The Town And The Telephone

but it's busy it's building new factories are going up with the Assurance they carry of increased prosperity new homes are under command of new families moving in it's a barometer of confidence in the future of my town a confidence that comes from knowing its many advantages the excellent schools for example that serve their children and the playgrounds available for recreation comforting to the Happy fathers and mothers who live here and call it home for my town is home in the pleasantest sense of the word from the early call of the Milkman through a day of normal activity one gets the feeling that this is a community of good neighbors the kind of a place you'd like to live in perhaps grow old in the kind of a place you'd take pride in that a great many people take pride in that's my town what's making it all TI what's welding it into a going Community many things of course but one of the most essential factors in its growth is Communications Communications provided by the telephone company and designed among other things to give my town the means for transacting business the means for communicating information for seeking help for keeping old friends in touch yes Communications and the telephone company that provides them are part of every community in America the welding force that joins them into a nation of neighborhoods communicating with each other and with every country of the world and like my town itself the telephone company is more than buildings and vehicles poles and switchboards it's people many people in many places doing many different jobs like the operators who handle telephone calls in my town here in the central office you can feel the pulse of the community the flashing lights on the switchboard reflect the activity of the town thank you it begins to stir in the early hours of the morning your name and number it reaches its peak in the rush hours of daytime that's Pennsylvania rep place please thank you and then settles back for for the [Music] night it's the job of the traffic department to handle this changing volume of calls it has to be ready with enough equipment and enough operators 24 hours a day to meet the customer demands for service from the earliest days of her training every operator learns to think of her job in terms of service to the community this is information may I help you yes I'd like the new number of Wilson's meat market 1191 Sycamore Street please one moment [Music] please the number is right 56240 right 56240 thank you you're welcome operator in addition to supplying information operators put through all kinds of calls many of them to out of town points near and far what is the name of the person and for each call they handle they record the facts needed to accurately build the customer the calling number the place called and length of the conversation are all noted for use by the accounting department sometimes an operator handles calls that are more urgent than others Operator Operator there's been a bad accident two cars head on please get a doctor in an ambulance can you give give me the address please it's right outside my house Old Woods Road near Van djk hurry please thank you we'll get help to you as fast as possible thank [Music] you the telephone operator's tradition of staying on the job in times of disaster is well known it's a responsibility they willingly accept and take pride in whether the call be emergency or routine the operator performs a service that is vital to the business and social life of every thriving community in the [Music] nation and that certainly fits my town it's a community on the go new shopping areas to keep Pace with demand new construction of all kinds new factories are going up creating greater job opportunities with all that they hold for my town and its people homes are being built to house the increasing population of workers and their families they all need Communications and the telephone company has to be ready to supply them connecting these new telephones is the job of telephone installers each morning they gather at the plant work center to get the day's assignments from their installation supervisor hi Ted hi your first day huh that's right well I guess these will keep you busy better start with this new installation for John Gardner 406 Melrose say how did things go down to plant school well I think I learned a lot but uh I'll feel better when this first day is over okay Ted I'll stop in later and see how you're getting along right see you hi hi this your house yep could you tell me something sure if I can where does this wire go well you see this is telephone wire and it's going to run from your house to the big cable on top of that pole how come it's so big on the pole and so little down here that Cable's got about 100 wires inside of it and each one of them connects to a phone in somebody's home or office the cable then travels from pole to pole until it reaches our central office where all the little wires are connected to switching equipment the switching equipment completes the phone calls automatically or sends them to the operator then your phones will be ready for service that is they will be as soon as I hook them up well I'm on my way to the store so long so long son I'll have them hooked up by the time you get back [Music] my it looks just fine your phones are ready Mrs Gardner right now you can call anywhere in the world if you want to good and here's your new directory your name will appear in the next issue meantime people can find you through information well thank you it's so nice to have a [Music] telephone hi Ted hi how's it going boy just fine I have any trouble on the job nothing special but I did have a youngster asking me some questions and they got me thinking I install phones and uh I know all the steps well that's part of my plant training but where do the other departments come in I mean how do they fit in the ACT well I guess that's a natural question for a newcomer Ted you're curious and you should be about how your job fits in with others in the company well it's kind of a big order Ted but I can tell you this all of us in the telephone company are organized to do just one thing to give people good telephone service now to do that and do it right takes a lot of people with a lot of different skills now I know you've been through this at the plan school but let's just review it say there's a new family uh like the gardeners here moved to my town and want telephone service chances are someone in the family goes to the telephone office and puts in an order or the order could be telephoned in either way it's handled by one of our service representatives in the commercial Department the service rep makes the