The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1915-03-16
T. N. Vail Declares New
Confidence Needed to
Provide Work
SPEAKS FOR PUBLIC
SERVICE COMPANIES
A Billion Dollars a Year Is
Needed to Restore
Prosperity

New York, March l6.--There are 1000,
600 persons unemployed in the United
States whose yearly earnings should to
tai at least 81 100000, says Theodore \
Vail, president of the American Tele
phone 4 Telegraph Co., in the annual re
port of the company issued yesterday.
These unemployed are now living al
the expense Of their savings, their friend.
o. the public, he says; and what is need
ed to bring about their unemployment
and the return of prosperity is a restora
tion of conditions which would inspire
confidence in the securities of public sery.
ice and manufacturing enterprises to en-.
able them to obtain capital for extension
and improvt rlent,
billion dollars a year is needed, Mr.
Vail asserts to put these enterprises in
q position to meet the demands of the
country both as growing" and going
concerns, and if they could begin the ex.
penditure Of even part of that sum, sit
would soon restore the normal condi-
tions of employment, expenditure, COM
sumption and production"
"The circle of industrial conditions
would again be balanced, he says, "shops
and faetoriC; would be filed and instead
of the bread line there would be a work
ing line night and morning between
places OF employment and homes"
Most vital to the restoration OF these
- r.. 4 4,
tion of public control and regulation of
public service enterprises, which, he
points out, are, when prosperous, large
employers of labor and large purchasers
and consumers of all varieties of prod
ucts and manufactures"
Mr.. Vail pleads for regulation that
will be thorough and effective and at the
same time equitable and just and prac-
ticable." Remarking that in the past the
position OF public service companies had
been made difficult by the activities of
irresponsible demagogues," he expressed
the belief that the public would "see that
justice is done" as it had never re-
manned complaisant when brought face
to face with disturbance, uncertainty
and unemployment caused by too drastic
action or too radical legislation upon eco.
nomic conditions or Industrial enter
prises.'
Control and regulation can become de-
structiye instead OF constructive" he
continues. "They can delay and paralyze
commerce. They can, through DEGREES Of
officials, impose unneces-
sary burdens and unnecessary expendi-
lures upon corporations. They can re-
uuire too many regulations and theories
Of operation and too many undeveloped
experiments in plant and equipment. De
mands Of labor for increased wages and
shorter hours and demands OF the public
for increased service must be met by in
creased revenue produced by increased
rates The irredueible minimum in unit
expense has been reached in some indus
tries, and will soon be in all.
"A corporation, no more than an indi.
gidual, cannot be bound hand and foot
md yet be active or give good service.
bankrupt public service, in time, means
communities
Mr.. Vail cites the falling off in the
telephone business the last to feel Dc
preston and the first to recover"-as in.
iicative Of the business reaction since
he European war.
The increase OF the number Of sub
scribers' stations last year was only 81
Der cent. Of the number added In 1913
md the smallest in any of the four pre-
sious years, according 10 the report.