being required to make its own connections.
To our minds it is proven beyond question that either the method
employed in the automatic or that in the manual system is satisfactory
to the public as long as good service results, and it is beyond question
that the public may get this with either.

_Subscriber's Station Equipment._ The added complexity of the mechanism
at the subscriber's station is in our opinion the most valid objection
that can be urged against the automatic system as it exists today. This
objection has, however, been much reduced by the greater simplicity and
greater excellence of material and workmanship that is employed in the
controlling devices in modern automatic systems. However, the automatic
system must always suffer in comparison with the manual in respect of
simplicity of the subscriber's equipment. The simplest conceivable thing
to meet all of the requirements of telephone service at a subscriber's
station is the modern common-battery manual telephone. The automatic
telephone differs from this only in the addition of the mechanism for
enabling the subscriber to control the central-office apparatus in the
making of calls. From the standpoint of maintenance, simplicity at the
subscriber's station is, of course, to be striven for since the proper
care of complex devices scattered all over a community is a much more
serious matter than where the devices are centered at one point, as in
the central office. Nevertheless, as pointed out, complexity is not
fatal, and it is possible, as has been proven, to so design and
construct the required apparatus in connection with the subscribers'
telephones as to make them subject to an amount of trouble that is not
serious.

=Comparative Costs.= A comparison of the total costs of owning,
operating, and maintaining manual and automatic systems usually results
in favor of the automatic, except in small exchanges. This seems to be
the consensus of opinion among those who have studied the matter deeply.
Although the automatic usually requires a larger investment, and
consequently a larger annual charge for interest and depreciation,
assuming the same rates for each case, and although the automatic
requires a somewhat higher degree of skill to maintain it and to keep it
working properly than the manual, the elimination of operators or the
reduction in their number and the consequent saving of salaries and
contributory expenses together with other items of saving