customer feel at home gets the name and address and how the name is to be listed in the directory you see she wants to be sure the customer gets complete telephone service these days homes have telephones wherever it's convenient and that's as it should be they want their extensions where they'll be of most value it could be indoors say the bedroom or Outdoors on a Terrace we installers can be of help for instance you'll find that you have lots of chances to suggest locations for telephones while you're working it's all part of doing a good job but let's get back to Mrs Gardner's request for service right now once the order is placed commercial goes right to work on it first off a copy of the order with all the details is sent to the plant Department there a clerk assigns the necessary facilities to do the job including central office lines and outside equipment simultaneously directory traffic and accounting people receive identical copies of the order so they can prepare their records for the new customer the planned installation copy of that order comes to me and I assign the work to you fellas each morning now while you were hooking up the line for Mrs Gardner's phone the framan in the central office was connecting to the switching equipment that gives us the circuit that makes it possible for Mrs Gardner to pick up her phone and call to a friend across town or Across the Nation well that's part of the story Ted lots more of course but maybe it's given you some little background on how a few of the Departments work together it's sure help Jack but boy I've got a lot to learn haven't I we've all got a lot to learn Ted you never never stop learning in this business and you understand your own job better when you know how other departments operate for instance the commercial Department in addition to servicing new customers such as Mrs Gardner also handles the payments of the customer bills it has the further responsibility of forwarding the names of new subscribers to the printer for the telephone directory every name address and number is carefully checked and rechecked for absolute accuracy it is an exacting task every step of the way as they say it's something for the book the book in this case being the most widely used volume of the Year commercial also collects the money from public telephones that serve my town in stores factories Transportation centers and even along the highways then there are the telephone salesman they have the job of calling on business customers and suggesting the type of telephone system that will best serve the customer's business needs directory advertising salesmen also call on business customers and show how Yellow Pages advertising can help them they plan the kind of layouts that attract buyers and boost sales for The Advertiser the service the telephone people give can be as immediate as right now it can seek and answer the needs of today it can plan the needs of tomorrow and the needs of Tomorrow are a service responsibility of the engineers they have the job of looking ahead of anticipating how and where my town is going to grow so the telephone plant can be installed efficiently and economically and be ready when the customer needs it they decide where telephone cable will be installed how it will be installed underground or overhead and how much of it will be needed should it be a 200 Pair cable or a 400 Pair cable they have to make sure there's enough equipment in the central office to handle the switching of the calls and plan cables for rooting longdistance calls the engineers also work directly with builders in my town to be sure the telephone service will be ready for customers when they move into their new homes uh houses run 20 to $25,000 and I've got the men out working and figure to have them finished by Spring in other words you want to be ready for immediate telephone installation when the houses are completed definitely well here's the situation Mr Palmer we've got enough feeder cable coming up to this area but we've still got to get our poles and distribution cables in place for wiring to the house I had no idea there was so much involved well that's why we appreciate this advanced notice you know uh some Builders don't include us in their plans and then the new homeowners have to wait for their telephones we don't want that to happen here we want phones available when our houses go up you can count on us we'll be ready in just such fashion telepone planning and construction work go hand in hand as my town grows and expands [Music] polls are [Music] set cable strong terminals go in a communication pattern develops that serves the growing needs of my town and to give my town the top telephone service it needs and expects takes a lot of money and that's where accounting comes in it has to keep track of all the money spent and received so that the company may know where it stands financially all bills and invoices come to accounting for checking and they keep all the cost records necessary to prepare the company's Financial reports they have charge of the records that document the location the type and the size of telephone plant and here too are prepared the paychecks an event of never failing interest to every employee of the Company accounting also prepares and mails the customer bills and there's more to that than the mere say so an array of data processing equipment handles a customer's bill from the first step of listing the customer's name and address through the successive stages of computing the bill and preparing it for mailing [Music] all over town telephones are bringing people together Bradford's jewelry may I speak to Mr Bradford please thank you Mrs Chase I'll have the order over in about an hour hi going to the dance my town gym sure anold speaking why hello Pete how's things in my town things are pretty good in my town There's a sense of growing Prosperity growing Pride growing happiness and the telephone company is a grateful participant now we've seen the parts play by the various operating departments such as traffic whose operators handle many of the Cs plant which installs and maintains the equipment engineering where all the planning and designing are done commercial which is responsible for many customer services and finally accounting where all the financial records are prepared working in support of these operating units are the company's staff departments such as Personnel Personnel helps to develop and train people in all levels of employment they handle benefit and pension plans Pleasant reminders of earlier days they also watch over the health of the employees and arrange for medical attention whenever they need it an equally important staff section is the legal department