The Washington times., 1917-01-17

by the government of New &ealand
furnished strong evidence for the be-
lief that the undertakings In New
Zealand are not self-supporting.
According to figures published"
he said. ut appears that the official
net deficit. not including interest. on
telephone and telegraph traffic in
1908 was s2i3, $50: in 1918, $313,212:
in 1915, ;51s,661. For the eight years
from 1908 to 1915. inclusive. the def
eft was $2,643,373."
President Bethel said investiga-
tion had convinced him that New
Zealand is as different from the
United States as one civilized nation
can be from another"
"If the telephone crates of Great
Britain prevailed in the United States,
this country's annual telephone bill,
with the development we have
greater than II Is. I arrive at this by
taking the reported average gross
earnings per telephone in Great Brit
ain and multiplying that figure by the
10000, 600 telephones in service in the
United States.
"Australia's rates, II applied here,
would produce $53,00O,000 additional
revenue, while the French rates would
bring to the telephone companies IN
the United States an increase OF some
$41 900 900 every year. Even the much
discussed New Zealand would produce
s5,5oo,0oO additional revenues.
Service to Farmers.
1--WE have not in, our development Of
the service confined our efforts to the
larger cities, but we have extended
our lines to the farmers in every d.
rection In Sweden, where the ser
vice has been developed to a greater
extent than in any other European
country, the per cent of telephones to
population outside of the larger cities
is but 90, while in the United States
it is SO. In New Zealand it is "A.
'If it is an experimentv that Is
wanted, the outcome of which Is 10
determine the policy of our country
with respect, to Government owner
ship, IL would be better and much
cheaper to accept New Zealand as the
experiment, send to that country COM
petent experts, who might bring home
a report of the situation there that
would be of great value in determin-
ing our course here. This suggestion
is thrown out only because the Won-
ders performed there have been so
vigorously put forward here. II the
members of>the National Grange. and
we have been told that there are a
million OF them, would contribute 70
cents a piece. there would be in hand
$3.50, 900. which might bring to the
grange the results of an experiment
that should be much more convincing
than any results that might be OBJ
tained by experimenting in the Dis
trict OF Columbia.
Far Ahead of France.
President Bethel said Investigation
had shown that the rurual counties
in Nebraska had twice as many tele-
phones as counties in France.
'"The telephone discrimination
against farmers seems to be due to
Fundamental conditions inherent in
bureacratic administration and in
Governmental inetria-conditions
which have resisted alike the relative
efficiency OF autocratic administra-
tion and the long continued COM
plants of the rural public.>
'"Mr. Lewis had laid great stress
on the waste incident to the duplica-
ton of pole lines throughout the
country. The wire service compan,
les, in cooperation with the Public
Service Commissions Of the States,
are rapidly eliminating Duplication
of poles carrying wires. not only OF
telephone and telegraph companies,
but of lighting and street railway
companies as well.
5244es Miles OF Wire.
"There are in the toll line system
of the American Telephone and rele-
graph Company, not including its sub
sidiary companies, 524,46s miles. of
working wire, or twice the mileage
of circuit which is 262. 2.234 miles. or
the total mileage there has been COM
posted. which means that 1t 1t used
both for telephone and telegraph
business, 236,S16 miles of wire, which
is something like 40 per cent of the
total mileage.
"I also wish to refer to what is
known as the phantom circuit; 81
per cent of the total open wire mile
age is phantomed. By the phantom
circuit, 1 mean an. arrangement that
enables us to utilize for talking pur-
poses the sides of the line, as it were;
thus we have, in utilizing approx
mateIy 300, 900 miles of wire estab-
lished 1850 miles of working phan-
tom circuit These phantom circuits