Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... Main Exchange. Highland Exchange. East Exchange. Home Telephone & Telegraph Company, Los Angeles, California. CONSPIRING TO THROTTLE THE INDEPENDENTS. The methods by which the telephone trust attempted to stay the opposition that was expected with the expiration of the Bell patents, in 1893 and 1894, were characteristic. The "underground railroad from the offices of the company's Washington solicitors to the patent office" was reopened. A press bureau was organized that for ingenuity has never been equaled in the world. It is still in" operation and has laid some of the greatest newspapers and most dignified magazines in the country under tribute. A United States judge, a postmaster-general of the United States, and a United States senator, among other conspicuous national figures, were forced to appear in interesting roles. Politics, high and low, was brought into the game. The local bosses, state and city, were marshaled solidly against the Independents. And, hesitating at nothing, an attempt was made to swing four presidents of the United States, --Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley, and Roosevelt, --indirectly to the support of the trust. But here the power failed, for in the end all four stood by the people. Enormous financial pressure was brought to bear through the great money centers of New York, Boston, and Chicago. Finally, a system of business chicanery was inaugurated that, in some respects, stands alone even in these days of "high finance." It is impossible to give, all the details of these various schemes, or even to relate them in consecutive order, for they overlap at a dozen places. So we must rest content to pick them out here and there. The fruit of the alleged "underground railroad" to the patent office was the first thing...