Abstract
Since the 1920s, AT & T followed virtually unchanging policies towards dividends and debt, that is, the company maintained a constant $ 9 per share dividend policy and an average debt ratio of about one third. This conservative financial policy was based on a belief that the best way for a regulated utility such as AT & T to attract and hold the goodwill and faith of a large number of small shareholders was through regular reasonable dividends and the long-run safety capital structure.
To understand this belief and the present financial policies of AT & T, we must know its history. Then in this paper I tried to investigate the history of the AT & T's financial policies, in relation to their strategy for the national telephone monopoly and the management thoughts of their leaders.
