Albuquerque evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1911-1914, 1913-12-01
An Open Letter to the
Telephone Using Public

Denver. Colo, November 80, 1918.
The Mountain states Telephone
ana Telegraph Company. In the con-
sideration of its future development,
recognizes that It's highest interests
az "a public utility lie in establishing
the closest and most friendly reia-
V0nship with the. public generally,
and with It's patrons In particulars
therefore. It is the purpose OF The
Mountain states Telephone and Tel
egraph Company through this am
nouncement 20 inauguratc what may
bc termed an advertising educational
series OF articles, both la the news
papers and in the form of letters 20
its customers. II is our hope that
this campaign may mark "a new era
i'm the relation OF public utility corr
pOrations 20 the public they serve.
We want this education 20 work both
wuys--thnt the public may learn the
truth about us, ana that we may
learn how the public regard us. and
how we may fairly and efficiently
serve the puhlic-in other words,
what Is Just and right go ms and 20
the people. and 20 convince the pub
lie that We viii voluntarily remedy
any wrongs We are doing. II pointed
out to us
We shall show YOU our financial
affairs. frankly and freely. II 80
happens that our financing has been
of such nature that Il Is easy for
us TO clearly show 10 YOU this side
OF our affairs. what We mean by
this is. that we have absolutely no
water I'm our stock; we have no bonds.
nor any preferred stock. and no
mortgage of any kind upon which 20
pay fixed charges We have more in
vested In our plant az Us 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 90
absorb profits We finance ourselves
from year to year by selling our
common stock Go tho people at moi
less than par. In the states in which
we operate.
when we ten YOU the story Of oui
financing we win prove 90 YOU that
there never have been any fortunes
large or small made out OF the ma
uipulatlon of our stock--in other
words. no high financing has ever
hcen done in connection with The
MNMMANNn 0NuAN" ANlNIiiiNil' NilN fff'
graph Company or is predecessors
The stock never has had any specu
ativo value; b. has BEEN ana is now
simply safe investment
There Is "a great misunderstanding
upon tho part of the public as Go thu
side OF our business. Persons viii
Interior motives. striving for office
ana newspapers wishing 10 Civ
startling news (soc note below FIRE
qucnty publish stories Of how rirl
certain officials OF our company are
Right now this IS being done in con
uoctlon with the new revenue tn'
We suppose these stories grow out @
tho belief of certain OF the publ
that tho executive officials Of on
company own tho entire plant. II
absurd. for these executive official
~ our company are merely trustee
~ the property for the stockholdor
and mono of them are rich mon. mo
have thoy very heavy holding of th
stock u is true that certain rcpuU
rich men have large holdings % "a
stock Of our company some Of thci
being on our Board Of Directors hi
not one Of them hiss made any none
whatsoever out of dealing in on
stock ThCy have an paid dollar g