Long Distance

In July 1906, Walter Sherman Gifford, then 21 and two years out of Harvard, wrote his father the glad news of his promotion to assistant secretary & treasurer of Western Electric Co. Salary: $24 a week. Snapped the elder Gifford, a fiercely independent Yankee lumberman: "Any damn fool can make a success in a corporation."

But fact-minded Walter Gifford never placed any reliance on fool's luck. He probed into Western Electric's rule-of-thumb business methods, impressed his bosses by outlining new accounting and manufacturing ideas on easily understood charts. When American Telephone & Telegraph Co., owner of Western Electric, wanted to expand in 1908, President Theodore N. Vail put Gifford in charge of evaluating the companies which were later incorporated into the Bell System. For his crack job, Gifford was made chief statistician of A.T. & T. in 1911 at $7,000 a year. After that he rose through the company with statistical precision. At the age of 40, in 1925, he became president.

In 23 years under President Gifford the Bell System's operating revenues went from $655 million up to $2.2 billion, its installed telephones from 11.2 million to 28.5 million. A pioneer in labor relations, Gifford campaigned to make all employees stockholders (TIME, Jan. 2). Last week, with 45 A.T. & T. years behind him, Board Chairman Gifford retired on a $95,000 annual pension. A.T. & T. directors, who revived the post of board chairman two years ago for Gifford, do not plan to replace him. They will let Leroy A. Wilson run the show from the president's office.

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