Business & Finance: Hello?

Through most of the 3,070 U. S. counties swarm the 95,150,000 miles of wire of A.T. & T.'s mighty Bell Telephone System. Interlacing this giant nervous system are 6,600 independent companies (lineage : some 9,200,000 miles) serving 18% of the nation's 20,820,000 telephones.* They sprang up around the turn of the century after the basic Bell patents ran out, fought A. T. & T. for breathing space, by 1914 were at peace with their corpulent competitor. Clinging to their often profitable franchises like lichens to a rock, these little fellows annually turn in a $130,000,000 gross.

Typical of these stubborn independents is...

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