Show U Us S LEADS WORLD IN USE OF PHONES more than half of total Is found in america washington there were telephones in the entire world on january 1 1931 according to statistics recently compiled by the american telephone and telegraph company it takes some time to seccie secure authoritative data from the more remote countries and january 1 1831 1931 Is the latest at date for which comparable information Is available in full the united states then had telephones or more than halt half of the worlds total the united states and canada together had more than twice as many telephones as the whole of europe thirty per cent of the worlds total telephones were in europe and 9 per cent were scattered widely about the globe adverse business conditions condl tlona slowed down the rate of telephone growth in 1030 and even caused a few countries to lose telephones the alie total number of telephones in the world increased by during that year the increase of telephones irk in the united states during tile the year exceeded that in auy any other country private phone phona companies Compan les privately owned systems operate more than two thirds of the worlds telephones in the united states state all telephones are operated by private companies tills this country la Is not only equipped with more telephones than all the rest of the world put together but it is likewise outstanding in the number of its telephones relative to population with telephones for each people the relative prevalence of telephones in ID the united states Is more than eight times that in europe call canada with 14 telephones per people Is the only country whose telephone hone facilities in proportion to population approach those of the united states new zealand takes third place with telephones per people followed by denmark with 89 99 sweden with 87 rind australia with 81 telephones per people most of the telephones in both canada and denmark are operated by private companies argentina leads lead in S A germany ranks second to the united states la in absolute number of telephones but line lias only five telephones per people great britain baital a has 43 and aad france only 28 in all three of these countries the government operates the telephone system argentina with 20 telephones per people has nearly one halt half ot of all the telephones la in south america japan and nd the th union of south africa each with only 14 telephones per people lead in telephone development in asia and africa respectively the small towns and rural sections of america are notably well provided with telephone hoine in tills country with less than population each have at their disposal an average of telephones for each inhabitants in europe even the larger cities are for the most part less adequately supplied with telephones than these small american communities |