UC-NRLF H E llfcl SB 3fl George Davidson 1 fiP.R,! 01 1 THE r -PROPOSED UNION OF THE TELEGRAPH AND POSTAL SYSTEMS. STATEMENT OF THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY, CAMBRIDGE : WELCH, BIGELOW, AND COMPANY, PKIXTKHS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 1869. THE PROPOSED UNION OF THE TELEGRAPH AND POSTAL SYSTEMS. STATEMENT OF THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY. \\ CAMBRIDGE: WELCH, BIGELOW, AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 1869. CONTENTS. REVIEW OF HON. E. B. WASHBURNE'S PAPER ON THE UNION OF THE TELEGRAPH AND POSTAL SYSTEMS. Page A merited Compliment to Professor Morse 1 Congressional Aid .......... 2 Erroneous Charges against the American Telegraph System ... 3 Brief Statement of Facts 4 Statistics of the Telegraph in Europe and America for the year 1866, from Official Reports 5 The Complaint of Indifference to Public Convenience without Foun- dation ............ 5 Official Statistics of the Telegraphs in Europe for the year 1866 . . 7 Statistics of the Western Union Telegraph Company, of the United States, and of the Montreal Telegraph Company, Dominion of Canada, for the year ending June 30, 1867 7 The asserted Union of the Postal and Telegraph Systems in Europe an Error 8 The Shortcomings of British Telegraphs ...... 9 The Telegraph System of the United States Unparalleled for its Extent and Efficiency .......... 10 Asserted Effect of Governmental Control on Belgian Telegraphs . . 11 Early Belgian Rates contrasted with American 12 Natural Increase in Telegraphy 13 Unfortunate Effects of Low Rates and Competition .... 15 American and European Rates compared . . . . . .15 The Peculiarities of the Belgian Telegraph Service .... 17 Belgian Officials acknowledge the Imperfections of their System . . 18 Instructive History of Belgian Telegraphs 19 Singular Idea that a Small Telegraph System is more Difficult to Manage than a Large One . 20 Necessity for the Unification of the Telegraph System . . . . 22 v CONTENTS. Estimate of the Cost of Building Telegraph Lines ... 24 Doubts regarding the Estimates of Telegraph Experts as to Cost of Con- structing Lines 27 Incorrect Assertion that American Telegraphs are not constructed according to Specifications 29 Cost of American Telegraphs estimated by European Data ... 30 Value of Western Union Telegraph Property, based on European data 32 Erroneous Estimate of the Value of the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany's Property . . . 33 The Organization of the Western Union Telegraph Company . . 35 Financial Statistics of the Western Union Telegraph Company . 36 Stations, Lines, and Employees o'f the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany 39 English and American Telegraphs compared , 40 Acknowledged Superiority of the early American Service . . . 41 Remarkably Low Tariffs of the early American Telegraphs . . 42 No Similarity between the Telegraph and Postal Systems . . .43 Collection and Delivery of Telegrams by Letter- Carriers Impracticable 45 Mr. Washburne's proposed Experimental Line 47 London District Telegraph Company .. " . . . . . . 50 Telegraphs under Government and Private Control compared . . 51 The Telegraph and the Press . . . 52 KEVIEW OF MR. GARDINER G. HUBBARD'S LETTER TO THE POST- MASTER-GENERAL ON THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN SYSTEMS OF TELEGRAPH. Erroneous Statements relative to Belgian Telegraphs . . . . 56 Belgian Telegrams delivered by Post 58 Want of Uniformity in Rates .,..-. 58 Assertion that Commercial Messages are transmitted at a Loss . 61 Correction of Erroneous Statements *. . . . . . . 62 Tariffs not Increased by Consolidation of the Lines .... 63 Erroneous Assertion that a Large Proportion of the Offices are at Rail- road Stations . .... . . . ; . . . 64 American and European Telegraph Tariffs compared . . . . 65 Rules of the European Telegraphs 66 Rules of the Western Union Telegraph Company 66 Statement showing the Minimum Rate for Telegrams from London to Principal Cities in Europe, and from New York to Principal Cities in America . . . . ... . . . . . 67 Singular Notions of Practical Telegraphy 68 Absurd Theories regarding the Working Capacity of Telegraph Lines . 69 Impossibility of Utilizing the Telegraph Lines by Night as well as Day 70 CONTENTS. V Proposed Incorporation of the United States Postal Telegraph Company 72 Messages delivered within a Mile of the Office free .... 73 European Charges for delivering Telegrams ...... 74 Telegrams to be placed in the Street Boxes 75 Privileged Persons to have Priority in the Use of the Wires ... 75 Proposition to operate Telegraphs at a Loss, and Make Money by it 76 Speculative Telegraph Schemes . . . . . . . . 77 More Startling Inventions for Rapid Telegraphing .... 78 Erroneous Table of European Statistics ....... 79 European Telegrams counted Several Times 82 Labor the Principal Element of Expense in operating Telegraphs . . 82 Prevailing Error of all Theorizers on the Business of Telegraphing . 83 Statistics of Traffic through the Atlantic Cables from July 28, 1866, to November 1, 1868 . 86 PROGRESS OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN AMERICA AND EUROPE. The United States 87 Proportion of Telegrams to Letters . 87 Early History of the Telegraph in America . . . . . . 88 Evils arising from Separate Organizations 89 The Unification of the Telegraph accomplished ..... 90 Telegraph Companies in the United States 91 Statistics of the Telegraph in the Dominion of Canada . . . . 92 Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Austria . . 93 Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Belgium ... 94 Bavaria ............ 98 Denmark 98 Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Great Britain and Ireland 100 Decrees regulating the Use of the Telegraph in France . . . 102 Peculiar Character of the French Telegraph 103 Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in France . . 104 Increase in Telegrams not due to Low Rates . . . . . .104 Greece 105 Prussia ...... I ...... 105 Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Prussia . . . 106 Russia 106 Switzerland 107 Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Switzerland . . 109 Royal Decree relating to Telegraphs in Spain 110 Turkey Ill VI CONTENTS. EEASONS WHY GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT ENTER INTO COM- PETITION WITH THE PEOPLE IN THE OPERATION OF THE TELEGRAPH. Political Reasons why Government should not Control the Telegraph . 114 The Post-Office Department not Competent to manage the Telegraphs . 114 Government assumes no Responsibility .. . . . . 116 The Proposition to Erect Competitive Governmental Telegraphs Un- founded in Public Necessity . . . , *. ,. .. . 117 The Telegraph Bill proposed to be enacted by Congress without Na- tional Example . . . . . . . . . 118 REVIEW 01- HON. E. B. WASHBURNE'S PAPER ON THE UNION OF THE TELEGRAPH AND POSTAL SYSTEMS. IN the second session of the Fortieth Congress, 1868, a bill was introduced and a paper submitted by Hon. E. B. Washburne, of Illinois, relating to the " Union of the Telegraph and Postal Systems " in the United States, which has naturally attracted public attention, and especially of that large class of our citizens who are identified with the Telegraph interests of the country. The paper bears upon its face such evident marks of care, and the case is presented with so much earnestness and apparent sincerity, notwithstanding the frequency of its errors and the illusory char- acter of its appeals to the practice and experience of foreign nations, that it cannot fail to produce upon the public rnind an unjust im- pression that the usefulness of this great invention is injuriously restricted, and its operations unfaithfully managed, by the organi- zations having it in control. O To correct these erroneous impressions by calmly and respect- fully criticising the statements thus presented, and proving the honesty and fidelity with which the Telegraph service is performed in this country, is the object of this paper. A MERITED COMPLIMENT TO PROFESSOR MORSE. In the acknowledgment made by Mr. Washburne, in the opening of his paper, that " the world is indebted to the genius of a citizen of the United States for, the practical development of the electric telegraph as a means of communication," we heartily con- cur. That citizen is still a member of the Company to which his 1 great discovery gave birth, and on whose success he largely depends for support. To it he gives his ripened genius and matured wisdom, justly priding himself upon the success of his invention, and desiring for it the largest and widest use. But Professor Morse needs more than the simple honor of making a great discovery and of placing it at the disposal of his fellow-men throughout the world, and when it is considered that the effect of the system proposed to be inaugurated by Mr. Washburne's bill would be the inevitable destruction of all existing telegraph in- vestments, and possibly the impoverishment of the great inventor himself, the compliment seems a barren one indeed. CONGKESSIONAL AID. Congress, it is true, aided the introduction of the Telegraph by an appropriation of thirty thousand dollars for a public experiment and test of its capacity. But it may well be questioned whether this appropriation was not, after all, an injury rather than a benefit, both to the inventor and the people. It left no property to enrich its possessors, and no models to guide them in erecting new struc- tures, while it was obtained by sacrifices which have cost the inventor infinite sorrow, and clouded a score of years with litiga- tion. The time occupied by Congress in the consideration of the offer of the invention to government for one hundred thousand dollars (which was rejected) consumed nearly two years of the patent, and exposed the inventor to the endurance of a most an- noying uncertainty. Government, however, most effectually insured its .successful extension, when, contrary to the practice of European powers, it declined to assume the control of the Telegraph, arid referred its inventor, after the thorough investigation of the Postmaster r General, to the people as the proper recipients of his discovery. It was the healthy act of a government which recognized its duty to protect, instead of absorbing, the enterprises of its citizens. That duty is as clear to-day 1 as it was then. When government rejected the control and ownership of the Telegraph, although offered for so paltry a sum by the inventor, it was accepted by the people as a legitimate enterprise, and they 3 have given to it alFthe capital, skill, and labor required for the fullest development of its usefulness. Although many years elapsed after the introduction of the Telegraph in this countiy during which it maintained but a feeble existence through numerous weak and limited organizations, that rendered the business expensive and precarious, it now begins to crystallize into strength and harmony ; and the projectors and promoters of the enterprise feel that they have a right to expect the fruit of their labors, in the proper and legitimate return which the humblest citizen receives for his work, and which government was, in part at least, organized to secure. We therefore pronounce the Washburne bill an unwarranted and unjust measure, which, while proposing an ostensible public good, essays to provide it by the destruction of vast private interests for which it proposes no compensation. ERRONEOUS CHARGES AGAINST THE AMERICAN TELEGRAPH SYSTEM. To the charges made by Mr. Washburne, in the prefatory sen- tences of his paper, against the management of the Telegraph system of the United States, little need be said. They are with- out the shadow of proof, and require no other answer than an explicit denial. Yet American telegraph companies may justly complain that a public man, while ostensibly performing a service in the interests of the people, should deem it necessary to traduce a vast interest by the use of terms so broad as to attract to it, even without proof of their justice, unwarranted disparagement and suspicion. Mr. Washburne's statement that " the telegraphic system has made less progress toward perfection, and has been practically of less value to the masses of the people in our country, than in any other civilized country on the globe," is so sweepingly erroneous as to excite our profound astonishment, which is increased by the still broader assertion that, " while in nearly every country in Europe the telegraph has become a speedy, certain, and economical medium of communication, the inestimable benefits of which are extended to the inhabitants of small towns and communes as well as to the great centres of trade, in this country telegraphic communication has always been uncertain and expensive, and limited to chief towns and cities." BRIEF STATEMENT OF FACTS. In reply to the above we desire to present the following facts. The population of Europe at the last authentic census was 288,001,365, nineteen twentieths of which . belonged to the Cau- casian race. It contains thirty-nine cities, each possessing more than one hundred thousand inhabitants, and the accumulated wealth of nearly two thousand years of civilization. The United States has a population of only 31,148,047, and contains but ten cities of one hundred thousand inhabitants, while its utmost civilized history reaches back scarcely two and a half centuries, and the accumulated wealth of its civilization cannot average fifty years throughout its cultivated area. The population of Europe being nearly ten times greater than that of the United States, as is also its accumulations of years of civilization, while, according to Mr. Washburne, its telegraph facilities vastly outstrip ours, it should, of course, possess far more than ten times the number of telegraph offices. But, in truth, there is not even an approximation to this pro- vision of telegraphic convenience based on population ; for while the United States alone possess 4,126 telegraph offices, all Europe contains but 6,450, of which 2,151, or more than one third of the whole number, belong to Great Britain, where the telegraph has heretofore been free from government control. It is significant of American enterprise that continental Europe, with a population of 260,000,000, possesses but one hundred and seventy-three more telegraph offices than the United States, with her 31,000,000 of widely scattered people.- While in the United States there is a telegraph office to every 7,549 of its inhabitants, in continental Europe there is only one to every 60,249 ! The following table will serve to show the proportion of tele- graph offices to population in the principal countries of Europe and of the United States, the number of miles of line, and amount of telegraph business of each. TABLE A. Statistics of the Telegraph in Europe and America for the year 1866, from official reports. COUNTRIES. Number of Stations. Miles of Line. Miles of Wire. Total Number of Messages Transmitted. Population.* Proportion of Offices to Population. Austria 856 24,618 73,854 2,507,472 39,411,309 1 to 46,311 Belgium 356 2,187 6,146 1,128,005 4,530,228 1 to 12,416 Bavaria 2,115 4,945 Denmark 89 2,515 308,150 1,684,004 1 to 18,921 France 1,209 20,628 68,687 2,842,554 38,302,625 1 to 31,681 Great Britain) and Ireland ) 2,151 16,588 80,466 5,781,189 29-,591,009 1 to 13,750 Italy 529 8,200 20,120 1,760,889 24,550,845 to 49,000 Norway 73 269,375 1,433,488 to 19,773 Prussia 538 18,386 55,149 1,964,003 17,739,913 to 32,955 Russia 308 12,013 22.214 838,653 68,224,832 to 221,508 Switzerland 252 1,858 3,715 668,916 ; 2,534,240 to 10,000 Spain 142 8,871 17,743 533,376 16,302,625 to 100,000 United States 4,126 62,782 125,564 12,904,770 31,148,047 to 7,549 Dominion of j Canada J 382 6,747 8,935 573,219 3,976,224 1 to 10,400 In large sections of the United States the proportion is much greater. Thus, the Pacific States embrace an area of 600,000 square miles ; Belgium, 11,000. The former provide an office to' every 2,500 of their population ; the latter, one to every 12,416. Thus, the Pacific States sustain five times as many offices in pro- portion to population as Belgium, to say nothing of the great dis- parity in the condition of service by the vast range of wild ter- ritory occupied by the one, and the fine roads and cultivated area of the other. In view of the facts shown in the preceding table, how can it be said that in America the telegraph is less practically provided to the people than in any other civilized country on the globe ? THE COMPLAINT OF INDIFFERENCE TO PUBLIC CONVENIENCE WITHOUT FOUNDATION. " Instead of an auxiliary to the postal system, controlled, like it, by the state, sought, like it, to be made useful to the great masses of the people without regard to the pecuniary profit to be secured, as in nearly every civilized country in the world, we see the system in this country in the hands of rival companies, anxious only for profit, extending their lines only to prominent places where such profits are to be secured, and too in- different to the public convenience. In short, the popular verdict of the * From the Annual Cyclopaedia. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1868. 6 people of this country, if it could be heard, would be that the telegraphic system, in view of what it is in other countries and might become in this, is practically a failure." The above complaint is without the least .foundation. In no country in the world is there so vast a system of lines under one control as in this ; in no country is the business done so well or so cheaply ; and nowhere else has there ever been so earnest an en- deavor made to serve the people faithfully and satisfactorily. A great majority of the towns in this country having even less than five hundred inhabitants are already supplied with offices, and they are rapidly increasing. During the past two and a half years more than one million of dollars have been spent by the Western Union Telegraph Company alone in the construction of new lines, and during the same period it has opened more than eight hundred new offices. This it is constantly doing, as much to satisfy ex- isting public wants as for the promotion of its own future interest. Over one hundred offices have, long been sustained at a loss, because needed to protect the lines built through comparatively desert regions to reach distant points of intercourse, and several hundred more are maintained which barely pay expenses. In fact, it is a standing rule of the company to open and maintain a tele- graph office at all places in the United States reached by its lines, on a guaranty that the receipts shall be equal to the necessary expenses ; and, by associating the duties of the telegraphic service with other productive labor, they are often rendered extremely light. It ajso offers to extend its lines to any place not reached by existing lines, where the inhabitants will advance the cost of build- ing them, the money so advanced to be refunded to the contributors in telegraphing at ordinary tariffs. Under this arrangement a large number of offices have been opened and extensive lines built, to the satisfaction of all parties. Into such arrangements the government could not enter with any similar rapidity, or by so healthy and economic processes ac- complish a like amount of substantial benefit to the people. The fact that there is scarcely a community to be found anywhere in America where the people are unable to meet these offers of the Telegraph Company, is the best reason why government should not furnish at public expense what the people are so able to pro- vide for themselves. In reply to the statement that our company is anxious only for profit, and that its charges are exorbitant as compared with those of other countries, we respectfully call attention to the follow- ing table, showing the average cost of telegrams in Europe and America for the year 1866. AVERAGE COST OF TELEGRAMS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA FOR 1866. Official Statistics of the Telegraphs in Europe for the Year 1866. Name of Country or Company. Total Num- ber of Mes- sages trans- mitted, in- cluding in- land, inter- national, and transit. Receipts. Value in U. S. Gold Coin. Value in U.S. Currency.* ! Austria . . . 2,507,472 Florins 1.644.742 X 80.48 = $ 789.476.16 $1.168,424.71 Belgium . . 1,128,005 Francs 931,112 X 0.19 = 182:611.28 270,264.69 Bavaria . . . Florins 322,886 X 0.41 = 102,383.26 195,927.22 ; Denmark . . 308,150 Dollars 308,150 X 1.09 = 335,883.50 497,107.58 France . . . 2,507,472 Francs 7,707,590 X 0.19 = 1,464,442.10 2,167,374.30 Great Britain and Ireland Italy .... 5,781,189 1,760,889 sterling 512,707 X 4 86 = Lire 4,120,311 X 0.19 = 2,491,756.02 782,859.09 3,687,798.90 1,158,631.45 Norway . 269,375 Dollars 343,645 X 1.09 = 374,573.15 554,368.26 Prussia . . . Russia . . . Switzerland . 1,984,003 838,653 668,916 Thalers 1,275,785 X 0.72 = Roubles 1,872,659 x 0.77* = Francs 684,471 X 0.19 = 918,565.00 1,451,310.72 130,049.49 1,359,476.20 2,147,939.86 192,473.24 Spain . . . 533,376 Dollars 554,475 X 1.04* = 576,654.00 853,447.92 Submarine Tel- egraph Co. . 410,760 sterling . 60,368 X 4.86 = 293,388.48 434,214.95 Malta & Alex- andria T. Co. 28,067 sterling 52,142 X 4.86 = 253,410.12 375,046.97 Mediterranean Extension Tel- egraph Co. . 77,400 sterling 31,200 X 4.86 = 151,632.00 224,415.36 18,683,727 $10,328,994.37 $15,286,911.61 Average cost of telegrams in Europe 814 cents. Statistics of the Western Union Telegraph Company of the United States and of the Montreal Telegraph Company, Dominion of Canada, for the year ending Jane 30, 1867. Name of Company. Total Number of Messages. Receipts. United States Currency. Western Union Tele- graph Company Montreal Telegraph Company 10,067,768 1 573,219 $5,738,627.96 381,840.00 $ 258,000 gold = Average cost of telegrams in the United States 57 cents. Average cost of telegrams in the Dominion of Canada . . . 66 cents. * The Commercial and Financial Chronicle gives the lowest price of gold in 1866 as 1241, and the highest 167$, making the average 148, which we have adopted as the standard value for that year. t These are exclusive of railroad messages, of which this company sends many millions per annum. In fact, the safety of all the roads in the United States is largely due to the free use of our wires in running trains. 8 The total receipts of the Western Union Telegraph Company for the above year were $ 6,568,925.36 ; but of this amount $521,509 were received for transmitting regular press reports on contract, and $308,788.40 from other sources, leaving only $5,738,627.96 for telegrams. Of the 10,067,768 messages sent during the year,, 8,004,770 were on commercial and social matters, and 2,062,998 containing special press news, the latter amounting to 75,359,670 words. Of ' the regular reports there were delivered to the press 294,503,630 words, which, allowing 20 words to each message, the European standard, would amount to 14,725,181 telegrams, in addition to the number given in the table. The average tele- graphic tolls on these reports were three and one half cents for a message of 20 words, or one and seven tenths of a mill per word. THE ASSERTED UNION OF THE POSTAL AND TELEGRAPH SYSTEMS IN EUROPE AN ERROR. In referring to the action of European governments, in their early recognition of the telegraph system, Mr. Washburne says : " At once, after the invention and successful establishment of electric telegraphs, every government in Europe where lines were built, except that of Great Britain, established a telegraphic system in connection with its postal system. Anticipating, as they might well do, that in private hands it might be so constructed as to draw to it, by its speed, safety, and economy, a large proportion of the correspondence, and thus become a rival of the post, these governments, acting in the interests of the people, have made the system part and parcel of the postal system, and have thrown around it all the safeguards which in every civilized country the postal system enjoys." The above statement, with the exception of that portion printed in italics, is remarkably incorrect. In no country in Europe does it appear that the telegraphic administration is connected with the post-office.