Evening star., 1943-02-24
McEvoyH Halls
Plea of'Don't
Use Phone
Coils on America
To Use Chinese
Chit System
BY ]. r. McEVOY.

BY J. r. McEVOY.
Friends of mine tell me It gives
them start to pick up a newspaper
and read an ad by the telephone
company begging people not to usa
the phone, and say, why should
that startle you" and they say,
Doesn't it strike you rather odd
that the telephone company In the
business OF selling telephone service
should beg people not to patronize
them any more?" And l. say, THE
only thing that startles me Is that
it took a war-the biggest war In
history-to bring out the truth
about the telephone-that instead
Of being a modern convenience and
a great time-saver, 1t Is probably
the biggest nuisance and most EN-
cient time-waster ever inflicted on
long suffering public"
Not so long ago I spent a year in
China where the phones are few and
far between and are used mostly by
No, boys to talk pidgin- English TO
each other. Every one else looks
upon the phone as a delusaon and a
snare and gave up long ago using
1t for social or business reasons.
Instead the chit system was devel-
oped-a chit being q note you wrote
to some one asking II he would join
you for tiffln 0unch and you gavs
the chit to boy and the boy de-
hvered the chit and brought back
another chit in reply.
Definite Answer.
Now unless you have used this de-
lightful system of communication you
can have no idea how superior 1t Is
to the telephone. In China when I
sent chit got another one back
within an hour-a definite yes-a
definite no-or what is more COM
mon In China, definite maybe.
But, anyway the answer was definite.
But what goes on in this country,
You call a friend to invite him to
lunch. His phone is busy. You leavs
message for him to call you back.
An hour later he calls back, but you
have gone out. He calls back two or
three times. Finally he leaves
message for you to call him. Hours
later you call him. He's in confer
ence. The secretary says, Would
you care to hold the phone or shall
have him call you back2" You
hold the phone 5, 10, Is minutes.
Suddenly there's click and the girl
says, What number did you want,
please?" You explain you were cut
off. What number, please?"
BY this time you have forgotten
the number so you have to look 1t
up. When you look it up she Is gone
and you can't get her back again.
You hang up. The phone rings. It
is your friend. The secretary says:
Hold on, please" You hold on,
and just as your friend answers
sudden panic seizes you-you have
forgotten why you called him. His
brisk, businessnke voice doesn't help
you any. He has Just been called
out Of conference, mind you, and
has missed the point OF that last
story. You apologize and explain
sheepishly you wanted him for
something, but now you have for
gotten what 1t was. He hangs up
and then you remember. So you
call back and the Alice in Wonder
land cycle starts all over again.
Clever, These Chinese.
Yes, we could learn a lot from
the Chinese, and some OF us have.
Only the other day dropped in on
Philip Wylie over at Miami Beach
to borrow a copy of his new book
Generation OF Vipers." He was
writing postcard to his neighbor.
Hervey Allen, author of Anthony
Adverse II am making a luncheon
engagement for tomorrow" Wylie
explained. why don't you phone
him?" I asked. "Hervey Allen has
no phone" said Wylie. THE only
way anybody can get a message to
him Is by sending him a postcard"
I might have known that. No man
with a phone ringing in the house
could ever have written q novel
slightly smaller than a Sears Roe
buck catalogue.
But that's all right for tempera-
mental WRITER'S" says you. How
could a business man carry on with
out phone?' And. right on cue, I
come up with business man, dy-
manic young Jack Kapp, president,
founder and thinker-upper Of the
Decca Record Co. Every month he
saves $50 in house phones alone by
the simple expedient Of printing up
postcards and sending them out
instead, to his friends, tradesmen,
business associates and intimates
on various rationing boards. He is
even training his wife to send chits
to her friends instead of phoning
them.
If man can do that the implica-
tions are staggering-it means the
end OF the telephone in this coun-
try. And about time, too.
Distributed by McNaught Syndicate, Incl.