and across
oceans. Why not? Are there not more cells in one human body than there
are people in the whole earth?"

Some future Carty may solve the abandoned problem of the single wire,
and cut the copper bill in two by restoring the grounded circuit. He may
transmit vision as well as speech. He may perfect a third-rail system
for use on moving trains. He may conceive of an ideal insulating
material to supersede glass, mica, paper, and enamel. He may establish
a universal code, so that all persons of importance in the United States
shall have call-numbers by which they may instantly be located, as books
are in a library.

Some other young man may create a commercial department on wide lines, a
work which telephone men have as yet been too specialized to do. Whoever
does this will be a man of comprehensive brain. He will be as closely
in touch with the average man as with the art of telephony. He will
know the gossip of the street, the demands of the labor unions, and the
policies of governors and presidents. The psychology of the Western
farmer will concern him, and the tone of the daily press, and the
methods of department stores. It will be his aim to know the subtle
chemistry of public opinion, and to adapt the telephone service to the
shifting moods and necessities of the times. HE WILL FIT TELEPHONY LIKE
A GARMENT AROUND THE HABITS OF THE PEOPLE.

Also, now that the telephone business has become strong, its next
anxiety must be to develop the virtues, and not the defects, of
strength. Its motto must be "Ich dien"--I serve; and it will be the work
of the future statesmen of the telephone to illustrate this motto in all
its practical variations. They will cater and explain, and explain and
cater. They will educate and educate, until they have created an expert
public. They will teach by pictures and lectures and exhibitions. They
will have charts and diagrams hung in the telephone booths, so that the
person who is waiting for a call may learn a little and pass the time
more pleasantly. They will, in a word, attend to those innumerable
trifles that make the perfection of public service.

Already the Bell System has gone far in this direction by organizing
what might fairly be called a foresight department. Here is where the
fortune-tellers of the business sit. When new lines or exchanges are to
be built, these men study the situation with an eye to the future. They
prepare a "fundamental plan," outlining what may