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Show WHAT BELL COMPM! V -I)a!k Something About a Corporation MiHe ia Employs an Army k'M HOW THE SYSTEM HAS Qs BBEN EXPANDBD IN WEST anS ome acs ail( figures About '8 Corporato Interests That Hclp Stato f Utah" HQjlJJp When you tako down your telephone n receiver, and because the line is busy rSjkfc and you accidentally were plugged in Wk. on a wrong number, because your cnun-fitoilK. cnun-fitoilK. , ciation wag not' perfect, and you let Bi out a few cuss words, you forjot that "K tho operator niipht have been just as nnkiK r0i as you were; that the tempera-ure tempera-ure was 3U5' as "iff" iQ the room where h Bp the switchboard is located as it was P SQfr in your office; that tho voice which vJIBg answered you was that of a fprl. your ma tmk friend's daughter; that slio had to an-Trwl an-Trwl swor 499 other crunlcs iust like you W uurine the eight-hour sliift at this , ijTyB- switchboard; and that 3-011 had not the itB least excuse for swearing at a woman 9rj ftf Bi o man has. bfti'K -ou UH 5,;vorci an then you JN carried out your rriovanco and cursed ptatSE the corporation. This is a right that Jjg ('ij-jfit is accorded to everybody, for every-body every-body knows that a corporation lias no soul, and that its only mission is to take everything in sight, give as little as pos- MriugMl sible in return, to pay no attention to its employees, but the'grind them down 0(rJ to a pittance in pay for work done, lirt jjR " This, of coui.se, is tlie popular notion. 3JjjTC Demagogues have prom-lied it so long that the general public has come tobe-all'K tobe-all'K liove that it is true. But do tho facts 't'Jf!w warrant this belief? Is it true? jjjtvBF Need tnc Corporations. iBK TVhat wo-ild Salt Lake do without y'WMf corporations? "What would a great army jtaflp- f people in Utah do without corpora- A4R" tious? Suppose all these corporations 'VK would suddenly stop their nay roll in -iK Zion. in Utah. "what would the business WpfJm community do? People forget these it! things: forget that these corporations, 1 ffnlaj'' while paying out wages to a great mm ann.v. also pa 3- their share to- K wards supporting tho governments of 3Pft state and county and city and village Sm aid hamlet. Bill corporations do all mmM this! hH In Utah G5'l people are on ihe pav roll S J1 of the Kooky iUouniain Boll Telephone company. Of this nuii'bor .'I7;j, or more )' owe l"a" na' oL' no ota'' iro ''inpl3'?d in 311 ''' nke. Those employees in Salt Lake receive cvorv day $S2o.01 in l!fK' wages, that is. iroYTo.OT1 evcrv week. IrlftW $'2o,750.:0 every month, 1.12S.65 lUnBr ,V0ly ytnr. This money is spent in imM fc Tjako as is fif Larger part of that pair out m wages throughout the state. JT1B' Salt Lake Pity is the headquarters MuL for iM0 Kooky Mountain Bell Telephone L5jR system. This system covers four states, !9' Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Ihese four states the compa'113' cin-MtW: cin-MtW: ploys 1450 persons. It has 9175 miles )of poles in these four states, of which mileage 2270 is in Utah, and the 11101103-invested 11101103-invested in the four states is somewhat in excess ox eight and a half million dollars. Service' in Mountains. Tho telcphono first came into use In 1S7G-7. Four years after the invention of the lelephone the Kooity Mountain Bell Telephone company was giving telephone tel-ephone service to pa(ro"us in a territory that is largest in proportion to population, popula-tion, and the second largest in actual area of all tho lelephone companies iu the world, with as high a ratio of development de-velopment to population n'j many thickly thick-ly settled eastern communities, a'l though to got that development the company had to build in some instances dozens of miles of line to one in tho eastern country on account of wide distribution of patrons. People forget another thing when forming their opinion of corporations, and that is pln'sicil conditions. For illustration, il-lustration, in "a thickly settled eastern community tho' get a two-cent railroad fare. The population is heavy, the country is level, the grades are minimum, mini-mum, cost of operation is at the low point. Out in the mountains thrco or four cents a mile is charged, and in sonic instances ten, but the grades are at the maximum, mountain ranges have to be scaled miles and miles of tunnel