aintly
realized. It is not until Americans visit foreign countries that they
understand that, imperfect as in certain directions their industrial
and social organization may be, in this respect at least their nation is
preeminent.

The United States contains nearly all the telephones in existence, to
be exact, about seventy-five per cent. We have about ten million
telephones, while Canada, Central America, South America, Great Britain,
Europe, Asia, and Africa all combined have only about four million. In
order to make an impressive showing, however, we need not include the
backward peoples, for a comparison with the most enlightened nations
emphasizes the same point. Thus New York City has more telephones than
six European countries taken together--Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Norway,
Denmark, Italy, and the Netherlands. Chicago, with a population
of 2,000,000, has more telephones than the whole of France, with a
population of 40,000,000. Philadelphia, with 1,500,000, has more than
the Russian Empire, with 166,000,000. Boston has more telephones than
Austria-Hungary, Los Angeles more than the Netherlands, and Kansas City
more than Belgium. Several office buildings and hotels in New York City
have more instruments than the kingdoms of Greece or Bulgaria. The whole
of Great Britain and Ireland has about 650,000 telephones, which is only
about 200,000 more, than the city of New York.

Mere numbers, however, tell only half the story. It is when we compare
service that American superiority stands most manifest. The London
newspapers are constantly filled with letters abusing the English
telephone system. If these communications describe things accurately,
there is apparently no telephone vexation that the Englishman does not
have to endure. Delays in getting connections are apparently chronic.
At times it seems impossible to get connections at all, especially
from four to five in the afternoon--when the operators are taking tea.
Suburban connections, which in New York take about ninety seconds,
average half an hour in London, and many of the smaller cities have no
night service. An American thinks nothing of putting in a telephone; he
notifies his company and in a few days the instrument is installed. We
take a thing like this for granted. But there are places where a mere
telephone subscription, the privilege of having an instrument installed,
is a property right of considerable value and where the telephone
service has a "