22 Telephone Systems of tJie Continent of Europe 



Sweden, on the part of the various telephone companies. The 

 contributions exacted vary greatly. In France they are high, 

 amounting to i2s. per 100 meters of single wire, or i/. 41. per 100 

 meters of double wire, which, in most cases, is in excess of the 

 real -cost, so that the State makes a profit out of the subscriber at 

 the first onset. The Austrian is less, being 4/. 3^. 4^. for 500 

 meters of double wire, against the French 6/. In Sweden, however, 

 the contribution is only 2/. 155-. jd., just half of one year's- 

 (company's) rental, irrespective of the length of the line so long 

 as it does not extend beyond the limits of the town. Such an 

 amount once paid is not felt by the subscriber, but is of enormous 

 importance to a company or individual concessionary, as it pro- 

 vides funds wherewith to construct the exchange. This is the 

 secret of the existence and success of many of the small Norwegian 

 and Danish exchanges, and the author is aware of no valid reason 

 why it should not be practised in the United Kingdom too. It 

 would operate admirably in aid of the smaller municipalities 

 desiring to start their own exchanges, for it would obviate the 

 necessity of drawing on the rates for the purpose, a method to 

 which objection has been expressed in certain quarters. Nobody 

 could demur to municipalities establishing exchanges with the 

 subscribers' own money, which might be returned gradually in the 

 shape of reduced rentals after the business had begun to yield a 

 profit. 



It is this contribution system, together with the profits- 

 remaining after paying its maximum dividend of 8 per cent., 

 which has helped the General Telephone Company of Stockholm r 

 with a paid-up capital of only 32,9667., to cover a radius of 43*49 

 miles of country round the capital, with a network of trunk lines 

 comprising 121 switch-rooms and 10,346 subscribers' instruments, 

 and to evolve a property valued, at the end of 1894, after eleven 

 years' working, at 205,6487., besides building up substantial 

 reserves, employees' accident and benevolent funds, and paying 

 for the conversion of the whole of its Stockholm system from 

 single to double wire. 



It is such results as these which should command the attention 

 of the British public. Let those interested and who is not ? 

 in the serious question of trade depression and want of employ- 



