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Title: The proposed union of the telegraph and postal systems - Statement of the Western Union Telegraph Company
Author: Company, Western Union Telegraph
Language: English
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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
Foundation 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
Estimate of the Cost of Building Telegraph Lines 24
Doubts regarding the Estimates of Telegraph Experts as to Cost of
Constructing 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
Company’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 of the Western Union Telegraph
Company 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
REVIEW OF MR. GARDINER G. HUBBARD’S LETTER TO THE POSTMASTER-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
Railroad 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
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 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 111
REASONS WHY GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT ENTER INTO COMPETITION WITH THE
PEOPLE IN THE OPERATION OF THE TELEGRAPH.
Political Reasons why Government should not Control the Telegraph 113
The Post-Office Department not Competent to manage the Telegraphs 114
Government assumes no Responsibility 116
The Proposition to Erect Competitive Governmental Telegraphs
Unfounded in Public Necessity 117
The Telegraph Bill proposed to be enacted by Congress without
National Example 118
REVIEW
OF
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 character of its appeals to the practice and
experience of foreign nations, that it cannot fail to produce upon the
public mind an unjust impression that the usefulness of this great
invention is injuriously restricted, and its operations unfaithfully
managed, by the organizations having it in control.
To correct these erroneous impressions by calmly and respectfully
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 concur. That citizen is still a
member of the Company to which his 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 investments, and
possibly the impoverishment of the great inventor himself, the
compliment seems a barren one indeed.
CONGRESSIONAL 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 structures,
while it was obtained by sacrifices which have cost the inventor
infinite sorrow, and clouded a score of years with litigation. 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 annoying 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, and referred its inventor, after the
thorough investigation of the Postmaster-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 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 have given to it all the
capital, skill, and labor required for the fullest development of its
usefulness.
Although many years elapsed after the introduction of the Telegraph in
this country 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 sentences of his
paper, against the management of the Telegraph system of the United
States, little need be said. They are without 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 Caucasian 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 provision 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 telegraph
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._
┌───────────┬─────────┬──────┬───────┬────────────┬──────────────┬───────────┐
│ │ │Miles │ Miles │Total Number│ │Proportion │
│COUNTRIES. │Number of│ of │ of │of Messages │Population.[1]│of Offices │
│ │Stations.│Line. │ Wire. │Transmitted.│ │ 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 │ 2,151│16,588│ 80,466│ 5,781,189│ 29,591,009│ 1 to│
│ and │ │ │ │ │ │ 13,750│
│ Ireland │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Italy │ 529│ 8,200│ 20,120│ 1,760,889│ 24,550,845│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 49,000│
│Norway │ 73│ │ │ 269,375│ 1,433,488│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 19,773│
│Prussia │ 538│18,386│ 55,149│ 1,964,003│ 17,739,913│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 32,955│
│Russia │ 308│12,013│ 22,214│ 838,653│ 68,224,832│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 221,508│
│Switzerland│ 252│ 1,858│ 3,715│ 668,916│ 2,534,240│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10,000│
│Spain │ 142│ 8,871│ 17,743│ 533,376│ 16,302,625│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 100,000│
│United │ 4,126│62,782│125,564│ 12,904,770│ 31,148,047│ 1 to│
│ States │ │ │ │ │ │ 7,549│
│Dominion of│ 382│ 6,747│ 8,935│ 573,219│ 3,976,224│ 1 to│
│ Canada │ │ │ │ │ │ 10,400│
└───────────┴─────────┴──────┴───────┴────────────┴──────────────┴───────────┘
Footnote 1:
From the Annual Cyclopædia. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1868.
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 proportion to population as
Belgium, to say nothing of the great disparity in the condition of
service by the vast range of wild territory 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 indifferent to the public
convenience. In short, the popular verdict of the 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 endeavor 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 existing 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 telegraph 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 also offers to extend its lines to any place not reached by
existing lines, where the inhabitants will advance the cost of building
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 accomplish 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 provide 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 following 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._
┌─────────────┬──────────────┐
│ │ Total Number │
│ │ of Messages │
│ Name of │ transmitted, │
│ Country or │ including │
│ Company. │ inland, │
│ │international,│
│ │ and transit. │
├─────────────┼──────────────┤
│Austria │ 2,507,472│
│Belgium │ 1,128,005│
│Bavaria │ │
│Denmark │ 308,150│
│France │ 2,507,472│
│Great Britain│ 5,781,189│
│ and Ireland│ │
│Italy │ 1,760,889│
│Norway │ 269,375│
│Prussia │ 1,964,003│
│Russia │ 838,653│
│Switzerland │ 668,916│
│Spain │ 533,376│
│Submarine │ │
│ Telegraph │ 410,760│
│ Co. │ │
│Malta & │ │
│ Alexandria │ 28,067│
│ T. Co. │ │
│Mediterranean│ │
│ Extension │ 77,400│
│ Telegraph │ │
│ Co. │ │
│ │ ———————│
│ │ 18,683,727│
└─────────────┴──────────────┘
┌─────────────┬────────────────────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┐
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ Name of │ │Value in U. S.│Value in U. S.│
│ Country or │ Receipts │ Gold Coin. │ Currency.[2] │
│ Company. │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
├─────────────┼────────┬───────────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┤
│Austria │Florins │1,644,742 x $0.48 =│ $789,476.16│ $1,168,424.71│
│Belgium │Francs │ 961,112 x 0.19 =│ 182,611.28│ 270,264.69│
│Bavaria │Florins │ 322,886 x 0.41 =│ 132,383.26│ 195,927.22│
│Denmark │Dollars │ 308,150 x 1.09 =│ 335,883.50│ 497,107.58│
│France │Francs │7,707,590 x 0.19 =│ 1,464,442.10│ 2,167,374.30│
│Great Britain│£ │ 512,707 x 4.86 =│ 2,491,756.02│ 3,687,798.90│
│ and Ireland│sterling│ │ │ │
│Italy │Lire │4,120,311 x 0.19 =│ 782,859.09│ 1,158,631.45│
│Norway │Dollars │ 343,645 x 1.09 =│ 374,573.15│ 554,368.26│
│Prussia │Thalers │1,275,785 x 0.72 =│ 918,565.00│ 1,359,476.20│
│Russia │Roubles │1,872,659 x 0.77½ =│ 1,451,310.72│ 2,147,939.86│
│Switzerland │Francs │ 684,471 x 0.19 =│ 130,049.49│ 192,473.24│
│Spain │Dollars │ 554,475 x 1.04½ =│ 576,654.00│ 853,447.92│
│Submarine │£ │ │ │ │
│ Telegraph │sterling│ 60,368 x 4.86 =│ 293,338.48│ 434,214.95│
│ Co. │ │ │ │ │
│Malta & │£ │ │ │ │
│ Alexandria │sterling│ 52,142 x 4.86 =│ 253,410.12│ 375,046.97│
│ T. Co. │ │ │ │ │
│Mediterranean│ │ │ │ │
│ Extension │£ │ 31,200 x 4.86 =│ 151,632.00│ 224,415.36│
│ Telegraph │sterling│ │ │ │
│ Co. │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │——————————————│——————————————│
│ │ │ │$10,328,994.37│$15,286,991.61│
└─────────────┴────────┴───────────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┘
Average cost of telegrams in Europe 81⅚ cents.
