The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-03-02
A. 7. & 7. NOW
FIRST OF u. 5.
CORPORATIONS
Only Four BiIIion-DOIIar
Concern Makes Bow
to America.
U. S. STEEL IS SECOND
Vast Achievement Shown in
Report of Mammoth
Wire Company.
BIZ LHitCd Press

BIZ UHitCd Press
NEW YORK. March 2.-The
United States. richest of all nations
has produced its first four billion
dollar corporation.
The annual report Of the Amer
lean Telephone and Telegraph Com
pany, made public today, places that
corporation at the head of all indus
trial concerns in this country.
Second to the A. T. and T. is the
United States Steel Corporation
with assets of nearly $2,500, 900 GOO.
Next in order. all in the billion dol
lar class, come Southern Pacific
Railroad. Pennsylvania Lines, New
York Central Railroad, Standard Oil
of New Jersey, Union Pacific Rail
road, Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe
Railroad. General Motors and Ford
Motor Company.
Owns Most of Bell Stock
The A. T. g. T. establishes its lead
through a combination OF its indi-
vidual worth and that of the Bell
Telephone system, of which it owns
SO per cent. A. T. 81 T. assets as
Of Dec. 81. 1927, are listed at
81 ,949, ,690,057, and assets of the Bell
system at $3,457 4673l1.
Other respects in which the A.
T. 81 T. is first include:
Employes-At the end of 1927
the company had on its pay roll
508,911 persons, enough to popu-
late a city the size of Columbus,
Ohio.
Stockholders-423,58 $50, more than
half of whom owned from one to
ten share each. The Ford company
has only three stockholders. Mr.
and Mrs. Henry Ford and their son,
EdselO .-.
Amount Of stock = 1882, ,42o
shares.
Earnings - $12s,614ooO in 1926.
($ll.76 share)
Dividends-S9 a share since 1921
and never less than $3.50 a share
in the last forty-six years. In 1927
dividends totaled $97,379,000.
Romance In Growth
Behind this vast achievement lies
much of the romance of Americas
industrial growth, the conquering
Of mountain and plain by the men
who went out to string the first of
the telephone and telegraph wires
which are operated in it's own name
and the telephone lines of Its sub
Sidiary, the Bell system.
The A. T. & T. owns 56,S22 ,895
miles of wire. the equal in length
of 236 lines from here to the moon.
Although the company'S chief
source of revenue is from tele-
phones, it also makes millions of
dollars annually by leasing wires to
press associations, newspapers and
brokers. The wires on which this
dispatch was delivered to news
papers throughout the country is
leased from the A. T. g. T. by the
United Press.
The company's report says that
at the end of 1927 it was operating
18,356,000 telephones and that dur
ing the year 20, ,421 1895 calls were
made, a daily average Of 55,195,677.
More Than Billion Spent
In the last five years the A. T. &
T. has spent $1,S0O,oO0,0O0 on i'm
provementS, additions and replace
ments. In the next five years it ex-
poets to spend two billion dollars in
the same way.
Reviewing some of the company's
achievements in 1927, the report says
that it's scope has been widened to
include transatlantic radio tele-
phony, television, extension of tele-
phone service to Mexico and con-
tinental Europe, and transmission of
pictures across the Atlantic by radio.