* In France and Spain the telegraphs are under the control of the Minister of the Interior. In Russia, Prussia, and Italy they belong to the Ministry of Public Works. In Belgium the telegraph, railways, and the post-office form a general division under the Minister of * Telegraphic Journal, (London: Truscott, Son, & Simmons,) Volume XI. page 131. Public Works, but are kept distinct. In Austria the administra- tions of the telegraphs and the post-office were at one time united, but it was found expedient to separate them. In Switzerland the telegraphic organization is nearly the same as Prussia's ; the post- office, customs, and private establishments supply the elements of an auxiliary staff, but all the persons employed in the trans- mission or delivery of telegrams depend on the administration of Telegraphs for their compensation, and in the annual budget an appropriation is made for that service distinct from the post. An effort was made in France in 1864 to consolidate the post- office and telegraph service, but, owing to the strong opposition evinced on the part of the chief functionaries of both services to such amalgamation, it was relinquished. It was not until several years after the introduction of the electric telegraph in America that it was opened to the people by any European government. Even in France the electric telegraph was established as late as 1851, and its spread throughout the empire was exceedingly slow. The semaphore telegraph, a defective and inefficient system of conveying intelligence by the exhibition of signals, introduced by Napoleon at the beginning of the present century, was still in use, and, notwithstanding the mani- fest advantages of the electric telegraph, as shown by Arago to the House of Deputies, government long refused to employ it, and, when finally adopted, it was for some time used in connection with the old system. THE SHORTCOMINGS OF BRITISH TELEGRAPHS. Mr. AVashburne says of the British telegraph: " In Great Britain, as in the United States, the telegraph was left to private enterprise and competition. Only a few weeks since, after a twenty years' trial of the system in the hands of private companies, the people of the British islands, with singular unanimity, demanded to have the telegraphic system placed under the control of the postal authorities, and a bill was introduced by the present government for that purpose." It is complained of Great Britain, which provides one quarter of all the telegraph offices in Europe, that the telegraph companies there have left eighty-eight places in England and Wales having a population of two thousand and upwards, and even whole districts, without an office. 10 Whatever may be true of the meagreness of the provision of telegraphic facilities by English companies, and which these com- panies vigorously deny, no such complaint can, -with justice, be made in the United States, notwithstanding the vast ranges of ter- ritory which must be traversed to meet the communities which need and ask for them. Without intending any disrespect to the postal authorities of the United States, it may be said that the post-office system of Great Britain, because of the superior character of the control which long and careful study has enabled it to secure, is far in advance of our own. In fact, there is nothing more apparent to an English visitor than the low status of our postal arrangements, as compared wi^h that of his own country. It is natural, therefore, seeing the postal system so admirably managed, that English merchants, whose tendencies are all toward governmental direction in matters of this character,* should desire to see the experiment of a similar control of the telegraph. In fact, it is only this class of citizens who have asked for the change, the memorial having gone solely from the different Chambers of Commerce throughout the kingdom, no ap- peal on the subject having ever been made to or by the people of Great Britain, and therefore the assertion that the people with singular unanimity demanded it is not sustained by the facts. THE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM OF THE .UNITED STATES UNPARAL- LELED FOR ITS EXTENT AND EFFICIENCY. Mr. Washburne says, " There is abundant reason to believe that the telegraphic system of Great Britain, which is declared a failure on such high authority, is, in all respects, greatly superior to our own " ; but he fails to give any of his reasons for this belief, and we are compelled to assert that it has no intelligent explana- tion except in a strangely morbid hostility to this company, which exhibits itself on every offered occasion. In all respects the telegraph lines of this country are equal .to those of any other, and in some important ones superior. They extend from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, connecting in one unbroken chain more than four * Witness the proposition recently so much discussed in England, that the govern- ment should assume control of the railways also. 11 thousand cities and villages, forming a .system by which every event of importance happening in any section of our vast territorial limits is published within a few hours in every other ; through which verbatim reports of the speeches in Congress are transmitted from the capital to the metropolis, and full abstracts of them to every considerable town in the nation, on the day of their delivery ; which supplies the metropolitan journals with more telegraphic news every day than is contained in the combined press despatches of Europe. Such a system, in its vastness, skilful manipulation, and the rapidity of its unceasing development, we believe merits the public approbation, and is not unworthy of the American name. Our system of telegraphy is unique. Nowhere else can there be found such an extent of lines under one control. The lines of the Western Union Telegraph Company, extending throughout the United States and portions of the Dominion of Canada, enables it to transmit messages between every section of the country, with- out undergoing the delay of checking or booking at intermediate points ; and between most of the large cities without retransmis- sion. This work, over a territory so vast, although only two years have elapsed since the confederation of lines was effected which made it possible, is fast assuming, under increased care and enlarged experience, the certainty and uniformity of mechanism. In all its effective features, the world may safely be challenged to produce anything to compare with it. The extent of lines and wire belonging to the Western Union Telegraph Company is more than twice that of France, three times greater than that of Prussia, and equals the aggregated systems of Austria, Prussia, and the lesser German States, Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland, and it is increasing in larger ratio than any European system. The Western Union Telegraph Company alone has added to its lines, during the year 1868, more than five thousand miles of wire, or as much as the entire system of Belgium, leaving unsatisfied demands for an equal extension in the year to come. ASSERTED EFFECT OF GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL ON BELGIAN TELEGRAPHS. Mr. Washburne says : "In Belgium, where the telegraph has always been under the control of 12 the government, the charge for telegraphing twenty words throughout the kingdom is half a franc, or, say ten cents of our money. In Switzerland the charge is the same. In both these countries offices are opened in nearly every town and village ; in both telegraphing is reliable and cer- tain ; complaints of delays and errors are almost unknown, and the lines in both countries yield large profits* " In Belgium, in the year 1853, with an average charge of 5 francs and 7 centimes, or say $1.02 for twenty words to any part of the kingdom, the number of messages sent was 52,050, yielding, francs, 265,536. In the year 1866, with the charge reduced to about 17 cents for twenty words, the number of messages had increased to 1,128,005, yielding, francs, 962,213. The same remarkable increase is found tn the statistics of the telegraphic system of all countries where the telegraph is under government control." If by the latter clause of this statement it is designed to convey the idea that government control, per se, stimulates the use of the telegraph, or that even a reduction of rates, without this control, is incapable of producing this result, it may justly be challenged as utterly unsustained by the telegraphic experience of this country. The coupling together of these two influences seems designed to prove that the one necessarily involves the other, whereas the ques- tion of rate is altogether independent of management, whether government or individual. EARLY BELGIAN KATES CONTRASTED WITH AMERICAN. Respecting the Belgian tariff of 1853, of $1.02 in gold per mes- sage, for a distance not exceeding fifty miles, it must be regarded as prohibitory, except to those whose necessities compelled its use. The American charge at the same period for even greater dis- tances was twenty-five cents. Instead, therefore, of any surprise at the comparatively limited use of the telegraph by the Belgian people under the circumstances, it may well be regarded as ex- traordinary that it was used so much. Had private companies in the United States attempted to impose such a tariff at the period named, public opinion would have com- pelled an immediate reduction. While there can be no doubt that, within certain limits, a diminished tariff will usually be followed by an increase in the number of messages, experience has demon- strated that this cannot be relied on as invariably true, except * See official acknowledgment of inefficiency on pages 18 and 19; also, on page 96, an admitted loss in performing the service at established rates. 13 where the charge has been unreasonable or exorbitant. It must be remembered that, when a tariff has been reduced one half, there must be an increase of more than one hundred per cent in the number of despatches, to yield the same revenue, meet the cost of added labor, and provide the necessary additional means of transmission. So great an addition in the number of messages, unattended with a corresponding increase of wires and operators, would result in such delay and inaccuracy as to render the service of no value. NATURAL INCREASE IN TELEGRAPHY. It should be remembered, too, that an increase follows the supply of more ample facilities, when these have been inadequate to the wants of the communities for which they are provided. There is also a large natural increase, altogether irrespective of the charges for transmission, which must be allowed for, before the legitimate effect of the inducements presented by cheapness, or the opportunities furnished by the multiplication of wires or in- creased capacity in the machinery, can be estimated. Thus, in December, 1848, which in the United States bears a fair com- parison with Belgium in 1852 as to date of telegraphic intro- duction, at the office in Buffalo, N. Y., the receipts amounted to $380.54; while in the same month of 1867, with no decrease in the tariff, the receipts were 85,392.07, an increase of over 1,600 per cent, and exceeding by 400 per cent that which in Belgium was caused, as claimed, by reducing the tariff from $1.02 to 17 cents, but which, in Buffalo, resulted from simple natural increase caused by the growth of the countiy and enlarged telegraphic facilities. The annual gross receipts of the Magnetic Telegraph Company, extending between New York and Washington, were as follows : 1847, $32,810 1848, 52,252 1849, 63,367 1850, 61,383 1851, 67,737 1852, 103,232 Up to the close of 1848 the above company had a monopoly of 14 the telegraph service between these two cities, but in March, 1849, the House Printing Line commenced operations between New York and -Philadelphia, and, together with Bain's Chemical Tele- graph, was continued through to Washington in the autumn of that year, so that from 1848 to 1852 the above statement only shows the receipts of one of the three lines doing business between these places. If the receipts of the other two companies were as large, it exhibits the remarkable increase in the amount of business done, in five years, of more than 900 per cent, without any reduc- tion in rates. The number of messages transmitted by the Magnetic Com- pany in 1852 was 253,857, at an average cost, according to the receipts, of forty cents each. The average cost of the French telegrams for the' same year, according to the official tables furnished by Mr. Washburne, was 11.28 francs, or $2.25 each. For the year ending November 1, 1868, the Western Union Telegraph Company transmitted over the same territory embraced by the lines of the Magnetic Company in 1852, 1,556,004 mes- sages, the gross receipts upon \vhich were $546,262.05, being an average of thirty-five cents per message. There are two rival companies operating lines between New York and Washington at the present time, so that the comparison between the business for the past year and that of the previous year above given is quite complete. The gross receipts of the New York and Boston Magnetic Tele- graph Association for the year ending July 31, 1848, were . . . . .. $34,835.14 " 1853, . . . . ,. . 82,214.16 " 1854, " ".. . *.- . . 79,683.73 " 1855, "...... 101,307.98 " 1856, . . V . . 102,151.78 " 1857, " . . . . . . 103,134.06 *' 1858, . , . ..... 98,097.73 1859, . '.' . ~ . . . 96,136.06 In 1848 the above company had a monopoly of the business be- tween these places, but in 1849 two rival companies constructed lines over this route and divided the business with it. 15 In 1848 the tariff between New York and Boston was fifty cents for the first ten words, and three cents for each added word; and to intermediate points twenty -five cents for the first ten words, and two cents for each added word. UNFORTUNATE EFFECTS OF LOW RATES AND COMPETITION. In 1849 the rate was reduced between New York and Boston to thirty cents, in 1850 to twenty cents, and in 1852 to ten cents. None of the lines, however, paid their working expenses from the time of their construction up to 1853. Even in 1848, when there was no opposition, the expenses exceeded the receipts by $1,199.00. One of the three lines was sold at public auction twice within three years after its construction, to pay the debts incurred in operating it. In 1853 two of the lines were united under one control, and an amicable arrangement entered into between the two remaining companies, by which the rates were advanced approximately to those of 1848, and they remained unchanged for the next ten years. AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN RATES COMPARED. In 1851, when the tariff between New York and Boston was twenty cents, the average French rate was $1.56, and the Bel- gian, for less than one third the distance, $1.56. In 1852, New York and Boston, tariff, . . . 10 cents. " French, average " . $ 2.25 " " Prussian, " .".... 2.35 " ~R A! rri an " " for less than one third 1 91 .Belgian, . the distance, *-^* " Austrian, " " . . . . 1.55 1866, New York and Boston, " 30 " French, average, 83 " " Prussian, 65 " Belgian, ... * ll %*$* M .25 " " Austrian, " 46 " When the Belgian lines were opened to the public, an act of the legislature, dated March 15, 1851, established a charge of 2^ francs for a message of twenty words, if transmitted within a circle of 75 kilometres (i.e. 50 cents in gold for a distance of about 46 miles), and five francs (one dollar gold) for any distance beyond the limit of 75 kilometres. 16 The increase from 52,050 messages in Belgium in 1853 to 1,128,005 in 1866 is, no doubt, in part justly attributable to the reduction of the prohibitory tariff of the former year, but it is not greater or more remarkable than the increase during the same period in America, where no reduction from the early rates has been made, and where, nevertheless, the business has improved year by year until it has grown into its present volume, exceeding that of any nation on the globe, on whatever basis the comparison be placed. Belgium transmitted 14,025 messages in 1851 and 52,050 in 1853, being an increase of nearly 400 per cent in three years, although the tariff had been reduced less than 20 per cent. From 1853 to 1862 there, was an increase of over 500 per cent, with a reduction of tariff of about 52 per cent. From 1862 to 1867 there was an increase of less than 400 per cent, although the average tariff had been reduced from 2.07 to 0.85 francs, or about 60 per cent. Other suggestive illustrations are contained in the tables fur- nished by Mr. Washburne. Thus, in Switzerland, in 1853, at an average cost of 1.55 francs per message, the number sent was 82,586. In 1854, at an average cost of 1.62 francs, 129,167 were sent, showing an increase of 46,581 messages at a higher tariff. In 1855, when the cost per message was almost identical with that of 1853, the number had increased to 162,851, or about 100 per cent. In 1859, when the cost of messages was 1.48, as com- pared with 1.35 in 1858, the number had increased from 247,102 to 286,876, and in 1861, at the average charge of 1859, had in- creased from 286,876 to 333,933. In 1857 and 1862 the charges were exactly alike, yet the increase in the number of messages in the latter year was 113,288, or over 43 per cent over the former. The tables furnished by other countries show similar results. In Prussia, in 1852, 48,751 messages were sent at an average cost of 2.35, while in 1858, at a cost increased to 2.95, 247,292 mes- sages were sent, or an increase of over 400 per cent. The effect of the policies of the two nations thus shown to be so dissimilar are instructive. When Belgium, finding it necessary to reduce her tariff to one franc, thereby first attempted to popularize the use of the telegraph, it was done, notwithstanding all its advantages of free rents, absence of taxes, and labor vastly cheaper than in the United States, at a loss to the state of 41,417.19 francs. And when, upon the idea that a still lower tariff might so develop the public use of the lines as to render them self-sustaining, the Belgian government in 1866 reduced the tariff one half, its expenditures were increased thereby from 653,280 francs in 1863 to 1,217,496 francs, entailing a loss of 255,282,000 francs, as shown by Mr. Washburne's report. In the United States, by keeping the tariff at the lowest paying rates, the system has been extended to every part of the country, touching the extreme limits of civilization, and its realm of usefulness is yearly increasing. THE PECULIARITIES OF THE BELGIAN TELEGRAPH SERVICE. The telegraph business of Belgium is peculiar. Ilalf of it only can be said to be Belgian at all, the other half being messages in transit, or international, which are sent at comparatively little cost, and for the transmission of which it makes terms with other nations. On the inland or Belgium business proper, the only class which can with any propriety be used in the argument in hand, there was, as has been seen, a loss in 1866 of thirty-four per cent, and in 1867 of thirty-seven and a half per cent. The greater cost of an inland message arises from the fact that it is received, forwarded, and delivered in the kingdom, requiring the various service con- nected with such duties ; while transit messages simply pass through the state, and impose no expense for labor in transmission, re- ception, or delivery, and international messages require no de- livery in the country sending them. But besides its annual losses to government, there exists a seri- ous drawback in the value to the people of the reduced tariff. The diminished rate in Belgium is accompanied by no promise of prompt delivery. Despatches at a half-franc each must take their chance of transmission, and submit to the delay caused by other service. Speed rates are established to compensate for loss by the reduced tariff. Thus, a message requiring immediate transit is charged three times an ordinary message, reversing the plan of the Western Union Company, which transmits promptly and indiscriminately 2 18 at ordinary rates, but makes an immense reduction when the night hours can be used. Of course business men, to whom time is money, are obliged to pay an extra franc to secure that prompt- ness and certainty of transmission without which the telegraph is of little value for all important transactions. The tariff has been, therefore, practically increased to one and a half francs, or forty- two cents for distances which cannot average more than seventy- five miles, and probably do not exceed fifty. The cheap mes- sages take their chance. In America, a repeated message is charged half a rate more than the ordinary tariff. In Belgium it pays four single rates. Cipher messages are also charged four times the price of ordinary messages, while here they are received at ordinary rates. Were the United States government to construct lines under the Washburne bill, and adopt this Belgian system, its tariffs be- tween Washington and Baltimore about the average distance of the Belgian service would be, for prompt delivery such as our telegraph companies perform, forty-five cents, instead of the exist- ing charge of ten cents ; for messages to which no assurance of promptitude is given, fifteen cents ; and for repeated messages, sixty cents, instead of our present rate of fifteen cents. If, now, with all its advantages of cheap labor and the profits arising from international and transit messages, the Belgian government, on these bases of charge, admits a clear loss in 1866 of 255,282 francs, how will it be possible for Mr. Washburne to secure a profit to government large enough in a few years to pay the cost of the line, on a common tariff of fifteen cents for all classes of messages ? BELGIAN OFFICIALS ACKNOWLEDGE THE IMPERFECTIONS OF THEIR SYSTEM. As Mr. Washburne claims for European telegraphs speed, cer- tainty, and economy, it is well to be able to read Belgian official testimony on the same subject. The last report of the Belgian department of public works has the following paragraph : " Imperfection has existed at all times and in all places. It is in vain to attempt to obtain equally rapid and exact transmission under all cir- , 19 cumstances. Delay will occur, whatever may be done to prevent it, by the blocking up of lines, by a temporary influx of business ; and, in a country where distances are short, that delay may equal, and some- times even exceed, the time that would ]be occupied in transmitting by railway." Official truthfulness and modesty thus lifts the veil from a system held up for our admiration, and reveals its weakness. INSTRUCTIVE HISTORY OF BELGIAN TELEGRAPHS. The history of the use of the telegraph in Belgium is instruc- tive. During 1851, the first recorded year of its existence, there passed between the offices of the whole of that kingdom, as shown by Mr. Wash burne's tables, twenty-one messages per day. If we may- suppose, what seems scarcely credible, that only five of her chief cities were at that time connected by the wires, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Bruges, and Liege, it exhibited the remarkable spectacle of a telegraph line opened by government " in the interest of the people," used to the extent of about four messages per day at each of her five chief cities! Even after four years more had been used in the extension of her lines, the daily transmission only increased to fifty-five messages per day for the whole kingdom, showing how slowly and jealously the lines were given to public employment, and how utterly futile is the assertion that the public interest, at that time at least, controlled the state in their management. The tariff', which had averaged during the first year $1.26 per message, and had not, so far, been practically reduced, showed still more clearly that only the rich used it, and that it was, on account of its cost, practically beyond the employment of the people. The truth is, as Mr. Washburne states, that the Belgian