File:Bell telephone magazine (1922) (14569576310).jpg

Identifier: belltelephonevol3132mag00amerrich (find matches)
Title: Bell telephone magazine
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: American Telephone and Telegraph Company American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Information Dept
Subjects: Telephone
Publisher: (New York, American Telephone and Telegraph Co., etc.)
Contributing Library: Prelinger Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
through whichmost new employees come into thetelephone business is through otheremployees. The figures of the U. S. Bureau ofLabor Statistics show that turnoverin the telephone Industry is about onehalf that of all manufacturing in-dustries. If we believe—as our sociologistfriend did—that part of the Bell Systems social responsibility is toprovide a place where members ofthe public can work constructivelytogether and earn a living, then itwould seem we are meeting it ratherwell. The People Who hivestTheir Savings The Bell System Is owned by thepeople who buy shares In the Ameri-can Telephone and Telegraph Com-pany. There are more than 1,250,-000 of them, in all parts of America. Regular dividends have been paidby AT&T for a great many years.There has never been an extra divl-denci nor has the stock been split.From the surplus built up in theprosperous years, it has been pos-sible to maintain the dividend evenin years when it was not fully earned. The early years of the decade
Text Appearing After Image:
The people who invest their savings 2l8 Bell Telephone Magazine 1925—1935 were good years, In whichmany industries made high profitsand paid them out in cash and stockdividends and split the stock. AT&Tpaid its regular dividend and savedthe rest. When the depression came,AT&T was able still to maintain itsregular dividend by drawing on Itssurplus. In retrospect, It does notseem that we would have met our so-cial responsibility for the long pull Ifwe had cut that dividend, at the timeof greatest need, and thus shaken theconfidence of those who must be re-lied on to provide the tools withoutwhich no service could be given andno jobs provided. Time has shown the wisdom ofthis consistent dividend policy, andthe public has given Its seal of ap-proval In the most emphatic way, byproviding more than six billion dol-lars of new capital since the war. More than half has been In the formof capital stock, so that the businesshas been able to go forward withoutaccumulating a destructive

Note About Images