The Brinkley argus., 1915-05-28
FOUR MILLIONS
 FUR ARkAhsAs r
BELL TELEPHONE co. WILL SPEND THAT SUM IN NEXT
 FIVE YEARS.
FEW REALIZE AM0UNTNEEDED
Has Faith In Future of Thts etate- Already Has invested Over
 Five Millions Hers--ls !, . state Builder.

!, . state Builder.
 k
 '
 Little Rock--A budget of four mil lions of dollars for improvements for Arkansas in the nsxt five years has been prepared by the Southvssfsrn Telegraph and Telephone Company. according to an announcement just made here by S. A. Lane, commercial superintendent for the company for this state. And this estimate follows the expenditure by the company of several millions in Arkansas in tho past few years. Besides the material benefit that will result to the state st large in direct way from the ex- penditure of this large sum of money. there is the even greater benefit of confidence in the certain growth and development of the state that will re suit in a general way.
 The Bell Telephone company does not appropriate great sums for tul- provement of its iinee and exchanges
 
 and executive officials have analysed the situation from many angles and have gone over tho ground thoromgh- ly and staked their reputation on the certainty of the development of the state where the service is to be thns improved and enlarged and the growth Of the population and the add cd volume of all lines of business.
 Business men at home and ftnan. ciers and investors and houeseekefs over the country will note this an- nouncement of the Bells confidence in the growth and development of Ar kansas. They will count it as more certain index of the states great fs,- ture than any mere assertion not backed by the investment of good money in that assertion.
 The Bell has been recognized for years in all business and financial cir. cles as careful and successfully managed concern. It plants it's ex. penditures in fruitful soil and builds constantly for the future.
 With property valus in Arkansaa at the present time of $5.60o, 900 and an annual pay roll of $6oo.O00, tho Bell company's announcement that 1t intends to spend four millions more in this state, coming at this particu. lar time, is most welcome to all loyal Arkansas folks who have faith and confidence in the future of their state. They know that good and sound business reasons dictate the policy of this great telephone company. And so they can draw most favorable con- clusione from the result of . careful analysis Of their states future by tho experts who wound up their work by declaring that .our millions of dollars would be necessary in the next five years to meet the states growth and prosperity.
 The part played by the Bell conn pany in the development of Arkansaa l. worth more than passing ncttce. Few people realize the part played by the telephone these days in the build. ing up of a state by the knitting of ats separate units or communities to- gethcr.
 The Bell company has crossed mountains and valleys and wild streams and long stretches of forest and uncultivated and unsettled lands in this state and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to connect the business centers of the state with all the outlying towns and settlements. It is impossible to suppose that these lines crossing SC many miles of un- settled country should pay at first. They are the forerunners of businsss. the pioneers of development the builders of state. They connect the sawmill and the country store and the mine with the business world as rep resented by Little Rock, Fort Smith, Pine Bluff, Mena, or with DallaA, Tex, or Oklahoma City, or St. Louis. or Memphis. The telephone line, tho telegraph and the railroad come first, and after them come the small in- vestor and business man and worker who build an isolated community into city or a community where all the advantages of modern life can be found
 Few people realize the immense In vestment necessary to knit the com munities of state together by tele phone It is true that there are no ex pensive grades to build and rails to lay for trains, but the building and maintenarce of telephone line re quires great sums of money and 1t ii often necessary to wait for years fol the returns to begin to come in from a certain line. It is not . question merely of connecting Little Rock with Pine Bluff by telephone. There ii plenty of business to make this line pay. But to give the universal serv i0s tbat ia it's ambition the Bell Inusi