Footnote 2:
The Commercial and Financial Chronicle gives the lowest price of gold
in 1866 as 124⅞, and the highest 167¾, making the average 148, which
we have adopted as the standard value for that year.
_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._
┌─────────────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ Name of Company. │Total Number of│ Receipts. │ United States │
│ │ Messages. │ │ Currency. │
├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┤
│Western Union │ 10,067,768[3]│ │ $5,738,627.96│
│ Telegraph Company │ │ │ │
│Montreal Telegraph │ 573,219│$258,000 gold =│ 381,840.00│
│ Company │ │ │ │
├─────────────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┼───────────────┤
│Average cost of telegrams in the United States │ 57 cents.│
│Average cost of telegrams in the Dominion of Canada │ 66 cents.│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┘
Footnote 3:
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.
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 telegraphic 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.[4] 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 Public Works, but are kept distinct. In
Austria the administrations 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
transmission 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.
Footnote 4:
Telegraphic Journal, (London: Truscott, Son, & Simmons,) Volume XI.
page 131.
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 manifest 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. Washburne 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.
Whatever may be true of the meagreness of the provision of telegraphic
facilities by English companies, and which these companies vigorously
deny, no such complaint can, with justice, be made in the United States,
notwithstanding the vast ranges of territory 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 with 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,[5] 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 appeal 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.
Footnote 5:
Witness the proposition recently so much discussed in England, that
the government should assume control of the railways also.
THE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES UNPARALLELED 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 explanation 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 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, without undergoing the delay of checking or
booking at intermediate points; and between most of the large cities
without retransmission. 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 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 certain; _complaints of delays and
errors are almost unknown, and the lines in both countries yield
large profits_.[6]
Footnote 6:
See official acknowledgment of inefficiency on pages 18 and 19;
also, on page 96, an admitted loss in performing the service at
established rates.
“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 in
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 question of rate is
altogether independent of management, whether government or individual.
EARLY BELGIAN RATES CONTRASTED WITH AMERICAN.
Respecting the Belgian tariff of 1853, of $1.02 in gold per message, 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 distances 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 extraordinary 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 compelled 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 demonstrated that this cannot be
relied on as invariably true, except 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 increased
capacity in the machinery, can be estimated. Thus, in December, 1848,
which in the United States bears a fair comparison with Belgium in 1852
as to date of telegraphic introduction, at the office in Buffalo, N. Y.,
the receipts amounted to $330.54; while in the same month of 1867, with
no decrease in the tariff, the receipts were $5,392.07,—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 country 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 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 Telegraph, 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 reduction in rates.
The number of messages transmitted by the Magnetic Company 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 messages, the gross receipts upon
which 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 Telegraph
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, „ 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 between these
places, but in 1849 two rival companies constructed lines over this
route and divided the business with it.
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 Belgian, 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 „
„ Belgian, „ „ for less than one 1.21 „
third the distance,
„ Austrian, „ „ 1.55 „
1866, New York and Boston, „ .30 „
„ French, average, .83 „
„ Prussian, „ .65 „
„ Belgian, „ for less than one .25 „
third the distance,
„ Austrian, „ .46 „
When the Belgian lines were opened to the public, an act of the
legislature, dated March 15, 1851, established a charge of 2½ 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 46½ miles),
and five francs (one dollar gold) for any distance beyond the limit of
75 kilometres.
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 furnished 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
compared 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 increased 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 messages 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. Half 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 connected with such duties; while transit messages
simply pass through the state, and impose no expense for labor in
transmission, reception, or delivery, and international messages require
no delivery in the country sending them.
But besides its annual losses to government, there exists a serious
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 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 promptness 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 messages
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 between 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 existing 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, certainty, 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 circumstances. 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 sometimes 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 instructive.
During 1851, the first recorded year of its existence, there passed
between the offices of the whole of that kingdom, as shown by Mr.
Washburne’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 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 showing 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 reduction 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 increased 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 necessity 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 that, as
distances decrease, all the elements of cost and maintenance of 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. Washburne treats so copiously. Located centrally
in that kingdom, in the form of a triangle, and separated from each
other by about thirty miles each, are her three chief cities, Ghent,
Brussels, and Antwerp. To connect 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 appliances which science and experience have shown desirable
readily and cheaply attainable, and it is easily kept in order. When
increased 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 necessities.
The management of such lines, short, well-guarded, and permanent, is
almost solely confined to the arrangements for transmission 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 together, 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 approximating thirteen millions per annum, required to be
passed between 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 inexpensive to provide a
reliable outward structure, and the work of the telegraph becomes a
matter of simple internal organization, 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 multitude of far separated radiating centres of business,
the great exposure and defective protection of our lines, and constantly
increasing system of wires which are constructed as rapidly as new
demands for their extension are made, render the management of this
company one of the most arduous and complicated of private 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 payment 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 advantages to
be gained by governmental control are precisely the same which led to
the consolidation under one management of the great mass of the American
lines, and which has led to the unjust charge of monopoly as the work of
unification has progressed.
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 considering 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 telegraphs are
an exemplification of the great advantage to the public of the
administration _being under a single management_. _This circumstance
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 several 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
affording.”
In presenting the same idea, Mr. Washburne, with a looseness of
statement for which we know of no proper justification, remarks 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 government institution, while in this country it is left to
private enterprise. Individual 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 effective 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
control 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 irresolute
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 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 numerous 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 desired. 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 usefulness to
the people of every section of the country. It seeks to secure the
highest skill and 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 employed
in America.
“As to the exact cost of constructing lines in the United States it
is difficult 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 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 telegraphs,
have differed very widely. Mr. Prescott, a telegraph superintendent,
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[7]....
Footnote 7:
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.
“This is about the cost of construction of a majority of our lines,
but if built as they should be, they would cost $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 America, 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[8] states that the
general average rates paid for all kinds of labor in the United Kingdom
are as follows: For adult males, in England, $4.96 per week; in
Scotland, $4.52; in Ireland, $3.16. For boys and youths, under twenty
years of age, in England, $1.44; in Scotland, $1.70; in Ireland, $1.38.
