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this time, our country looms large on the world horizon example of the popular faith in the underlying principles of the republic.

We are truly one people in all that the forefathers, in their most exalted moments, meant by that phrase.

In making us a homogeneous people, the railroad, the telegraph and the telephone have been important factors. They have facilitated communication and intervisiting, bringing us closer together, giving us a better understanding and promoting more intimate relations.

The telephone has played its part as the situation has required. That it should have been planned for its present usefulness is as wonderful as

that the vision of the forefathers should have beheld the nation as it is today.

At first, the telephone was the voice of the community. As the population increased and its interests grew more varied, the larger task of the telephone was to connect the communities and keep all the people in touch, regardless of local conditions or distance.

The need that the service should be universal was just as great as that there should be a common language. This need defined the duty of the Bell System.

Inspired by this need and repeatedly aided by new inventions and improvements, the Bell System has become the welder of the nation. It has made the continent a community.