907, great things have been done by the men of
the telephone and telegraph world. The Bell System was brought through
the panic without a scratch. When the doubt and confusion were at their
worst, Vail wrote an open letter to his stock-holders, in his practical,
farmer-like way. He said:

"Our net earnings for the last ten months were $13,715,000, as against
$11,579,000 for the same period in 1906. We have now in the banks over
$18,000,000; and we will not need to borrow any money for two years."

Soon afterwards, the work of consolidation began. Companies that
overlapped were united. Small local wire-clusters, several thousands
of them, were linked to the national lines. A policy of publicity
superseded the secrecy which had naturally grown to be a habit in the
days of patent litigation. Visitors and reporters found an open door.
Educational advertisements were published in the most popular magazines.
The corps of inventors was spurred up to conquer the long-distance
problems. And in return for a thirty million check, the control of the
historic Western Union was transferred from the children of Jay Gould
to the thirty thousand stock-holders of the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company.

From what has been done, therefore, we may venture a guess as to the
future of the telephone. This "grand telephonic system" which had no
existence thirty years ago, except in the imagination of Vail, seems to
be at hand. The very newsboys in the streets are crying it. And while
there is, of course, no exact blueprint of a best possible telephone
system, we can now see the general outlines of Vail's plan.

There is nothing mysterious or ominous in this plan. It has nothing
to do with the pools and conspiracies of Wall Street. No one will be
squeezed out except the promoters of paper companies. The simple fact is
that Vail is organizing a complete Bell System for the same reason that
he built one big comfortable barn for his Swiss cattle and his Welsh
ponies, instead of half a dozen small uncomfortable sheds. He has never
been a "high financier" to juggle profits out of other men's losses. He
is merely applying to the telephone business the same hard sense that
any farmer uses in the management of his farm. He is building a Big
Barn, metaphorically, for the telephone and telegraph.

Plainly, the telephone system of the future will be national, so that
any two people in the same country will be able to talk to one another.
It wil