Time and again the unified service of supply within the Bell System has
proved to be a national asset. After hurricanes, floods and fires, when
telephone company people go “all out” to restore service, Western
Electric swings into action to deliver the needed equipment and
supplies. And this equipment is standardized. It is familiar to all
telephone people and can be installed quickly anywhere.
Western’s productive capacity is ready also in any national defense
emergency. Throughout World War II all of the company’s resources were
devoted to the needs of the United States and its allies for electronic
and communications equipment, including radar, sonar and various types
of radio equipment.
In the present national defense program, Western is not only helping to
expand and improve America’s telephone system, but is using experience
gained in its regular telephone job to supply specialized military
equipment to the armed forces.
After World War II Western Electric produced record-breaking quantities
of equipment to meet America’s telephone needs. It increased its
production tremendously to meet the big demand for telephones, willingly
undertaking the financial risks of a big expansion program so that the
operating companies could serve millions of people faster than otherwise
possible.
Since the end of World War II, prices of manufactured goods of all kinds
have gone up, but Western Electric prices have gone up far less than the
average—as of the end of 1954, they had gone up less than half as much.
Because it works as a unit of the System rather than toward a separate
end of its own. Western Electric plays an essential part in furnishing
Americans with the best telephone service at the lowest possible cost.