The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1920-04-17
Srnntugtun Banner
BENNINGTON. VERMONT.
SATURDAY, APRIL II, 1920.
THEODORE N. VAIL

uSluS Ut 20, lie therefore ndQ only IA
years for his life-work, In that time
he saw the use Of the telephone in
crease from one set to hundreds Of
millions.
The story of his life reads Nike
romance 1t hardly seems possible
that one man could have the physical
strength and versatility of genius he
showed in a wide range of business
and public activities.
Mr.. VAN set for himself the task of
making the telephone universal con.
|venience and it was on his initiative
that every possible improvement was
Iseized upon for the perfection of the
service. In 1885 he resigned from the
original company and became the first
president of the newly formed Anne /.
can Telephone and Telegraph COM
pany, which at first made speciality
of only long-distance communication,
but which, in 1900, acquired the prop
erty Of the American Bell Telephone
Company and also negotiated comb-
nations with the principal competing
telephone companies throughout the
country, so tina the whole service
came largely under a single cent. al
administration
In the meantime, in 1890, Mr. Vail
retired from the telephone business
for many years. He purchased a
large farm at Lyndon. VT, and inter
ested himself in agriculture. In 1893
he made ii trip to South America, and,
wi h his customary foresight, saw the
possibilities of the Argentine Repub-
lie. He obtained from the govern.
nent concession near Cordoba, built
an electric power station there, pur-
! chased no. se-car line in Buenos
Aires, converted it into a trolley line,
formed a company and equipped il
with the hes cars from the United
States, bought out all competing lines
and gave the city complete modern
service. The company was composed
largely of British capitalists, and for
some time Mr. Vail had his headquart-
ers in London, When he retired from
these activities in 1904 he returned
I to Vermont, but three years later he
was again called upon to enter the
telephone field as President Of the
American Telephone and Telegraph
company, of which he had been the
first president.
One of the most ambi ioug projects
which he then planned was a me gec
of the Western Union Telegraph Com
pany with the telephone company, and
in 1920 when the telephone interes
succeeded in securing the controlling
power in the Western Union, Mr. Vail
became president OF both these great
corporations. He resigned as presi-
dent of the Western Union, however.
when. on April Is, 1914, the telephone
company disposed OF it's interests in
the Western Union because of threat
ened &c ion. by the government
lagainst the combination of these com
lpetlng utilities,
| While others may have marveled at
! the perfection of the great telephone
system that now connects more than
10000 places in the United States, Mr.
Vail always believed in the create
possibilities ahead. He believed it
would be only short time before
New York would be able to carry on
wireless telephone conversation with
European poin s almost as easily as
it may communicate with San Fran
cisco by land lines today
Mr. Vail played as hard as he
worked He was fond of good music,
books and pictures and the outdoo.
.tfe. He had one of the finest librar-
les in the State of Vermont. The
house on his 3,5OO.acre farm AZ Lyn-
don, although beautiful, was a home
rather than a palace, In It he had
built a $4,000 pips-organ. and once
every year he made the practice OF
bringing up from New 70 k some of
the finest musicians to give concert
to which he invited the people for
miles around, He also established
the Vail school, hoping to encourage
boys to take up agriculture and re-
main in the country. 1t is supposed
that the Vail school viii, be endowed
under the terms of his will.
Mr. Vail was a great lover of Yer
! mont and for many years, in this
country, Europe and South America
registered from Lyndon, Vermont
though he had business Offices In q
dozen cities and was frequently called
on to explain where he lived. Once
/ in France hotel keeper declined tC
! take his check on a Lyndon banl
because he had never heard Of Yer
mont.
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