St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1913-12-17

the principal figure against whom
the shafts of the New Freedomite
will be directed.
Theodore N Vail is a big man
big of body and brain, big in courag
and broad of vision, a man OF exc
cutive ability as rare as splendid
whose human SympathieS haV'
grown and widened in his HpwarC
climb, and who has always believed
the peace and prosperity of thoSt
under him as important a feature
and function in the development o.
the interests in his keeping as the
material and commercial activities
of the business.
! Mr.. Vail took up his work with
the Bell Telephone Company some
thirty-five years ago, when 1T was
in it's formative and almost exper-
mental stage and has been with il
ever since. From a struggling OK
pertinent, when many regarded it as
scientific toy, he has worked and
sweated with the telephone until he
has seen it grow into one of the most
important agencies in our civiliza-
ton, and he has been one of the
most important figures in develop
ing the Bell Company into a great
corporation with 5000 stockhold-
ers. 10000 employees, renting
some 100000 instruments and
touching the civilization of America
at every point.
He was born in Ohio and educa-
ted there and entered the hard
school Of experience at an early age;
and by sheer force of ability and
fitness he has worked his way up
from a ten-dollar-a-week railroad
clerkship to the presidency of con-
Germ worth a billion dollars and
earning a gross annual revenue of
$199, 100000. Tt is worth while re-
Numbering that while favoritism
and nepotism may find refuge in
some concerns and business, there
is absolutely no place for them in
the great commercial enterprises of
the day; they have too much at stake
to jeopardize success by permitting
their affairs to slip into weak hands;
they demand and command the best
brain and the highest ability; and
because of this plain commercial and
financial axiom Theodore N. Vail is
the head of the Bell Telephone Com
pany.
Mr.. Vail takes his pleasure in his
farm: it would be idle to call it
his leisure; and in his vigorous age,
with body, brain and vision strong
and unimpaired, he illustrates the
truth of the old wisdom, that man
can only perserve his strength and
energy by keeping in touch with the
soil.
Into the telephone world he in
troduced his splendid pension sys-
tenn, by which the specter of unem-
ployment in old age is exercised and
a provision made that implies peace
and content, and the dissipation or
his fear, which comes to the aver
age man has been of Unreasonable |
benefit to the company by stimu-
ating the loyalty and efficiency of
he telephone employees. In fact,
n no other enterprise in the coun-
.ry is the human side of industry
more generously and wisely develop
ID; and whether we believe the
motives back of it be nigh or not,
he plainest fact of industry plus
Lltruism is that it pays.
The great, the marvellous develop
nent of the telephone industry in
America, must be attributed to the
,rain that has guided and directed
III these years; and that brain lies
Inder the hat of Theodore N. Vail.
low far the meddling political agi-
ators of Washington will go in
heir efforts to destroy this vast
nterprise time will show. But one
hing remains everlastingly true. they
annot diminish the greatness OF the
nan who built it up, or take one
7af from the laurels his achieve
1ents have earned. May he long
ontinue to father and foster the
nterprise he has guided from weak \
ess to strength, and which he has
cen grow from a toy to a splendid
actor in the development or
.merica.-Truth.
Looking For Howe Again.
HarIand B. Howe of st. Johnsbury
as announced that he will be DEM
catic candidate for governor again
ext year, making one of his chief
,sues judicial reform and improved
egal procedure. This is a matter
bout which there cannot be too
luch agitation. And whether or
OF Mr.. Howe is successful in his
andidacy his ideas along this line
houId prove of great value in the
ublic discussion they are likely to
ngender. The fact that the Wind
am County Bar association has al
eady adopted rules looking toward
ne simplication of legal methods IN
D far as this is possible under the
resent system is evident that the
eed of court reform is appreciated
| this corner of the state. Mr.. Howe
owever. is likely to find difficulty In
the issue for the eXclu-
We benefit of the Democratic party.
TPraIf1ohOrO RQfOrm0r