For adult women, in England, $2.76; in Scotland, $2.32; in Ireland,
$2.06. For girls, under twenty years of age, in England, $1.88; in
Scotland, $1.80; in Ireland, $1.62. These rates are stated to be high,
as compared with other countries in Europe.
Footnote 8:
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.
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
$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 $1.10, and second-class 83 cents.
Among the working classes in the United Kingdom are included 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”; “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│
│Dock Laborers │ .68│ 2.25│
│Engineers │ 1.32│ 3.85│
│Farm Laborers │ .42│ 2.00│
│Iron Founders │ 1.10│ 3.25│
│Moulders │ 1.25│ 3.50│
│Letter-Carriers[9] │ .74│ 2.18│
│Printers │ 1.02│ 2.50│
│Policemen │ .85│ 3.00│
│Railroad Conductors │ .92│ 3.85│
│Soldiers │ .22│ .62│
│Servant-girls │ .16│ .48│
│Telegraph Employees[10] │ .41│ 1.29│
└───────────────────────────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┘
Footnote 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.
Footnote 10:
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.
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. Lawrence 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 chestnut,—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.[11]
Footnote 11:
Telegraph Manual.
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 appropriated 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 enterprise, 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 undervalues
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
experimental 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 construction and capacity of transmission as
will best illustrate its practicability,’ 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
$1,400 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 galvanized wire, would cost $400 per mile for
a single wire. If forty-foot poles were used (which would be
necessary 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, franchises, &c.
“‘Mr. Brown states that “telegraphs properly constructed, 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 million of
able-bodied men were cut off from the fields of labor, the industries of
the country burdened with enormous taxes before unknown, and prices
inflated by the issue of hundreds of millions of 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.
“‘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
permanence, 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 snow, 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 transmission,
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 facilities 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.
“‘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 country. They seem to have taken it as matter of course that
the government, 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 communication sent to Congress by the Postmaster-General
for any reliable information 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 emphatically 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 reports and
data by which the British government were induced to monopolize the
telegraph in that country, and who shows no disposition 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 telegraph in operation in Great Britain in 1866
was 16,000, and that the companies expended in constructing the same
about £2,300,000.[12]
Footnote 12:
Special Report, Electric Telegraph Bill, ordered by the House of
Commons to be printed, 16 July, 1868. See testimony on pages 149 and
150.
The capital stock of the various companies represented a larger sum than
this, and Mr. Scudamore himself acknowledges that he has got the amount
under the mark rather than over it; therefore we presume that Mr.
Washburne will allow this to be a fair estimate. Now £2,300,000 sterling
is equal to $11,132,000 in gold, or $16,475,360 in United States legal
money. This sum, divided by 16,000 miles of line, gives us $1,029.71 as
the cost per mile.
The Belgian system comprised, at the end of 1866, 3,519 kilometres 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 currency; 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 currency, 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
Average cost per mile of telegraph line in Bavaria, 240.00
Average cost per mile of telegraph line in France, 351.75
Total cost of telegraphs in Great Britain and Ireland, $16,475,360.00
Total cost of telegraphs in Belgium, 608,304.56
Total cost of telegraphs in Bavaria, 503,338.35
Total cost of telegraphs in France, 7,045,034.13
——————————————
Total cost for the four countries, $24,632,037.04
Total number of miles of telegraph line in Great Britain
and Ireland, 16,000
Total number of miles of telegraph line in Belgium, 2,187
Total number of miles of telegraph line in Bavari, 2,115
Total number of miles of telegraph line in 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 England 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 average cost of all the telegraph
lines in Europe of which any statistics 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 company was organized in the
year 1851, with a capital of three hundred 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 original
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 Western Union Telegraph Company 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 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 instead 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
necessarily 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 for 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
companies is 60,000 miles.[13] The average cost, as based on the now
united capital, is $450 per mile. This embraces, besides the poles,
wires, and apparatus, the following:—
Footnote 13:
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.
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.[14] 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.
Footnote 14:
We have given the length of the lines, as well as the length of
the wires belonging to the Western Union Telegraph Company, on
page 32.
“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 costing $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 capital_, 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 careful 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 arguments. 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 extremely 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 the Western
Union Telegraph Company, of compiling information for the
Postmaster-General with an intent to mislead, of exaggerating 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.
Lawrence 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, Va., 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 companies 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.
Par Value. Market
Value.
The capital of the Western Union Telegraph
Company, which had sold at par and over in $22,000,000 $22,000,000
1865, was
The capital stock of the American Telegraph
Company, which sold at $180 per share in 4,000,000 7,200,000
1865, was
The capital stock of the United States 11,000,000 11,000,000
Telegraph Company was
——————————— ———————————
$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 number; and in the
terms of consolidation these differences were equitably 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, 1865, by exchange for Lodi Telegraph Stock 500
December, 1865, by exchange for Trumansburg and Seneca
Falls Telegraph Stock, 3,500
December, 1865, by issue to Hicks & Wright for Repeater
Patent, 1,500
December, 1865, by exchange for Missouri and Western
Telegraph Stock, 400
December, 1865, by exchange for House Telegraph Stock, 1,400
April, 1866, by 2½ percent Stock Dividend, to equalize
stock as per Consolidation Agreements, 472,300
April, 1866, by consolidation with United States
Telegraph Company, 3,845,800
June, 1866, by issue for United States Pacific Lines, 3,333,300
July, 1866, by consolidation with American Telegraph
Company, 11,818,800
July, 1866, by exchange for P. C. & L. Telegraph Stock, 4,100
December 1, 1867, by fractions converted, to date, 49,100
———————————
Total present capital, $41,008,800
Of the stock issued for United States Pacific
Lines there was returned to the company, as
consideration for completing construction of
Pacific Line, $883,300
The company owns also, 120,800
——————————
$1,004,100
Out of this we have 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 Telegraph 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 Company May 1,
1868, was as follows:—
CAPITAL STOCK.
At the date of the Report of January 1,
1868, the Capital 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
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
Maturing as follows: In 1875, 4,801,000.00
———————————— $4,890,500.00
PROPERTY ACCOUNT.
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, Franchises,
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 $47,877,350.61
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSES FROM JULY 1, 1866, TO NOVEMBER 1,
1868.
1866. Gross Receipts. Expenses. Net Profits.
July, $562,292.97 $410,382.40 $151,910.57
August, 548,716.96 346,742.31 201,974.65
September, 556,955.95 298,931.99 258,023.96
October, 623,528.31 344,245.07 279,283.24
November, 571,036.02 322,508.66 248,527.36
December, 551,971.40 302,596.41 249,374.99
January, 580,560.53 341,104.71 239,455.82
February, 483,441.77 314,617.26 168,824.51
March, 530,642.66 297,076.59 233,566.07
April, 545,586.30 320,869.41 224,716.89
May, 525,437.94 326,829.83 198,608.11
June, 488,754.55 318,100.99 170,653.56
July, 536,156.89 360,917.53 175,239.36
August, 570,676.85 375,970.17 194,706.68
September, 601,548.79 375,641.50 225,907.29
October, 628,836.74 393,459.92 235,376.82
November, 583,723.66 370,429.57 213,294.09
December, 576,135.19 379,291.35 196,843.84
1868.
