is not compe-
tition, is not for the benefit of the
public in that it does not reach the
whole public interested.
IT, therefore, complete duplication,
with its dual exchange connection and
dual bills for service is a prerequisite
to complete competition, government
control and regulation cannot go hand
in hand with competition.
We believe that the record of the
Bell System will be accepted by the
public as fully in accord with these
declarations. Consistent adherence to
this policy has given the public of the
United States the best, most compre-
hensive and cheapest telephone service
in the world and made the Bell stand
ards the standards of all nations.
To remove any possible excuse for
imisapprehension on account of the
tmanv misleading statements which
have been circulated as to the alleged
unnecessary and vercapitalization
and excessive charges of the Bell Sys-
tenn, the following statistics are given.
Except where stated, the figures are
for the Bell System; that is the
American Telephone and Telegraph
and its Associated Companies.
The entire Bell System on June 30
1913, had outstanding in the hands of
the public obligations ii. e., notes,
open accounts, bonds and shares) to
the par value of $776,000,000.
The book value of the total tangible
assets, which is considerably less than
their replacement value, amounted to
$960,000000 Many appraisals of
property included in these assets have
, been made, and most ON them under
the direction of public authorities. In
no case has the value as it stands on
the books failed to be sustained, and
in most cases it has been very largely
; exceeded
The total dividends and interest
paid during the year 1912 amounted
, to only 6.1@o on the average of its
outstanding obligations, and to less
than $50 on the average value of its
t assets.
The actual cash which has been paid
= into the treasury of the American
| Telephone and Telegraph Company on
account of the capital obligations now
/ outstanding amounts to $22,00000
; more than the par of such outstand-
ing obligations.
The Associated Companies collected
from the public and paid back in
taxes over $1O,000000 during the year
1912.
, The steadily increasing necessities
of the public not only for additional
but for new telephone service can only
be met by new construction, involv-
ling capital outlay. To meet these de-
: mands during the six and one-half
years from 1907 to June 1918, inclu-
sive, the increase in telephone plant