government, fearing its use in private hands, and suspicious that by private energy the telegraph would be made to rival, if not ruin, the Belgian post, seized and held it from popular control. There is certainly nothing in the first five years of its existence in Belgium which proves that government, as is claimed, desired to give the fruits of a great invention to the Belgian people. During all of 20 these years, however, and in marked contrast to the lines under government management everywhere, hundreds of thousands of messages were passing over the telegraph lines in the United States, at a tariff which made them available to all its citizens, and show- ing a daily record in some of the smaller of its inland towns greater than that of all the Belgian offices combined. When in 1866 the Belgian government, by the radical reduc- tion of the tariff to half a franc, endeavored to render the service more generally useful to the people, it did so at the expense of the public treasury ; since on each of the 2,180 inland messages transmitted per day a loss of thirty-eight centimes, or more than two thirds the established rate, was sustained ; and, as we have elsewhere stated, this loss would have been much greater, but for a profit derived from international and transit messages, which went to the credit of the whole service. SINGULAR IDEA THAT A SMALL TELEGRAPH SYSTEM IS MORE DIFFICULT TO MANAGE THAN A LARGE ONE. " It appears to be tolerably clear," says Mr. Washburne, " that, in order to assert the superiority of a system on a small scale, it . requires even more care and greater attention to cope with an in- creased traffic than an establishment whose ramifications embrace a larger sphere." This remark is made with reference to the necessity of great promptitude in the (Delivery of messages in Belgium, where the places connected are contiguous, and conveyance by railroad rapid and frequent. It is made also to show that it is more difficult under such circumstances to cope with an enlarged use of the telegraph than in the United States, where, by reason of distance and the comparative infrequency of transit by railroad, the ne- cessity of promptitude is presumably less urgent. At first the argument seems fair, but when examined, it has no foundation except in the general fact that distance and infrequent transit by rail may render the telegraph valuable and desirable, even without the promptness essential where transit is rapid and frequent. The weakness of the argument is evident when it is seen thjat, as distances decrease, all the elements of cost and maintenance of 21 lines and the difficulties arising from elemental disturbances, lessen in the same proportion. This admits of easy illustration. Look for a moment at Belgium, of which Mr. Washburn treats so co- piously. Located centrally in that kingdom, in the form of a tri- angle, and separated from each other by about thirty miles each, are her three chief cities, Ghent, Brussels, and Antwerp. To con- nect either two of these a line of telegraph thirty miles long is required, which government builds upon its own property and protects by its own police. However thoroughly built, its cost is necessarily small. There is no trouble or uncertainty in working it. Its very shortness renders its perfection in the use of all the appli- ances which science and experience have shown desirable readily and cheaply attainable, and it is easily kept in order. When in- creased public use imperils promptness by the limited provision of wires, ten men, in a single week, can erect another. In all this the very proximity of the points to be connected facilitates and economizes every step required in meeting the enlarged neces- sities. The management of such lines, short, well-guarded, and per- manent, is almost solely confined to the arrangements for transmis- sion and delivery. In Belgium, therefore, which contains only two thirds as many offices as the Western Union Telegraph Company maintains in the State of New York alone, with her commercial centres near to- gether, with an average of less than three wires on her poles, with her .2,232 miles of line on government property and protected by its authority, want of promptness would be inexcusable, because so easily effected. Were . New York and Chicago only thirty miles apart, and all the messages of the United States, now approxi- mating thirteen millions per annum, required to be passed be- tween them at the rate of 36,000 per day, and within an average of fifteen minutes from the time of their reception, as is now done between the Chambers of Commerce of these cities, it could be accomplished with comparative ease, and especially so were the land which the wires traversed the property of the company, and the lines guarded by the nation. Once render it easy and inex- pensive to provide a reliable outward structure, and the work of the telegraph becomes a matter of simple internal organization, 22 except as competition and the necessities of extension in a land so vast as ours adds to the ordinary cares of administration. The immense distances between our centres of commerce, the multi- tude of far separated radiating centres of business, the great ex- posure and defective protection of our lines, and constantly in- creasing system of wires -which are constructed as rapid ily as new demands for their extension are made, render the management of this company one of the most arduous and complicated of pri- vate enterprises. There is nothing in Europe or elsewhere which bears any proper resemblance to the American telegraph system, nor with which it can be properly compared. Between the systems of Belgium and the United States we witness the following marked contrast. The companies here have only one tariff for transmission, and all take their turn. The pay- ment of an extra franc cannot, as in Belgium, purchase priority, or give one advantage over his neighbor. This is an imposition of the government, similar to, and even less defensible, than that which in England requires four postages to secure the safety of a letter. Here the companies offer to guarantee the public against error by an extra payment of one half the ordinary tariff; but the public, because of their confidence in the company, do not avail themselves of this provision . to an extent of one in ten thousand ! Messages sent in cipher, for which no extra charge is made in the United States, can only be sent in Europe by the payment of four ordinary tariffs, and in some states in Europe, and among others France, the government will not permit their being sent at all. NECESSITY FOR THE UNIFICATION OF THE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM. It is curious to observe that the reasons assigned for the ad- vantages to be gained by governmental control are precisely the same which led to the consolidation under one management of 77> the great mass of the American lines, and which has led to the unjust charge of monopoly as the work of unification has pro- gressed. Mr. Scudamore says: "When I began to collect the information on which this report is based, I was not free from doubts as to the propriety of the scheme ; but, after patiently collecting and con- 23 sidering all the data which I could obtain, I found myself driven, by the mere force of facts, to the conclusion at which I have arrived. This conclusion, indeed, is almost identical with that to which the directors of the Electric and International Telegraph Company came in the year 1852, and which they thus stated to their stockholders : " The delays, inaccuracies, and expense of the continental tele- graphs are an exemplification of the great advantage to the public of the administration being under a single management. This cir- cumstance alone admits of the establishment of a low and uniform tariff. .... The telegraph has already become a most powerful and useful agent, and has, in a measure, been adopted as a means of communication by persons employed in commercial pursuits, but, owing to the want of proper arrangement and facilities, and the fact of the management of the lines being divided by sev- eral companies, without unison in action or interest, the public generally have been debarred from benefiting by the immense accommodation and advantages the telegraph is capable of afford- ing." In presenting the same idea, Mr. Washburne, with a looseness of statement for which we know of no proper justification, re- marks as follows : " There can be no doubt that the superiority of the continental system over every other is -due to the fact that the telegraph there is a govern- ment institution, while in this country it is left to private enterprise. In- dividual and associated effort have done much, but, with the confusion of our telegraphic system before us, it would be folly to shut our eyes to the inherent weakness of all joint-stock enterprises. Absence of responsibility, waste of labor, irresolute councils, expensive management, want of effec- tive control over subordinates, are among the evils of such associations, to say nothing of the imperative demands of stockholders that dividends shall be made and that none shall be hazarded. Under government, con- trol one governing body would do the work now done by twenty, and the obligation to realize profits would not interfere to prevent the reduction of rates or the proper extension of the system." Passing over the charges of "waste, irresponsibility, and irreso- lute councils," which serve to round the paragraph in which they occur, the focal idea is the efficiency secured by a united control. That is the very basis of this company's organization. Discarding as false and perilous any general assumption of the enterprises of 24 the people by the government, and accepting its refusal to attach the telegraph to its administration, when offered to it by its inventor, as for the best interest of the nation, this company early saw that united action between the extremes of our territorial limits was as essential to its own success as to public convenience. With nu- merous companies, of limited jurisdiction, and tariffs on all bases, which had to be added and dovetailed to each other whenever a despatch passed between two distant places, there was neither certainty of correctness, promptitude, nor the possibility of a low and uniform tariff. To secure all of these the leading telegraph organizations combined. It was a step necessary alike for public usefulness and success, and is accomplishing all that could be de- sired. The system has penetrated farther, and compassed more territory than separate organizations could have attempted or than even government itself would have been willing to undertake. Its administration is vast, harmonious, liberal, exact, economical, and just. It uses its revenues largely to extend its realm of use- fulness to the people of every section of the country. It seeks to secure the highest skill arid character in its employees. Its aim is to give the wires to the use of the whole people on the lowest terms consistent with proper self-support and the just return which capital and skill demand. It will accomplish all the nation requires of it, if allowed to solve its own problem, making the wires the accepted right arm of the public industries, and the emblem of universal unity and good-will. ESTIMATE OF THE COST OF BUILDING TELEGRAPH LINES. Mr. Washburne says : " Any one at all familiar with the prices of materials and labor in the various countries will see that, as to materials for the construction of lines, they are cheaper here than in any European country, and that the whole cost of constructing telegraphic lines must be less here than in Belgium or Switzerland. In the latter country a large proportion of the lines are erected upon iron posts, the prime cost of which with the stone base is from $ 6 to $9 each, or from five to seven times the cost of the posts usually em- ployed in America. " As to the exact cost of constructing lines in the United States it is dif- ficult to procure reliable data. There are few questions apparently so simple upon which so many conflicting opinions have been printed. So simple a matter as the cost of posts, say thirty feet long, the placing of 25 them in the earth, furnishing and placing the necessary iron wires and insulators and the fitting up of stations with instruments and furniture, ought not, one would suppose, to be a difficult thing to fix. Yet persons claiming to be experts, and even authorities in all matters relating to tele- graphs, have differed very widely. Mr. Prescott, a telegraph superin- tendent, and the author of a work on ' Electric Telegraphs,' estimates the cost of a mile of telegraph, built as they ordinarily are, at $ 61.80.* . . . " This is about the cost of construction of a majority of our lines, but if built as they should be, they would co>t $ 150 per mile. If additional wires are added, each wire put up would be, per mile, $32.80." Mr. Washburne's statement, that telegraph lines can be built cheaper in the United States than in Europe, is entirely incorrect. Labor, wire, machinery, insulators, and every appliance peculiar to the telegraph, are very much cheaper in Europe than in Amer- ica, and large importations of wire are constantly being made from Belgium and England, notwithstanding the heavy duty. The difference in the cost of labor in Europe and America is very great. The most recent authentic publication on the subject f states that the general average rates paid for all kinds of labor in the United Kingdom are as follows : For adult males, in England, 8 4.96 per week; in Scotland, $4.52; in Ireland, $ 3.16. For boys and youths, under twenty years of age, in England, 81.44; in Scotland, $1.70; in Ireland, 81.38. For adult women, in England, 8 2.76 ; in Scotland, $ 2.32 ; in Ire- land, $ 2.06. For girls, under twenty years of age, in England, $1.88 ; in Scotland, $1.80 ; in Ireland, 81.62. These rates are stated to be high, as compared with other countries in Europe. In Belgium, coal-miners earn from 33 cents to $1.00 per day, the average being 56 cents. In iron-furnaces, a puddler earns from 92 cents to 8 1.10, and the under hands from 50 cents to 62 cents per day. In iron-foundries, a moulder earns from 44 cents to 62 cents per day. In Paris, the average for adult male labor is 76 cents per day, and for women 38 cents; but in' the interior of France the price is much less. In Prussia, first-class engineers earn 8 1.10, and second-class 83 cents. Among the working classes in the United Kingdom are in- * This statement was written in 1859, and the object of the author was to show the inferior manner in which a majority of the lines were constructed at that time. t Wages and Earnings of the Working Classes. By Leone Levi, F. S. S., F. S. A., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Commerce in King's College. London : John Murray. 1867. 26 eluded all who, whether as workers for others or as workers for themselves, are employed in manual labor, be it productive of wealth or not; and they are divided into five classes, viz. professional, domestic, commercial, agricultural, and industrial. The total number of workers is estimated at eleven millions, and the average weekly earnings in the United Kingdom are : Men, under twenty, $ 1.59 ; from twenty to sixty, $ 4.18 ; women, under twenty, $ 1.72 ; from twenty to sixty, $ 2.41. Average weekly earnings from every avocation in Great Britain and Ireland, $ 3.16. Thirty per cent of the people of the United Kingdom live in houses the rental of which is less than $ 31 per annum, and seventeen per cent in those under $ 45 per year. In the preparation of the following table we have consulted Professor Levi's work on Wages and Earnings in England ; " Government and the Telegraphs " (London, 1868) ; " Special Report on the Electric Telegraph Bill " ; u Publications of the Statistical Bureau at Washington " ; and the official records of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Statement showing the Average Cost of Labor in England and the United States. Prices paid per Day. England. United States. Carpenters and Builders *" $ 1 14 $3 25 .68 2.25 1 32 3 85 Farm Laborers 42 2 00 Iron Founders 1.10 3.25 1 25 3 50 Letter-Carriers * 74 2 18 Printers 1 02 2 50 85 3.00 92 3 85 Soldiers .22 .62 Servant-girls .16 .48 41 1 9 9 * The number of letter carriers employed by the British Post-Office Department for the year 1866 was 11,449, and the total expenditures for the same $2,664,000, being an average of $ 232.68 per annum for each man. The number of letter-carriers employed by the Post Office Department of the United States for the year 1866 was 863, and the total expenditures for the same $ 589,236.41, being an average of $ 682.77 for each' man. t The cost of labor of telegraph employees is obtained by dividing the total amount paid for' labor by the number of persons employed of all kinds. The average price per day for operators in the United States is $ 2.25, and in England 62 cents. 27 With a knowledge of the great difference in the cost of labor and material in Europe and America which the above statistics show, we cannot comprehend the propriety of Mr. Washburne's assertion that the whole cost of constructing telegraphic lines must be less here than in Belgium or Switzerland. Even our poles are purchased in the Dominion of Canada, and paid for in gold. The cost of transportation from the St. Law- rence to New York cannot be much, if any, more than the cost of their delivery at London, Havre, or Brussels. In the United States, telegraph-poles are of cedar or chest- nut, more generally of the former. In England, the larch is the most common ; in Russia, the pine ; in France, pine, alder, poplar, and other white woods; and in Germany, spruce and pine.* The cost of a telegraph line depends, like the cost of a house or any other structure, upon how it is built, but Mr. Washburne, or any other intelligent man, ought to know that the price ap- propriated in his bill for a four-wire line from Washington to New York cannot possibly build it, even should government build such a structure as those which a dozen years ago cursed the enter- prise, and made it a reproach and shame. When government builds a line of telegraph on the plea of public necessity, it should require that its structures at least be equal to those of its citizens. It is not strange that, with the crude and cheap ideas formed by Mr. Washburne of telegraph structures, he disparages and under- values the properties of the existing companies, and ridicules the estimates furnished Congress in their communications. DOUBTS REGARDING THE ESTIMATES OF TELEGRAPH EXPERTS AS TO COST OF CONSTRUCTING LINES. We quote from Mr. Washburne's paper : "In February, 1866, when, in view of the establishment of an experi- mental government line of telegraph, the Postmaster-General was called upon for information 'in regard to the feasibility and usefulness of establishing, in connection with the Post-Office Department, telegraph lines,' &c., 'to be opened to the public at minimum rates of charge, .... and such statistics and exhibits predicated on cost of construc- tion and capacity of transmission as will best illustrate its practica- * Telegraph Manual. 28 bility,' he sent to Congress lengthy statements, all of them prepared by persons believed to be interested in or officers of existing companies, in which the cost of a telegraphic line with six wires is put down by one writer at SI, 400 per mile, by others at $665, exclusive of river cables and lines through cities. " Among other statements so furnished is an amended one by Mr. Prescott, whose statement, when made part of a Work intended as authority in telegraphic matters, is quoted above. For reasons not explained his views underwent a marked change between 1860 and 1866, and he makes haste to refute his own previous statements. His revised statement is as follows : " ' It is well known by every person who has any knowledge of telegraphy in this country previous to the publication of my work in 1860, that comparatively few lines had been at that time even tolerably well constructed ; and one object which I had in view in writing it was to call attention to this prevailing fault, and endeavor to get a better system inaugurated. " * Since then there has been a very marked improvement in the construction of telegraph lines in this country. Small poles, of inferior wood, which required renewing every few years, have given place to large and more enduring ones of chestnut and cedar, and small iron wire, which offered great resistance to the passage of the electric current, has given place to zinc-coated wire of larger size and greater conductivity. '"But while the quality of the lines has greatly improved under the experienced and liberal management of the telegraph companies, the cost of constructing lines has kept pace with the increased cost of everything else, and has more than doubled within the past six years, so that lines which could have been built in 1860 for $ 150 per mile could not now be constructed for twice that amount. A substantial telegraph line, constructed on the line of a railroad, with cedar or chestnut poles thirty feet in length, and six inches at the top by twelve at the butt, set forty to the mile, with most improved form of insulator and best gal- vanized wire, would cost $ 400 per mile for a single wire. If forty-foot poles were used (which would be nece.-sary if many wires were to be placed upon one set of poles), it would cost $ 600 per mile for a single wire. When fifty- foot poles are used, the cost is very greatly enhanced. "'-Mr. Brown estimates the total cost of all the telegraph property in the United States at "a little more than $2,000,000." Now, if we estimate the present cost of the lines and their equipment at the moderate price of $ 300 per mile, and the number of miles of wire in the country at only 150,000, we have a total cost of $ 45,000,000, without reckoning the value of the patents, fran- chises, &c. "'Mr. Brown states that "telegraphs properly corstructed, the timber well prepared and wire protected, will last for 20 years." This may be true, but it remains to be proved.' " We fail to discern any refutation by Mr. Prescott of his previous statements. His reasons for a change in the estimates for building a telegraph line in 1866 over those of 1860 hardly need be stated. If the results of the intervening years of civil war, by which a mil- lion of able-bodied men were cut off from the fields of labor, the industries of the country burdened with enormous taxes before un- known, and prices inflated by the issue of hundreds of millions of 29 paper dollars, do not suggest them, there is small hope of profit from the practical lessons of the times. INCORRECT ASSERTION THAT AMERICAN TELEGRAPHS ARE NOT CONSTRUCTED ACCORDING TO SPECIFICATIONS. Mr. Washburne says : " The officers of the telegraph companies, whose elaborate statement is also forwarded by the Postmaster-General, estimate as follows: " ' Cost of construction, including engineering, patents, and franchises, per mile : one wire six wires. *' 4 The cost of building lines varies according to locality, timber, method, nature of the ground, and the wires to be borne. " ' A line from New York to Washington should be of the best class, and would be represented by the following figures : 43 poles delivered at stations, $161.25 129 arms, complete, 129.00 43 holes, five feet deep, tools, &c., 30.00 Labor, handling, preparing, erecting, &c., ..... 25.00 Six wires, at twelve cents per pound, 240.00 Labor, wiring, transportation, &c., 30.00 Distributing poles, 25.00 Superintendence, &c., 25.00 665.25 240 miles at $ 665.25, Washington to New York, . . . $ 159,660 Lines through New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, 16,000 22 cables at rivers south of the Hudson, 20,000 Cable at Hudson River, house, boats, &c., 8,000 $203,660 " ' The cost of franchises and patents cannot be given. " ' Such a line built by government, carefully, and with reference to per- manence, with six wires, would cost $ 250,000. " ' If, however, it is seriously contemplated by the government to construct lines along the great commercial routes, and if it be the design in so doing to remove from the system, by every attainable appliance or improvement, all its ascertained defects, a structure of larger poles, and wires of superior conducting qualities, will be built. Such a line should be constructed of the most solid and durable wood, such as the black locust, so that masses of sleet or moist sliow, so destructive to present lines, would leave it uninjured. Heavier wires also, which, by their increased conducting capacity, would give greater facility and certainty to transmis.