his own instrument, making his
selection from about forty different varieties. That certain dangers
were inherent in this universal system Vail understood. Monopoly all
too likely brings in excessive charges, poor service, and inside
speculation; but it was Vail's plan to justify his system by its works.
To this end he established a great engineering department which should
study all imaginable mechanical improvements, with the results which
have been described. He gave the greatest attention to every detail of
the service and particularly insisted on the fairest and most courteous
treatment of the public. The "please" which invariably accompanies the
telephone girl's request for a number--the familiar "number, please"--is
a trifle, but it epitomizes the whole spirit which Vail inspired
throughout his entire organization. Though there are plenty of people
who think that the existing telephone charges are too high, the fact
remains that the rate has steadily declined with the extension of
the business. Vail has also kept his company clear from the financial
scandals that have disgraced so many other great corporations. He has
never received any reward himself except his salary, such fortune as
he possesses being the result of personal business ventures in South
America during the twenty years from 1887 to 1907 that he was not
associated with the Bell interests.

Vail's first achievement was to rescue this invention from the greatest
calamity which would have befallen it. The Western Union Telegraph
Company, which in the early days had looked upon the telephone
as negligible, suddenly awoke one morning to a realization of its
importance. This Corporation had recently introduced its "printing
telegraph," a device that made it possible to communicate without the
intermediary operator. When news reached headquarters that subscribers
were dropping this new contrivance and subscribing to telephones, the
Western Union first understood that a competitor had entered their
field. Promptly organizing the American Speaking Telephone Company, the
Western Union, with all its wealth and prestige, proceeded to destroy
this insolent pigmy. Its methods of attack were unscrupulous and
underhanded, the least discreditable one being the use of its political
influence to prevent communities from giving franchises to the Bell
Company. But this corporation mainly relied for success upon the
wholesale manner in which it infringed the Bell paten