142 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



hand, too, unless the local chamber of commerce, town council, 

 or a syndicate of persons interested advances the necessary 

 money to the State without interest, these advances being refunded 

 out of the subscriptions when collected, or by mortgaging the 

 subscriptions. Subscribers changing premises have to bear the 

 cost of shifting the lines and instruments. When a subscriber 

 is located outside the local area he has to pay, besides an initial 

 charge of \s. per 100 meters of single wire, an extra subscription 

 of 24-r. per annum per kilometer if his line is underground, and of 

 1 2s. if overhead, in addition to paying the railway or other fares of 

 the inspectors who look after his apparatus. The subscription for 

 clubs and public establishments is increased 50 per cent. Under 

 such circumstances as these, it is not surprising to read in the 

 Finance Reports that the provincial exchanges are worked at a 

 large profit ; but the meagre proportions attained by them show 

 that the State regulations operate to the restraint of trade. 



2. Intercommunication between a town and its suburbs. 

 Subscribers connected to suburban or branch switch-rooms in the 

 neighbourhood of a town are not on the same footing as those 

 located in the town itself. A town subscriber's rate includes the 

 right to call up the suburbs, but the member of a suburban 

 exchange can only originate communication with the town by 

 paying $'%d. per five minutes, unless he likes, instead of paying 

 the local suburban subscription, to pay the town rate plus 8^. 

 per annum for each kilometer of single wire separating the two 

 exchanges. The policy of discriminating against suburban sub- 

 scribers is a most unwise one ; it reacts on the town itself by 

 deterring shopkeepers and other candidates for suburban custom 

 from joining, and puts a brake on the whole machine. Branch 

 switch-rooms subject to this differential treatment are known as 

 annexes. St.-Denis, near Paris, is an annexe. The distance is 

 five and a half kilometers, equal (as all junction lines are metallic 

 circuits) to eleven kilometers of single wire. The local rate is 

 8/., which gives communication only with those subscribers who 

 are attached to St.-Denis switch-room. To be free to call up 

 Paris and the other suburbs the rate becomes 2o/. 8s., that is to 

 say, the Paris subscription, i6/., + n kilometers of single wire 

 x 8^. St. -Germain is worse off still, having to pay i6/. + 22 kilo- 

 meters of single wire x 8^. = 2/j./. i6s. 



