Evening star., 1932-02-29
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

The telephone is not Just an instru-
ment, but a sort of human being. Too
| long it has been lokoed upon merely as
a mass of wires, poles and strange in
struments, made human by usage.
1t is possible to regard 1t as human
i being, for that Is what it is in sense.
| That is why, for instance, that this
column, primarily interested in human
nature, turns from time to time to 1t.
Human beings use it, of course, and
thus many of the good and bad traits
of people crop out over the wires. 1t
is interesting to recall these matters,
some innocent, some revealing, others
| tragic.
| All this, however is not what we
mean when we say that the telephone
| is a human being and must be con-
sidered as such.
We mean that it unmistakably re-
| veals certain traits which set 1t on as
a person. almost, SO that when one
thinks of it in this way he sees some
things closer to him than wire and
| bakelite and rubber.
X X
A very human thing about the tele-
phone. for instance, is the fact that our
strictly modern instruments get some
| body to do part of the work for them.
That is essentially human.
These dial phones compel the user
| to put them to work. AT first there
was some complaint on this score,
mostly by those who missed the fresh,
vital voices of the operators.
Mostly that resentment has vanished
now. but that does not take away from
the fact that the "whirligig" 1nstru-
ments make somebody else do part OF
the work.
That Is so human!
A machine which functions auto
matically, as we say, with the vast rev.
erence which the modern mind has for
anything automatic, Is great machine,
but it is, after all, machine. No one
would think Of regarding the electric
ice box as human. It turns itself on
and shuts itself off with uncanny pre-
cision. but with all the precision OF the
unthinking mechanism. The automatic
gas water heater in the basement Is an
other wonderful machine of modern
civilization. which has a little bit Of
copper which does its thinking" for it.
The dial telephone, however, is auto
matte with a difference. 1t compels the
user to exert his brain and his hand, up
to a certain point, or it simply will not
work at all. 1t is really human, in a
way, D6CaUlSe IL IIldkco oOiilC OiiC CloC w
part of it's work Is there a human
being alive who does not do precisely as
much. if there is any feasible way OF
securing such cooperation?
To like to have some one else do part
of ones work is not necessarily selfish.
1t means, above all, that one Is able to
secure cooperation. and there are few
things In life more satisfactory or de-
sirable than cooperation. Civilization
is based upon 1t.
Therefore, it is possible to commend
the telephones humanity when 1t COM
pels us to take hand. actually and
figuratively, in its action. 1t Is almost
possible to see the instrument smile.
n n X
Another intensely human thing about
the telephone takes us out with the
linemen on the lines, as the wires are
called. You see. we refer not to the in
strument alone, when we say "tele-
phone" but to the entire interesting in
dustry.
Maybe as you walked along highway
you saw strange tent-like structures
of canvas hitched to the side Of pole.