St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1914-03-25

1
the state will lose quite a large sun
in telephone taxes, and possibly
make the whole tax assessment IL
legal. It's a pretty mess of fish the
governor is serving up to the tax
payers of Vermont.
Pres. Vail on Government Ownership
Perhaps the most interesting fea-
| ture of the annual report of the Bel
Telephone System is the view OF
Pres. Theodore N. Vail on govern.
ment ownership. He states the at
titude of his company as follows:
Our opposition to government OPP
Grafton and ownership is not based on
pecuniary, partisan, prejudiced OF
personal reasons. 1t is because OF
our interest in the upbuilding of a
public utility and its preservation.
We are opposed to government
ownership because we know that no
government-owned telephone system
in the world is giving as cheap and
efficient service as the American pub
lie is getting from all it's telephone
companies. We do not believe that
our government would be any excep-
ton to the rule.
He states that the post master
general has not recommended govern
ment ownership but has simply made
public the recommendations of three
men appointed to make an investiga-
ton. He shows that there is a de-
felt in all government-owned systems
and says that every telephone sys-
tenn in the world adopts the Bell Sys-
tenn as a standard, uses the Bell OPP
Grating methods and either uses Bell
apparatus or copies it. And yet there
is not one, he continues, that gives
an approximation to the facilities
that the Bell System gives or gives as
good or as cheap service, all past
prophecies to. the contrary notwith-
standing.
These deficits are not the result
of a definite policy to give a cheap
service to individuals at the cost of
all, but are due to errors in manage
ment such as underestimate of
values and cost of new construction;
disregard of maintenance, deprecia-
ton and particularly of obsolescence;
impossible theories of operation, and
a mistaken policy founded on pro-
misses, prophecies and assertions eX-
actly the same in character as those
now being used to bring about gov
eminent ownership in this country,
and upon a failure to understand and
appreciate the advantages of private
as distinguished from government
organization.
There are no sound reasons given,
or real advantages promised for gov
eminent ownership and operation
which do not apply to or cannot be
secured by government regulations.
Private initiative, invention, enter
prise, risk, spurred on by the incen-
tive of reward, have changed the
face of the world, and the resulting
unearned increment largely cOnsti-
tutes the wealth of nations; without
it many of the great scientific indus
trial developments would have re-
manned scientific curiosities, even if
they had been evolved at all.
The advantages of one telephone
system are clearly set forth, as are
the differences between the exact
technical knowledge required for OPP
GRAFTON and the judicial ability neces-
sary for regulation.
Government administration, the re-
port says, is more or less a game of
politics, and while with government
operation it may sometimes be pos
sible to have efficiency, it will always
be impossible to have economy.
The government-owned European
telephone plants, notwithstanding the
low price of foreign labor, are carried
at a much higher cost than those of
the Bell System and yet every one of
them uses the Bell System as model.
The book value of the plant of the
Bell System per station is less than
60 per cent. that of Belgium; less
than rs per cent. that of Austria;
about IS per cent. that OF Germany,
Great Britain and Switzerland; and
all of them government-owned.
Mr.. Vail brings out the fact that
Americans are better supplied with
telephone facilities than any other
people, having six times as many tele-
phones per capita as Great Britain
and thirteen times as many as France
and that the rates here are as popu-
lar as those of any government-own-
ed plant.
In showing the inability of the
Post Office to operate the telephone
business efficiently he says:
The success of the parcel post has
been set up as a reason for the gov
eminent operation of the telephone
and telegraph. Why it should be
is hard to understand. The two ser
vices have nothing in common and