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proportionate when itJs realized that
ibe annual receipts from the tele
. hone and telegraph business will
total 350 millions.--.
The Bell Company'ihcapitalization
is 620 million dollars and represents
approximately 71 per cent of the
total telephone capital, which thus
will be about 900 million dollars.
There are about nine million tele
phones and nineteen million miles of
wire, three million of which is toll or
interurban, and duplicates some two
million miles of telegraph wires.
It would not be necessary to ac
quire the telegraph lines. The tele
phones can be, and.nbw are, largely
used simultaneously for telephone
and telegraph communication. The
telephone wires go to every- point
reached by the telegraph. To acquire'
the telegraphs would merely mean
the waste of so much capital.
A difficulty, it may be argued, is
the addition to the postal system of
the numerous personnel, about 200,
000 persons, who are now engaged in
the telephone service. It will, it' may
be said, be so much patronage for
the party in power and be used as a
lever for its perpetuation. The civil
service, I think, is a sufficient answer
to such statements. And more than
one-half of all the employes are girls,
who only average from three to four
years in the service before getting
married and leaving it.
David J. Lewis,
Congressman from Maryland.
IF PEOPLE HAD OWNED THE
PHONE SYSTEM LAST YEAR
If the. government had purchased
the telephone system on Jan. 1, 1912,
for $900,000,000, paid" for the lines
with 3 per cent bonds, set aside 5 per
cent more lor depreciation, the peo
ple would have made a profit of
$126,227,830, or more than, a dollar
for each man, woman and child.
The table below was based upon
the actual figures of the Bell tele
phone system. The figures for the
independent- toes, and .far operator
and messenger expense- for tele
grams is estimated:
Receipts, 1912 .
Teleg'ms (300,000,000)..$ 75,000,000
Bell system receipts 199,172,154
Ind'p't Co.'s receipts' 81,351,989
Total receipts $355,524,143
Expenditures
Telegrams, 7c each $ 21,000,000
Bell system, 1912 . i
Operation , 65,246,677
Current maintenance. 31,762,636
Independents
Operation 26,651,000
Current maintenance, 12,586,000
Interest at 3 per cent on
purchase 27,000,000
Depreciation :at 5 per
cent onpurchase 45,000,000
Total"expenditures... .$229,246,313
Resume
Total receipts, . . . . .$355,524,143
Expenditures, interest
and depreciation 229,246,313
Net balance . $126,227,830
PROBE CAUSE OF BOY'S DEATH
The body of Jonathan Skornia, 8,
1158 W. Monroe street, was yester
day exhumed for the purpose of de
termining if he was kicked to death
by. a playmate at the Skinner school,
Jackson boulevard and 'Aberdeen
street. '
The boy was seized with pain while
attending school on Jan. 22. He fell
to the floor and cried out jthat, he
had been kicked by a boy. Later he
denied this story but the parents be--lieve
it. He died Jan. 24.
o o
LITTLE MABEL SAYS
Little Mabel was out ,in the gar
den in the early spring of the year, .
and her mother wondering why she
was so quiet went out to see what?
she was doing. She found a row of
tiny feathers planted all along the
flower bed. '
"Look, mammal I planted these to
grow little chickens," saidjMjbeL. a