-ion, should be used. " ' These improvements, with greater care taken in the execution of the work than in that of ordinary structures, will, of course, increase its cost in proportion, to the care bestowed. And should the government determine to provide facil- ities equal to those now proffered by private companies, it would be necessary to erect at least five lines of poles bearing six wires each, that being the number (thirty in all) now in use between New York and Washington by all the companies. 30 " ' A common wire line, intended to bear one, and not more than two wires, can be built for $ 150 to $ 180 per mile, the wire being number nine, galvanized, the poles of limited size, and costing not over $ 1.25 each.' " It nowhere appears that such lines as all these writers insist shall be built by the government have ever been built in this or any other coun- try. They seem to have taken it as matter of course ihat the govern- ment, if the experiment proposed should be tried, will depart from the usual method of construction and build the novel and costly structures for which their estimates are made. One looks in vain in the communi- cation sent to Congress by the Postmaster- General for any reliable infor- mation as to the cost of a telegraphic line, constructed as such lines are in this and other countries, and such a line as the government, if it should be determined to build an experimental line, would probably build." COST OF AMERICAN TELEGRAPHS ESTIMATED BY EUROPEAN DATA. In reply to Mr. Washburne's statement that no such lines as all these writers insist shall be built by the government have ever been built in this or any other country, we respectfully, but firmly, assert that he is mistaken. This company possesses thousands of miles of telegraph lines constructed after the specifications given above, and costing as much as the estimates which he so emphati- cally distrusts. In order, however, to set this matter of cost at rest, we will endeavor to establish it by comparison with those of all other countries of which we have been able to procure official data. Mr. Frank Ives Scudamore, one of the assistant secretaries of the British Post-Office, and the gentleman who furnished the re- ports and data by which the British government were induced to monopolize the telegraph in that country, and who shows no dis- position to overvalue the property or services of private telegraph companies, testified before the select committee of the House of Commons, July 9, 1868, that the total number of miles of tele- graph in operation in Great Britain in 1866 was 16,000, and that the companies expended in constructing the same about ,2,300,000.* The capital stock of the various companies represented a larger sum than this, and Mr. Scudamore himself acknowledges that he * Special Report, Electric Telegraph Bill, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 16 July, 1868. See testimony on pages 149 and 150. 31 has got the amount under the mark rather than over it ; there- fore we presume that Mr. Wash burn e will allow this to be a fair estimate. Now 2,300,000 sterling is equal to $11,132,000 in gold, or 116,475,360 in United States legal money. This sum, divided by 16,000 miles of line, gives us 81,029.71 as the cost per mile. The Belgian system comprised, at the end of 1866, 3,519 kilo- metres of telegraph lines, equal to 2,187 English miles. The cost of constructing these lines, up to December, 1866, amounted to 2,055,083 francs, equal to $411,016.60 gold, or $608,304.56 cur- rency ; which would give $ 274.14 for each mile of line. It must be borne in mind, however, that the Belgian government, owning all the railroads, could transport all the telegraph material free, and in many other ways greatly reduce the cost of the lines ; of course the right of way cost them nothing, and with us this is an important item. Bavaria has 2,115 miles of line, which cost for construction 843,207 florins, equal to $340,092.28 gold, or $503,338.35 in our currency. This would make the cost per mile $ 240. The same conditions, however* which reduced the cost of construction in Belgium tended to the same result in Bavaria. In France there are 20,028 miles of lines costing 23,800,791 francs, equal to $ 4,760,158.20 in gold, or $ 7,045,034.13 in cur- rency, making the average cost of each mile of line $ 351.75. RECAPITULATION. Average cost per mile of telegraph line in Great Britain and Ireland, $1,029.71 Average cost per mile of telegraph line in Belgium, . . 274.14 " " " " " " Bavaria, . . . 240.00 " " " " France, . . 351.75 Total cost of telegraphs in Great Britain and Ireland, $16,475,360.00 " Belgium, .... 608,304.56 Bavaria, . . . 503,338.35 " " " " France, . . ... 7,045,034.13 Total cost for the four countries, . . $24,632,037.04 32 Total number of miles of telegraph line in Great Britain and Ireland, * . ., . . .'.'. V . v . 16,000 Total number of miles of telegraph line in Belgium, . . 2,187 " " " " " Bavaria, . . ', . 2,115 " " " France, ^ . 20,028 Total number of miles of telegraph in the four countries, 40,330 Average cost of construction of each mile of telegraph line for the four countries above named, . . . . . $610.76 VALUE OF WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH PROPERTY, BASED ON EUROPEAN DATA. The number of miles of line belonging to this company is 50,760, and the number of miles of wire is 97,416. Taking the average cost per mile of telegraph line in Eng- land as a basis for a calculation of the cost of the lines of the Western Union Telegraph Company, we have a total value of $52,166,079.60. If we estimate the cost of our lines by the aver- age cost of all the telegraph lines in Europe of which any statis- tics can be obtained, we have a total value of $31,002,177.60. Much has been said respecting the alleged unreasonably large capital of the Western Union Telegraph Company. This com- pany was organized in the year 1851, with a capital of three hun- dred and sixty thousand dollars, and constructed a line of electric telegraph from Buffalo, N. Y., to Louisville, Ky., distance about six hundred miles. The cost of the line, on a gold basis, was thus $ 600 per mile. The present extent of line belonging to this company, if estimated by the cost of the origi- nal line, and forty per cent be added for the premium on gold, would give us $ 42,638,400 as its value. On the basis of the cost of the lines of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, the capital of the Western Union Telegraph Company would be about $ 100,000,000, and, on that of some other rival lines, nearly $ 200,000,000. The gross receipts of the Westeni Union Telegraph Com- pany from July 1, 1866, to November 1, 1868, two years and four months, were $ 16,088,498.86, and the gross expenses $9,862,272.31 ; leaving $ 6,226,225.75 as the net earnings, being 33 an average of over seven per cent per annum on the capital of the company, which is $40,347,700. After applying $1,934,040.61 of the receipts of the past two years towards the construction of new lines, and the redemption of the bonds of the company, it has made, with one exception, regular semiannual dividends of two per cent. Such a property as this, if situated in England, or any other country in Europe, would be regarded as so valuable that its stock* would be held at par, and yet it is selling in our markets at the present time at sixty-four per cent discount, or at thirty-six dollars per share ! At this price the entire property, including payment of the bonded debt,'would only cost $19,415,672. Now what is the explanation of this singular distrust of the value of this great property as shown by its insignificant present market value ? Less than four years ago the stock sold at above par, and its earnings and prospects were then inferior to what they are at the present time. An examination of the tables on page 39 will show that the gross receipts and net earnings have constantly increased during the past two and a half years, and there is every reason, so far as the management and prosperity of the company is concerned, why its market value should have increased in- stead of depreciating. The explanation for this singular state of things is to be found in the constant agitation in Congress of various schemes for the construction and operation of government telegraphs, at prices very much lower than the cost of the service. Let any industry be thus constantly menaced, and it must neces- sarily suffer in public estimation as a safe investment. We trust the subject will be effectually settled during the present session of Congress, and the incubus which has so long rested upon this important enterprise be removed. ERRONEOUS ESTIMATE OF THE VALUE OF THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY'S PROPERTY. Mr. Washburne says : " The statement furnished by the officers of the telegraph companies, for the information of the Postmaster- General, and by him forwarded to Congress as his reply to the call f'or^ information, is well calculated to remove all doubts as to the value of this kind of property. Among other items of information is the following : " ' The length of wire owned by the Western Union and United States com- 3 34 panics is 60,000 miles.* The average cost, as based on the now united capital, is $ 450 per mile. This embraces, besides the poles, wires, and apparatus, the following : Invested in buildings, . . . . . . . $ 95,208.83 Stocks in other companies, 1,429,900.00 Office fittings, 360,000.00 "It is remarkable that while the length of wire is. given, the length of line nowhere appears.f There is a vast difference between the cost of a telegraph line and a telegraphic wire. We have seen the cost of a line with a single wire estimated at $ 61.80, and each additional wire placed on the same posts, $31.80 per mile. " In the absence of any exact information on the subject, we may fairly estimate that the lines of the companies named average three wires to each line. They possess, then, 20,000 miles of telegraph line, with an average of three wires thereon. They speak of 'single wire lines cost- ing $ 180 per mile.' This estimate is too high for any line now in use ; but if it be adopted as the basis of calculation, and an allowance of $ 45 per mile be made for each additional wire, we have, for the 20,000 miles of line owned by the companies named, a cost of $5,400,000, represented by a capital stock of $41,000,000! 'The average cost' per mile of each wire suspended on their lines, ' as based on the now united cap- ital, is $ 450 per mile.' If ' the united capital ' had been based upon the actual cost of the property of the company, it would have been nearer $'4,000,000 than $41,000,000. " The ' information ' furnished to the Postmaster- General is compiled with the evident intent to discourage the experiment then contemplated. It is incomplete, and is compiled with an intent to mislead. To any one who will take the trouble to examine it carefully, and to apply the proper tests to its assertions, it furnishes additional arguments in favor of a care- ful experiment by the government in the construction and maintenance of telegraph lines under control of the Post-Office Department." To impugn the motives of an opponent is the weakest of argu- ments. If his statements are wrong, it is easy to show wherein, but wholesale denunciation convinces no one of the strength of the cause or the culpability of the assailed. We do not question Mr. Washburne's honesty of purpose in making his unjust and ex- tremely erroneous statements regarding the property or executive ability of the Western Union Telegraph Company, but we do say that he is most egregiously deceived upon all points which he has discussed. In reply to the charges which Mr. Washburne brings against * This estimate was made before the consolidation of the American Telegraph Company and other properties with the Western Union Telegraph Company, and when its capital was only $ 27,000,000. t We have given the length of the lines, as well as the length of the wires belong- ing to the Western Union Telegraph Company, on page 32. 35 the "Western Union Telegraph Company, of compiling information for the Postmaster-General with an intent to mislead, of exagger- ating the cost of construction of lines, and misrepresenting the value of its own, we respectfully present the following facts respecting the organization -of the company, the amount of its capital, the number of miles of line and the number of miles of route, together with a statement of the number of skilled persons in its employ. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY. In the spring of 1866 there were three telegraph companies, covering vast areas of territory in the United States. Two of these companies operated lines over separate divisions of the country, but worked in connection with each other, while the third, which covered some portions of the territory of the others, was a competitor for the business of all sections. These three companies were the Western Union, with lines extending from New York to California, and throughout the Western States ; the American, with lines extending from the Gulf of the St. Law- rence to the Gulf of Mexico, and through the lower Mississippi and Ohio Valleys ; and the United States, with lines extending from Portland, Me., to Richmond, Ya., and from New York to Kansas. The necessity for direct communication between the East and the West, and the economy of one set of officers and employees instead of two, demanded the consolidation of the American and the Western Union ; and the still greater saving to all the com- panies by the uniting of the lines and offices of the United States with those of the other two equally necessitated its amalgamation with the others. The capital of the Western Union Tele- graph Company, which had sold at par and over in 1865, was The capital stock of the American Tele- graph Company, which sold at $180 per share in 1865, was . . The capital stock of the United States Telegraph Company was Par Value. Market Value. $22,000,000 $22,000,000 4,000,000 7,200,000 11,000,000 11,000,000 $37,000,000 $40,200,000 The proportion of lines and wires to the capital varied with each company, the American company having the greater num- ber ; and in the terms of consolidation these differences were equit- ably arranged, and the capital stock of the consolidated company was established as follows : FINANCIAL STATISTICS OF THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY. CAPITAL STOCK. At the date of the Report of October, 1865, the capital stock of the company issued was . . . . $21.355,100 It has since been increased as follows : October, 1865, by conversion of bonds . . . . .' 500 November, 1865 by exchange for stock of California State Telegraph Company . , . . 122,500 December, " by exchange for Lodi Telegraph Stock 500 " " by exchange for Trumansburg and Seneca Falls Telegraph Stock, . . . 3,500 " " by issue to Hicks & Wright for Repeater Patent, .. * ;.. . . 1,500 " " by exchange for Missouri and Western Telegraph Stock, ,..*.* . 400 " " by exchange for House Telegraph Stock, 1,400 April, 1866, by 2 per'cent Stock Dividend, to equalize stock as per Consolidation Agreements, 472,300 " by consolidation with United States Tele- graph Company, . . . . . 3,845,800 June, " by issue for United States Pacific Lines, 3,333,300 July, " by consolidation with American Telegraph Company, 11,818,800 " " by exchange for P. C. & L. Telegraph Stock, ... . , . 4,100 December 1,1 8 67, by fractions converted, to date, . . 49,100 Total present capital, . Of the stock issued for United States Pacific Lines there was returned to the company, as consideration for completing construction of Pacific Line, . . *.-''. . The company owns also, . . . $41,008,800 $883,300 120,800 $1,004,100 37 Out of this we Lave issued for Southern Express Co.'s Telegraph Lines, $150,000 California State Telegraph Co.'s Stock, 124,700 Other Telegraph Lines, . . 80,000 354,700 Now owned by the company, 649,400 Balance, on which we are liable for dividends, . $ 40,359,400 BONDED DEBT. Bonds of the American Telegraph Company, due in 1873, . $ 89,500 Bonds of the Western Union Telegraph Company, due in 1875, 4,857,300 Total Bonded Debt, December 1, 1867, . . . $ 4,946,800 The greater portion of the debt of the Western Union Tele- graph Company was incurred in the grand attempt to construct a line on the Northwest Coast, and across Behrings Strait to connect with the Russian line at the mouth of the Amoor River, known as Collins's Overland Line to Europe, which was abandoned on the successful submergence and operation of the Atlantic Cable. The financial condition of the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany May 1, 1868, was as follows : CAPITAL STOCK. At the date of the Report of January 1, 1868, the Capi- tal Stock of the Company, issued, was, . . . $ 41,008,800.00 It has since been increased as follows : By exchange for United States Telegraph Stock, $10,800.00 By exchange for American Telegraph Stock, 2,400.00 By exchange for House Telegraph Stock, . 100.00 By fractions converted, .... 600.00 13,900.00 Total Capital Stock issued May 1, 1868, . . 41,022,700.00 Of this there is owned by the Company, . . 675,000.00 Balance on which dividends are payable, . . $ 40,347,700.00 38 BONDED DEBT. Bonds outstanding December 1, 1867, . . . . $ 4,946,800.00 Bonds of 1875 since purchased and cancelled, . . . 56,300.00 Balance of Bonded Debt May 1, 1868, . . $ 4,890,500.00 Maturing as follows: In 1873, . . $89,500.00 In 1875, " .- . ' 4,801,000.00 $ 4,890,500.00 PROPERTY ACCOUNT. I Telegraph Lines and Property, December 1, 1867, . $ 47,733,640.68 Since added, By exchange of Stocks, as per Stock Account, . ... . .... $13,300.00 By Application of Profits : Construction Account, . $ 103,592.13 Purchase of Telegraph Stocks, 23,806.66 Purchase of Real Estate, . 3,011.14 $130,409.93 $143,709.93 Total Property Account, May 1, 1868, , ' . $47,877,350.61 STOCK, BOND, AND PROPERTY BALANCES, MAY 1, 1868. Assets. Liabilities. Telegraph Lines, Equipment, Fran- chises, etc., . ... . .$47,051,358.49 Western Union Telegraph Stock owned by Company, . . ' . . 667,342.50 Productive Stock in other Telegraph Companies, ... . 52,471.81 Real Estate, . .'''._ . . . 106,177.81 Capital Stock, .' '. '. . . $41,022,700.00 Fractional Shares, . !; -..''' '. ' . 15,110.00 Bonded Debt, . .... 4,890,500.00 Bond and Mortgage, Buffalo Property, 15,000.00 Profits used for Purchase of Property, and Redemption of Bonds, . . 1,934,040-61 $ 47,877,350.61 $ 47,877,35.061 39 STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FROM JULY 1, 1866, TO NOVEMBER 1, 1868. 1866. July, August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, 1868. January, . February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, Gross Receipts. Expenses. Net Profits. $562,292.97 $410,382.40 $151,910.57 548,716.96 346,742.31 201,974.65 556,955.95 298,931.99 258,023.96 623,528.31 344,245.07 279,283.24 571,036.02 322,508.66 248,527.36 551,971.40 302,596.41 249,374.99 580,560.53 341,104.71 239,455.82 483,441.77 314,617.26 168,824.51 530,642.66 297,076.59 233,566.07 545,586.30 320,869.41 224,716.89 525,437.94 326,829.83 198,608.11 488,754.55 318,100.99 170,653.56 536,156.89 360,917.53 175,239.36 570,676.85 . 375,970.17 194,706.68 601,548.79 375,641.50 225,907.29 628,836.74 393,459.92 235,376.82 583,723.66 370,429.57 213,294.09 576,135.19 379,291.35 196,843.84 539,794.00 366,446.02 173,347.98 600,183.32 345,855.52 254,327.80 587,962.23 335,947.64 252,014.58 602,257.05 356,349.18 245,907.87 597,374.47 349,165.41 248,209.06 579,911.00 353,375.50 226,535.50 601,730.61 396,163.66 205,566.95 602,304.73 376,452.03 225,852.70 630,665.36 372,197.50 258,467.86 680,311.81 410,604.17 269,707.64 $ 1 6,088,498.86 $ 9,862,272.31 $ 6,226,225.75 STATIONS, LINES, AND EMPLOYEES OF THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY. The "Western Union Telegraph Company alone has 3,331 Telegraph Offices, 50.760 Miles of Line, 97,416 Miles of Telegraphic Wire, 265 Submarine Cables, 6,389 Skilled persons in its employ. 40 ENGLISH AND AMERICAN TELEGRAPHS COMPARED. It has been shown that, several years before there is any record of regular public telegraph business in continental Europe, the system in the United States was in popular use. There can be no ques- tion that what restrained its use in Europe for so many years was governmental jealousy of its power, and not ignorance of its ca- pacity. The subject was freely canvassed in the public prints, and was familiar to the learned men of all European nations. Even in England, whose government aided its introduction through private enterprise, the employment of the telegraph was hindered by a tariff so high as to shut it out from general use. Respecting this latter fact, so as to give in more marked contrast the early history of the telegraph on the two continents, a few details are given. The Electric Telegraph Company of England was incorporated in 1846, and seems to have made its first work in the connection of the railway stations, post-office, police, admiralty, Houses of Parlia- ment, Buckingham Palace, &c. As late as 1851 only eighty stations in the provinces, including the chief cities and outposts, had been opened. Priority of service was secured to the govern- ment, and the Secretary of State was empowered, on extraordinary occasions, to take possession of all telegraph stations and hold them for a week, with power to continue so to do. The tariff of charges adopted was, for twenty words, including address and signature, one penny per mile for the first fifty miles ; one half-penny for the second fifty; and one farthing for any distance beyond 100 miles. The lowest charge was 2s. 6c?., ster- ling. This tariff existed as late as 1851. Compare these rates with those of the American lines at the same period. From London to York, a distance of about 230 miles, the charge was 9s., equal to $ 2.25 gold. From New York to Boston, a distance of 220 miles, the tariff for ten words, exclusive of address and signature, was twenty cents ! From London to Edinburgh, a distance of about 400 miles, the charge was 13s., or $ 3.25, while from New York to Buffalo, 500 miles, the charge was forty cents. On the English tariff of charges, a message from New York to New Orleans would have been $ 11.46 ; the actual tariff was $ 2.50. 