Middletown transcript., 1919-01-25
VAIL Wants US.
TO Be CENTER OF
GREAT |NTERNA-
T|oNAL Wire
SYSTEM
For Protection Of Our Political
and Economic Position
Holds for Unificati0n and Fed
eraI Regulation Of Utilities

A letter of Theo. N. Vail, Of the
American Telephone & Telegraph Com.
pany, written in response to request OF
Hon. John A. Moon, Chairman Com
mittee on Post Office and Post Roads,
House of Representatives, is today made
public. Mr.. Wallis letter is plea for the
uni6cation and proper control and regu-
lation Of utilities, particularly the wire
system, and, what is more important,
a plea for a worldwide cable system
centering in and controlled in the United
States as an essential to the extension OF
American commerce. Here are two
things in which the public is interested:
A wire system that will give them all
the service at the best rates possible and
one that can maintain standard service,
and the extension of American commerce.
The letter refers to House Bill 36S.
1t is not Mr.. Wallis understanding that
this bill is Government ownership and
operating measure, but rather that it has
definite purpose to allow sufficient time
to pNepare and present to Congress a
specific proposition for the reorganiza.
ton which will work for the efficiency
and economy Of the international and
International wire systems operated and
controlled from the United States. A
thoroughly considered, well-thought out
solution cannot be prepared under pres
sure or in the present short session of
Congress. 1t is recognized that in the
interest of the public the utilities should
not be returned to the owners without
some correction of the existing dehcien-
cies in regulation and control; hence it
would seem highly desirable for the
country and for the proprietors that
time should be given for such solution.
In short, Mr.. Walls plea is a strong
argument against the immediate return
of the utilities without any remedial
legislation to cure the evils which now
exist in the multiplicity of un-correlated,
irresponsible, complex, contradictory and
overlapping forms Of control or regula-
ton.
Mr.. Vail says, There is without doubt
an opportunity for great piece OF bene-
fetal and constructive work by COM
bining and co-ordinating all the various
existing utility services or those that are
complementary and supplementary into
one or more Unbalanced systems, the
extent Of which should be determined by
the nature of the service, by the extent
Of the service rendered, and by CONNER
cial, geographic, economic reasons; and
by combining in direct manner, and
as far as possible divorced from political
or partisan or class influence, the requi-
site power and authority of the Federal
Government expressed in mandate to
equilibrate revenue, operating costs and
capital charges, with an operating organ
ization, adapted to the requirements of
the service, and based on the methods
which experience, enterprise and opera
ton in the industrial world have shown
to be effective, efficient and economical"
In order to prove his points, Mr.. Vail
treats in a thorough manner the whole
art Of the Electrical Transmission Of
Intelligence, and by describing the his
tory, methods, development and achieve
ments of the art, makes an unanswerable
argument for a universal system Of the
greatest benefit to the public and yet
properly regulated and controlled from
a single federated source. He says the
wire system Of the future will be one
nationwide system Under single control,
by or over which direct communication
can be established between any two
places for the electrical transmission Of
any communication or of the spoken
word; and every individual place will
CONTINUED ON 4th PAGE)