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		 SASKATCHEWAN'S TELEPHONE DEVELOPMENT
         
	The progress of the province of Saskatchewan is probably
nowhere more strongly marked than in the development of its
telephone system since the inauguration of the province in 1905.
In the year 1905 there were only two or three small systems,
operated by the Bell Company and comprising about 2,000
telephones in all in use in the province. In 1908 three acts were
passed by the Legislature having to do with telephones: one for
the purpose of creating a Department of Telephones, another
was the Municipal Telephone Act giving power to town and
village municipalities to construct telephone systems, and the
third was known as The Rural Telephone Act.  In 1909 the
Bell system was bought out by the provincial government and an
era of rapid development was commenced. In that year there
were 30 companies organized with 890 miles of wire and 950
subscribers. Under this act the system grew and in four years
the subscribers amounted to approximately 6,000.
         
	Certain difficulties arose under the act in administration
and organization, chiefly of a financial character. To meet these
difficulties a new rural telephone act was passed in 1913 which,
besides containg practically the same principles as the original
act, also provided that the initial cost of a company could be
raised by the sale of debentures repayable by levying a tax on the
lands adjacent to the lines. As a result of this new act a tremen-
dous growth took place in the rural telephone service. In 1914,
the first year in which the new act was in operation, 5,000 rural
were added and this proportionate growth continued until in 1918
there was an increase of over 10,000.
         
	We have had in this province the most remarkable and
greatest rural telephone development that has been seen in any
country in the world.  Today there are approximately 65,000
rural phones in Saskatchewan, to which may be added another
33,000 subscribers served through the government service, or one
phone for about eight people.
         
	Many rural companies have interested themselves in an
exchange in a small town and in some cases very small villages
are getting continuous service through the rural system. There
are about 100 points in the province where people in very
small hamlets are receiving telephone service through the rural
         
	

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		 SASKATCHEWAN'S PHONE DEVELOPMENT- continued
         
organization and further there are about 400 miles of short long-
ted by rural companies.
         
Another phase of development is found in the fact that the
average size of companies has been steadily increasing. In the
early days, the average number of subscribers in a rural company
average number is 55. Still another develop-
ment in rural phone organization has been the introduction of the
automatic rural system.  There are a number of automatic
exchanges in the province and in this respect Saskatchewan has
gone a great deal further than any other province or sate of the
Union.
         
         
	The Rural Telephone School, conducted each year by the
Department, is another side development of the rural system.
To this school there come large numbers of farm boys who receive
expert training in maintenance and telephone work, thus reducing
the cost to the rural company and training an expert group
of young men every year.
         
As a demonstration of the efficacy of the co-operative endea-
vour which has been made, it is interesting to note that under the
legislation referring to telephones some 1,250 companies have
financed and built their systems and are operating them under
 local management. In no other way could the rural field have
been so rapidly and effectively covered. The provisions of the
law permit of ready financing, freedom of action on the part of a
commnunity in providing itself with service, logical expansion,
cheap maintenance, low rates, local management in the light of
local conditions and circumstances, local control of annual rentals
and natural definition of boundaries of telephone areas through
community interests.
         
         
	The rural telephone system in Saskatchewan has worked to
give the farmers of the province satisfactory service at a reasonable
cost.  It is not possible, of course, to have such a service without
cost, but the farmers appreciate the system and have found it
well worth the cost.  The general policy laid down by the Depart-
ment of Telephones has been honestly and fairly lived up to by the
companies, and has been responsible for the splendid development
and for the unique position Saskatchewan occupies today in
this respect.

        

		 
This coming of age Souvenir contains an Offical Map
of the Highways System of the Province (prepared by
the Saskatchewan Department of Highways) and some
interesting information about the progress of the
Province since its formation twenty-one years ago.
Issued by the Department of Highways

1926