41 ACKNOWLEDGED SUPERIORITY OF THE EARLY AMERICAN SERVICE. On this subject we have the testimony of one of the best of British popular publications, " Chambers' s Papers for the Peo- ple," published in 1851, whose words we quote : " The scale of charges in the United States is much lower than in this country ; the electric telegraph is consequently more avail- able to the greater part of the population engaged in commercial affairs. * Apart from business and politics, the Americans have made the telegraph subservient to other uses ; medical practitioners in distant towns have been consulted, and their prescriptions trans- mitted along the wire ; and a short time since a gallant gentleman in Boston married a lady in New York by telegraph, a process which may supersede the necessity for elopement, provided the law hold the ceremony valid. A favorable idea of the immediate practical utility of the telegraph may be gathered from a communication to the present writer from New York. ' The telegraph,' he writes, ' is used in this country by all classes except the very poorest, the same as the mail. The most ordinary messages are sent in this way, a joke, an invitation to a party, an inquiry about health, &c. At the offices they are accommodating, and will inquire about mes- sages that have miscarried or have not been answered, without extra charge.' The lines in the United States are carried across the country regardless of travelled thoroughfares ; over tracts of sand and swamp, through the wild primeval forest where man has not yet begun his contest with nature, where even the rudiments of civilization are yet to be learned. Away it stretches, the metallic indicator of intellectual supremacy, traversing regions haunted by the rattlesnake and the alligator, solitudes that re-echo with noc- turnal howlings of the wolf and the bear. Communications are maintained from North to South, East and West, through all the length and breadth of the mighty Union, and with a frequency and social purpose exceeding that of any other nation. In one stretch, Maine and Vermont, where winter with deepest snows and arctic temperature usurps six months of the year, are united with the lands of the tropics, where the magnolia blooms and palm-trees grow in perpetual summer. Subordinate lines bring the great 42 lakes the inland seas into direct communication with the ocean ports on the eastern shore. Nothing stops the restless, en- terprising spirit of that people." REMARKABLY LOW TARIFFS OF THE EARLY AMERICAN TELEGRAPHS. There is, indeed, nothing more remarkable respecting the presen- tation of any great invention to the public than the fact that the electric telegraph in America was thrown open to the public, in its very inception, at the lowest tariff which has yet, under all the excitement of opposition, been adopted. What was true of Great Britain with respect to tariffs during the early years of the introduction of the telegraph applies, as has been seen, equally to France and the other European states. Every tariff adopted was, to a large extent, prohibitory, and the facts connected with these years utterly falsify the statement that Europe has shown (untiLwithin a very few years) anything like the spirit of liberality which private companies in the United States have manifested in this matter. Since these early years no advance was made in our tariffs until the third year of the rebellion, when the depreciation of the cur- rency necessitated the increasing of the salaries of employees from fifty to one hundred per cent, and enhanced the price of material in a corresponding ratio, compelling a considerable increase of the tariff on despatches. Since the war closed, most of the important tariffs have been reduced to their original standard, without any corresponding reduction of the price of material or labor. In contrast with this, we need only to point to the large ad- vance in railway fares and transportation, in the cost of enter- tainment at hotels, in the prices of daily newspapers, and in that of almost every commodity or service which the people enjoy; and yet the telegraph, like all other enterprises, has been burdened with the same increase in the cost of labor and materials. NO SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE TELEGRAPH AND POSTAL SYSTEMS. The idea which has been repeatedly broached, that the telegraph and postal communication are in the same category, is entirely fal- lacious. The telegraph does that which the post cannot do, and which, before the telegraph was invented, remained undone. If the public use the telegraph at a cost of 25 cents when they might use the mail at a cost of three cents, it is obvious that the use of the telegraph implies something essentially different from the use of the post. If they use the post, with its tardy departure and de- livery, instead of the telegraph with its instant and continuous departure and delivery, it is equally obvious that there is some- thing implied in the use of the post that is not to be obtained by the use of the telegraph. Postal correspondence and telegraph communication are two very distinct things. A telegram announces sudden illness ; death ; an accident ; prices of gold every five minutes ; prices of stocks every hour ; sud- den fluctuations in the values of commodities ; orders rooms at a hotel, while the sender is en route and flying to the distant city as rapidly as steam can carry him ; countermands orders and instruc- tions contained in letters sent by post ; orders letters to be returned unopened ; orders the arrest of fugitives from justice after they have taken their departure on the railway ; orders the search for a package left in the cars, and its return by a succeeding train ; announces that the Merrimac has destroyed several ships of war, and may get to sea in spite of the Monitor and ravage the coast ; announces that the flag has been fired upon at Charleston, and in twenty minutes arouses the entire nation. None of these things are possible for the post. Before a letter could convey the intelli- gence of the sudden illness, the patient is dead, or convalescent ; the dead is buried ; gold has changed in price a hundred times ; stocks have gone up and down ; the man arrives at his hotel twenty- four hours in advance of his letter ; the instructions in the letters have been acted upon, and no subsequent ones can repair the damage ; the fugitive from justice escapes out of the country ; the package left in the cars is irretrievably lost ; the Merrimac has been sent to 44 the bottom, and the alarm caused by the tidings through the post, which must continue until another arrival, is groundless ; and the flag has been insulted a month, before all the patriots of the coun- try have heard the tidings by the slow, plodding mail. The telegram is often the index to the more full and copious information conveyed by the post, but it does not supersede it. There is no similarity in the conveyance of matter by post or telegraph. A letter deposited in a post-office is placed in a bag, and carried to its destination with no less labor and expense than if ten letters were so deposited. The time taken in transport is the same. A leather bag covers a thousand letters as easily as a solitary note. It was this fact which led to the reduction of postage. But it was accomplished without the loss of an hour to government, without the enlargement of a coach, or any considerable increase in the compensation paid for the service. It involved no new brain- labor, no new responsibilities, no new expense. Under such cir- cumstances high postage was a folly, and to return to it would be almost a crime. A communication by telegraph, on the contrary, demands a calm, unoccupied brain, and a steady hand to manipulate its con- tents, letter by letter. A slip of the finger from the manipulating key changes its meaning ; a truant thought alters the manuscript ; a shadow of forgetfulness mars its whole design. It demands a whole wire for its use, and a given time for its solitary passage. Hence the necessity for multiplying the wires and enlarging the operating staff. Added to all this is the necessity for repeating this process when destined to any point not directly reached by the originating office. Over and over again have many of the messages left in the hands of telegraph companies to be translated or re-written before they reach their destination ; very different from the sealed letter, which needs but the toss of a practised hand to change its route and put it under the cover of a new bag. The difference between the use of the post and telegraph is well shown by the practice of the Western Union Telegraph Company, which requires all of its employees to use the mail, instead of the 45 telegraph, in every case where the interests of the company will not suffer by the delay. All check errors, and discrepancies in ac- counts, are settled by correspondence through the mail, where the same might be done more readily, though at far greater expense, by the use of the wires. Now, if the company owning the lines, and working them, can better afford to pay the postage on its com- munications, than to block up the wires with its own free business, it shows a very radical difference between the expense of transmitting matter by steam, or horse-power, and doing the same by electricity. COLLECTION AND DELIVERY OF TELEGRAMS BY LETTER- CARRIERS IMPRACTICABLE. The plan proposed for the collection and delivery of tele- grams by letter-carriers is equally impracticable. The rapid and safe delivery of messages is the great difficulty with which the telegraph companies have to contend, and the amount paid for this service forms a very material portion of the expense at- tending the operation of the system. How would this service be performed if left to the Post-Office Department ? In 1865 the last year containing the statistics of the number of letters sent through the United States mail the Postmaster-General estimates the number of letters transmitted at 467,591,600. No statement of the total number of letters delivered by carrier in the United States is given in the Postmaster-General's reports for 1865 or 1866, but he states that the number of cities at which free delivery is established is 46, and the total number of carriers, 863; that 582 carriers are attached to ten offices, from which are deliv- ered 38,060,009 letters. If the remaining 281 carriers, who are distributed among 36 offices, deliver as many in proportion, we have a total of 56,446,004 letters delivered for the year, or about nine per cent of the whole number transmitted through the mail. This does not present a very flattering result, and does not argue very favorably for the satisfactory delivery of thirteen millions of telegrams, through the same channel, at over 4,000 offices ! Compare with these meagre results the operations of the British Post-Office, which employs 11,449 carriers, and annually delivers 705,000,000 letters. As for the collection of telegrams from street boxes, the very 46 idea is in direct antagonism to the first principles of telegraphic communication. A street box may answer the purpose of a place of deposit for a letter intended for the next day's mail, but those who desire to communicate by telegraph want immediate and speedy communication. They require their message conveyed, and very frequently answered, whilst they wait in the telegraph office. They have no idea of depositing their messages to await the diurnal collection from the street box. Indeed, the idea is too absurd to be seriously discussed. There are upwards of 100 telegraph offices in the city of New York alone, and a proportion- ate number of branch offices in all the cities. Is it probable that persons who wish to send a despatch will walk several miles to send it by government line rather than patronize private lines at their own doors ? We cannot think that a department whose expenses exceed its receipts by $6,437,991.85 in a single year; which cannot even guess within a hundred millions of the number of letters it trans- mits per annum ; which provides only forty-six free delivery offices out of a total of 29,387 post-offices in the United States ; which does not even pretend to give the number of letters delivered free for any one year ; and which sends over 4,500,000 letters to the Dead-Letter Office per annum, is a very proper guardian of so im- portant an interest as the Electric Telegraph. The space occupied for the various telegraph offices in all the principal cities of the United States is considerably greater than that required by the post-offices, while the rent paid by our com- pany, owing to the more central and eligible situations of our offices, is greatly in excess of that paid by the Post-Office De- partment. In New York, our company pays $ 40,000 per annum for rent of its central office alone. So far as space and eligibility of location is concerned, we could much better accommodate the public by the delivery of their letters at our numerous offices, than they are now accommodated at the remote and inconvenient places provided for them by the government, and in all respects w r e could much better handle the mails than the post-office, as now located and generally conducted, could manage the telegraph. 47 ME. WASHBURNE'S PROPOSED EXPERIMENTAL LINE. Mr. Washburne says : " In the present position of the finances of the country, it would hardly be wise to enter upon an extended experiment. It should be tried at first on a limited scale, and at small cost. If it proves successful, and becomes what the telegraph under other government control has become in other countries, a source of revenue, as well as an inestimable boon to the community, it ought to be, and doubtless will be, extended. The amount necessary to construct a suitable line from Washington to New- York, and to sustain it until it becomes self-sustaining, will not exceed $75,000, and it is the belief of experienced telegraphers that, with a tariff of charges as low as that of Belgium and Switzerland, and with an additional charge of single postage upon each message, the line would be self-sustaining from the beginning, and would probably repay its entire cost long before the value of the structure was materially impaired." The results of lowering tariffs for telegrams to a point approx- imating the charge for letter postage has been tried so often in this country, as not to require a new demonstration. The follow- ing statement will show the result of a recent trial between the two important cities of Chicago and Milwaukee. On the 12th of August, 1867, a rival line was opened between those two points, having no connection with any other at either end. The competition, therefore, was for local business only. The tariff previously had been sixty cents. The average number of messages transmitted per day for the ten days preceding the beginning of business by the new company was sixty-nine, and the daily receipts fifty-five dollars. On the opening of the rival line the rate was reduced to forty cents, and the average number of messages sent by both was eighty-seven, the receipts forty- seven dollars. On the 16th September the rate was further re- duced to twenty cents, with the following results : Average num- ber of messages per day for both lines, one. hundred and thirty- three. Average receipts, thirty-seven dollars. On November 8th the rate was reduced to ten cents, and remained so for the next fourteen days, during which the number of telegrams trans- mitted daily by both lines was one hundred and sixty-seven, and the average receipts twenty-six dollars. About the 20th November the rates were advanced to forty cents, by mutual agreement, and afterwards the lines and records of the new company came into our possession. 48 No. 1. Statement showing number of Messages sent between Chicago and Milwau- kee for first twelve days in August, 1867, at a Tariff of sixty cents, and same for 1868, at a Tariff of forty cents, together with daily Receipts. August, 1867. August, 1868. Tariff 60 and 4. Tariff 40 and 3. DATE. Sent. Received. Receipts. Sent. Received. Receipts. August 1 41 48 $ 67.40 49 37 $39.64 2 31 38 57.00 4 2 1.87 < 3 36 25 49.63 53 42 58.25 4 2 \ 1.78 69 39 53.02 5 41 34 55.98 46 41 43.36 6 41 40 63.39 67 46 54.60 7 42 49 73.77 51 39 42.44 8 45 27 55.75 56 50 52.08 9 39 38 61.68 10 40 40 63.91 52 44 47.30 11 62 42 51.70 Totals , . . . 358 340 $550.29 *509 382 $ 444.26 1867, Average, 69 Messages $55.00 1868, " 89 " , .<- 44.42 No. 2. Statement showing the number of Messages transmitted between Chicago and Milwaukee, over the Western Union and Independent Telegraph Lines, from August 12 th to August 26th, together with the daily Receipts. Tariff 40 and 3. W. U. and Independent. Western Union. DATE August, 1867. August, 1868. Sent. Received. Receipts. Sent. Received. Receipts. August 12 33 47 $52.96 44 42 $47.82 13 35 52 66.35 49 38 50.11 14 35 50 59.00 54 42 53.35 15 44 46 55.27 52 41 48.28 16 34 45 53.61 1 .52 17 '38 45 62.38 58 52 63.21 ' 18 2 2.02 45 33 45.69 ' 19 45 51 70.45 40 45 52.39 < 20 41 50 68.51 47 44 H 64.77 21 39 46 62.67 54 40 50.22 22 37 39 49.42 48 38 46.77 23 39 41 52.97 3 2 2.21 24 30 33 56.15 43 45 59.57 25 2 2.10 54 66 73.26 26 63 41 55.31 48 57 62.89 Totals . . , 515 588 $769.17 640 585 $721.06 1867, Average, 73 Messages $51.28 1868, " 81 48.07 49 Statement No. 1 exhibits a comparison for the first ten days of August, 1867, before the opening of the rival line, and when the tariff was sixty cents, with the same period in 1868 after the tariff had been forty cents for nearly a year. Statement No. 2 makes a similar comparison between the aggregate business of the Western Union and the competing line for the first fifteen days after the latter opened in 1867, and the same period in 1868, when, although the rate was the same, there was no competition. By Table No. 1 it appears that, at a tariff of sixty cents, the number of messages per day last year was sixty-nine, and the receipts therefor fifty- five dollars. That during the same period this year, at a reduc- tion of one third in the tariff, there was an increase of about thirty-three and one third per cent in the number of messages, but a loss in revenue of twenty per cent. In other words, our work has been considerably,, increased, and our compensation therefor sensibly diminished. Statement No. 2 shows that last year, under the stimulus of active competition, and a reduction in rates of one third, the average number of messages per day for fifteen days was but four more than for the ten days next preceding. It also shows that, after the reduced rate had been in operation a year, and, notwithstanding the fact that the telegraph business in all sections of the country in the iriTmth of August this year was somewhat larger than last, the average had been increased but eight messages per day, and this increase was attended by a loss of over three dollars per day in the revenue. From September 1 to November 3, 1868, the number of messages transmitted per day between these places was one hundred four and a quarter, and the average daily receipts $56.41. On the 4th of November another rival line was opened be- tween Chicago and Milwaukee, but no change in rates was in- troduced until the 24th of November. The average number of messages transmitted per day by the Western Union Telegraph Company between these places, from the 4th to the 28d of November, inclusive, was seventy-eight, and the daily receipts $43.27. On the 24th of November the rates were reduced to twenty cents per message, with the following results : Average number of 4 50 messages transmitted per day between Chicago and Milwaukee by the Western Union Telegraph Company, sixty-eight; average daily receipts, $ 24.59. It should be remembered that the business from which these ex- hibits are derived is between two of the most important inland commercial cities in the country. Both are largely interested in two important branches of commerce, grain and lumber; and probably no other points could be selected from which more reliable results could be obtained. The reason why the Chicago and Milwaukee table is the only one given to show the results of competition is, that such com- parisons are only valuable when they exhibit the effect upon the business of both competitors. This is impossible in other cases, because our opponents will not furnish us with their figures. . We have* written to every Telegraph Company in the United States for such statistics for publication, but none of them has responded to our request. *. LONDON DISTRICT TELEGRAPH COMPANY. We copy the following official statement of the London District Telegraph Company from the Telegraphic Journal, London, July 30, 1864. The capital of th*e company is 60.000, and the aver- age cost of telegrams transmitted over its lines, for distances that cannot exceed ten miles, was 6c?., equal to eighteen cents in our currency, and yet the loss in four and a half years' business was 9,573 3s. Id. : Statement showing the Receipts and Expenditures of the London District Telegraph Company from December, 1859, to June, 1864. Half-year ending Number of Messages. Receipts for Messages. Expenditures. Deficiency. June 1860 26,155 s. d. 550 19 11 s. d. 2 282 10 7 s. d. i 326 2 4 December, 1860 47,365 1,058 19 2 3 294 6 2 168 1 7 June, 1861 December 1861 . .. 64,785 77,939 2,137 1 7 2,592 15 10 4,394 12 3 4 663 5 4 2,177 11 4 1 995 13 7 June 1862 123,280 3 956 4 8 5*077 17 11 1 077 15 4 December 1862 124 222 3 999 3 2 4 958 4 2 894 4 June, 1863 129,710 4,216 6 11 4 721 1 3 440 9 4 December, 1 863 131,216 4,326 4 5 125 9 4 796 15 4 June 1864. 152,795 4 802 10 4 863 17 10 60 12 51 The Directors of the above company express much satisfaction in being able to present to the shareholders so favorable a statement of its business ; but it strikes us that a system which entailed a net loss of one sixth of the capital invested in a little over four years is not a desirable one for imitation. TELEGRAPHS UNDER GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE CONTROL COMPARED. The assertion that the Telegraph facilities are better in those countries where it is under governmental control than in those where it is left to private enterprise is entirely erroneous, as the following tables, compiled from official data, will show. Statistics of Telegraphs constructed and operated under Government Control NAME OF COUNTRY. Number of Offices. Number of Miles of Line. Number of Miles of Wire. Number of Messages Sent. Population. Proportion of Offices to Population. Austria 851 24,618 73,854 2,507,472 39,411,309 to 46,311 Belgium 356 2,187 6,146 1,128,005 4,984,451 to 14,000 Bavaria 2,115 4,945 4,541,556 Denmark 89 2,5 1 5 308,150 2.468,713 to 27,000 France 1,209 20,628 68,687 2,507,472 38,302,625 to 31,600 Italy . 529 8,200 20,120 1,760,889 25,925,717 to 49,000 Norway 73 269,375 1,433,488 to 19,000 Prussia 538 18,386 55,149 1,964,003 17,739,913 to 33,000 Russia 308 12,013 22,214 838,653 68,224,832 to 221,000 Switzerland 252 1,858 3,717 668,916 2,510,494 to 10,000 Spain . 142 8,871 17,743 533,376 16,302,625 to 109,000 4,347 98,876 275,090 12,486,311 Statistics of Telegraphs constructed and operated under Private Control. NAME OF COUNTRY. Number of Offices. Number of Miles of Line. Number of Miles of Wire. Number of Messages Sent. Population. Proportion of Offices to Population. Great Britain and Ireland . . Dominion of Can- ada .... United States . 