(Pat, please mask my email address. Thank you.)
Regarding AT&T dividends in the 30s, and until the breakup in 1983, the stock was the ultimate 'widows and orphans' holding. The dividend was sacrosanct. For that reason alone it was virtually impossible ever to reduce the dividend paid. Any violation of this 'rule' would have been as if the government stopped paying interest on treasury bonds.
-er