In his final report to the Western Union, Mr.Pope announced that there was no way to make a telephone except Bell's way, and advised the purchase of the Bell patents.

"I am entirely unable to discover any apparatus or method anticipating the invention of Bell as a whole," he said; "and I conclude that his patent is valid." But the officials of the great corporation refused to take this report seriously.

They threw it aside and employed Edison, Gray, and Dolbear to devise a telephone that could be put into competition with Bell's.
As we have seen in the previous chapter, there now came a period of violent competition which is remembered as the Dark Ages of the telephone business.

The Western Union bought out several of the Bell exchanges and opened up a lively war on the others.

As befitting its size, it claimed everything.