The daily sentinel., 1913-12-04
An Open Letter TO the
Telephone Using Public

Denver, Colo, November so, 1913.
The Mountain States Telephone
and Telegraph Company, in the con-
sideration of It's future development.
recognizes that is highest interests
as public utility lie in establishing
the closest and most friendly rela-
tionship with the public generally,
and with It's patrons in particular;
therefore. 1T is the purpose of The
Mountain States Telephone and Tele-
graph Company. through this an
nouncement, to inaugurate what may
be termed an advertising educational
series OF articles, both in the news
papers and in the form of letters to
its customers. 1t is our hope that
this campaign may mark new era
III the relation of public utility cor
porations 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
serve the public-in other words,
how we may fairly and efficiently
what is just and right to us and to
the people, and to convince the pub
lie that we will voluntarily remedy
any wrongs we are doing, If pointed
out to us.
We shall show you our financial
affairs, frankly and freely. 1t SO
happens that 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 preferred stock, and no mort
gage of any kind upon which to pay
fixed charges. We have more in
vested in our plant at its present re-
placement value than our issue of
common stock and We have no other
stock isued than the common stock.
There are no wheels within wheels,
ncr companies within companies, to
absorb profits. We finance our
selves 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 man
ipulation of our stock-in other
words, no high financing has ever
been done in connection with The
Mountain States Telephone and TEL
egraph Company, or its predecessors.
The stock never has had any specu-
lative value. IL has been. and is now.
simply safe investment.
There 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 tseo note below FREE
quently publish stories of how rich
certain officials of our company are.
Right now, this is being done in con-
nection with the now revenue tax.
We suppose these stories grow out of
the belief of certain of the public
that the executive officials OF our
company own the entire plant. It Is
absurd, for these executive officials
OF our company are merely trustees
OF the property, for the stockholders,
and none of them are rich men, nor
have they heavy holding of the stock.
II is true that certain reputed rich
men have large holdings OF the stock
of our company--some of them being
on our Board of DIrectors--but not
one OF them has made any money
whatsoever out of dealing in our
stock. They have all paid dollar FOR