Graham guardian., 1913-12-05
An Open Letter to the
Telephone Using Public

Denver, Colo, November 80, 1918.
The Mountain States Telephone and
Telegraph Company, in the considera-
tion of its future development, recog-
nizes that its highest interests as a
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-
tising educational series of articles,
both in the newspapers and in the form
of letters to its customers. 1t is our
hope that this campaign may mark a
corporations 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 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 convince the public that we will
voluntarily remedy any wrongs we are
doing, if pointed out to US.
We shall show you our financial af-
fairs, frankly and freely. 1t so happens
that our financing has been of such a
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 mortgages of any kind upon which
to pay fixed charges. We have more
invested in our plant at its present re-
placement value than our issue of COM
mon stock, and we have no other stock
issued than the common stock. There
are no wheels within wheels, nor com.
panies 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 Company, or
its predecessors. The stock never has
had any speculative value; it has been,
and is now simply safe investment.
There is a great misunderstanding
upon the part of the public as to this
side of our business. Persons with
ulterior motives, striving for Office,
and newspapers wishing to give start
ling news (see note below frequently
publish stories of how rich certain Of
ficials of our company are. Right now,
this is being donein connection with the
new 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.
1t 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 a 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
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 dollar, in cash, at par,