From  the  use  of  the  telephone  '  some  modifications  in  the  ordin-
ary conditions  of  life '  were  looked  for.  It  is  in  respect  to  these
modifications  and  not  to  questions  of  internal  management  that  the
phrase  '  economics  of  the  telephone  '  is  here  used.  What  is  the
position  of  the  telephone  in  the  conduct  of  the  world's  affairs,
and  what  its  influence  on  individual  and  national  efficiency  ?

It  is  possible  for  each  individual  to  form  some  estimate  for
himself,  by  recording  particulars  of  the  persons  with  whom  he  has
been  in  conversation  each  day,  the  localities  from  which  his  corre-
spondents spoke  to  him,  the  time  occupied  in  the  conversations,
and  their  cost.  Against  that  record  let  him  place  the  time  which
would  have  been  occupied  in  travel,  and  the  cost  of  such  travel
to  obtain  such  conversations  if  no  telephone  existed.  This  pro-
vides a  comparison  of  the  communications  themselves.  To  this  let
there  be  added  an  estimate  of  the  results  attained  by  the  prompti-
tude of  the  telephonic  communications  over  the  delayed  results
of  personal  travel,  the  effect  of  a  prompt  dispatch  of  goods,  a
timely  correction  of  error,  or  a  clear  understanding  of  some  doubt-
ful point.  Let  it  be  admitted  that  all  telephonic  conversations
need  not  necessarily  be  replaced  by  personal  converse,  that  the
purpose  of  some  could  well  be  effected  by  telegraph  or  otherwise,
then  let  the  analysis  be  so  amended.  Whether  it  be  business  or
social  affairs,  a  large  percentage  remains  in  which  it  is  the  personal
converse  which  is  of  value,  and  without  the  telephone  this  could  not


THE  ECONOMICS  QF  THE  TELEPHONE  497

be  obtained  except  at  a  cost  in  time  and  money  which  would  render
it  impossible  for  an  individual  to  do  what  he  can  now  accomplish
with  ease.