January, 539,794.00 366,446.02 173,347.98
February, 600,183.32 345,855.52 254,327.80
March, 587,962.23 335,947.64 252,014.58
April, 602,257.05 356,349.18 245,907.87
May, 597,374.47 349,165.41 248,209.06
June, 579,911.00 353,375.50 226,535.50
July, 601,730.61 396,163.66 205,566.95
August, 602,304.73 376,452.03 225,852.70
September, 630,665.36 372,197.50 258,467.86
October, 680,311.81 410,604.17 269,707.64
—————————————— —————————————— ——————————————
$16,088,498.86 $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.
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 question that what
restrained its use in Europe for so many years was governmental jealousy
of its power, and not ignorance of its capacity. 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 Parliament,
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 government, 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 2_s._ 6_d._, sterling. 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
9_s._, 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
13_s._, 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.
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 People,” 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 available 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 transmitted 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 messages 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 nocturnal 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 lakes—the inland seas—into direct communication
with the ocean ports on the eastern shore. Nothing stops the restless,
enterprising spirit of that people.”
REMARKABLY LOW TARIFFS OF THE EARLY AMERICAN TELEGRAPHS.
There is, indeed, nothing more remarkable respecting the presentation 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 (until within
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 currency
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 advance in
railway fares and transportation, in the cost of entertainment 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 fallacious.
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 delivery, instead of the telegraph with its
instant and continuous departure and delivery, it is equally obvious
that there is something 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; sudden 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 instructions 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
intelligence 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 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 country
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 circumstances 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 contents, 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 telegraph, in every
case where the interests of the company will not suffer by the delay_.
All check errors, and discrepancies in accounts, 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 communications, 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 telegrams 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 attending 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 delivered 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 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 proportionate
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 transmits 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 important 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 company, owing
to the more central and eligible situations of our offices, is greatly
in excess of that paid by the Post-Office Department. 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 we could much better handle the mails than the post-office, as
now located and generally conducted, could manage the telegraph.
MR. 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 approximating
the charge for letter postage has been tried so often in this country,
as not to require a new demonstration. The following 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 reduced to twenty cents, with the following results: Average
number 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 transmitted 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.
No. 1.
_Statement showing number of Messages sent between Chicago and
Milwaukee 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._
┌─────────╥─────────────────────────────╥─────────────────────────────┐
│ DATE. ║ August, 1867. ║ August, 1868. │
│ ║ Tariff 60 and 4. ║ Tariff 40 and 3. │
├─────────╫─────────┬─────────┬─────────╫─────────┬─────────┬─────────┤
│ ║ 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│ 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, Average, 89 Messages │ 44.42│
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────┘
No. 2.
_Statement showing number of Messages transmitted between Chicago and
Milwaukee, over the Western Union Independent Telegraph Lines, from
August 12th to August 26th together with the daily Receipts._
┌─────────╥───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ DATE. ║ Tariff 40 and 3. │
├─────────╫─────────────────────────────╥─────────────────────────────┤
│ ║ W. U. and Independent. ║ Western Union. │
│ ║ 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│ 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, Average, 81 Messages │ 48.07│
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────┘
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 reduction 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 month
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 between Chicago and
Milwaukee, but no change in rates was introduced 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 23d 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 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 exhibits 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 comparisons 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 the company is £60,000, and the average cost of telegrams
transmitted over its lines, for distances that cannot exceed ten miles,
was 6_d._, equal to eighteen cents in our currency, and yet the loss in
four and a half years’ business was £9,573 3_s._ 7_d._:—
┌──────────────┬─────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐
│ Half-year │Number of│ Receipts for │ Expenditures. │ Deficiency. │
│ ending │Messages.│ Messages. │ │ │
├─────────┬────┼─────────┼─────┬────┬────┼─────┬────┬────┼─────┬────┬────┤
│ │ │ │ £ │_s._│_d._│ £ │_s._│_d._│ £ │_s._│_d._│
│June, │1860│ 26,155│ 550│ 19│ 11│2,282│ 10│ 7│1,326│ 2│ 4│
│December,│1860│ 47,365│1,058│ 19│ 2│3,294│ 0│ 6│2,168│ 1│ 7│
│June, │1861│ 64,785│2,137│ 1│ 7│4,394│ 12│ 3│2,177│ 11│ 4│
│December,│1861│ 77,939│2,592│ 15│ 10│4,663│ 5│ 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│ 0│ 4│
│June, │1863│ 129,710│4,216│ 6│ 11│4,721│ 1│ 3│ 440│ 9│ 4│
│December,│1863│ 131,216│4,326│ 4│ 0│5,125│ 9│ 4│ 796│ 15│ 4│
│June, │1864│ 152,795│4,802│ 10│ 0│4,863│ 17│ 10│ 60│ 12│ 0│
└─────────┴────┴─────────┴─────┴────┴────┴─────┴────┴────┴─────┴────┴────┘
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_.
┌───────────┬────────┬──────┬───────┬──────────┬───────────┬───────────┐
│ │ │Number│Number │ │ │Proportion │
│ NAME OF │ Number │ of │ of │Number of │ │of Offices │
│ COUNTRY. │ of │Miles │ Miles │ Messages │Population.│ to │
│ │Offices.│ of │ of │ Sent. │ │Population.│
│ │ │Line. │ Wire. │ │ │ │
├───────────┼────────┼──────┼───────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┤
│Austria │ 851│24,618│ 73,854│ 2,507,472│ 39,411,309│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 46,311│
│Belgium │ 356│ 2,187│ 6,146│ 1,128,005│ 4,984,451│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 14,000│
│Bavaria │ │ 2,115│ 4,945│ │ 4,541,556│ │
│Denmark │ 89│ │ 2,515│ 308,150│ 2,468,713│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 27,000│
│France │ 1,209│20,628│ 68,687│ 2,507,472│ 38,302,625│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 31,600│
│Italy │ 529│ 8,200│ 20,120│ 1,760,889│ 25,925,717│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 49,000│
│Norway │ 73│ │ │ 269,375│ 1,433,488│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 19,000│
│Prussia │ 538│18,386│ 55,149│ 1,964,003│ 17,739,913│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 33,000│
│Russia │ 308│12,013│ 22,214│ 838,653│ 68,224,832│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 221,000│
│Switzerland│ 252│ 1,858│ 3,717│ 668,916│ 2,510,494│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10,000│
│Spain │ 142│ 8,871│ 17,743│ 533,376│ 16,302,625│ 1 to│
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ 109,000│
├───────────┼────────┼──────┼───────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┤
│ │ 4,347│98,876│275,090│12,486,311│ │ │
└───────────┴────────┴──────┴───────┴──────────┴───────────┴───────────┘
_Statistics of Telegraphs constructed and operated under Private
Control_.
