e obvious that the automatic
system could not hope to cope with the reverting call problem, _i. e._,
enabling a subscriber on a party line to call back to reach another
subscriber on the same line; yet today the automatic system may do this
in a way that is perhaps even more satisfactory than the way in which it
is done in multiple manual switchboards. It is true that the automatic
system has not done away with the toll operator and it probably never
will be advantageous to require it to do so for the simple reason that
the work of the toll operator in recording the connections and in
bringing together the subscribers is a matter that requires not only
accuracy but judgment, and the latter, of course, no machine can supply.
It is probable also that the private branch-exchange operator will
survive in automatic systems. This is not because the automatic system
cannot readily perform the switching duties, but the private
branch-exchange operator has other duties than the mere building up and
taking down of connections. She is, as it were, a door-keeper guarding
the telephone door of a business establishment; like the toll operator
she must be possessed of judgment and of courtesy in large degree,
neither of which can be supplied by machinery.

In respect to toll service and private branch-exchange service where, as
just stated, operators are required on account of the nature of the
service, the automatic system has again shown its adaptability and
flexibility. It has shown its capability of working in harmony with
manual switchboards, of whatever nature, and there is a growing tendency
to apply automatic devices and automatic principles of operation to
manual switchboards, whether toll or private branch or other kinds, even
though the services of an operator are required, the idea being to do by
machinery that portion of the work which a machine is able to do better
or more economically than a human being.

_Attitude of Public._ The attitude of the public toward the automatic is
one that is still open to discussion; at least there is still much
discussion on it. A few years ago it did seem reasonable to suppose that
the general telephone user would prefer to get his connection by merely
asking for it rather than to make it himself by "spelling" it out on the
dial of his telephone instrument. We have studied this point carefully
in a good many different communities and it is our opinion that the
public finds no fault with