The Rural Telephone 303 



larly elected board of directors, which are in reality nothing 

 but a combination of small groups of farmers forced by the 

 circumstances to take the form of a corporation." 



"The establishment of the farmers' lines is, of course, 

 inexpensive, so far as cash expenditure is concerned. The 

 farmer contributes what he has the most of, that is, labor 

 and material, and is called upon for the smallest possible 

 amount of what he finds it hardest to secure, that is, cash. 

 For a company to undertake this construction would 

 require enormous sums of money, and this money would 

 represent simply the conversion of one form of wealth into 

 another with no gain in the total wealth. The farmers 

 build these lines in their spare time, that is, in the time 

 which otherwise would not add anything to the wealth 

 of the community, but which by this means is directly 

 converted into permanent wealth. 



"To maintain the telephone line it is customary for the 

 various members of the association to become responsible 

 either for that portion of the line located on their farms, 

 or for some other definite portion of the system, and in- 

 asmuch as the service on the whole line depends upon the 

 proper maintenance of every portion of the line, if any 

 one of the members neglects to keep up his portion he soon 

 finds himself in disfavor with all the other members of the 

 group. On the other hand, the farmer who knows that 

 a friend is responsible for the quality of the service on his 

 telephone line is far more lenient toward small inter- 

 ruptions in the service or faults in transmission than he is 

 under similar circumstances when the service is furnished 

 by a company. When, in course of time, it becomes nec- 

 essary as a result of the expansion of the system to secure 



