File:John Elbridge Hudson.jpg

Identifier: cu31924007427424 (find matches)
Title: The history of the telephone
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Casson, Herbert Newton, 1869-
Subjects: Telephone
Publisher: Chicago, A.C. McClurg & Co.
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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appropriate leader for such apreparatory period. Hudson — John Elbridge Hudson — was thename of the new head of the telephone people.He was a man of middle age, born in Lynn andbred in Boston; a long-pedigreed New Eng-lander, whose ancestors had smelted iron ore inLynn when Charles the First was King, Hewas a lawyer by profession and a university pro-fessor by temperament. His specialty, as a manof affairs, had been marine law; and his hobbywas the collection of rare books and old Englishengravings. He was a master of the Greek lan-guage, and very fond of using it. On all possi-ble occasions he used the language of Pericles inhis conversation; and even carried this preferenceso far as to write his business memoranda inGreek. He was above all else a scholar, then alawyer, and somewhat incidentally the centralfigure in the telephone world. But it was of tremendous value to the tele-phone business at that time to have at its head aman of Hudsons intellectual and moral calibre. (176)
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JOHN E. HUDSON THE HISTORY OF THE TELEPHONE He gave it tone and prestige. He built up itscredit. He kept it clean and clear above allsuspicion of wrong-doing. He held fast what-ever had been gained. And he prepared the wayfor the period of expansion by borrowing fiftymillions for improvements, and by adding greatlyto the strength and influence of the AmericanTelephone and Telegraph Company. Hudson remained at the head of the telephonetable until his death, in 1900, and thus lived tosee the dawn of the era of big business. Underhis regime great things were done in the develop-ment of the art. The business was pushed aheadat every point by its captains. Every man inhis place, trying to give a little better servicethan yesterday — that was the keynote of theHudson period. There was no one preeminentgenius. Each important step forward was theresult of the cooperation of many minds, and theprodding necessities of a growing traffic. By 1896, when the Common Battery systemcreated a new era

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