which checks all company contracts and represents the company in court actions public relations is also one of the company staff departments it is largely responsible for keeping the public informed about the company its members write news releases for the community newspapers they also prepare newspaper advertisements that promote various telephone services and they coordinate activities that deal with radio or television shows they prepare films and other programs for employee and public groups and they take part in arranging telephone open houses to which the people of the community are invited the preparation of the company magazine is also the responsibility of public relations well Mike we've had our problems in putting this together but there have been many excellent comments last the reassuring part of it Mr Bolton now I think we've reached the point where we need a good story to wrap the whole thing up now I have some ideas I'd like to talk over with you good let's see now the previous articles have covered all phases of our company's operations that's correct and now that we've explained what we do I think we should show how we fit into the big picture how we're backed up by AT&T Western Electric and the bell Labs AT&T Western Electric Bell Telephone Laboratories magic names in Communications the world over let's start with AT&T the parent company which coordinates the activities and policies of all the companies in the [Music] system each of the operating companies serves a specific area of the United States and Canada each has its own duties and responsibilities but all work closely with AT&T which provides advice and assistance whenever needed within its own territory each operating company supplies local and long-distance service and AT&T through its long lines Department connects each company with the other uniting them into an integrated system long lines also connects the B system with the thousands of independent telone companies in effect it furnishes the links that make Nationwide telephone service [Music] possible it builds and operates the radio relay towers that carry calls across the continent it supervises the laying of underwater cables that enable people to call across the seas and although many people aren't aware of it long lines also provides the channels that radio and television broadcast ERS use for their Nationwide networks Western Electric is an equally important partner of the Bell System it serves as the system's manufacturing arm and from its plant throughout the country come the millions and millions of telephones that the Bell companies require to serve a growing Nation Western also produces the vast amounts of caes that are needed to interconnect all these telephones and it builds and installs the dial switching equipment and switchboards used in most Central offices in addition to manufacturing cable and communication equipment Western also serves as the supplier for the entire Bell System this means that the companies not only depend on it for their telephone apparatus but also their other everyday supplies such as paper clips typewriter ribbon and anything else they need naturally Western Electric doesn't make all these things itself as a matter of fact most of the items are purchased from more than 33,000 industrial firms across the country from its warehouses strategically located over the nation Western Electric is able to rush Communications equipment to any stricken area in times of emergency this equipment is so standardized that crewman brought from any operating company of the Bell System can use it without further instruction this assures efficient and Rapid restoration of [Music] service then there is the extremely important part that both Western Electric and the Bell Telephone Laboratories are playing in building the nation's military defense system both have had much to do in the design and construction of such projects as the D line and sage and in the development and manufacturer of guided [Music] [Applause] missiles Bell telepone Laboratories is the research and development partner in the Bell System it is one of the largest and most experienced industrial Laboratories in the world and it is uniquely qualified to do the design work for both both military and civilian Communications equipment its job is to provide America with the communications of the future as it has already designed the communications of the present the laboratory's modern research centers are staffed by scientists and Engineers planning years ahead searching designing seeking new knowledge and new understanding their aim is to continually develop better tools and equipment to improve telephone service and to do it in such a way as to assure efficient and economic operation the achievements of bell Laboratories researchers are many ranging through all branches of the communications field one of their latest advances in telephone progress is leading to new systems of automatically switching telephone calls these systems are so radical in design that they promise to bring tomorrow's customer customers a multitude of almost undreamed of services the tiny device which will make these electronic switching systems possible is the Revolutionary transistor invented at the Laboratories the transistor brought Bell scientists one of the two Nobel prizes they have won for discoveries in physics though it was primarily developed for the betterment of telephone Communications The Versatile transistor now appears in a staggering variety of devices and Equipment it has become an important factor in the growth of many new Industries a development that is welcomed by the telephone company welcomed because it is in the pattern of service that is traditional with every phase of telephone operation from its very beginning service has been an Inseparable part of the telephone story as Inseparable as the telephone company's long and continuing association with the communities of America the my towns everywhere who gave it the opportunity to be of service they have grown together these cities and Villages of America and their telephone companies good friends and good neighbors they share the responsibilities of good citizenship telephone people are proud of those responsibilities both on the job and as individual citizens helping their communities in their own ways they are proud of being part of their Town's hopes and joys proud being able to further its Communications whatever the hour proud and happy to be of service [Music] well the town in the telephone could be the story of almost any Bell Telephone Company all of them operate in pretty much the same way same methods same equipment same departments and the same working together by those departments