of the London Times, a newspaper which, when the telephone was
first introduced, denounced it as the "latest American humbug"
and declared that it "was far inferior to the well-established
system of speaking tubes." The London Times delivered this solemn
judgment in 1877. A year before, at the Philadelphia Centennial
Exposition, Don Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, picked up, almost
accidentally, a queer cone-shaped instrument and put it to his
ear, "My God! It talks!" was his exclamation; an incident which,
when widely published in the press, first informed the American
people that another of the greatest inventions of all times had
had its birth on their own soil. Yet the initial judgment of the
American people did not differ essentially from the opinion which
had been more coarsely expressed by the leading English
newspaper. Our fathers did not denounce the telephone as an
"American humbug," but they did describe it as a curious electric
"toy" and ridiculed the notion that it could ever have any
practical value. Even after Alexander Graham Bell and his
associates had completely demonstrated its usefulness, the
Western Union Telegraph Company refused to purchase all their
patent rights for $100,000! Only forty years have passed since
the telephone made such an inauspicious beginning. It remains
now, as it was then, essentially an American achievement. Other
nations have their telephone systems, but it is only in the
United States that its possibilities have been even faintly
realized. It is not until Americans visit foreign countries that
they understand that, imperfect as in certain directions their
industrial and social organization may be, in this respect at
least their nation is preeminent.

The United States contains nearly all the telephones in