┌───────────┬────────┬──────┬───────┬──────────┬───────────┬───────────┐
│ │ │Number│Number │ │ │Proportion │
│ NAME OF │ Number │ of │ of │Number of │ │of Offices │
│ COUNTRY. │ of │Miles │ Miles │ Messages │Population.│ to │
│ │Offices.│ of │ of │ Sent. │ │Population.│
│ │ │Line. │ Wire. │ │ │ │
├───────────┼────────┼──────┼───────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┤
│Great │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Britain and│ 2,151│16,588│ 80,466│ 5,781,189│ 29,591,009│1 to 13,714│
│Ireland │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│Dominion of│ 382│ 6,747│ 8,935│ 573,219│ 3,976,224│1 to 10,400│
│Canada │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│United │ 4,126│62,782│125,564│12,386,952│ 31,148,047│1 to 7,549│
│States │ │ │ │ │ │ │
├───────────┼────────┼──────┼───────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┤
│ │ 6,659│86,117│214,965│18,741,360│ │ │
└───────────┴────────┴──────┴───────┴──────────┴───────────┴───────────┘
Thus it will be seen that Continental Europe, where the telegraphs are
under government control, furnishes but 4,347 offices 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 governmental 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 message, 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. Lawrence, 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 extraordinary
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 portion 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 annually 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 of the
world; and there are local associations in every section of the country,
which furnish their quota of intelligence to the general association,
and receive in return such news as they require.
As an illustration of the manner in which this service is performed, 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 and 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 simultaneously
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 armature,—and with an
agate pen copies them upon manifold paper, making as many impressions as
are necessary to furnish each paper with a duplicate copy.
Direct wires carry and bring news from and to Chicago, Cincinnati, 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 which we
furnish to the press of the United States, for an aggregate sum of
$521,509, is considerably greater than the entire telegraphic
correspondence of Continental Europe, for which the paternal governments
of those enlightened and enterprising 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 private 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 │ │Total number of │ │
│ messages │ │ messages furnished │ │
│ transmitted in │ │ to the newspapers │ │
│ Continental Europe │ │ of the United │ │
│ for the year 1866, │ 12,902,538│ States for 1866, │14,725,181│
│Gross receipts for │ │Gross receipts for │ │
│ the above, │$11,597,632.71│ the above, │ $521,509│
├─────────────────────┼──────────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────┤
│Average cost of │ │Average cost of press│ │
│ telegrams in │ │ telegrams in the │ │
│ Continental Europe,│ 81 cts.│ United States, │ 3½ 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 impose 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 enterprise and public spirit of the
press, and the Western Union Telegraph 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 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 general 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 reduction 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 assumption or
interference in the business of telegraphing, we fail to perceive them.
REVIEW
OF
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. Hubbard, Esq., of
Boston, entitled a “Letter to the Postmaster-General 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:—
“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 January, 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 1½ francs, numbered 105,274
In 1865, the inland messages, at 1 franc, numbered 332,718
In 1867, the inland messages, at ½ franc, numbered 819,668
Total receipts in 1866, 961,112 francs.
Total expenses in 1866, 839,000 „
Estimated profits for 1866 on the entire business, if
no reduction had 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 received 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 neighboring nations of 553,580 francs for messages coming from
or going 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 government,
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 reduces the
expenses for operators, clerks, general management, rent and office
expenses, and brings the system into close connection 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
currency].”
BELGIAN TELEGRAMS DELIVERED BY POST.
In reply to this flattering picture of the Belgian system of telegraphy
we quote the following from a recent English publication:[15]—
Footnote 15:
Government and the Telegraphs. London, 1868.
“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 despatched 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 forwarded for half a franc includes addresses both of
sender and receiver, ‘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
estimate of the average rates, and of the annual number of messages
transmitted has been made by ascertaining the rates to seventy-one
stations at different distances from Boston, and arranging 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
Class B, over 500, and under 1,000, 1.43
Class C, over 1,000, and under 1,500, 2.46
Class D, over 1,500, and under 2,000, 3.36
The English rate for
Class A, less than 100 miles, one
shilling, equal to $0.33 U. S. currency.
Class B, between 100 and 200 miles, one
shilling and sixpence, equal to 0.50 U. S. currency.
Class C, over 200 miles, two shillings,
equal to 0.66 U. S. currency.
Class D, to Ireland, three to four
shillings, equal to 1.00 to 1.33 U. S. currency.
Mr. Hubbard says:—
“As rates are higher in America, a greater proportion of messages
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 $1.00. The gross receipts of the Western Union Company,
for the year ending the 30th of June, 1868, were $6,952,273.[16]
This sum, divided by the average receipts, gives the whole number of
messages transmitted, viz. 6,952,000.
Footnote 16:
This amount embraces the total revenue of the Western Union
Telegraph Company for that year, and includes the receipts for
telegrams, press reports, and from all other sources.
“It may be objected that those estimates are incorrect, and
therefore the deductions are unreliable. If the Western Union
Telegraph Company furnish a statement of messages annually
transmitted, 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.”[17]
Footnote 17:
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 per cent of the number actually sent over the wires. The
average rate per message in the United States is fifty-seven cents.
As the average of these English rates is a little over 75 cents, 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 telegraph 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 prevailed
throughout the United States, until after the consolidation of the lines
made it possible to 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 uninterruptedly 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 equalizing the
tariffs, but difficulties of a practical nature present themselves in
all of them. The existence of rival lines, built by speculators 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 disproportionately, and prevents the
adoption of a general rate strictly proportioned to distance. In the
course of the coming year, however, 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 interference. 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
different 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 interested, bought
out most of the old companies, and continued to occupy their
territory for many years without serious opposition.
“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 Telegraph Company.
In 1864, the United States Telegraph Company was organized to oppose
this monopoly, and entered into a vigorous 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 Telegraph 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 in the telegraphic business
of the country.”
Mr. Hubbard’s pamphlet contains a statement of the rates between 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.
In 1850 the rate was 20 cents.
In 1851 the rate was 20 cents.
In 1852 the rate was 10 cents.
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 [Bain]
Telegraph Company, and the New York and Boston [House printing]
Telegraph Company, for an infringement 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.[18]
Footnote 18:
For an abstract of this decision see “Prescott’s History, Theory, and
Practice of the Electric Telegraph.” Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co.
