INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 157 



foundation stone had then been well and truly laid. It was not so 

 much what had actually been accomplished that mattered but that 

 the whole spirit of the relations between the telephone and power inter- 

 ests had been completely changed from one of friction, distrust, sus- 

 picion and even of enmity to one of confidence, good will and a desire 

 on the part of both to cooperate. 



From that time the work progressed much more rapidly and in 

 December 1922 a reasonably complete set of principles and practises 

 for the inductive coordination of power and telephone systems had been 

 agreed to and sent to the member companies of the N. E. L. A. and 

 the associated companies of the Bell System over the signature of the 

 Joint General Committee of which, as I have stated, Mr. Owen D. 

 Young is Chairman. Since that time further reports containing prin- 

 ciples and practises for the joint use of wood poles and the allocation 

 of costs of coordinative measures have been agreed to and promulgated 

 by the Joint General Committee. 



Today inductive coordination as between the Bell Telephone System 

 and the power companies is no longer a problem but only a routine 

 day to day job of cooperatively continuing research work and develop- 

 ing the art of both systems to eliminate as far as possible causes for 

 inductive interference. 



I remember Mr. Gherardi once made the statement that the term 

 "problem" is generally applied to a thing where you do not know the 

 answer — "job" where you do know the answer to it and it is just a 

 question of working on it — and it is exactly at that point we have 

 arrived today. I do not mean to say we can remain quiescent as to 

 this work because it is still a big job and will require the attention of the 

 executives of the companies concerned and the constant and concen- 

 trated effort of the engineers of both interests who are engaged in 

 research and other necessary work connected with inductive coordina- 

 tion. 



To have had some part in bringing about these results has been one of 

 the most satisfactory things I have done in my entire life and I believe 

 Mr. Gherardi will fully coincide with this viewpoint as far as he is 

 concerned. From the time I first met him, we have never departed 

 from our belief that the problem could be solved on the basis of entire 

 confidence, good faith and complete cooperation. 



In the first instance we had many disappointments and some difficult 

 situations to combat but I can truly say that we never had a serious 

 disagreement and always were confident that the goal we desired would 

 eventually be reached. I remember making a statement in those 

 early days that I did not believe that each utility had obtained every- 



