The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1923-08-24
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PREDICT CITY'S
GROWTH TWENTY
YEARS FROM NOW
Telephone Engineers Forecast
Future with Remarkable
Degree Of Accuracy

Providing America with an ade-
quate telephone system Is not today's
Job alone. 1t Is the Job Of tomorrow,
or next year, OF twenty years hence
And every bit Of work done in the pres
emit must, II 1t il efacieRtly and eco.
nomically done. be done with relation
20 the future.
Not that the engineer who super
vises the construction OF pole line
or the installation Of equipment in q
large central Office must be prophet,
or the son of prophet. The man
whose job 1t IL to forecast the tele-
phonic future IL an expert, specialist.
Name him city and one of the tele-
phone engineers will 60 to file and
not merely predict how many people
will inhabit 1t six, twelve or twenty
years hence, but will tell you in re-
markedly detailed terms what kind OF
people they will be, and how many
department stores, banks, theatres,
clubs and churches will be required
TO serve their economic, social or spir-
1tual needs.
"Here." he will declare, pointing to
his map, "the character of the neigh
borhood will change, the residences be-
ing replaced by commercial establish
ments; there q new section Of moder-
ately-priced homes will be developed,
with q neighborhood business district
following these two streets; new Of
ice building will probably be erected
ct this point, group Of factories at
that" And you will smile incredu-
iously until your friend steps to an
other file and produces proof that ex-
actly such predictions as these, made
as q result Of telephone commercial
surveys, have been fulfilled time and
time again, all over the country.
But your telephone engineer will
modestly tell you that even he is not a
prophet, In the sense of possessing any
uncanny powers of prediction. He will
declare that he is merely student OF
facts.
Authority In Many Lines
He is an authority on geography and
geology, on agriculture, on mining and
on commerce. He knows why, a
couple OF hundred years ago, band of
settlers selected this particular spot
as site for a city. He is an expert
on immigration and emigration and
! knows how the politics of the Old
World will affect movements of its peo-
pie to the United States during the
next decade or two He knows, more
over, in terms that are startlingly
specific, what races VIII be attracted
by the particular commercial and in
dustrial opportunities offered in this
particular locality. He has made an
analysis of this city, knows how many
Families 1t has, how many of them live
In apartments, how many in flats, and
how many in separate residences; he
has painstakingly divided them into
types, based upon the amount of house
rent they pay a month.
Telephone equipment and the per
sonnet to operate 1t must not merely
be kept abreast of demand, but must
anticipate it. One Of the essentials
Of good service Is that, under normal
circumstances, this service must be
furnished to the public without any
considerable delay after application is
made for It, 1t will not do to wait
until the demand Is created and then
struggle vainly to fill 1t. Provision
must be made for cables, for conduits,
for exchange offices and for switch
boards which, though not needed now,
will be needed at some time in the
future. Hence the survey. which is
simply comprehensive outline of the
direction and extent Of telephone de-
velopment for period of six. twelve
or twenty years from the date 1t is
made.