Volume I

Number 1

Foreword

among its employees and others. The magazine has several reasons for its existence which will appear from month to month. It intends, among other things, to preach the gospel of good cheer and good fellowship, to teach the people who work for The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company some new things about the telephone business, and more than they can learn through any other agency, and to tell others something of the problems which a telephone company daily encounters. It will be the aim of the editor to make the magazine always interesting, so that a perusal of its pages may be a pleasure and at the same time an advantage. The magazine will attempt to cover rather carefully the whole Pacific Coast telephone field, and will welcome any news from any exchange that would be of general interest. There will be from time to time articles showing the progress of telephony on this coast and elsewhere, and articles bearing on telephony in general. And in all of this work, the editor solicits the hearty co-operation of telephone

this magazine, as well as all other movements having at heart the welfare of The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company and its employees, must be more difficult.

** *

Less than fifteen months have elapsed since the San Francisco exchange of The Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company, the largest and best equipped ex

Prosperity

change in its system, was almost completely destroyed by fire. Before the smoke had cleared, plans for rebuilding had been outlined and the necessary material was ordered. On June 1, 1906, six weeks after the disaster, there were 4953 telephones in use. Before the fire the number had been

52,000. On June 1, 1907, San Francisco exchange had 29,938 stations. There has been a most gratifying increase in the past year in the number of stations and in the amount of toll business throughout the Bell Coast territory, and prospects are bright for even greater prosperity in the next twelve months. On June 1, 1906, the total number of Bell subscribers' stations in the territory now occupied by The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company was 204,537. On June 1, 1907, the number had increased to 274,401, a gain of 34 per cent. This is a greater per cent than would have appeared if the San Francisco disaster had not lessened the total for June 1, 1906, but, even considering this, the increase in number of stations is remarkable. of stations is remarkable. was 21 per cent greater than for May, 1906.

The toll business for May, 1907,

President Scott

many years been prominently identified with the business life of the Pacific Coast. Mr. Scott was born in 1846, on a farm in Baltimore County, Maryland, and was educated in the country schools of the day and in Lamb's University. As a boy he worked on the farm, afterwards entering commercial life in Baltimore. In 1867 he came west to San Francisco and secured employment as timekeeper for the Union Iron Works, then a comparatively small concern, but the largest of the sort on the Coast. During succeeding years he held various positions with this company and in 1875 became a member of the firm of Prescott, Scott and Company, who had purchased the works. When the Union Iron Works was incorpo

rated in 1883, he was elected first vicepresident, becoming later president and then chairman of its board. Following the death of President John I. Sabin, of the Pacific States Telephone and Telegraph Company, Mr. Scott was elected his successor, and took active charge early in 1906. President Scott rendered Trojan service during the troublous times following the fire of

April, 1906, and his long experience in large financial dealings proved invaluable when a reorganization of the Bell interests on the Pacific Coast was decided upon. Mr. Scott has taken a prominent part in the history of San Francisco, and is interested in many of its foremost enterprises, being a director of the Crocker estate and the CrockerWoolworth National Bank, vice-president and acting president of the Mercantile Trust Company, director of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, etc. He has always been a staunch Republican, and has served his city as a member of the Board of Education.

* * *

Executive officers of The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company are: Henry T. Scott, president; Louis Glass and E. J. Zimmer, vice-presidents; F. W. Eaton, sec

Other Officers

retary and treasurer; Thomas E. Sherwin, auditor. G. P. Robinson,

The general officers are: general superintendent; E. H. Bangs, chief engineer; D. P. Fullerton, general superintendent of construction; G. B. Bush, general contract agent; O. Cole, Jr., superintendent of traffic. A reorganization of the divisions into which the company's territory is divided became effective on April 1, and the title of division manager was changed to division superintendent. The divisions superintendents, under the new arrangement, follow: Puget Sound Division, J. H. CorOregon Division, J. H. Thatcher; Oakland coran; Inland Division, C. W. Reynolds; Division, John Kearns; Sacramento Division, W. C. Hendricks; San Joaquin Division, J. P. Noble; Coast Division, Howard Keyser; San Francisco Division, W. J. Phillips; Southern Division, C. M. Seeley.

The divisions and their

Wire Chiefs

"How Should a Wire Chief Conduct His Department?" The paper will be secured by a competition in which every wire chief will be eligible to take part. It is desired that every wire chief who has any ideas on his particular business which he thinks would be of assistance to his fellows, prepare a paper and submit it. The papers will be judged by men competent to decide on their value, and the best will be published in the next issue of the magazine. If there are a number of unusual excellence they will be given space in subsequent issues. All papers should be submitted by July 20, addressed to Willis Brindley, editor Pacific Telephone Magazine, San Francisco. The compositions should be brief-not over 1000 words and to the point. In awarding their decision the judges will consider fine thinking rather than fine writing.

About Rules

presided over by Mr. Leland Hume, general manager of the company, who made some remarks to his managers that are as pertinent on the Pacific Coast as in the South. Among other things Mr. Hume discussed rules, and he insisted with all the force of argument at his command that a rule was a rule and a rule must be obeyed. And then Mr. Hume said something that struck us as particularly sensible; that is, that a rule is a rule for a reason, and not just because some one happened to make it. Obey the rule, argued Mr. Hume, but respect it also. Said Mr. Hume: "Some managers, when the subscribers kick, stick their fingers in their mouths and say: 'It's the company's rule.' 'It's the company's rule.' I would hate to ask how many men there are in this room who can raise their hands, thus signifying that they never said that to a cus

tomer. I won't ask that question, but I will ask you never to say that again. If you get so weak in your knees, if you are so lacking in argumentative power and in ability to defend your position, if you know so little about the whys and wherefores of these various rules made in the interest and benefit of the service, then go to your superintendent and ask him some questions and post yourself so you can answer your customers fairly, squarely, and intelligently.

"When a man objects to a charge for moving a telephone, for example, it would most certainly appear more reasonable to say to him: 'Mr. Jones, we charge you for this simply because we must in order to be able to do business without a loss. If we made no charge for moving instruments we would be compelled to move many so frequently that the cost of moving would exceed the revenue from the instrument. This is plain business.'

Romance

*

In this gladsome summertime, when romance is rampant and every nook is occupied on every pleasant evening, particular interest attaches to the report of a wedding in Pittsburg. V. J. Minehan married Cora Dugan; it happens that Minehan is a millionaire and that Mrs. Minehan was previous to her marriage a telephone operator. Also the chronicler states that Minehan was first attracted by the young lady's voice. American women have been criticized for their harsh voices by citizens of every foreign land, and telephone operators have been included in the criticisms. It doesn't follow that just because Miss Dugan's voice won her a millionaire every other soft-voiced operator is fated for a similar lot; nor does it by any means follow that Mrs. Minehan is fated for any greater marital joy than will be the lot of thousands of telephone operators who marry honest men whose weekly income probably wouldn't buy the new Mrs. Minehan a pair of shoes. And yet-Miss