The consolidations between competing lines, in 1852 and 1853, was caused
by the inability of the companies under separate organizations 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 single 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 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 reduced 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
consequent 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 instance 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 consolidation; 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 Telegraph
Company, included all the lines, and gave this company a monopoly of the
business, is also incorrect. The Franklin Company, between Boston and
New York, the Insulated Company, between Boston and Washington, the
Bankers and Brokers’, between 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 companies,
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 warranted 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.[19] 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 necessarily
much more than when the telegraph is connected with the post.”
Footnote 19:
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.
It is true that many telegraph offices are connected with the railroad
system in this country, as well as abroad. Indeed, no railroad would be
considered complete without such a connection, but it is not true that a
large proportion of the offices are at the railroad stations.
We have shown on page 8 that the telegraph system of Europe is not
specially connected with the Post-Office Department. In some countries
the telegraph, post-office, and railway systems are under one
department, but there is no particular connection between 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 be necessarily much less than when the
telegraph is worked separately? We presume he does not propose to
dispense with the operators, and put the telegrams in the mail-bag; or
does he propose 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 foreign
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 average 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
14⅘ cents in currency, while our rate between Baltimore and Washington
is only 10 cents. In Paris the tariff on city messages is half a franc
(14⅘ cents), and in London, for city messages, 6_d._ sterling, equal to
18 cents in our currency; while the rates for New York, from the Battery
to Harlem River, are only 10 cents.
In order that a fair comparison may be made between the American and
European systems of telegraphy, so far as the rate of charges is
concerned, we present a list of sixty of the principal stations in
Europe, and the same number in the United States, with the tariffs and
distances in air lines from London and New York respectively, together
with the rules and regulations of each system.
RULES OF THE EUROPEAN TELEGRAPHS.
The minimum charge is for a message of twenty words, including the
address and signature, and half price is charged for each ten or
fraction of ten words above twenty.
Words of seven or less syllables count as one word. In words containing
more than seven, the overplus counts as _one_ word; each word
_underlined_ counts as _three_ words.
Messages containing the same subject-matter addressed to different
stations are charged as separate messages.
Secret or cipher messages can be sent by government only.
Replies at full rates can be prepaid; but should the reply contain more
than the number of words specified and paid for, the sender of the reply
must pay for the excess as a fresh message.
Messages can be repeated by payment of double charge at the time they
are sent, the words “Repetition paid” being inserted after receiver’s
address, and charged for.
All complaints respecting irregularity in the transmission or delivery
of messages must be made by THE SENDER, and in cases of delay or error
the complaint must invariably be accompanied by the RECEIVER’S COPY of
the message. Complaints from the receivers of messages will not be
entertained.
RULES OF THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
The minimum tariff is for a message of ten words. No charge is made for
address, signature, or date. After the first ten words the rate is so
much per word, the amount being proportional to the rate for the first
ten.
All words are counted as one which are found so written in the
dictionaries. No extra charge is made for messages written in cipher,
and no restrictions are placed upon their transmission.
Replies can be prepaid if desired, and no charge is made for inserting
this information in the sender’s message.
Messages can be repeated by the payment of one half the regular charge
in addition, and the company agrees to be responsible for any mistakes
which may occur in repeated messages, to the amount of fifty times the
sum received for sending the same.
Correctness in the transmission of messages to any point on the lines of
this company can be INSURED by contract in writing, stating agreed
amount of risk, and payment of premium thereon at the following rates,
in addition to the usual charge for repeated messages, viz.: one per
cent for any distance not exceeding one thousand miles, and two per cent
for any greater distance. No employee of the company is authorized to
vary the foregoing.
_Statement showing the Minimum Rate for Telegrams from London to
Principal Cities in Europe, and from New York to Principal Cities in
America._
┌─────────────┬──────┬─────────────────┬───────────────┬──────┬───────┐
│ From London │ Dis- │ Tariff. │ From New York │ Dis- │Tariff.│
│ │tance │ │ │tance │ │
│ │ in │ │ │ in │ │
│ │ Eng. │ │ │ Eng. │ │
│ │Miles.│ │ │Miles.│ │
├─────────────┼──────┼─┬────┬────┬─────┼───────────────┼──────┼───────┤
│ │ │£│_s._│_d._│U.S. │ │ │ $ cts.│
│ │ │ │ │ │Cur. │ │ │ │
│To Cambridge │ 40│ │ 1│ 6│ =│To New Haven, │ 70│ 0.20│
│ │ │ │ │ │$0.52│ Conn. │ │ │
│ Dover │ 50│ │ 2│ 0│ =│ Hartford, │ 100│ 0.20│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 0.70│ Conn. │ │ │
│ Birmingham│ 100│ │ 1│ 0│ =│ Providence, │ 150│ 0.20│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 0.35│ R. I. │ │ │
│ Worcester │ 100│ │ 2│ 0│ =│ Springfield,│ 125│ 0.30│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 0.70│ Mass. │ │ │
│ Havre │ 125│ │ 3│ 6│ =│ Worcester, │ 155│ 0.30│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 1.22│ Mass. │ │ │
│ Liverpool │ 180│ │ 1│ 0│ =│ Boston, │ 190│ 0.30│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 0.35│ Mass. │ │ │
│ Caen │ 160│ │ 5│ 0│ =│ Portsmouth, │ 200│ 0.45│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 1.75│ N. H. │ │ │
