As Harriman once said, "I can't get from my home to the depot for the price of a talk to Omaha." To say what the net profits have been, to the entire body of people who have invested money in the telephone, will always be more or less of a guess.

The general belief that immense fortunes were made by the lucky holders of Bell stock, is an exaggeration that has been kept alive by the promoters of wildcat companies.

No such fortunes were made.

"I do not believe," says Theodore Vail, "that any one man ever made a clear million out of the telephone." There are not apt to be any get-rich-quick for-tunes made in corporations that issue no watered stock and do not capitalize their franchises.

On the contrary, up to 1897, the holders of stock in the Bell Companies had paid in four million, seven hundred thousand dollars more than the par value; and in the recent consolidation of Eastern companies, under the presidency of Union N.Bethell, the new stock was actually eight millions less than the stock that was retired.
Few telephone companies paid any profits at first.