COMMUNICATIONS: Quiet Pet

With a pudgy finger President Roberto M. Ortiz of Argentina last week twirled the dial of his telephone, talked briefly to the governors of his four northwest provinces—La Rioja, Catamarca, Santiago del Estero and Tucuman. Thus symbolized was the fact that these sparsely settled but rich grazing lands for the first time enjoyed telephone connections with the world at large. Also symbolized was far-flung International Telephone & Telegraph Corp.’s successful foreign investment.

I. T. & T. has sizable investments in almost every hotspot in the world: Spain, China, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Germany, Rumania, Japan, Poland. In Shanghai the war cost it 10,525 of its 50,000 phones, but most have since been regained. In Spain, where I. T. & T. has an investment of $67,000,000, about one-fifth its total, the system is still in good order because both Rightists and Leftists need it, but whether I. T. & T. will ever again get the $3,000,000 annual profit it used to make is no more certain than the war’s outcome.

Compensating for such troubled areas are I. T. & T.’s interests in quiet spots like France, England, Australia, Peru and Argentina. Argentina is the company’s pet. Since I. T. & T. bought United River Plate Telephone Co., Ltd. in 1928. that booming southern nation has expanded its I. T. & T. phones from 194.500 to 345,186. The present Argentine system, valued at $89,500,000, is I. T. & T.’s largest foreign investment in a single country. Last year it provided nearly $3,000,000 of I. T. & T.’s $10,000,000 net.