Construction Notes.

The order for the new San Francisco Pacific Office switchboard, which will comprise three sections of "A" board and four sections of "B" board, has been placed with the Western Electric Company. The underground conduit system necessary to feed this office was installed recently, and it is expected that the underground cable and aerial construction work will be started within a short time. The completion of this office will relieve conditions in West Office District, which means increased efficiency in service.

The Construction Department is preparing to install 100 additional answering jacks at Fresno, to relieve congested conditions at that place.

The old No. 92 keys at Pasadena are to be changed to No. 116 keys, thereby giving this exchange standard equipment. Three hundred additional multiple will also be installed shortly. The Construction Department has plans for this work under way.

During the past month II “A” sections and 6 "B" sections of switchboard in the new Douglas Office, San Francisco, have been completed and turned over to the Maintenance Department for service. This will replace all of the remaining temporary equipment in old Main Office which was installed immediately after the earthquake of 1906.

The installation of switchboards in the new office at Sacramento was started during the past month.

The new toll line to Yosemite Valley was completed May 11th. A novel feature of this line is the tree construction, 12 miles of circuit being supported almost entirely by suspension wires from

trees.

Owing to an increased demand for toll facilities, an additional circuit is being strung from Merced to Bagby.

Considerable toll line construction is being carried on throughout the territory at present, particularly in California, and in the Portland and Seattle districts.

At a conference held May 15th at

tended by representatives of the Engineering, Construction and City Departments for the purpose of discussing conditions and requirements in San Francisco, many points were brought out which have already had effective results toward getting additional facilities where most needed.

Rogue River Improvements.

Mr. E. B. Smith, Special Agent, Division Superintendent Gilkyson and Wire Chief W. D. Moore, while en route from California to Portland, outlined a plan for placing Grant's Pass and surrounding exchanges on a central checking system at once. This will involve immediate construction of a new copper loop from Grant's Pass to Medford; a new line from Medford to Gold Hill, and a new line from Grant's Pass to Glendale. It is also probable that Grant's Pass will very shortly have a new common battery switchboard installed in new Central Office quarters which already have been leased.

The very great need of these new lines in Southern Oregon emphasizes the rapid growth that territory is enjoying. There is probably no place on the Pacific Coast that has gained and deserved the reputation which the Rogue River Valley enjoys. It is fast becoming the best-known fruit country in Oregon and thousands of people are moving into that section of the country, developing it along all lines. The demand of these new immigrants for telephone service must be met immediately. The inspection tour of the above-named officials will undoubtedly result in immediate steps being taken to provide the facilities for handling the business that is offered, and Grant's Pass, Medford, Ashland, Central Point and other exchanges will profit accordingly.

We look before and after,

And sigh for what is not; Our sincerest laughter with some pain is fraught;

Our sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest thought. SHELLEY.

backwardness of Europeans in telephony has been generally admitted. But this state of affairs has not always been attributed to the fact that the telephone plants are operated as public utilities. Municipal ownership, the panacea which has proven in so many cases a very bitter dose, has failed most miserably when offered to the telephone business.

It is my opinion, based upon a study at first hand, that the stateowned telephone systems of Europe compared with the telephone systems of this country, both as regards development and from a financial and service standpoint, are woefully deficient, writes Mr. Burgess. So ludicrous is the comparison that it puts me in mind of the American gentleman who, when traveling in Asia Minor, insisted upon the similarity of the rivers in that country with the rivers in Ohiobecause there were salmon in both.

I

The contrast between the operators is most marked. I have been impressed with the intelligence, vim, snap, call it what you will, of the American operator. When I consider the number of calls. they handle, their speed and accuracy seen to me little short of marvelous. was astonished at the length the companies go in looking after their physical welfare. After looking through an exchange in Chicago I was shown over the operators' retiring rooms. I could not help contrasting the pleasant surroundings with those of an exchange I visited in Paris. There the switchboard was in an extremely dirty condition, and the switch room had evidently not been cleaned for days. No retiring or lunch rooms were provided for the operators,

who apparently were doing just as they pleased. Some were reading, and some were indulging in animated conversation, the answering of calls being quite a secondary consideration. In Berlin, Stockholm and London the surroundings were certainly much better, but nothing to be compared with what I saw in Chicago, and the operating was terribly slow. I attribute this difference to the fact, that whereas in America the operators' position and advancement depend upon her ability, in Europe the operators, being a part of the civil service cannot be discharged and thus, having obtained a position for life, have no further incentive and rapidly absorb the well-known inertia of that department.

As far as my investigations go, the telephone systems in this country are managed along commercial lines. Rates are fixed with regard to the actual cost of giving service, improvements are adopted as soon as their efficiency has been demonstrated, and a plant which, owing to improvements in the art, has become obsolete is at once discarded. This is far from being the case in Europe. There the business is conducted by methods that are neither practical nor commercial. Considerations which are quite foreign to the business enter in. Rates are fixed without regard to the factors which should govern them. For instance, in Switzerland the same rate is charged in Davos, a city of 8,000 inhabitants, as in Zurich, with 150,000 inhabitants. The tendency is also very great to oppose any improvement or any change which tends to make additional expenditure necessary. Berlin is now just adopting the common battery sys tem after operating for years with a cumbrous and old-fashioned grounded line magneto system. Paris is still struggling along with a miserable and hopelessly antiquated system.

Southern Division.

0

0'

26

Palo Alto

7

4 Walla Walla

4

The Dalles

Oregon Operators Organize. Operators' organizations have been effected recently at Hood River, Astoria, Salem, Albany and Eugene, and meetings are held regularly every two weeks. At most of the above-named offices a club has been organized and President and Secretary elected. Astoria and Hood River, being the first organized, have shown greater progress. Operating irregularities have been thoroughly discussed at meetings already held, and as a result 75 per cent. decrease in irregularities has been shown.

Mr. A. F. Swenson, Division Chief Operator of the Inland Division; Miss Grace Burton, Chief Operator Spokane; Miss Frances Hoffine and Miss Maude Coonrad, the latter two being operators at the Spokane Office, arrived in Portland on May 10th for a week's visit. These people are here to pick up operating ideas, especially the method of hand

Francisco.47.8 30.6

ling B operating at the Portland Office. On their return they will introduce the B operating system between the Main and West Offices in Spokane, the latter being a new exchange. While here the young women were guests of the Western Bell Club, who arranged many pleasant outings and entertainments.

The Paper in this magazine was supplied by the ZELLERBACH

PAPER CO.

SAN FRANCISCO