On March 31, 1906, the capital invested in the telegraphs was $84,812,000. To raise that capital, the Government had sold $54,300,000 of 3 per cent. securities, at an average price of about 92.3; and for the rest the Government had drawn upon the current revenue raised by taxation. On March 31, 1906, the unearned interest which the Government had paid upon the aforesaid $54,300,000 of securities had aggregated $22,530,000, the equivalent of 26.5 per cent. of the capital invested in the telegraphs. Upon the $30,500,000 taken from the current revenue, the Government never has had any return whatever. * * * * * The nationalization of the telegraphs has corrupted British politics by giving a great impetus to the insidious practice of class bribery. It also has placed heavy burdens upon the taxpayers. But that is not all. The public ownership of the telegraphs has resulted in the State deliberately hampering the development of the telephone industry. That industry, had the Government let it alone, would have grown to enormous proportions, promoting the convenience and the prosperity of the business community, as well as giving employment to tens of thousands of people. In the year 1906, only one person in each 105 persons in the United Kingdom was a subscriber to the telephone; and the total of persons employed in the telephone industry was only some 20,000. On January 1, 1907, one person in each 20 persons in the United States was a subscriber to the telephone. Under the telephone policy pursued by the Government, the National Telephone Company down to the close of the year 1896 for all practical purposes had no right to erect a pole in a street or lay a wire under a street. As late as 1898, not less than 120,000 miles of the company's total of 140,000 miles of wire were strung from house-top to house-top, under private way-leaves which the owners of the houses had the right to terminate on six months' notice. Inadequate as it was, the progress made by the National Telephone Company down to 1898 was a splendid tribute to British enterprise. The necessarily unsatisfactory service given by the National Telephone Company, down to the close of 1898, created a prejudice against the use of the telephone which to this day has not been completely overcome. Again, the Government to this day has left the National Telephone Company in such a position of weakness, that the Company has been unable to brave public opinion to the extent of abolishing the unlimited user tariff and establishing the measured service tariff exclusively. On the other hand, it is an admitted fact that the telephone cannot be brought into very extensive use except on the basis of the measured service exclusively.