38 r 4 . raunnax. nnrosrms. ·
and actual “s*itus"° and place of business is in the state of Massachu- ,
setts ; that it has never used or operated a telephone, or built, con-
structed, or owned a telephone line, in said state; that it has never r
had in Ohio a telephone or telephones which it either actually oper-
ated, or had the right to operate; that it has no right of present pos-
session or enjoyment of any telephone or telephone line in said state; -
that it has no agent or otiicer in connection with said local or licensee
corporations; that it has never appointed, and has no right to appoint
or remove, any officer, agent, employe, or servant of said local com-
panies'; that said local corporations alone carry on the business of
telephony in Ohio for their own account and pront, and as their own
business; that it does not share in their prolits, or depend upon their
profits, for its pay for the use of its telephone instruments; that all
telephones used in Ohio are delivered by it to the local corporations
at Boston, Massachusetts, and nowhere ·else; that all the money
which the American Bell Telephone Company receives from the local
companies it receives at its office in Boston; that it has neither de-
manded nor collected in Ohio money for the use of telephones; that it
receives only what the local corporations under theirlicense contracts
agreed to pay by way of rent and royalty; that said rent and royalty
· so agreed to be paid by the local companies are based mainly on the
number of telephones they receive; that in a few cases where this
would not be a proper guide said rents and royalties are based upon
the amount of business done, measured, not by net tolls, but by gross
receipts; that the liability of the local company for the payment of
said rental and royalty commences with the delivery and receipt of
the telephones at Boston, and continues until the instruments are
‘ returned, or, if destroyed, their loss or destruction satisfactorily ac-
counted for; and that said license contracts were all made and entered
into at Boston, Massachusetts, and not elsewhere. The exact rela·
tions of the American Bell Telephone Company and the local corpo-
rations are set out in great detail, both in the plea and in the con-
tracts exhibited therewith. These contracts are drawn with great
precision, accurately defining the rights and liabilities of the parties
thereto, and, both by their express terms and clear intent, state the
relation between the American Bell Telephone Company and the local
corporations to be that of licenser and lessor on the one side, and
licensee and lessee on the other. For its protection, the American
Bell Telephone Company has, by the terms and provisions of these
contracts, reserved important rights and powers, which in certain
contingencies it may exercise, but which, as the plea distinctly avers,
have never been actually exercised by it. The plea sets forth what
has actually been done under the contracts.
Whether the American Bell Telephone Company is carrying on
business in Ohio must be determined by what it has done, or is doing,
rather than by what it may hereafter do, in the event the local com-
panies should make default in complying with the provisions of the