TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Dial Conversion - Depression Labor Force

Dial Conversion - Depression Labor Force

hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
17 Aug 2006 11:03:56 -0700

The Bell System is sometimes criticized for converting to dial during
the Depression, which caused operators to be laid off at a time when
jobs were scarce. However, that is only part of the story.

The use of automation saved money which kept phone rates low which
enabled more people to keep their phone service. (Many people simply
could no longer keep a phone and terminated their service.)

Also, automation required hiring of craftsmen to install dials at
subscribers, install the dial exchange, and factory workers to make
the exchange and new dial telephone sets. I suspect these efforts
kept a lot of people at work in the Depression and those jobs were
welcomed. The purchase of insulation, steel, copper, and brass for
the switchgear also helped the overall economy.

Further, there tended to be high turnover in operator jobs; it was
something many young women took only until they were married. Of
course circumstances were different in those days and single and
widowed women had to find work, but in some way that was made up by
the increase in Western Electric employment. (Yes, that didn't
usually help a laid-off telephone operator.)

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, the 'Great Depression' is
normally dated as the last three months of 1929, along with 1930-33.
I do not think Bell did any central office conversions during that
time period, or very few of them. Chicago did not start converting
until 1939, after the depression, when our country was well on the
way toward recovery (which generally means a war is going on). Many
of the conversions occurred in the late 1940's and throughout the
1950's, and as we know, those were much better times financially for
almost everyone. PAT]

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