562 JOHN ELBRIDGE HUDSON. 



who were associated with him have already spoken. Mr. Francis Blake, 

 one of the directors of the Telephone Company, has said that wliile Mr. 

 Hudson was Manager and President the number of miles of telephone 

 increased more than tenfold, to over a million miles in 1899, and the 

 number of exchange connections more than sixfold, reaching nearly 

 seventeen hundred millions in the same year ; and he adds: " Moreover, 

 during this period there was conceived and developed a system of long- 

 distance service which brought more than half the population of the United 

 States within the limits of telephonic speech. These statistics," he adds, 

 "emphasize the broad statement that the growth of Mr. Hudson's busi- 

 ness capacity not only kept pace with, but kept in advance of the ever 

 increasing needs of the companies under his control." * 



Added to great intellectual capacity, to a remarkable strength, grasp, 

 and tenacity of mind, Mr. Hudson had another source of power, — his sound 

 moral quality. He made no parade of his integrity, but he was thoroughly 

 honest and honorable, and all who dealt with him saw it. In one of the 

 Company's great law-suits an antagonist thought fit to charge it with 

 indirection in a particular matter. The counsel of the Company, the late 

 William G. Russell, met the charge with a statement by Mr. Hudson. 

 " And I need not say to the court," he added, "that on a question of fact 

 within his knowledge, the word of John E. Hudson imports absolute 

 verity." To a specific reliance upon these personal qualities of the Presi- 

 dent of the Telephone Company, upon his great intellectual gifts, his 

 forecasting and shaping power, his sound judgment, cautious and yet 

 bold in advancing to meet the great emergencies which he foresaw, upon 

 his absolute integrity and his power over men, in a word, to personal 

 confidence in him, may be traced the investment of millions of dollars in 

 that great corporation. 



Undoubtedly Mr. Hudson sacrificed his life to the enormous and ever- 

 growing requirements of the office which he held. It was his habit to 

 rest by going abroad for a month or two in the summer, and to pass the 

 remainder of that season at the seashore within easy reach of his office. 

 It is said, and probably with truth, that he lacked somewhat in one of 

 the qualities of a great administrator, namely, in the power to turn over 

 work to subordinates. He could not bear to see work imperfectly done, 

 when he himself could do it so thoroughly well. His friends had Ion? 

 urged him to withdraw from these heavy cares, and a few years ago he had 



* Memoir by Francis Blake; Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 

 October 24, 1900. 



