The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1913-12-05

Denver, Colo >, November 80, 1917;
The Mountain States Telephone an /
Telegraph Company, in the consider
alton of its future development, recog-
nizes that it's highest interests as
public utility lie in establishing the
closest 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 inau-
gurate what may be termed an adver.
Using educational series of articles,
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 of public
utility corporations to the public they
sere. 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 how we may fairly and efficiently
serve the public-in other words, what
is just and right to us and to the peo-
pie, and to convince the public thai
we will voluntarily remedy airy wrongs
we are doing, il pointed out 10 us.
We shall show you our financial aft
fairs, frankly and freely. 1t. 81. hap
pens tina; Our financing has been Of
such nature that it 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 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
at its present replacement value than
our issue OF common stock, and awe
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 small, made out OF the manip-
ulation 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 stool
never has had any speculative value
it has been, and is now, simply SAT-
investment.
There is great misunderstanding.
upon the part of the public as to thi
side of our business. Persons witt
Interior motives, striving for office
and newspapers wishing to give star
Ting news (see note below frequently
publish stories of how rich certain
officials Of our company are. RICH
now, this is being done in connection
with the new revenue tax. We sup
pose these stories grow out of TIL
belief of certain of the public that tn
executive officials of our company ow1
the entire plant. 1t is absurd, TO
these executive officials of our com
pany are merely trustees of the prop
erty, for the stockholders, and non
of them are rich men, nor have the
a very heavy holding of the stock.
is true that certain reputed rich me
have large holdings of the stock of on
company-some OF them being on on
Board of Directors-but not one c
them has made any money whatsoeve
out of dealing in our stock. They hav
all paid dollar for dollar, in cash, 8