Introduction 5 



ment possesses greater power over private property than any other, 

 and, unluckily for those who seek to establish a connection be- 

 tween rates and way-leaves, the French rates are amongst the 

 dearest on the Continent. In Germany the Government has no 

 more power to put a standard and wires on a man's house without 

 his permission than it has to burn it down. 



It will be seen that many foreign companies are burdened with 

 far more onerous payments to their governments or municipal 

 authorities than is the National Telephone Company. In Madrid, 

 20 per cent. ; in Bilbao, 34 per cent. ; in Barcelona, 3375 per 

 cent.; and in Valencia 31*5 per cent, of the gross receipts are 

 payable to the Government. In Italy a uniform tax of 10 per cent, 

 on the gross receipts and 2/. per annum for every public telephone 

 station (call office) is levied ; in Russia the tax is also 10 per 

 cent, of the gross takings, while the Portuguese get off with 3 per 

 cent. 



During one public discussion on the subject of telephone rates 

 it was stated as justifying a io/. rate in Manchester that subscribers 

 in Amsterdam have to pay practically the same 9/. 14*. 2\d. But 

 the apologist, probably because he knew no better, omitted to say 

 that the Amsterdam company has to pay 2/. is. 9//. per subscriber 

 per annum to the town council ; and that, while the io/. rate in 

 Manchester is limited to a distance of one mile, the Dutch sub- 

 scription applies to the whole of Amsterdam proper. 



Workmen's wages, according to the particulars supplied to the 

 author by the officials of the various administrations and com- 

 panies, are not invariably noticeably lower, nor the hours worked 

 much longer, than in this country. As a rule, the female opera- 

 tors are better paid, in some cases markedly so, than those of the 

 National Telephone Company. 



On the other hand, where low wages prevail, their effect on 

 cost of production is sometimes neutralised more or less by the 

 Customs import duties. For instance, Norway possesses no iron, 

 and the author found English iron on the roofs of Christiania in 

 the form of telephone supports. Norway, too, either imports her 

 telephone apparatus or makes it from imported materials. Switzer- 

 land and Holland, which produce no iron and import instruments 

 or raw material, are in the same case. 



