Bisbee daily review., 1913-12-02
An Open Letter To The
 Telephone Using Public

Denver, Colo, November 30, 1913.
 The Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company, in the consider. ation 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 inaug- urate what may be termed an adver- tising educational series of articles, both in the newspapers and in the form of letters to it's customers. It is our hope that tlis campaign may mark a new era in the relation of public utility 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 10 the peo- rle, 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. It so hap pens 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 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 we have no other stock issued than the common stock. There are TO wheels within wheels, nor com panies within companies, to absorb profits. We finance ourselves from year 10 year by selling our common stock to the people, at not less than par. in the states in which we oper- ate
 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 manfp- nlatton 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 It's predecessors. The stock never has had any speculative value. It has been, and is now, simply a safe investment.
 There is great misunderstanding upon the part of the public as to this side of our business. Persons with ul. terior motives, striving for office. ana newspapers wishing to give startling news (see note beiowl frequently pub fish stories of how rich certain officials of our company are. Right nov. this Is being done in connection with tie new revenue tax We suppose these stories grow out of the belief of certain of the public that the exec utiYe 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 nono of them are rich men, nor have they a very heavy holding of the stock. It 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 IT. MI Caa