2,151 382 4,126 16,588 6,747 62,782 80,466 8,935 125,564 5,781,189 573,219 12,386,952 29,591,009 3,976,224 31,148,047 1 to 13,714 1 to 10,400 1 to 7,549 6,659 86,117 214,965 18,741,360 Thus it will be seen that Continental Europe, where the tele- graphs are under government control, furnishes but 4,347 offices 52 for a population of over 250,000,000, while Great Britain, the Dominion of Canada, and the United States, where telegraphy has been left -to the control of the people, untrammelled by governmen- tal interference, monopoly, or restriction, furnish 6,659 offices for a population of 64,000,000 ! The number of telegrams transmitted per annum in Continental Europe is only 12,486,311, while there were sent by the people of the three countries where it has hitherto been free from government repression, 18,741,360. The tariff of charges in Continental Europe averages eighty-one cents per mes- sage, while in the three countries where the people manage the business it averages but fifty-one cents. Private enterprise alone laid the submarine cables through the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea, across the Gulf of St. Law- rence, the Vineyard Sound, the Strait of Florida, the English Channel, the North Sea, and the German and Atlantic Oceans. THE TELEGRAPH AND THE PRESS. In nothing, perhaps, is the superiority of private enterprise over governmental control more strongly marked than in the extraordi- nary amount of news furnished to the press of the United States, as contrasted by the meagre supply of the European journals. By a system of co-operation among the newspapers of the United States and the Western Union Telegraph Company, the news of the world is daily furnished to the people of every por- tion of this country at a price within the reach of the poorest citizen. On page 8 we have shown that 294,503,630 words are an- nually furnished to the newspapers of the United States, at an average cost of less than two mills per word. This immense amount of matter is not transmitted to each newspaper separately, but through a combination of wires only possible to a vast system like that owned by the Western Union Telegraph Company, it is sent to a large number of places simultaneously, with only one transmission. The newspapers of the United States are associated together on the co-operative system. There is a general association having its headquarters in New York, which collects news from every part 53 of the world ; and there are local associations in every section of the country, which furnish their quota of intelligence to the gen- eral association, and receive in return such news as they require. As an illustration of the manner in which this service is per- formed, we will 'take the State press of New York for an example. The report is compiled by the agent of the Association for the various editions of the newspapers requiring it, and it is then handed to the telegrapher, who with the manipulation of his magic key transmits it simultaneously to Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Albany, Troy, Utica, Syracuse, Auburn, Elmira, Binghamton, Owego, Rome, Oswego, Rochester, and Buffalo, New York, to Rutland arid Burlington, Vermont, and to Scranton, Pennsylvania. These stations are not all on a single wire, nor on the same route, and the question may be asked, How can they all receive the same information from a single impulse ? This is accomplished by a combination of circuits through an instrument called a repeater, by which the intelligence can be transmitted to a thousand offices as easily as to one. The news is sent to the Eastern press in a similar manner. The manipulation of the key at New York transmits the report simul- taneously to Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, Waterbury, and Norwich, Conn., Providence, R. I., and to Springfield, Worcester, Boston, Fall River and New Bedford, Mass. The operator at each of these places receives the reports by the click of the instruments, reading by the sound of the arma- ture, and with an agate pen copies them upon manifold paper, making as many impressions as are necessary to furnish each paper witli a duplicate copy. Direct wires carry and bring news from and to Chicago, Cincin- nati, St. Louis, Washington, New Orleans, Plaister Cove, and other important points. Sixteen wires work out of New York every night to transmit or receive news reports, and all over the United States the ubiquitous iron threads are permeated by the subtile and invisible fluid during all the silent hours of the night, conveying intelligence of passing events in all sections of the civilized world for publication in the morning journals throughout the country. It is a singular and suggestive fact, that the amount of news 54 which we furnish to the press of the United States, for an aggregate sum of 8521,50?), is considerably greater than the entire telegraphic correspondence of Continental Europe, for which the paternal governments of those enlightened and enter- prising peoples receive $ 11,597,632.71. The following table will serve to show the remarkable contrast, in this respect, between the systems under government and pri- vate control. The number of messages delivered to the press are obtained for this comparison by dividing the total number of words furnished to the press by 20, the European standard : Statement showing the Average Cost of Telegrams in Continental Europe and the Average Cost of Press Telegrams in the United States, with Total Amount of each per annum. Total number of messages transmitted in Continental Europe for the year 1866, 12,902,538 Gross receipts for the Total number of messages furnished" to the newspa- pers of the United States for 1866 14,725,181 above, $ 11,597,632.71 Gross receipts for the above,. $ 521,509 Average cost of telegrams in Con- tinental Europe 81 cts. Average cost of press telegrams in the United States 3^- cts. The above exhibit illustrates the difference between what can be accomplished under a popular government which leaves the press and telegraph free and untrammelled, and the results of the paternal system which the governments of Continental Europe im- pose upon their subjects. For these great benefits the people of this country are indebted to the government for the one negative quality of letting the press and telegraph alone. For the positive quality which actually provides them they are solely indebted to the enter- prise and public spirit of the press, and the Western Union Tele- graph Company, the latter furnishing the reports at -a price which barely covers the cost of service employed in transmitting them, and leaving nothing to defray the expense of the wear of the lines, or interest on the investments for their construction. In no other country in the world is there such a system, and in none can there ever be, until the policy of our government is imitated, and the people left to manage their own private affairs, leaving the press and the telegraph free and untrammelled by 55 governmental control or repression. What our government, with such an example already set, might be able or disposed to do, in the event of its monopolizing the telegraphs, it is impossible to say ; but it is unquestionably true, that no other government has ever made such a use of them to promote the education and gen- eral well-being of its people. We believe it would prove a serious misfortune to the press and the people, if the government were to destroy, by its interference, this admirable co-operative system of obtaining telegraphic news at such low rates. The tariff for special press reports is as follows : For the first one hundred words, full rates ; for the next -four hundred words, a discount of thirty-three and one third per cent ; for the next five hundred words, one half the ordinary tariff; and all over one thousand words, a discount is made of sixty-six and two thirds per cent. Mr. Washburne's bill provides for a general tariff of one cent per word for telegrams, with an additional charge of three cents for postage, and two cents for delivery, and stipulates that a re- duction of not more than fifty per cent shall be made for press reports. This rate would increase the average cost of news for the press of the United States more than three hundred per cent, and thus the newspapers would be compelled to pay an extra tax of a million dollars per annum for the privileges they now enjoy. If these facts show any results to warrant governmental assump- tion or interference in the business of telegraphing, we fail to per- ceive them. REYIEW MR. GARDINER G. HUBBARD'S LETTER TO THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL ON THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN SYSTEMS OF TELEGRAPH. WE have recently received a pamphlet from Gardiner G. Hub- bard, Esq., of Boston, entitled a " Letter to the Postmaster-Gen- eral on the European and American Systems of Telegraph, with Remedy for the present High Rates," which we will briefly review. Mr. Hubbard commences by saying: "The reasons that have induced the public to commit to the government -the transmission of the mails by rail have induced most civilized nations to intrust it with the duty of transmitting correspondence by telegraph. England and America are the only important exceptions." As England and America are the only " civilized nations " where the public have any control of such matters, there need be no further discussion of this proposition. ERRONEOUS STATEMENTS RELATIVE TO BELGIAN TELEGRAPHS. Alluding to the Belgian telegraph, Mr. Hubbard says : u In 1850 the private lines then in operation were purchased by the government, and have since been under its management. The rates were originally one franc and a half for a message of twenty words. At these rates, the telegraph was little used for inland messages, and its development was very slow. In Jan-- uary, 1863, they were reduced to one franc, and" December, 1865, to half a franc." By referring to the official tables published by the Belgian government, on page 94, it will be seen that the average cost per message on the Belgian lines in 1851 and 1852 was over 6 francs ; in 1853, 5.10 francs ; 1854 and 1855, over 4 francs; in 1856 and 1857, 3.62 and 3.42 francs ; from 1858 to 1862, over 2 francs ; and even in 1867 they averaged 0.85 francs. We quote from Mr. Hubbard again : "In 1862, the inland messages, at 1^ francs, numbered 105,274 " 1865, " " at 1 franc, " 332,718 1867, " at franc, " 819,668 Total receipts in 1866, 961,112 francs. " expenses in " 839,000 " Estimated profits for 1866 on the enfire business, if no reduction bad been made,. .... 198,499 " Actual profits for 1866, under the reduced rates, . 122,112 " Actual loss by reducing the rates on inland messages one half, 76,387 " By an examination of Table H, page 96, it will be seen that the total receipts of the Belgian telegraphs for 1866 were 962,213 francs; expenditures, 1,217,496 francs; loss, 255,283 francs. Of the receipts only 407,532 francs were for inland messages, of which there were transmitted 692,536, while 553,580 -francs were re- ceived for 435,469 international and transit messages. As before stated, the expense of service upon transit messages is merely nominal. They simply pass through the kingdom, and require no labor in receiving, transmitting, or delivery. The greater part of the expense, therefore, was incurred upon the inland messages ; and, had not the Belgian administration imposed a tax upon neigh- boring nations of 553,580 francs for messages coming from or go- ing to other countries, there would have been a deficit of 809,964 francs on the year's business instead of 255,283 francs. We quote from Mr. Hubbard : " A system of railroads is also owned and operated by the gov- ernment, and the telegraph is connected with both the railroad and the post. A large proportion of the offices are at the railway stations, but every post-office is an office of deposit, from which messages are despatched at once, free of charge, to the nearest telegraph office, when in the same district ; otherwise, by the first messenger or by special carrier, on payment of an extra rate for porterage. This union of the telegraph with the post and railroad 58 reduces the expenses for operators, clerks, general management, rent and office expenses, and brings the system into close connec- tion with every citizen. " The rates are prepaid by stamps, and are uniform and low. The rate for all inland messages by telegraph, or by telegraph and post where the place of deposit or delivery is not on the line of the telegraph, is one half franc [or thirteen and a half cents cur- rency]." BELGIAN TELEGRAMS DELIVERED BY POST. In reply to this flattering picture of the Belgian system of tele- graphy we quote the following from a recent English publica- tion : * " The government of Belgium not only have a monopoly of the telegraphs and post-office, but also of most of the railways of the country. They work the system as a whole. In the case of ordinary half-franc telegrams, the messages are not uniformly de- spatched by messenger from the office at which they arrive, but are sent to the residence of the receiver by post ! *' The administration of the Belgian telegraph in no respect holds itself responsible for the delivery of a message, unless it is specially insured and Additionally paid for. They decline all responsibility on account of delay in the transmission or non-arrival of a half- franc telegram. They will not even inquire into the cause of delay of a half -franc telegram ! No matter how long a message has taken in delivery, or whatever may be the errors in it, the government will make no compensation to the sender or receiver, except under very exceptional circumstances. Moreover, the twenty words for- warded for half a franc includes addresses both of sender and receiver, 4 all of which is free in this country.' " For further particulars relative to the Belgian telegraph service reference is made to pages 5, 7, 8, 13, 16 - 24. WANT OF UNIFORMITY IN RATES. We quote from Mr. Hubbard : " There is no uniformity in the rates. They are often less to a distant station than to an intermediate one on the same line. An * Government and the Telegraphs. London, 1868. 59 estimate of the average rates, and of the annual number of mes- sages transmitted has been made by ascertaining the rates to sev- enty-one stations at different distances from Boston, and arrang- ing them in four different classes." Mr. Hubbard groups his American distances "into classes of 500, 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000 miles; while his English classes embrace those of 100 and under, 200 and under ; over 200, and to Ireland. The average rates he gives for America for Class A, 500 miles and under, . . . $0.41 " E, over 500, and under 1,000, . . . 1.43 C, " 1,000, " 1,500, . . . 2.46 " D, " 1,500, " " 2,000, . . . 3.36 The English rate for Class A, less than 100 miles, one shilling, equal to $0.33 U. S. currency. " B, between 100 and 200 miles, one shilling and sixpence, " 0.50 " " C, over 200 miles, two shillings, " 0.66 " D, to Ireland, three to four " " 1.00 to 1.33 " Mr. Hubbard says : " As rates are higher in America, a greater proportion of mes- sages are sent to stations in class A than in England, and a* smaller proportion to class D. The average receipt per message, at these rates, is f 1.00. The gross receipts of the Western Union Com- pany, for the year ending the 30th of June, 1868, were $6,952,273.* This sum, divided by the average receipts, gives the whole num- ber of messages transmitted, viz. 6,952,000. "It maybe objected that those estimates are incorrect, and there- fore the deductions are unreliable. If the Western Union Tele- graph Company furnish a statement of messages annually trans- mitted, the required corrections will be made. If it is not given, it will be because the estimates of the average rates are too low, and the deductions too favorable to that company." f As the average of these English rates is a little over 75 cents, * This amount embraces the total revenue of the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany for that year, and includes the receipts for telegrams, press reports, and from all other sources. t The statement on page 7, of the number of messages annually transmitted by this company, shows that Mr. Hubbard's estimate gives less than 70 pep cent of the number actually sent over the wires. The average rate per message in the United States is fifty -seven cents. 60 while the greatest distance for the highest English class is less than for the shortest American class, which he averages at 41 cents, we do not see how he can assert that the American rates are higher than the English ! In answer to the charge of want of uniformity in the tariffs, we would call attention to the fact, that the lines under our control were constructed by a great number of separate organizations, having tariffs upon all bases, which had to be added together at all the termini of two or more lines, so that a message going a few hundred miles would require the payment sometimes of two or three rates. For instance, a few years since there were five tele- graph companies owning the lines connecting Portland, Maine, with Cleveland, Ohio, and the tariff between these two places was ascertained by the addition of the local rates from Portland to Boston, Boston to Springfield, Springfield to Albany, Albany to Buffalo, and from Buffalo to Cleveland. The same system pre- vailed throughout the United States, until after the consolidation of the lines made it possible ta transmit messages between places thousands of miles apart without the necessity of booking or rechecking at intermediate points. This result necessitated a remodelling of the tariffs, and the work has been going on uninter- ruptedly ever since ; but when it is considered that a complete revision of the system required a separate tariff-sheet to be made out for over three thousand offices, changing ^and equalizing the rates to more than three thousand other offices, the immense labor and responsibility incurred in the undertaking may be imagined. It was impossible to effect this revision at once with any number of clerks, and for obvious reasons only a limited number could be employed upon it, as they can only act under the instruction of the executive officers, who are charged with all the other duties of an extensive organization. Various plans have been suggested for simplifying and equaliz- ing the tariffs, but difficulties of a practical nature present them- selves in all of them. The existence of rival lines, built by spec- ulators whose profit is in the construction of them, and which essay to do business at rates less than the cost of the service, necessitates the reduction of our rates along certain routes dispro- portionately, and prevents the adoption of a general rate strictly 61 proportioned to distance. In the course of the coming year, how- ever, it is expected that the work of revising our whole tariff system will be accomplished, to the satisfaction of all. ASSERTION THAT COMMERCIAL MESSAGES ARE TRANSMITTED AT A LOSS. Mr. Hubbard's assertion that the lowest rate between any large cities in America is 25 cents is incorrect. The tariff between Washington and Baltimore is 10 cents ; between New York and Providence, New Haven, Hartford, &c., 20 cents. If it is true, as he states, that " at these rates, under the present system, commercial messages are probably transmitted at a loss," it may be a matter of regret to the stockholders of the telegraph companies, but affords no just ground for governmental inter- ference. Besides, how will his proposed corporation be able to make money by doing the business at a still lower rate ? Mr. Hubbard says : " The history of the telegraph will explain the causes of these dif- ferent rates. Great competition, in 1852, caused a large reduction in the rates. Soon after the validity of Mr. Morse's patent was confirmed by the courts many of the competing companies were enjoined and compelled to wind up or sell out, and some failed. In the Eastern and Southern States the American Telegraph Company, in which Mr. Morse and his friends were largely inter- ested, bought out most of the old companies, and continued to occupy their territory for many years without serious opposi- tion. u The various companies in the West, South, and Northwest (forming groups of feeble organization) were gradually merged into one corporation, under the name of the Western Union Tele- graph Company. In 1864, the United States Telegraph Company was organized to oppose this monopoly, and entered into a vigor- ous competition with the Western Union ; prices were reduced in consequence, and the business increased with great rapidity. In 1866 the American Telegraph Company, the United States Tele- graph Company, and the Western Union were united under the corporate name of the last corporation ; the prices were again raised, and this first caused a less ratio of increase, and finally an actual decrease iii the telegraphic business of the country." 62 Mr. Hubbard's pamphlet contains a statement of the rates be- tween New York and Boston in former years which is inaccurate. The following is a correct table of the rates between those cities for the years 1849-52. In 1849 the rate was 30 cents. " 1850 " " " 20- " 1851 " " " 20 " " 1852 " " " 10 " CORRECTION OF ERRONEOUS STATEMENTS.] The statement that " soon after the validity of the Morse patent was confirmed by the courts in 1852 many of the competing companies were enjoined and compelled to wind up or sell out " is incorrect, as is also the assertion that " the American Telegraph Company bought out most of the old companies, and continued to occupy their territory for many years without serious opposition." The validity of the Morse patent was never disputed. In 1849 the Morse patentees commenced suits against the New York and New England [Bairi] Telegraph Company, and the New York' and Boston [House printing] Telegraph Company, for an infringe- ment of the Morse patent. The case against the company using the Bain patent never came to trial, while the other was decided in favor of the defendant, by Judge Woodbury of the United States Supreme Court, 1850.* The consolidations between competing lines, in 1852 and 1853, was caused by the inability of the companies under separate or- ganizations to meet their working expenses. They were generally confined, however, to the union of the Morse and Bain lines, and there still remained two competing lines upon all the principal routes. There has never been but a siftgle year, since 1849, when there have not been at least two competing lines between Boston and Washington. The American Telegraph Company was not organized until 1855, and it was not consolidated with any opposition line until 1860. The next year after the consolidation the Independent * For an abstract of this decision see " Prescott's History, Theory, and Practice of the Electric Telegraph." Boston : Fields, Osgood, & Co. 63 Company built a competing line between New York and Portland, Maine. The assertion that " the United States Telegraph Company was organized to oppose this monopoly, and entered into a vigorous competition with the Western Union, and that prices were re- duced in consequence," is also incorrect. The United States Telegraph Company never reduced the rates at any point. On the contrary, it was not until after the United States' lines were put in operation that the rates were advanced. This was rendered necessary by the great depreciation of our currency, and con- sequent advance in the cost of labor and materials for working the lines, and was done by agreement of all the companies. TARIFFS NOT INCREASED BY CONSOLIDATION OF THE LINES. The statement that, after the consolidation of the American, United States, and Western Union Telegraph Companies, in 1866, " the prices were again raised, and this first caused a less ratio of increase, and finally an actual decrease in the telegraphic business of the country," is without the least foundation in fact. In no in- stance has the tariff been increased since the consolidation. On the contrary, there has been a steady decrease, the rates to more than one thousand stations having been lowered since the con- solidation ; and this course is still being pursued as rapidly as a just regard to the rights of the stockholders and the extremely complicated nature of adjustment to be made will allow. The impression which Mr. Hubbard attempts to give, that the consolidation of the companies forming the Western Union Tele- graph Company, included all the lines, and gave this company a monopoly of the business, is also incorrect. The Franklin Com- pany, between Boston and New York, the Insulated Company, between Boston and Washington, the Bankers and Brokers', be- tween New York and Washington, and others, were then in active operation, and are still. Mr. Hubbard says : " In other countries, the rates are reduced with the growth of business, and are never raised. In this country, they are reduced by competition, followed by consolidation of the competing com- 64 panies, and subsequent increase of rates, without regard to the growth of the business." The rates are unquestionably often reduced by competition, sometimes below the cost of doing the business, and this will always be the case as long as men will listen to the plausible schemes of speculative enthusiasts, and invest their money in new lines in the hope of realizing profits which are never earned. The assertion, however, that consolidation is followed by an increase of rates, without regard to the growth of the business, is not war- ranted by the facts. ERRONEOUS ASSERTION THAT A LARGE PROPORTION OF THE OFFICES ARE AT RAILROAD STATIONS. We quote from Mr. Hubbard again : " The telegraph in this country is very generally connected with the railroad system, 'and a large proportion of the offices are at railroad stations.