Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 71.djvu/147

Rh granting of territorial rights under equitable conditions had to be formulated, methods had to be devised for the establishment of central telephone exchanges, then equitable conditions planned for connecting neighboring exchanges with toll lines, and, finally, the invention of accessory telephone equipment and its economical manufacture and reasonable marketing. To-day there are many who believe they can tell far better how to plan these things than the parent Bell is now doing. But in the pioneer days there was no wealth in the treasury or in prospect, and there were none who were competent to advise intelligently on technical telephone questions, or to share practical telephone experience, while there were many very intelligent men who did not hesitate to discourage the movement in every way; for they could not perceive how speech transmission could have any commercial value. Yet, notwithstanding all these discouraging conditions, a careful study of the plans under which licenses were granted for operating exchanges and for toll lines interconnecting exchanges, shows a far-sighted conception of the ultimate growth and interrelation of exchanges that wins heartiest admiration.

Mr. Hubbard made many visits to various cities and endeavored to interest capital in the new invention, and he loaned telephones to men of influence in the hope that daily use would lead them to perceive the future value of the invention. But scarcely one of the men, who should have foreseen the growth of the telephone industry and who might have assisted in establishing it under favorable conditions, gave him any encouragement. So he was compelled to turn to men who had little money, but much energy combined with a strong faith in their own abilities to succeed. Thus, as a rule, it was men of this type, rather than the financier, who helped to lay the foundations of exchange telephone service in many localities.

In the beginning the parent company had seriously considered the advisability of forming a second organization to build, equip and operate telephone exchanges in all our cities. Though this plan was strongly advocated by men whose faith in the greatness of Alexander Graham Bell's invention and in the ultimate success of the telephone had never faltered, four good and sufficient reasons soon showed how impracticable it would be to carry the plan through on a satisfactory basis:

First. The more the plan was analyzed the greater appeared the actual cash investment that would be required to establish exchanges in all the cities in the United States, until the total amount that would be required aggregated more than a hundred millions, a sum almost fabulous in 1877, yet actually necessary if this new and untried industry was to be properly built up.

Second. For one company to undertake to build exchanges in all