construction, tons upon tons of rock blasted out to make llxa steel highway, whilo the population is sparse. Tho same illustration appj'ps to telephones. Thoro is tho added difiicultr in the case of construction and mauftsuanio, the added cost of operation aud ihe small population to draw from. For instance, oaa sends a tqlcphone message to Butte. Tho sondcr kicks aboul the cost. Vy? lie forgets xli.it the cost of building'tho line was heavy, that cost of maintenance is hiAvy, that the distance is nearly 4r0 miles, that were he to make ihe trip personally the cost would raugo about 00 nt the leas!, besides his own .'oss of limo; .hat a lei ter would be entiieh1" too slow. Uut ho Icicles because it is "a oor. oration, and 3'et with an expense of two or throe dollars ho transact-; b.isincss without difficult' miles awaj". And yd the tariff rates oil all lines arc the same as in the east. Has Aided De-velopnicnt. Tho telcphono, like the railroad, has stimulatod development in the mountains. moun-tains. Nearly every ranch, nearly overj farm in tho mountain region has its telephone and can reach an' point in this groat, intermountain empire with but nominal cost. To build up this groat system cost money, and a great deal of it. This money had to come from the cast much of it. from the old world Had the L'oeky Mountain Bell Telephone company negotiated a loan or sold its bonds" alone the rate of interest would necessarily have boon high. But the money to expand the system came from the parent company. In other words, the parent company, the Belle Telophoao company, would negotiate abroad a loan of $50,000,000 at 4 per cent interest. This would be divided in accord with the needs of the several minor companies at the same rate of interest that tho parent company paid, and thus the telephono system in this section the four great states named has boon expanded. Had it not been for this eastern support, sup-port, this coming io the. front with funds, it would have ben impossible to have brought the service up io the present high standard, one that is tho eipial of any in the world, and which gives telephonic facilities to the people in mountain and valley and dale far away from iron highways, at points where, in tho winter season, lone men have to travel on snowshocs to make repairs. And -ct all this is from a corporation, and the return upon all the expenditure of money in order that you and your neighbor here in the next county, in the next state, on the Pacific Pa-cific slope, in tho middle west, on the Atlantic coast, may talk with each other, although separated hundreds and thousand's of miles, is but 0 per cent, and that not upon watered stock. Individuals Do Not Build. Individuals cannot build, or, at least, they never have built groat railroads or telephone systems. This is only done by corporato interests. Without those corporate interests, much of the west which is now productive would still be barren wastes, covered with sagebrush and greasewood, instead of magnificient farms, upon which are built handsome homes and Buppliod with all modern conveniences. Railroads, telephones, telegraphs, irrigation projects, everything every-thing that has made tho arid wastes habitable, made them blossom ns the rose, is duo to corporato interests. In Utah tho Uocky Mountain Bell Telophonc company will this 3-ear pay taxes upon property valued by 'the state board of equalization at $1,112,675, That is, the company will pa' on $062,-(37S $062,-(37S for v.'ircs. poles and instruments and $150,000 on franchises. Annorlioned by counties tho valuation is as follows; the figures for 100S are given for the pur-poso pur-poso of comparison: How Taxes Arc Apportioned. County. 1009. 1003. Beaver ? 10,780 $ 10.512 Box Elder 37,712 Sy.OfH Cache 72.131 70.370 Carbon 2,120 2,102 Davis -17,301) 50.a:;2 Iron S,fiR2 S.GG2 Juab 10,530 17.S11 Millard S2S S17 Morgan 7,:tl5 4,002 1 Piute 1.310 1.308 Hlfih 3.000 2,962 Salt 'Lake 577.801 C00.05S Sanpete 1G.S90 17.361 Sevier 15.112 17.970 Summit 32,201 31.900 Tooele 13.-102 13.513 Utah 90,115 101.271 Wasatch 0,019 C.50.1 Washington S.213 0.13R Weber 135.11-5 133.50S Total $1,112,673 51.153.013 Last year the company paid taxes in Utah or $!;, 000, and on tho system in four states $101,000. so that it will bo seen that Utah received in taxes nearly 50 por cent of the gross taxes paid by this company . |