* These are seldom in the centre of the towns, and are not resorted to as generally as the post-office. In the large cities, the principal offices are near the business centres, with a number of secondary offices, generally at hotels and railroad stations. The rent of the main offices is very large, and the expenses for operators, clerks, and managers are also necessnrily much more than when the telegraph is connected with the post." It is true that many telegraph offices are connected with the railroad system in this country, as well as abroad. Indeed, no rail- road would be considered complete without such a connection, but it is not true that a large proportion of the offices are at the rail- road stations. We have shown on page 8 that the telegraph system of Europe is not specially connected with the Past-Office Department. In some countries the telegraph, post-office, and railway systems are under one department, but there is no particular connection be- tween them. The post-offices are merely offices of deposit for telegrams, and not for transmission. But supposing they were united, why should the expenses of operators, clerks, and managers * By a singular coincidence, Mr. Scudamore makes the same complaint against the English companies, and in nearly the same words. See Scudamore's Letter to the Postmaster-General, London, 1868. 65 be necessarily much less than when the telegraph is worked sepa- rately? We presume he does not propose to dispense with the operators, and put the telegrams in the mail-bag ; or does he pro- pose that when the government gets control of the telegraph that the salaries will be reduced ? If this is his idea, we think he is reckoning on a false hope, for if there was an attempt of this nature, the operators would seek some other employment. AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN TELEGRAPH TARIFFS COMPARED. Mr. Hubbard says : " The lowest American rates are higher than the average for- eign rates, and the average rates several times higher than the foreign. These high rates retard the development of the system, which was more rapid in its early growth in this than in any other country. What are the reasons assigned for these high rates ? Are they well founded, and if not, how can they be obviated ? " These assertions are entirely erroneous, and the facts quite the reverse. The highest American rates are lower than the highest foreign rates ; the average American rates are lower than the aver- age foreign rates ; and the lowest American rates are lower than the lowest foreign rates. The lowest rate given in Europe is half a franc, about equal to 144- cents in currency, while our rate be- tween Baltimore and Washington is only 10 cents. In Paris the tariff on city messages is half a franc (14| cents), and in London, for city messages, 6 t^ <* oo QO ? 26.01 1 42 1858 ... 247 10 9 343 597 38 1 35 1859 286 876 425 587 57 1 48 1860 303,930 408 429.04 1 34 1861 331 933 448 056 05 1 35 1862 373 452 530 417 50 1 42 1863 456,871 630,748.26 1.38 1864 514 95 6 1 5 3 1 7 00 ' 1 20 1865 59l'214 726 564 16 1 9 3 1866 668 916 684 319 89 1 03 1867 708 974 775 024 00 1 09 It will be observed that the increase in the number of messages transmitted in Switzerland was from 2,876 in 1852 to 668,916 in 1866, or more than 230,000 per cent in fourteen years, although the tariff had only been reduced 33 per cent. SPAIN. Spain, with a population of over 16,000,000 souls, and possessing the advantages of forming the pathway between France and her African possessions, as well as between Portugal and the rest of Europe, transmits a less number of telegrams per annum than the Dominion of Canada, with her 3,000,000 inhabitants. That this insignificant amount of business for so great a country is owing to government control is evident from the following royal decree, issued in conformity with the request of the Minister of State, who says: "The petitions presented to your Majesty from different towns, companies, and private individuals are so numerous and repeated, praying that the advantages of telegraphic communications should be granted to them, that the minister who now humbly addresses your Majesty has lamented more than once that the care of the government has not extended that satisfaction to legitimate wishes so deserving of attention." 110 ROYAL DECREE RELATING TO TELEGRAPHS IN SPAIN. In conformity with what the Minister of State for Home Affairs has proposed to me, for the concession of telegraph lines and stations. I have decreed as follows : The districts, towns, and public establishments, who wish to form new lines or stations, can solicit them from the 'government, which will inquire into the influence of the establishment of the said lines or stations upon the state telegraphic system. The necessary cost of the lines and service must be paid by the petitioners, and they must also give sufficient guaranty for the cost of repairs and service. The petitioners will be obliged to pay to the state the difference that may result between the annual income and the cost of the service. If at the expiration of five years the expenses exceed the re- turns, the line or station will be considered as property of the state. No line or station can be formed without the consent of the ministers in council. Service in all kinds of stations and lines can only be performed by a staff from the government telegraph corps. All despatches passing through Spain (including the Balearic Islands) and France (including Corsica) will pay the rate of five francs per message of 20 words, no matter from what telegraph office they proceed or to what station they are addressed. Each ten words or part of ten words, beyond 20, will pay half the amount of a single message. The cost of -a single message transmitted from France to Algeria, or vice versa, passing through the Spanish or submarine lines, as also of the messages between Spain and Algeria, transmitted either by land or French cables, will always be eight francs. The mes- sages received or forwarded to Tunis will pay two francs more. The messages exceeding 20 words will pay an extra charge, in accordance with the rule already established. No despatch u'hatever will be delivered out of the radius of the locality wherein the station addressed to is situated, through any other means than by post. Ill Telegrams addressed to localities where there is no station will be delivered by the last telegraphic office to the post, which will undertake to convey them to their destination as certified parcels. When one despatch is addressed to several persons in the same locality, as many telegrams will be charged for as there are indi- viduals to receive it. The acknowledgment of the receipt of a telegram will be charged for as a new despatch. Prepayment of despatches can be made, but if no answer is re- turned, or if it should contain less ivords than those paid for, no return of any kind will be made. If the answer contains more words than paid for, the station which sends it will charge the difference between the amount paid and the corresponding one to this new despatch. The claims for delay or irregularity of telegrams will only give occasion for future inquiry into the causes which have produced the irregularity in the service, for the knowledge of the interested party, and to punish the functionary who should prove to be culpable. Given at Aranjuez, on the 22d May, 1864. If there is any special benefit accruing to the people of Spain by having the telegraph under government control, we fail to dis- cover it. TURKEY. Turkey contains twenty-eight telegraph stations, of which twelve are open for night service, nine during the whole of the day, and seven for a part only. Constantinople has two stations open for international correspondence, one at Stamboul, the other at Pera ; the first is principally confined to the transmis- sion of messages for the Ottoman government, and the second for that of ambassadors and private persons. In the case of an inter- ruption of the cable which crosses the Hellespont, the Dardanelles station is removed to Ifaled-Bahas, and the despatches are sub- jected to an additional rate of 90 cents for their conveyance, by boat, from Kaled-Bahas to the Dardanelles. The tariff, upon messages between Paris to any Turkish station, varies from I 2.80 to $ 6.00, according to the distance. 112 The construction of lines in Turkey is of the most defective description, and the materials used very inferior. The lines pass over the steepest and most inaccessible hills ; and this state of things is made worse by a very inadequate inspection, by men who are both too few in number, wretchedly paid, and generally in- competent. Repairers are compelled to provide and keep a horse out of their pay of 300 piastres (113.04) per month. The chiefs of stations, and all other employees, are Turks, whose lazy habits and incompetency cannot be wondered at, when the smallness of their pay is considered. Added to these difficulties, the service has to endure very frequent and arbitrary occupation of the wires by the government, interrupting, on many occasions, business of the most pressing nature, for the transmission of some trivial communication, which would lose nothing by a short delay. It may be imagined that as the service is in the hands of gov- ernment, much depends upon the director-general of the depart- ment. Unfortunately, this official is in the unenviable position of holding office on such a poor tenure that it may be said he has a daily apprehension of being turned out, and replaced by one of those numerous intriguers who swarm about the cabinets of the ministers, or work through the more effectual influence of the harem, the great bane of the country. It has been proposed to the Turkish government to employ a large staff of English in- spectors and operators, but the natural jealousy of employing for- eigners stands in the way. The Turks insist upon having all messages sent through in Turkish, so that frequently, when re- translated, they bear very slight resemblance to the original. All the important telegraphic intercourse between Europe and India passes through the Turkish dominions. The effect of the control of the Turkish government over the telegraph is most disastrous, and renders this important connection with India al- most worthless. .Repeated efforts have been made by the English telegraph companies, who have so great an interest^in the successful opera- tion of these lines, to induce the Turkish government to relin- quish its management of them, but thus far without success. REASONS WHY GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT ENTER INTO COMPETI- TION WITH THE PEOPLE IN THE OPERATION OF THE TELEGRAPH. THE foregoing presentation of facts has shown that there are no sufficient grounds for destroying the value of the investments of the people in existing telegraph companies by governmental com- petition, the telegraph system of this country being unrivalled in its extent, unequalled in its administration, and unparalleled for the low rates which it has always maintained. In this country the people have not been accustomed to rely upon the government to provide those things for them which they are able to secure by their own exertions. If this principle is right in regard to one enterprise, it is also in relation to all others ; and if infringed upon in the case of the telegraph companies, what pursuit will be safe from governmental interference ? It is undoubtedly true that, were tariffs designed simply to provide a revenue to support the lines, they are capable of reduc- tion, provided present arrangements with railroad companies and others could be maintained, by which the labor of the one is util- ized in the service of the other. But for this the country makes no demand. It recognizes the telegraph as a legitimate enterprise for the investment of the capital and labor of its citizens. If false counsels guide its development, public reprobation is ready with its remedy. Its absorption by government would not only be a public calamity, but a breach of the theory and spirit of our institutions, and would soon result in its necessary return to individual control. POLITICAL REASONS WHY GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT CON- TROL THE TELEGRAPH. One of the most serious objections to the government of the United States assuming the control of the telegraph is the political 8 114 one. In monarchical countries, where the sovereignty is a patri- mony of a particular family, and where no change is made except by revolution, everything which tends towards the permanence of the reigning dynasty is looked upon as in the interest of law and order, and for these reasons the absorption of the telegraphs by the government is regarded as a proper and legitimate act, and consistent with the public weal ; but in a republic, where the rulers are changed periodically, and where, the purity of the elec- tions is of the first importance, the placing of so great a power in the hands of the government would be a public calamity. It might be supposed that rulers could be elected who would not take advantage of the control of the telegraph for selfish purposes, but the temptation to do so would be great, and, even if not yielded to, the suspicions of the people would be constantly aroused, and confidence in its impartial administration would be destroyed. In every election the whole army of postmasters and the machinery of the department is enlisted in the service of the party in power. Shall we give it the telegraph also ? What would be the influence on election returns ? The censorship of telegraphic correspondence, always a subject of public disapprobation, is generally exercised by all governments which have its management. In France the control of the tele- graph by government is loudly complained of, in consequence of notorious abuses which result from it. Amongst other things, it is well known that the authorities of the Bourse, in Paris, have op- portunities of seeing every telegram which reaches or leaves that city pn matters relating to the stock exchange operations. THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT NOT COMPETENT TO MANAGE THE TELEGEAPHS. If it should ever appear to be for the public good that this agency, so capable of use as a political power, should pass into the hands of government, it seems proper to await such a demonstration of the self-sustaining capacity of the department under whose control it is proposed to be placed, and such efficiency in that service, as will furnish reasonable assurance of ability for the united control without burden to the state, or lessened convenience to the people. A department which is still confessedly imperfect, which can- 115 not even tell the number of letters which it transmits per an- num, whose receipts are unequal to the cost of service by over $6,000,000,* which could not secure skilled labor in this new field except by foraging from existing enterprises, and which could not avoid heavy losses at the rates proposed, is not at present a fit recipient of so important a trust. The Post-Office Department, which already has more duties than it is able to perform, instead of seeking to absorb the telegraphs, had better apply itself to its proper task of developing the corre- spondence of the country, and endeavor to make itself financially profitable to the nation, instead of a serious burden. That the post-office undertakes more than it can perform is shown by the delays and irregularities of the service, and the enormous and constantly increasing number of its dead letters, which amounted, in 1867, to over 4,500,000 ! Were the tele- graph companies to deal with the messages committed to them for transmission as the post-office deals with the letters committed to its care, there would be good grounds for governmental interference ; but there are very few complaints of non-delivery of telegrams. It should be borne in mind that electric telegraphy is a science, and its successful operation requires a thorough knowledge of electricity, skill in manipulating the apparatus, and many years of constant training in the practical duties of the business. Many of the employees of this company have been constantly in the service for more than a score of years, and still consider themselves stu- dents in this new field of practical science : without wishing to be invidious in our comparisons, we may fairly say that the intelli- gence and skill which are ample for the duties of filling a bag with letters and despatching them by horse or steam power, would not be competent to the duties of successfully transmitting an impor- tant despatch through the invisible agency of the electric current. GOVERNMENT ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY. Another serious drawback to the value of the telegraph under government management is its failure to make reparation to pri- * The postal revenue for the year ending June 30th, 1868, was $ 16,292,600.80, and the expenditures during the same period $ 22,730,592.65, showing an excess of ex- penditures of $ 6,337,991.85. From the report of the Postmaster-General. 116 vate individuals for losses caused by the errors or imperfection of its service. In no country where the telegraph exists under gov- ernment control is there any assumption of accountability for errors or delays in the transmission of messages. In some coun- tries they will not even inquire into the cause of delay or errors, and in others, as in Spain, they will only do so for the purpose of punishing the delinquent employee, but in no case to reimburse the patron of the telegraph for his loss. This failure to assume any responsibility in the matter is of great importance to the public. The amount paid by the Western Union Telegraph Company per annum, on account of these unavoidable errors and delays, is very considerable. The public would be reluctant to leave the correct transmission and delivery of their important messages to the chances of a government system which is noto- riously defective, and which would in no case reimburse them for losses occasioned by errors in the transmission of their telegrams, or failure to send them at all. The scheme proposed by Mr. Hubbard, owing to the divided responsibility of the service, would be even worse than the absorption of the lines by the government. Public opinion could not reach the contractor, because he is the servant of the government, and not of the public, and it would fail to influence the Post-Office Department, as it does not itself perform the service, and, because being a department, it is practi- cally irresponsible. How much influence, for example, has public opinion on the collectors of internal revenue or customs, or even the postmasters of this country ? If -despatches were left at the post-offices, or dropped in the street boxes, as provided for in Mr. Hubbard's bill, they would have to take their chances of transmission and delivery, with no recourse, in case of failure, for redress from any source. If a de- spatch should fail to reach its destination, and complaint was made to the postmaster, he would reply that he was not responsible for its transmission, and would refer the aggrieved person to the tele- graph contractor ; while the latter would answer that he was a servant of the government, and not responsible 6 to the public for the imperfections of his service. And the result would be, that while the sender of the despatch obtained no redress, he would not have even the satisfaction of knowing which service was at fault, the post-office or the telegraph. 117 THE PROPOSITION TO ERECT COMPETITIVE GOVERNMENTAL TELEGRAPHS UNFOUNDED IN PUBLIC NECESSITY, UNJUST AND DELUSIVE. The proposition to erect a competitive governmental telegraph line between Washington and New York, as described in the paper of Mr. Washburne, and the bill designed to authorize it, is a scheme founded upon no public necessity, unjust and delusive. It is easily demonstrable that the tariff proposed by the bill, if adopted by the government, could only be maintained by large drafts upon the national treasury. It is well known that the active hours of telegraph service are about five, and the ordinary average of transmission not over fifty messages per hour, the general allowance being forty. Thus each of the four wires proposed to be erected under the bill would be capable of earning, at the maximum, five dollars per hour, or a total daily income of one hundred dollars, an amount unequal to the pro- vision of the most ordinary indoor service, to say nothing of the cost of management, repairs of lines, battery power, stationery, and many other necessary expenses. The annual cost to our company of repairs and inspection on this route alone is $ 20,000. This company denies the exorbitance of the rates it has adopted, and which it is now actively engaged in modifying so as to secure the fairest correspondence to other branches of labor, and the utmost development of the system. It therefore depre- cates as illusory, as well as unjust, the proposal to establish rates lower than those which in Belgium have caused a loss of one third of the tariff on each message sent, and which, under the management of a department now showing an enormous an- nual deficit, cannot fail to prove perplexing and disastrous. It deprecates also, as utterly illusory, the idea that under such tariffs a product would be realized that would provide for the extension of the government lines to other regions. This delusion, which makes it possible for an intelligent public man to predicate so absurd a result, has for a basis that which is ever used to allure men into schemes of promised wealth. The insane speculation which, thirty years ago, ruined tens of thou- sands of our people, by counting the leaves of the Morus multicaulis as the products of veritable mulberry-trees, on which delighted caterpillars would feed, and enrich their owners with untold webs 118 of native silk, was not more illusory than that which to-day, by showing the possibilities of each hour by day and night, crams the wires with possible messages which will never be sent, and esti- mates balances which cannot be earned. This scheme would be unjust to government, by undermin- ing and perilling a business which pays $ 300,000 per annum to its revenues, besides casting upon a nation, greaUbecause of the energy which has characterized its private enterprises, the odium of initiating competition with one of the most useful products of the national brain, before time has been given to complete the design of those who direct it, and to fully illustrate its capacity. The policy and practice of the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany favor a reduction of the rates on despatches as rapidly as the necessary expenses of the service will admit ; and if the gov- ernment will abolish its tax on the receipts for transmitting tele- grams, this company will immediately lower its rates until the re- duction upon the gross amount of business done shall be twice as much as the tax remitted. This would lessen the rates for telegraphing nearly ten per cent, and would be a far better plan for furnishing cheaper tele- graphic facilities to the people than the construction and operation of government lines at the expense of the national treasury. THE TELEGRAPH BILL PROPOSED TO BE ENACTED BY CONGRESS WITHOUT NATIONAL EXAMPLE. It must be borne in mind that the remunerativeness of tele- graph lines depends largely upon the revenues of a few important cities, without which the enterprise would not have an income suf- ficient to support it. To take away the receipts of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, with Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and a few others of like importance, would make it impossible for any company to maintain itself, far less to meet the constant demand of an enlarging population and new settlements for the extension of its lines. This is not peculiar to America. In Great Britain, where there are 2,151 stations, seventy-six per cent of the entire receipts are received at 18 stations, fifteen per cent at 81 stations, and only nine per cent at the residue. Even of the seventy-six per cent received at the 18 stations, one half of that whole percentage was received in London, and one quarter from two other cities. 