Introduction 25 



mitted. The preceding pages have amply demonstrated that rates 

 of 2/. ictf. in the smaller and of 5/. in the larger towns are made 

 remunerative abroad. The author's view is that, following the 

 example of the French and Spanish Governments, Parliament 

 should impose a scale of rates varying with the populations of the 

 towns. After much consideration and analysis the author has 

 satisfied himself that municipalities could establish and efficiently 

 work exchanges on the metallic circuit plan, constructed under- 

 ground in the centres of the towns and overhead in the suburbs 

 as in Vienna and Zurich (see Austrian and Swiss sections), on 

 the following rates, which are inclusive of Post Office royalty. 

 These rates being possible for municipalities, should be possible 

 for the Post Office also, and accordingly imposed on that depart- 

 ment. No article is worth more than it can be bought for, and 

 the commercial community is entitled to purchase what it wants 

 in the cheapest market. 



PROPOSED SCALE OF INCLUSIVE RATES TO BE CHARGED IN THE 

 UNITED KINGDOM BY THE POST OFFICE OR BY FUTURE LICENSEES 

 FOR LINES NOT EXCEEDING ONE MlLE IN LENGTH. 



s. d. 



Towns up to 10,000 inhabitants . . . .400 



,, of 10,000 to 25,000 inhabitants . .450 



,, of 25,000 to 50,000 ,, . . . 4 10 o 



,, of 50,000 to 100,000 ,, . . .4150 



,, of 100,000 to 150,000 ,, . . .500 



,, of 150,000 to 250,000 ,, . . -55 



,, of 250,000 to 500,000 ,, . . 5 10 o 



,, of 500,000 to 750,000 ,, . . .5150 



London . . . . . . . . .800 



Of course the Post Office would not willingly accept such rates, 

 in, the author believes, the perfectly sincere and honest conviction 

 that they would not pay. But still the fact remains that they have 

 been made to pay and are made to pay. A telephone engineer 

 fetched over from Trondhjem, where a population of over 30,000 

 souls is successfully catered for on a 2/. 105-. rate, would no doubt 

 be of a different opinion and anxious for an opportunity of show- 

 ing how it's done. 



But a conflict of views is inevitable, and the author would pro- 