│ Plymouth │ 190│ │ 2│ 6│ =│ Washington, │ 190│ 0.40│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 0.87│ D. C. │ │ │
│ Paris │ 200│ │ 5│ 0│ =│ Augusta, Me.│ 280│ 0.65│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 1.75│ │ │ │
│ Amsterdam │ 200│ │ 6│ 6│ =│ Oswego, N. │ 250│ 0.40│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.27│ Y. │ │ │
│ Rheims │ 250│ │ 5│ 0│ =│ Portland, │ 250│ 0.65│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 1.75│ Me. │ │ │
│ Aix-la- │ 265│ │ 5│ 0│ =│ Bath, Me. │ 275│ 0.65│
│ Chapelle │ │ │ │ │ 1.75│ │ │ │
│ Wakefield │ 300│ │ 5│ 0│ =│ Rochester, │ 280│ 0.50│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 1.75│ N. Y. │ │ │
│ Dublin │ 290│ │ 5│ 0│ =│ Pittsburg, │ 300│ 0.45│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 1.75│ Pa. │ │ │
│ Edinburgh │ 320│ │ 4│ 0│ =│ Camden, Me. │ 330│ 0.65│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 1.40│ │ │ │
│ Rochelle │ 350│ │ 7│ 3│ =│ Belfast, Me.│ 350│ 0.65│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.53│ │ │ │
│ Frankfort │ 380│ │ 7│ 6│ =│ Buffalo, N. │ 330│ 0.50│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.62│ Y. │ │ │
│ Hamburg │ 380│ │ 8│ 0│ =│ Erie, Pa. │ 360│ 1.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.80│ │ │ │
│ Strasburg │ 385│ │ 7│ 3│ =│ Bangor, Me. │ 340│ 0.65│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.53│ │ │ │
│ Hanover │ 400│ │ 8│ 0│ =│ Cleveland, │ 425│ 1.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.80│ Ohio │ │ │
│ Stuttgart │ 420│ │ 7│ 6│ =│ Toledo, Ohio│ 470│ 1.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.62│ │ │ │
│ Berne │ 450│ │ 7│ 3│ =│ Columbus, │ 475│ 0.95│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.53│ Ohio │ │ │
│ Bordeaux │ 455│ │ 7│ 3│ =│ Sandusky, │ 480│ 1.40│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.53│ Ohio │ │ │
│ Munich │ 540│ │ 8│ 6│ =│ Cincinnati, │ 550│ 1.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.67│ Ohio │ │ │
│ Turin │ 550│ │ 7│ 3│ =│ Lexington, │ 575│ 1.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 3.53│ Ky. │ │ │
│ Copenhagen│ 552│ │ 8│ 0│ =│ Dayton, │ 552│ 1.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.80│ Ohio. │ │ │
│ Berlin │ 560│ │ 10│ 0│ =│ Charleston, │ 590│ 2.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 3.50│ S. C. │ │ │
│ Milan │ 575│ │ 8│ 6│ =│ Fort Wayne, │ 580│ 1.70│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.67│ Ind. │ │ │
│ Marseilles│ 576│ │ 8│ 6│ =│ Lansing, │ 590│ 1.85│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 2.67│ Mich. │ │ │
│ Prague │ 600│ │ 9│ 9│ =│ Louisville, │ 625│ 1.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 3.41│ Ky. │ │ │
│ Modena │ 650│ │ 9│ 6│ =│ Indian- │ 650│ 1.90│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 3.32│ apolis, Ind.│ │ │
│ Saragossa │ 652│ │ 9│ 6│ =│ New Albany, │ 660│ 1.75│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 3.32│ Ind. │ │ │
│ Chris- │ 700│ │ 17│ 6│ =│ La Fayette, │ 700│ 1.95│
│ tiania │ │ │ │ │ 5.95│ Ind. │ │ │
│ Trieste │ 720│ │ 11│ │ =│ Chicago, │ 730│ 1.75│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 3.85│ Ill. │ │ │
│ Vienna │ 780│ │ 11│ │ =│ Racine, Wis.│ 750│ 1.90│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 3.85│ │ │ │
│ Madrid │ 750│ │ 10│ 6│ =│ Milwaukee, │ 770│ 1.90│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 3.67│ Wis. │ │ │
│ Ancona │ 800│ │ 11│ │ =│ Peru, Ill. │ 800│ 2.25│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 3.85│ │ │ │
│ Rome │ 850│ │ 12│ │ =│ Madison, │ 850│ 2.40│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 4.20│ Wis. │ │ │
│ Stockholm │ 860│ │ 16│ 3│ =│ Montgomery, │ 860│ 3.05│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 5.69│ Ala. │ │ │
│ Warsaw │ 875│ │ 13│ 3│ =│ St. Louis, │ 880│ 2.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 4.64│ Mo. │ │ │
│ Pesth │ 880│ │ 12│ 3│ =│ Galena, Ill.│ 880│ 2.35│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 4.29│ │ │ │
│ Cagliari │ 925│ │ 14│ │ =│ Rock Island,│ 900│ 2.35│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 4.90│ Ill. │ │ │
│ Naples │ 950│ │ 11│ │ =│ Prairie du │ 950│ 2.65│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 3.85│ Chien, Wis. │ │ │
│ Lisbon │ 955│ │ 14│ │ =│ Quincy, Ill.│ 950│ 2.60│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 4.90│ │ │ │
│ Seville │ 980│ │ 13│ │ =│ Jefferson │ 975│ 2.70│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 4.55│ City, Mo. │ │ │
│ Cadiz │ 1,000│ │ 13│ │ =│ Mobile, Ala.│ 1,000│ 3.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 4.55│ │ │ │
│ Belgrade │ 1,005│ │ 13│ 6│ =│ Little Rock,│ 1,050│ 4.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 4.72│ Ark. │ │ │
│ Palermo │ 1,080│ │ 12│ │ =│ Des Moines, │ 1,080│ 2.70│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 4.20│ Iowa. │ │ │
│ St. │ 1,160│ │ 18│ 6│ =│ New Orleans,│ 1,100│ 3.25│
│ Petersburg│ │ │ │ │ 6.47│ La. │ │ │
│ Novgorod │ 1,275│ │ 18│ 6│ =│ Houston, La.│ 1,330│ 5.00│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 6.47│ │ │ │
│ Smolensk │ 1,280│ │ 18│ 6│ =│ Galveston, │ 1,340│ 3.95│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 6.47│ Texas │ │ │
│ Malta │ 1,250│ │ 16│ 9│ =│ Grand │ 1,350│ 4.60│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 5.87│ Island, │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ Nebraska │ │ │
│ Odessa │ 1,360│ │ 18│ 6│ =│ Fort │ 1,380│ 5.25│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 6.47│ Kearney, │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ Nebraska │ │ │
│ Athens │ 1,450│1│ 12│ │ =│ Austin, │ 1,460│ 5.50│
│ │ │ │ │ │11.36│ Texas │ │ │
│ Constan- │ 1,480│ │ 19│ 6│ =│ San Antonio,│ 1,550│ 5.50│
│ tinople │ │ │ │ │ 7.00│ Texas │ │ │
│ Smyrna │ 1,540│1│ 6│ 6│ =│ Fort │ 1,600│ 6.40│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 9.43│ Laramie, │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ Nebraska │ │ │
│ Nishni │ 1,700│1│ 2│ │ =│ Denver, │ 1,700│ 7.60│
│ Novgorod │ │ │ │ │ 7.86│ Colorado │ │ │
│ Moscow │ 1,485│ │ 19│ │ =│ Salt Lake │ 2,100│ 5.95│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 6.65│ City, Utah │ │ │
│ Taganrog │ 1,490│1│ 6│ │ =│ Sacramento, │ 2,500│ 6.75│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 9.26│ California │ │ │
│ Sjumen │ 1,500│1│ 8│ │ =│ Stockton, │ 2,500│ 6.75│
│ │ │ │ │ │ 9.96│ California │ │ │
│ Alexandria│ 1,867│2│ 6│ 9│ =│ San │ 2,600│ 6.75│
│ │ │ │ │ │16.69│ Francisco, │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ California │ │ │
└─────────────┴──────┴─┴────┴────┴─────┴───────────────┴──────┴───────┘
MORE ERRONEOUS STATEMENTS.
