appreciable, even by telephone people, and the experiment will be watched with interest. The work is already under way and Division Superintendent Kearns is enthusiastic over the beginning which has been made. He feels certain of success and his staff are with him to a man. If spirit counts, John Kearns will win.

The party line is a comparatively recent telephone proposition. The plan was conceived for a definite purpose, and it fulfilled the purpose. Party service is intended to please the large number of people who want telephone service for less money than the single-line service can be supplied for. The idea became popular. While the same amount of labor was required to handle the calls, more calls could be handled over a single line; but, manifestly, the service was found to deteriorate, and it did. The tenparty service, popular for a time, was early demonstrated impracticable, and it has been discontinued in most parts of the coast territory. Mr. Kearns believes that the people of his division are prosperous enough and progressive enough to appreciate that singleline service or two-party service is a better bargain for them than the four-party service that so many of them have hitherto used exclusively. THE PACIFIC TELEPHONE MAGAZINE stands by him in this and has faith in his ability to prove it to his

subscribers.

The first work of changing the system. from four-party to one-party and two-party service is being done in the trans-bay citiesOakland, Berkeley, and Alameda.

all the telephones in this district have been changed the company's agents will begin working in the outlying district. So far, the solicitors have met with gratifying success. The telephones are being changed as rapidly as changes are ordered, and the people who

transfer to a higher grade of service at once appreciate the wisdom of the move and become boosters for the company, so that the movement gathers impetus as it proceeds. Oakland's service, even with many party lines, has been splendid, and with the additions to the plant which will be required by the change in system and even more careful supervision of the operating, it will be possible to make it much better, so that the people who have faith in the company's sincerity are certain to find their confidence justified.

provements that should have been provided for by setting aside a sum for depreciation. It all serves to demonstrate the fallacy of the promises of the wily promoters. The sooner the general public learns that the telephone business is a plain, everyday business which must be conducted economically and thriftily like any other business, the fewer will be the widow's mites that go to help the fly-by-night promiser. The press dispatches have of late reported several instances which serve to illustrate how many silly plans go wrong. The Louisville Home Telephone Company, for example, skipped its semi-annual dividend on July 1. This company was incorporated under the laws of Delaware in 1903, and its plant presumably is less than four years old. Yet, according to a director of the company, the company has "planned for considerable improvement and extension work, which it was unable to finance by the flotation of bonds owing to the depressed condition of the security market." The North Platte, Neb., Telephone Company, recently sold to a Mr. Warner of Lexington, served notice on June 26 that rates for all classes of service would

tion of the first number of the magazine was delayed, so that the second went to press before a sufficient time had elapsed to permit all who wished to submit papers to get them ready for publication in it, yet the results have been most satisfactory. Several papers have been received at this writing, and one of them, which was considered by the judges most worthy of the distinction, is given space this month. The best of those received later will be published next month. The editor desires to express his gratification with the careful manner in which the papers were prepared and his appreciation of the co-operation

of the authors.

the compartments. And, if there be dust in the corner of the locker-which, by the way, there is no need of there being the dust clings to the trappings and the operator, her day's work finished, leaves the building looking as dilapidated and labor-stained as a foundryman on a ferryboat. We can not all be beautiful, which is a truism that many an unfortunate has drummed into her many times a day, but we can all aspire to that sort of comeliness which only cleanliness and neatness can produce.

of

out

the command weakening it.

Potency of Please it all amounts to the same thing a softening or petition, withProfessor Walter Dill Scott of the Northwestern University, in his interesting book on the Theory of Advertising, comments on the remarkable success of such advertising catch-phrases as "Just Get the Delineator" and "Let the

Gold-Dust Twins Do Your Work." Professor Scott, whose specialty is psychology, argues that it is natural to do what one is told. Command a man to "sit down," for instance, and nine times out of ten he will sit down. But, argues the professor, the abrupt command rouses in the mind of the hearer a resentment which is removed only by some placating word such as "just," or "let," or "please." The theory appears to hold good in practice, and many employers now make the use of "please" compulsory. It is a good word; the use of it costs no money and very little time, and it never gives offense.

