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Show THE INDISPENSABLE TELEPHONE. The report of the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone company is good reading read-ing for the public. Its lines now reach nearly all the towns qjC more than five hundred population in Utah, all of such towns in Idaho, and all but four In Montana. It Is a great service, and In constantly growing, not only with the country, but In advance of it. "During the year twenty-three new exchanges were established, 2310 new toll-line wires strung and 52S0 new subscribers sub-scribers added, 200 of whom were in Salt Lake. There are 19,000 subscribers to the system. There arc 16,000 mile3 of toll lines In operation, ninety-six exchanges ex-changes and 2727 toll stations." That Is fine; It 1h business; gratifying progress pro-gress concisely summed up, and President Presi-dent "Wallace Is to be commended for his excellent report. He dwells with especial and pardonable pardon-able pride on the extension of the longdistance long-distance service of tho company, and his faith In the sustaining appreciation of the public in the efforts of his company com-pany will, we trust, be wholly Justified by the results. The telephone Is one of the great Institutions In-stitutions and conveniences of modern life. We use it, we cuss It, we complain, we grumble, but after all, how could vc get along without it? In case of business, busi-ness, we can transact in a minute what without It would consume half an hour; In social matters, we do In five minutes what would otherwise tako an afternoon; after-noon; in appointments, we fix with a few calls what It would tako hours otherwise to accomplish. No longer does the busy housewife go with her market basket to the grocer, the butcher, the fruit and the vegetable vender, and weary herself walking to and fro, but she goes to the telephone and makes her order, and woe to the Incautious In-cautious tradesman, who does not fill the order satisfactorily. Is any one sick? What way so quick nnd certain to summon the doctor as by telephone? , And In case of accident, when timo is he very essence of successful suc-cessful treatment, and a fow minutes gained may mean the saying of a life, what could possibly take tho place of the telephone? In a thousand ways, the telephone has made Itself indispensable in modern mod-ern life. We didn't miss It when we didn't have It, but now that we have It, how wo should miss It were It taken away! And so we rejoice In the extension of its benefits, and congratulate its managers man-agers In this region on Its extension and constant Improvement In service. The telephone Is a great commercial, social, and civilizing Institution; its use brings persons and communities closo together and makes for the betterment of human intercourse In all walks of life. |