140 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



mortals. At the date of writing (January 1895) the judges have 

 not succeeded in evolving order from the chaos arising from the 

 circumstance that the Societe claims over fifteen millions, while 

 the arbitrators award ten millions, and the State is only willing to 

 pay five. 



The first act of the Government was to reduce the rates of 

 subscription, a process for which there was certainly plenty of 

 room. The Parisian tariff came down from 247. to i6/., and the 

 provincial from i6/. to 8/., with the reservation, however, in the 

 latter case that the subscriber should not only find his own trans- 

 mitter and receiver, but contribute 15 francs (125-.) per 100 meters 

 of single wire towards the cost of his line ; that is to say, practically 

 pay its entire cost and to spare. Further, in towns possessing any 

 considerable amount of underground work the provincial subscrip- 

 tion was to be i2/. It cannot, therefore, be contended for a 

 moment that telephone rates are low in France. They were very 

 high during the reign of the company (but with the State's 

 connivance, since it reserved power in the concessions to fix rates), 

 and the reductions and alterations made since do not put the 

 French subscribers on such good terms as those of most other 

 continental countries. For instance, the French provincial sub- 

 scriber finds the capital for his line and instrument, and yet pays 

 some IQS. per annum in subscriptions more than his German 

 competitor, whose line and instrument are found for him, and who 

 gets off, everything included, for 7/. icxr. per annum. It is true 

 that the Frenchman generally gets a metallic circuit, but so do the 

 Swedes and Belgians, and at a much lower charge. Even some 

 of the British provincial subscribers have easier terms than the 

 French ; and this fact of universal dearness may perhaps account 

 for the slow progress made by the telephone everywhere in France 

 outside Paris. Not even the great towns of Le Havre, Marseilles, 

 Lyons, and Bordeaux yet count, after some fourteen years' develop- 

 ment, more than from 1,000 to 1,200 subscribers each, and, 

 compared with many in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, &c., &c., 

 rank as third- and fourth-rate centres. They are beaten even by 

 provincial Italy (Milan) and provincial Spain (Barcelona), so that 

 there is evidently something in the French Government policy that 

 fails to commend it to the multitude. Would-be subscribers may 