to give our customers good Dependable telephone service but now let's get a little more specific and talk about our own company the Southwestern Bell the Southwestern Bell is one of 22 Bell operating companies it is owned by the American Telephone and Telegraph company usually called the AT&T with headquarters in New York City Southwestern is one of the larger Bell operating companies it serves a big territory Texas Ark Saw Oklahoma Kansas Missouri and two counties in Illinois here near St Louis altogether we have more than 1,400 Central offices in more than 900 cities but by the way even though we operate in more than 900 cities we don't furnish all the telephone service in our five states the job is shared with about 800 50 other independent telephone companies they handle local service in their communities but their lines connect with ours for long distance but now let's get back to Southwestern it's obvious that people from 1,400 Central offices can all report to one headquarters so the company has been broken up into smaller more easily managed units let's take a look at some of these smaller units and see how they fit together and also see how you fit into the picture suppose for example that you're an operator like this girl in the town in the telephone you know of course that you're in a department called the traffic department and that you work in a central office headed by a chief operator your central office may be the only one in town or there may be several here a number of central offices and that usually means several towns go together to make up a district a number of districts in most cases an area and a state are the same thing but Texas is so large that it's divided into two areas get it first the local offices then the local offices grouped into a district then districts into a division and divisions into an area in traffic a district is headed by a district traffic superintendent a division is headed by AIS ision traffic superintendent an area by a general traffic manager well that's the pattern of the traffic department but as you saw in the town and the telephone traffic is only one of the company's departments you remember Jack and Ted in the plant department and the service rep in commercial well the plant department and the commercial Department have the same setup as traffic the same four levels of area division district and local organizations in plant these levels are headed by General plant managers division plant superintendents District plant superintendents and various local supervisors such as wire Chiefs in commercial these levels are headed by General commercial managers division managers district managers and managers all of these departments work hand in hand to give customers good telephone service but as you saw there are other important departments in the company too only their setup is a little different from traffic plant and Commercial the accounting department doesn't need local offices all accounting work for Oklahoma for example is handled in division offices at Oklahoma City and Tulsa and in the area office at Oklahoma City division accounting offices are headed by division accounting managers and area offices by General accounting managers the engineering department is even more centralized all its offices are at area headquarters the head of area engineering is the chief engineer at each area headquarters there's also a legal department and a staff that handles personnel and public relations some areas also have public relations men at division headquarters the head man of a typical area is the vice president general manager all the area department heads EX except accounting and legal report to him sounds a little complicated doesn't it well it really isn't let's go over it again quickly the big departments traffic plant and Commercial each have four levels first the local offices then several local offices grouped into districts then several districts grouped into divisions then divisions into areas all of the other departments operate only at the division and area level okay now there are six areas in Southwestern each one pretty much like your own they all have much the same job to do and they have many of the same problems so it helps to pass information back and forth exchange ideas on how to solve those problems and how to make the service better that's one of the jobs of company headquarters at St Louis you might think of company headquarters as a sort of central switchboard for handling the flow of information up and down the line at company headquarters 2 are people who are Specialists or experts in certain kinds of work maybe some kind of work that doesn't have to be done all the time in any one area these Specialists can be called called in by the areas whenever their help is needed finally company headquarters handles jobs that affect the company as a whole like issuing stock or bonds at St Louis headquarters also is the vice president in charge of operations all the area vice president him the vice president operations in turn reports to the President also reporting to the president are vice presidents in charge of the accounting legal Personnel Revenue requirements and public relations departments and the secretary treasurer while the president is the head of the company he too has a boss the board of directors the board of directors is made up of a group of men who are leaders in business Agriculture and education in the states where we operate they're elected to the board by the stockholders the owners of the business so there you have it the way the company is organized all the way to its owners and as we said it's a big company and it needs a lot of people in a lot of different jobs some of these jobs may seem more glamorous than others but everyone is important important to the company and important to the telephone user only the smooth working together of all of them makes it possible to give our customers the fast accurate telephone service that's the Envy of all other nations and important to you these hundreds of different jobs at different levels of the organization offer everyone an opportunity to climb his own personal ladder of success so that's the Southwestern Bell your company it covers a lot of territory serves a lot of telephones and it takes millions of dollars in buildings cables equipment sure but all this equipment would be useless without the most important part of the company the telephone people only the skill the knowledge the Loyalty of you and your fellow workers can make these lifeless wires in machines give the kind of service that we're proud to give and the public has come to expect so that's one big reason why to the public you are the telephone company [Music]