Among the many AT&T staff services to the telephone companies are those described as “operation and engineering.” These include the entire range of construction, operation, maintenance, methods and practices. The AT&T general staff constantly studies new ideas for improved equipment and practices that may originate anywhere in the System. Promising ideas are developed and tested, usually in collaboration with the Bell Telephone Laboratories. Improvements that result are spread over the whole Bell System. Besides operation and engineering services, other AT&T groups help the telephone companies devise better business and office routines. Still other groups advise the companies on the most efficient methods in accounting, statistical analyses, public relations and advertising activities, and in all the many other phases of the telephone business. Out of the savings of the many One of AT&T’s most important services to the operating telephone companies is financial assistance. This is especially true in periods of rapid growth, like the present. In these times the telephone companies need vast sums of money for equipment and buildings to expand and strengthen the nation’s communications network for defense, and to meet the public demand for telephone service. The money for improving and expanding telephone service comes from people in all walks of life. It comes from the savings of the many, not the wealth of the few. Most of this money is invested in securities of the AT&T Company, which in turn supplies funds to the operating companies. By mid-1955 AT&T was owned by about 1,375,000 people. These owners live in all parts of the country, in large cities, small towns and rural areas. They are truly a cross-section of America. Many AT&T share owners are long-time investors. More than a fourth of them have owned their AT&T stock ten years or more. And over 60 per cent of these have increased their investment during those ten years. About 351,000 of the shareholdings represent two persons—husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers—who have invested savings in their joint names. Besides the direct owners of AT&T, many other people—such as insurance company policy holders and bank customers—help indirectly to finance the business through the AT&T shares held by organizations and trustees. The largest AT&T shareholder is a nation-wide investment firm that holds stock for thousands of customers. Among other institutional holders are some 2,100 churches, 1,100 hospitals and homes, over 1,000 schools and libraries, over 500 foundations and charities. [Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF A. T. &. T. SHARE OWNERS END OF 1954] 608,000 WOMEN Average Holding 29 Shares 351,000 JOINT ACCOUNT Average Holding 26 Shares 297,000 MEN Average Holding 38 Shares 51,000 TRUSTEES AND ORGANIZATIONS Average Holding 194 Shares