Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/546

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UNITED STATES

The total capital invested in railways (stock, funded and unfunded debt) on December 31, 1918, was 20,784,832,841 dollars, and the total amount paid in dividends and interest was 842,471,285 dollars. The number of locomotives was 67,936.

The telegraphs of the United States are largely in the hands of the Western Union Telegraph Company, which had (December 31, 1919) 245,560 miles of line, 1,433,978 miles of wire, and 25,452 offices; the number of messages sent in 1912 (the latest, available returns) was estimated at 90,000,000, not including messages sent over leased wires or under railroad contracts ; the receipts (corporate and Federal), in 1919, 104,082,147 dollars; expenses (corporate and Federal) 90,312,033 dollars ; and profits (corporate and Federal), 13,770,114 dollars.

The following table relates to the business of another important company ; the figures of the table do not represent the operations of one company, but the aggregation of the figures of many companies which go to make up the telephone system which is generally known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (' Bell Telephone System ') on January 1 of each year : —

-

1917

1918

1919 5,742

1920

Number of central offices

5,397

5,676

5,731

Total miles of exchange service wire

17,107,405

19,521,679

19,947,230

20,643,490

Number of telephones owned

6,545,490

7,031,530

7,201.757

7,739,159

Total employees ....

179,032

102,364

187,458

209,860

Length of wire operate miles

19,850,315

22,610,487

23,281,150

24,162,999

Number of exchange messages daily

28,530,073

30,845,153

30,001,146

29,561,000'-!

Capital of Companies. dollars

463,101,569

505,403,777

513,017,040

512,121,868

Revenue. . . . ,,

301,867,172

( :i >

( 3 )

—

Income 1 .... „

50,714, -.HI

51,947,767

51,957,565

"

1 Including private-line telephones.

2 Based on daily average messages for lust five months of 1919.

3 The Bell Telephone System was under Federal control during the last five months of 1918, and a complete income statement for the properties of the system was, therefore, not available for January 1, 1919.

The postal business of the United States was as follows : —

Fiscal Year ending June 30

1918 1919 1920

Pieces of Mail

handled in

Railway Mail

Service

14,134,736,744 14,962.066,979 15,471,523,112

Registered

Cases and

other

single pieces

in R.M.8.

67,725,479 83.172.6S2 93,107,220

Rotary locked

registered

pouchos

and sacks

handled

in R.M.S.

4 370,386 », 868.976

4,503,882

Total

14 206,832,609 15,049.093,636 15,569,134,214

Money orders issued (1919-1920) :—

Dollars Domestic. . . 148,490,987 amounting to 1,332,699,836 International. . 1,351,847 „ 32,960,048

Total

. 149,842,834

1,365,659,884