119 In France, three departments collect 4,178,332, out of a total of 7,707,590 francs per annum ; and of this amount, Paris (De*- partment de la Seine) collects 2,794,768.40 francs, being more than one third of the total receipts of the whole empire. The Western Union Telegraph Company's revenues come to it in a similar manner. From its 3,331 offices it derives its receipts as follows : From 136 offices, . . . .75 per cent. " 3195 ... 25 per cent. Of these 136 offices, a large proportion of their receipts is derived from twelve chief cities, of which four are on the route proposed by this bill. Government, by thus operating lines of telegraph over the choicest and most productive route, at rates below the cost of the service, and which could only be maintained by large drafts upon the national treasury, would assume an attitude towards private telegraph enterprises of the most unjust and unexampled hostility. Such a partial experiment as that proposed by Mr. Washburne, or even by Mr. Hubbard, would destroy the unitary character of the service which the Western Union Telegraph Company has done so much to secure, and would be a most decidedly re- actionary measure. Mr. Hubbard's bill to incorporate the United States Postal Teje- graph Company, and to establish a postal-telegraph system, pro- vides for the establishment of telegraph lines to all cities and vil- lages of five thousand inhabitants and over in the United States. Were this scheme to be adopted, and the government thus enter into a partnership with the new company in the telegraph business, in accordance with the terms of 1 this bill, what is to become of the smaller towns ? According to the census of 1860 there are only three hundred and thirteen cities and villages in the United States having the five thousand inhabitants necessary to entitle them to an office under this postal system. Who, then, is to maintain tele- graphic facilities at the remaining three thousand eight hundred and thirteen small towns now having offices ? Private companies, if driven out of the field by the establishment of this semi-government competing line, could not do it, and, as this scheme makes no provision for them, they must necessarily be deprived of the facilities they now enjoy. Under this bill Ar- 120 kansas, Florida, and Oregon would not be entitled to an office ; Minnesota, Mississippi, and South Carolina to but one ; North Carolina, Texas, and Vermont to but two each; Delaware and Tennessee to but three ; Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, and Michigan to but four ; and Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wiscon- sin would be entitled to less than ten each, while those provided for the whole United States would be less in number than the branch offices furnished for the convenience of the public by the Western Union Telegraph Company at the hotels, docks, piers, and other places in the large towns alone.* The proposal presented to Congress is one which the governments of Europe, from which it professes to draw its inspiration, have never entertained. No government there has ever yet attempted to engage in any public work by the destruction of the property of its people, except after just compensation. The recent example of Great Britain in acquiring the British lines of telegraph is eminent- ly illustrative of this national justice. Neither cavilling with the nature or condition of their structure, cheapening the value of their property, nor defaming the officers of any company, the British Parliament doubles the valuation of its owners, and pays a price therefor which satisfies the most exacting. In striking contrast to this is the enterprise proposed to the American Congress by the Washburne bill, which begins by attacking the integrity of the official management of the existing system, depreciating the value of its property, and proposing the competitive use of a grand in- vention which it refused to purchase, and now proposes, without consideration, to possess. In such a project there is no national example which would give it sanction or respectability, even though, in times of great national peril, and amid the necessities of despotic governments, monarchs have at times seized and made their own the profitable traffic and pursuits of the people. * The Postmaster-General is permitted to establish postal-telegraph stations at any city or village through which the lines of the contracting party may be extended, though said city or village contain less than five thousand inhabitants ; but as the pro- posed company makes no provision for the payment of the operators or any of the expenses of such offices, while it secures to itself the receipts for telegrams, it is hardly to be expected that the Postmaster- General would feel disposed to open many stations under such circumstances. APPENDIX APPENDIX. THE TELEGRAPH AND THE GOVERNMENT.* THE building of telegraph lines in the United States, from the date of their inauguration down to the present time, has been overdone. There are now too many wires for the business, at the prices that are charged ; consequently there are few, if any, lines that pay a fair interest on the cost of their construction. So great is the cost of maintaining and oper- ating lines, too, that it is a question whether sufficient business could be done, as it is conducted at very low rates, to pay expenses. In business hours, for example, there is a great rush of messages, say from 9 A. M. to 3 P. M. that is, between commercial centres. After 3 o'clock there is comparatively little business, except what is furnished by the newspa- pers. Consequently, in the after part of the day, and during the night, many wires an.d operators are idle. In order to make business for this portion of the twenty-four hours, the telegraph companies adopted a low schedule of rates for night messages, but this has been attended with poor success. The lines are mainly used, it is found, by business men and newspapers. Business messages require immediate delivery, and are not valuable except when transmitted and delivered during business hours. Hence the reduced rates for night messages has not created much new business. Neither would low rates for day messages create new business, unless the despatches could be promptly forwarded and delivered. Low rates for day messages, prompt delivery being insured, would undoubt- edly largely increase the business, but this would require more wires and more men. The question then is, would the income at low rates be suffi- cient to pay for the increased expenditures ? Telegraph managers have decided this question in the negative. There is, it must be borne in mind, a limit to the capacity of telegraph wires for conveying news. Herein this system differs from the postal system. There is, practically, no limit to the capacity of the railroad companies for carrying the mails, and, of course, the profits of the postal department are in proportion to the amount of business they transact. These preliminary remarks are made in order that the public may the better understand the proposition which has been made, and is being agitated, looking to the purchase of the telegraph lines by the government, and their operation in connection with the postal system. The pretext is, that the government could afford to reduce the tariff to a low point, say one cent per word for five hundred miles or less, and two cents for over five hundred up to one thousand, &c. This would make the tariff between Cincinnati and New York three cents, whereas it is now ten cents, for private messages. This is the pre- * From the Cincinnati Gazette. 124 text, but the real secret of the movement is this. There are two parties who favor the proposition. One of these has been quietly buying up telegraph stock at thirty or forty cents on the dollar. They propose to have Congress pass a law authorizing the President to appoint three com- missioners to value the telegraph lines of the United States and provid- ing for their purchase at such valuation. Here is a fine chance for spec- ulation. It would afford an admirable opening for the gentlemen who practise in the lobby. The second party favoring the purchase is com- posed of members of Congress who are anxious to have the franking privilege extended to the telegraph lines. What a splendid thing it would be if members of Congress could use the telegraph lines free, as they use the mails. But the people would have to pay for the free busi- ness on the telegraph lines, pay dearly, too, as they pay for the uses and abuses of the postal franking privilege. Besides, the government, in connection with the postal system, is mainly conspicuous for its mis- management. It does not compete successfully with private enterprise, and never can so long as the abominable system of filling and vacating offices is continued. The telegraph business is decidedly complicated. It requires skilful men to operate it. How would it be if telegraph offi- ces were to be filled as post-offices and revenue offices are filled ? We need not stop to answer this question. Besides, secrecy is an important feature of the telegraph business. It is not as carefully enforced as it should be ; but what a political machine the telegraph would become if partisan politicians should get hold of it ! Imagine the telegraph during an exciting presidential campaign, with one party controlling the wires and reading all the private despatches that passed over the lines ! There would be no secrecy about it ; neither would it be reliable, and in the end it would cost the people more than those using it would save. Not one man in twenty would use the telegraph if rates were even lower than is proposed ; and consequently nineteen men would be taxed for the benefit of one. The whole thing would be a tax upon the people, without com- pensating advantages. If private enterprise, with sharp competition, cannot carry messages between New York and Cincinnati, at ten cents per word, and make money, the government could not do it at three cents, or at any price up to ten. Nothing more certain than that. Besides, the corruption connected with office-holding and office-getting, in this country, is sufficient to cause the people to shudder at the mere proposition to add fifty thousand offices to the already enormous federal patronage. The government is staggering now under the tremendous load of corruption consequent upon the federal patronage and the mode of distributing it, and the people must soon choose between a reform in this or a revolution. Let it be first demonstrated, therefore, that the government can success- fully, honestly, and economically manage the business intrusted to it be- fore it undertakes to assume exclusive control of other branches of pri- vate enterprise. But, as already stated, the present movement is merely a scheme to saddle upon the government the non-paying telegraph lines of the United States, at three or four times their value. The result would be amazing corruption in the management of the lines, the viola- tion of private confidence for personal or political purposes, and a cost to the people for telegraphing greater than is now borne by those who use the wires. 125 POSTAL TELEGRAPH. EXTENSION OF THE INTERFERENCE THEORY.* WE beg the advocates of the Postal Telegraph scheme not to stop. The justification of what they propose to do, if in accordance with their theories of government, will cover many other things necessary to be done. After having taken possession of the telegraph lines, and in- creased the number of officers necessary to insure the harmonious work- ing of their plan, let them turn their attention to the Express business of the country, in which there is room for great reform. This, we are told, is practically a monopoly, by the greed of which the transmission of mer- chandise and valuables from one part of the country to another is often slow, and always expensive. If it is the province of the government to take charge of the telegraphic correspondence of the people, surely there is no abuse of authority in undertaking to carry, and in making a monop- oly of carrying, their express packages ; and the reasons which commend this telegraph scheme cover and justify the extension of governmental interference with the small freight that the express lines usually convey. We state these reasons seriatim, just as the advocates of governmental telegraphing rehearse them. They are, first, cheapness; second, cer- tainty; third, celerity; fourth, promotion of intercourse and traffic be- tween different sections of the country; and consequently, fifth, the wider dissemination of intelligence. If these are sufficient, and no promoter of the telegraph scheme can doubt that they are, they admit of still wider application. Most of the telegraphic correspondence of the country is of a business character, and so most of the service rendered by the express is of the same sort. The telegraph and the express are the adjuncts of our great commercial transactions by which people are fed, warmed, clothed, and supplied with the implements and raw material of labor. There is, then, no reason why the railroads, which are only larger instruments of the same kind, should be omitted in the list of things that the government may manage and monopolize. It is surely of as much moment that a train-load of flour or butter should be carried with cheap- ness, certainty, and celerity from Chicago to New York, as that the de- spatch announcing its shipment or arrival should be sent in the same way ; and if we cannot manage the latter to our satisfaction, how shall we ex- pect to manage the former? As it will never do to have a competitor in this carrying trade, the government must also take possession of all the canals. Of course these recommendations will, if adopted, largely in- crease the salaried officers of the country, and make our political contests tenfold more corrupt, acrimonious, and dangerous than now ; but as the Pennsylvania editor said about protection "If protection is a good thing, we cannot have too much of it ! " so say we of officials, the more the better. But we see still larger fields that the government may occupy, this in- terference theory being established as the rule of its relation to the peo- ple. As the growing of wheat and the production of meats, to supply * From the Chicago Evening Post. 126 the prime necessity of our nature for food, are of far more importance than the correspondence which occurs in getting the wheat and beef to the consumer or than the method of their transit ; as the people must die if they have nothing to eat ; as farming, as now done, is a careless, hap- hazard business, pursued without the aid of adequate machinery or the proper division of labor ; as the cost of farm produce might, by the uni- versal adoption of improved methods, be greatly cheapened, thus promot- ing the increase of the race, .and adding immensely to the general happi- ness, the government ought, first of all, to take the agriculture of the country into its keeping. Then how easy, if it should be imposed upon by the men who make agricultural implements, to turn manufacturer at some hundred convenient places and make all the tools it might need. Just think of the immense advantage of being able to go to a govern- ment warehouse and get a barrel of flour for half what it now costs, or of stepping into government shambles from which, of course, the people will be fed, and getting a rib-roast or tenderloin steak at a figure that would make our city butchers ashamed. Of course, every farmer would be a government officer, sure of his pay, and without the most powerful stimulus to exertion ; but if each man who handles a letter or sends or delivers a despatch is to have the livery of public service on his back, why not? Finally, as food is useless unless cooked, we see the necessity still reasoning on premises which the telegraph men furnish of hav- ing the cooking and management of the kitchens of the country turned over to such officers as the government shall select. For doing this, just as soon as the plan of governmental telegraphing is put into operation, the reasons will be entirely conclusive. What, we ask, can be of more importance than that our food should be of good quality, healthfully pre- pared, quickly and neatly served, and peacefully eaten. Put the Na- tional Telegraph by the side of the National Dinner, and see how it is dwarfed by the comparison. Contrast the annoyance of a telegram over- charged, missent, or delayed, with the unutterable horrors of indigestion. Look at our hotels, restaurants, and private houses, and see how cruelly the people suffer ; then think how perfect, how quick, and how cheap the relief that the government might extend. We well know that, had gov- ernment cooking always been the rule of the nation, the great rebellion would not have occurred. The war was the result of the bad food and worse kitchens of our brethren of the South. It had its origin in hot bread and hog, which ruined the stomachs, perverted the morals, and in- flamed the worst passions of the South. As we have already sacrificed half a million of lives, and ten thousand millions of treasure to repair the consequences of government carelessness in suffering national cook- shops to remain unestablished, we cannot make too much haste in open- ing them now. But we have adduced examples enough to show the absurd conclusions to which the reasoning of these telegraphic schemers logically leads. Our government, good as it is, has objectionable features enough now.' The disparities in the condition of the people are due more to the opera- tion of unjust law than to differences in natural gifts ; and the great source of mischief is in the usurpation by government of functions it ought never to exercise. We do most assuredly need reform ; but we 127 shall not find it in enlarging the sphere within which the government may act, nor in curtailing or circumscribing the liberty of the individual. Let us go in the other direction ; and instead of making the paternal rule of Continental monarchies the object of imitation, let us extend the applica- tion of the American idea. Instead of clothing government with new powers, let us take from what it has. Instead of creating an army of new officers, let us dismiss half we have got. Instead of increasing -the patronage of the executive and the causes of political contention, let us give greater simplicity to our system and greater security to the citizen and the state. Instead of training the people more and more to rely upon the government to supply their business, social, and educational wants, let us give greater scope to their individuality, so that they may more and more rely upon themselves. Our government differs from all other governments in the world in nothing so much as in its capacity of letting the people alone in their houses, their business, their religion, and their pleasure. Our people differ from all other peoples in nothing so much as in the fact that, comparatively, they are let alone. All that the country is, it owes to the partial freedom of its citizens to go where they please, do what they please, and think and speak their own thoughts ; which freedom, by cultivating strength, self-reliance, enterprise, intelli- gence, and patriotism, has wrought the work we see before us. This freedom. is to be still more extended over ground which inherited abuses now occupy, and the consequences will astonish the world ! No, no ! Our government is not a wet-nurse for all the schemes which the ingenuity of men may invent, or which incomplete and half-seen con- siderations of public convenience may recommend. It is primarily an organization for the protection of person and property, and the punish- ment of crime. And to keep it within its sphere, and to disassociate it, as far as possible, from the usual business of the citizen, is to insure its life. Leave to the people all that individual or corporate effort may do, and they will do it well. Leave to the government the preservation of order and the punishment of crime, and the governed will have no rea- son to complain. TELEGEAPHING BY GOVERNMENT.* WE use the telegraph very extensively and pay it a good deal of money ; so that there are few whose personal advantage from cheapening its use would be greater than our own ; yet we do not regard with favor any of the bills looking to the establishment of a Government Telegraph. Here are some of our reasons : I. The prevalent tendency in our day is toward a further restriction rather than an enlargement of the sphere of government. We have (for instance) a good many public markets in this city, which are, for the most part, public nuisances. Had the city left this whole business of pur- veying free to private enterprise, only overseeing it in the interest of public health, few can doubt that our supply of food would have been better and cheaper than it is. The same is the case with many other at- * From the New York Tribune. 128 tempts to serve or save the citizen through the agency of government. Most certainly, we would not limit the sphere of government to the mere prevention of breaking heads and picking pockets ; but we should ponder long before enlarging it. II. A Government Telegraph is usually proposed as an adjunct of the post-office. Our government already claims and enforces a monopoly of the business of carrying letters, charges its own prices, collects some $ 15,000,000 a year from the people for letter-carrying, and then loses some $ 6,000,000 a year by the business. We submit that it should show a better balance-sheet on this account before extending its sphere of operations. III. We never owned any telegraph stock, and expect to own none ; we are a daily and heavy customer to telegraphs, and expect to live and die such. We presume that a Government Telegraph would somewhat cheapen the cost of messages ; but the money invested in establishing it would never be returned to the treasury. The clamor for a reduction of charges (as now with letters) would steadily overbear any hope of profit. Can it be right, we ask, to tax the whole people for the benefit of that small minority who send messages by telegraph ? Would it not be better to start government establishments for potato-growing on a gigan- tic scale, so as to supply the poor cheaply with wholesome and nourishing food ? Where one wants cheap messages, many would be benefited by having a sure and ample supply of cheap potatoes. IV. Government, in this and other free countries, is and must be largely an affair of party. The government of this country has been, is, and must be, to a great extent, the rule, of the dominant party. Would it be well to have the telegraph under the absolute control of either party in an, excited Presidential election ? Could the outs safely use it ? Could the people implicitly trust it? Remember how the mails were rifled under Jackson, with the tacit approval of Postmaster-General Kendall, on the assumption that it was right to take and burn Abolition documents if circulated in Slave States. Consider General Jackson's and Governor Marcy's official recommendations that the circulation of such documents be prohibited by law. We should not like to have the tele- graph controlled, throughout the ensuing Presidential canvasses, by our political adversaries, nor yet by our political friends. V. The government is heavily in debt, and its finances are not in good condition ; yet it is bored and importuned for subsidies on this side and on that, all of them on the pretence of public advantage, many of them with just grounds for such assumption. If the Northern and Southern Pacific Railroads could both be built within the next five years, we believe they would add five hundred millions of dollars to our national wealth within the twenty years succeeding. We demur to their present construction by government aid, simply that the state of our finances forbids it. But if our government is able to build telegraphs where they are not wanted, why not railroads where they are the very first necessity of settlement and civilization ? * We might go on for an hour longer, but let the above suffice for the present. We think the government should let the telegraph business alone. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. 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