Wise Coalinga

tems. The city's Board of Trustees on July 15 passed unanimously a resolution to the effect that "this board hereby deny the application of the said J. N. Wheeler for a telephone franchise." Mr. Wheeler, who at one time operated a sublicense Bell exchange at Coalinga, made application for a franchise to start an independent company. As Wheeler was well known in Coalinga his proposition was given due consideration. M. J. Dillman, special agent of The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, presented the company's arguments, which proved convincing. In its resolutions the board declared that "it is the firm conviction of this board, after carefully considering the conditions which must necessarily follow the installation of a second telephone system in our midst, such as divided service to the public and a double cost to those who for business reasons would be compelled to have both telephones, that the same would prove a serious detriment to the community." Amen.

San Francisco Supervisors Hold
Interesting Meeting.

Long-distance supervisors of San Francisco will meet hereafter once a week to "talk shop." The first meeting, held on Friday morning, July 19, proved so interesting and profitable that those present were unanimous in favor of a continuance of the sessions. Hereafter, however, the meetings will be held at six o'clock p. m., this having been

decided upon as a more satisfactory time.

The long-distance staff is so organized that for each division there is one senior operator, who can substitute for a supervisor on any occasion. The meetings thus are indirectly of benefit to the staff, enabung the next in line to get practical experience in supervision.

At the first meeting, which was called to order by Miss Hartery, she, as chief, talked to the supervisors about the rules and pointed out some present deficiencies in the service.

The picture shows an interior view of the Chinatown exchange of Fresno. The young man with the telephone in his hand is Chester Harley, the manager. Harley is a native Californian, born and raised in Fresno, and was educated in the city schools. He wears American clothes, is a voter, and talks American with hardly an accent. Fresno exchange has about eighty stations, including a few Japanese. It was started by Harley about a year ago, and the venture proved popular in Fresno's Chinatown. The exchange is connected with the main office by trunks. Harley has kept the service up to a high standard.

Calling a complainer a kicker makes. him a kicker.

Santa Rosa has an unique organization of telephone people which commends itself heartily to THE PACIFIC TELEPHONE MAGAZINE. The organization is called the Potential Club, is composed of male employees of The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, and has for its object the familiarizing of the members with various branches of electricity and telephony. H. S. Johnson, county manager, is the head and front of the organization and has made it a powerful influence for the advancement of all concerned. The Potential Club idea appeals so strongly to THE PACIFIC TELEPHONE MAGAZINE that an outline of its work is considered worthy of space.

The club was organized in January, 1906, for the male employees of the Sunset (now The Pacific) Telephone and Telegraph Company. The officers of the club

are:

High Potential (who acts as president).
Low Potential (vice-president).
Accumulator (treasurer).
Repeater (secretary).

Other members of the club are known as receivers.

The small funds needed for maintenance of the club are obtained by levying an assessment of 50 cents a month on each member. This money is used principally for subscriptions to leading technical magazines.

Meetings are held in the wire chief's office every Thursday evening at 8 o'clock, being called to order by the High Potential. After the regular routine, the club considers the topic of discussion for the evening. At present, the members are taking up the different parts of the common-battery telephone, and the last two meetings have been devoted to a discussion of the receiver, showing its

relation to the telephone and the operation of

its several parts.

its several parts. Diagrams and circuits are snown on the blackboaru and explained in detail.

At each meeting a paper is read by a Transmitter on some subject which was assigned him the week before. Another member, assigned to the task the week before, reads a paper on current electrical events of interest, and then follows the opening of the Bell Box, which contains questions submitted by the members. The box being opened by some member appointed by the High Potentia, the questions are read and the members are called upon for answers. In case some question comes up which cannot be answered satisfactorily, a member is assigned to seek light on the subject and report at the next meeting. The Bell Box has been a most important feature of the Potential Club meetings. After the questions have been disposed of, the members are offered an opportunity to tell their experiences or difficulties and this leads to much profitable discussion.

Occasionally (perhaps once a month) when the Accumulator's exchequer will permit, the club has a social session, with refreshments and a general good time.

The Potential Club idea is one that is adapted to every community. Such a club enables telephone men to become familiar with the rudiments of work not in their ticular line and fits them by a general technical education to fill positions of advanced responsibility. It enables the managers, wire chiefs, and city foremen to get acquainted with their men, and is generally beneficial. The success of the Potential Club of Santa Rosa is abundantly testified to by the loyalty of the employees to their able county manager and to the company, and by the excellence of the service.

I want a number bad, indeed I do;

"My nickel's in the slot-I got an answer NOT