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IX. GERMAN EMPIRE 



(EXCLUSIVE OF BAVARIA AND WURTEMBERG) 



HISTORY AND PRESENT POSITION 



BAVARIA and Wiirtemberg are the only members of the German- 

 Empire which have preserved their posts, telegraphs, and telephones 

 in any way independent of the Imperial Post Office ; Saxony, 

 Baden, Hesse, and the rest being, in this respect, as essentially 

 Prussian as is any suburb of Berlin. As securing uniformity of 

 practice over a vast area this arrangement commends itself to the 

 practical man, but it of course depends upon the quality of the 

 uniformity obtained as to whether the results to the public are 

 beneficial or otherwise. On this point it must be said that in many 

 respects the arrangements, especially in regard to tariffs in the 

 larger cities and to services rendered, are distinctly good and 

 liberal ; on the other hand, it is impossible to pretend that the 

 technical and engineering plans (with a few exceptions) are other- 

 wise than rudimentary and disappointing. 



The history of telephony in Germany bears a certain resem- 

 blance to our own. At first the Imperial Post Office doubted 

 both the utility and practicability of telephone exchanges. The 

 next stage was the refusal of licences to the International Bell 

 Telephone Company. Time went on, and public opinion calling 

 for exchanges, the Government itself undertook the work. The 

 official appreciation of the nature of the problem and of what was 

 required for a smart telephonic service may be gauged by the fact 

 that the first exchange operators were recruited from the ranks 

 of the superannuated postmen. For many years after starting, the 