Mr. Hubbard’s assertion that, “where a message is repeated, the expense
is increased about seventy-five per cent, but on well-constructed lines,
in ordinary weather, messages between any two stations east of a line
from St. Paul to New Orleans require but one repetition,” hardly needs
refutation. East of the line named there are more than four thousand
telegraph offices, and at least 1,300 separate and distinct circuits.
How, then, can separate wires be maintained between every two stations
over this vast territory? Even confining the statement to one office at
the East,—say Boston, for example,—how is it possible to maintain
separate circuits that will enable that office to work direct with each
one of four thousand offices? It would be more practicable to travel
from every town in the United States to every other town, without change
of cars, than it would to establish _direct_ telegraphic connection
between each.
The Western Union Telegraph Company maintains independent circuits, and
works direct between New York and Philadelphia, Washington, Boston,
Buffalo, Montreal, Chicago, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Portland, Plaister
Cove, and many other points; but to work with every office in the United
States without repetition would require more wires upon each pole than
the mythical Briareus had hands.
SINGULAR NOTIONS OF PRACTICAL TELEGRAPHY.
It seems scarcely worth while to follow Mr. Hubbard in his statements
regarding the capital of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the
cost of its lines. We have given a statement on pages 37 to 40 of the
organization of this company, the amount of its capital, length of
lines, and other matters of interest.
Mr. Hubbard’s statement that the directors of the Western Union
Telegraph Company have steadfastly refused to reduce rates until forced
by competition, and then consolidated with the competing company, and
again raised the rates, is without the slightest foundation in fact. We
have previously stated that no increase in the rates has been made since
the consolidation with the United States and American companies, but, on
the contrary, they have been reduced to more than one thousand stations,
while the opposition have less than three hundred offices all told.
ABSURD THEORIES REGARDING THE WORKING CAPACITY OF TELEGRAPH LINES.
Mr. Hubbard says:—
“The capacities of the line of telegraph are very great. 2,000 words
an hour are easily transmitted by a good operator over a single
wire. At this rate there could be sent over fifty-one of the eighty
or ninety wires leading from the New York office of the Western
Union Telegraph Company 2,448,000 words, or 97,920 messages of
twenty-five words each, a day. This amount cannot be obtained. Forty
messages an hour are easily transmitted by a good operator over a
through line, and this number could be sent every hour by relays of
operators. This estimate gives 1,224,000 words, or 48,960 messages.
On through and local lines a deduction of one half for twelve hours
of the day, during which the local lines are open, must be
made,—918,000 words, or 36,720 messages, on through and local lines.
The average number actually transmitted on these fifty-one wires is
184,378 words, or 7,375 messages. 733,622 more words, or 29,340 more
messages might daily be transmitted over these lines. If the present
business could be distributed over all the hours of the day, or if
there were sufficient business for all the wires the whole day, the
rates could be largely reduced.
“Nearly eighteen hours of each day the wires are idle, yet a
considerable portion of the expenses of the line are no greater than
they would be if messages were transmitted the whole time. Interest,
depreciation, and repairs, office rent, salaries, and general
management are the same, whether much or little business is
transacted. These items constitute about one third of all the
expenses on the Western Union line. The other expenses will not be
increased in proportion to the increase of the time.”
In reply to the above, we assert that 2,000 words an hour are not easily
transmitted by a good operator over a single wire. There are operators
who can send at this rate for a short time, but they are very few in
number, and none of them could maintain this rate of speed for any
length of time. It must be recollected that a message must be copied
with a pen as rapidly as it is sent. Now, we doubt if Mr. Hubbard even
can write 2,000 words legibly within an hour, with pen and ink. It is
well known that the celebrated horse Dexter has trotted a mile in the
unprecedented time of 2.17, but would it not be absurd to state, on that
account, that every good horse can easily trot twenty-six miles an hour?
Why, Dexter himself cannot keep up this rate of speed for even a quarter
of an hour. Because a celebrated pedestrian walked a hundred miles in
twenty-four hours, would it be just to say that every good walker can
easily walk 36,500 miles per annum? A man in California rode three
hundred miles in twenty-four hours; would it be honest, therefore, to
say that every good horseman can easily ride 9,000 miles a month? The
maximum speed of the best operators is 1,500 words per hour, but the
average speed of the best is very much below this.
The amount of business done upon a wire in a given time is vastly
greater in this country than in any other. In Europe there are 355,218
miles of wire, while in the United States there are less than one third
as many, and yet the wires in this country transmit more telegraphic
matter per annum than all the lines in Europe. This almost incredible
fact is explained by the superior character and ability of our operating
staff. In Europe they still use recording instruments, and slowly and
laboriously pick out their messages upon strips of paper. Here, on the
contrary, every operator—except in the small villages—reads by sound,
and does three times as much work upon a wire as the poorly paid and
inefficient European operator. Now, this being the case,—and the
statistics prove it,—it can hardly be pretended that our company gets
much less out of its wires than they can reasonably perform, and yet Mr.
Hubbard says we “could easily send on fifty-one wires 97,920 messages
per day, while in reality we only send 7,375.” Here is a difference
between theory and practice that beats even Dexter’s 2.17 as the rate of
speed which every horse in America can average.
IMPOSSIBILITY OF UTILIZING THE TELEGRAPH LINES BY NIGHT AS WELL AS DAY.
Mr. Hubbard says, “If the present business could be distributed over all
the hours of the day, or if there were sufficient business for all the
wires the whole day, the rates could be largely reduced”; but neither of
these propositions can be realized. The telegraph is an errand-boy which
every one uses when the exigency requires it, and which no one will use
unnecessarily, even though it work for nothing. In order to utilize the
wires during those portions of the day and night when they are
comparatively idle, the Western Union Telegraph Company adopted the
following rates for night messages:—
“This company will transmit messages between the principal cities on its
lines east of St. Louis and New Orleans, both inclusive, during the
night, and deliver the same the succeeding morning, on the following
terms: For a message of 20 words or less, the usual tolls on a ten-word
message will be charged. For a message of more than 20 words, and not
exceeding 60 words, twice the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be
charged. For a message of more than 60 words, and not exceeding 120
words, three times the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be
charged. For each additional 100 words, or part thereof, in excess of
120 words, the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged in
addition. Such messages will be known as NIGHT MESSAGES. They will be
received for transmission at any time during the day or evening, and
will be sent during the succeeding night. _No additional charge will be
made for cipher messages._”
The very moderate success of our night-message experiment,
notwithstanding the large inducements offered, proves that the use of
the telegraph is required not merely for communication, but for
emergency and despatch. It is also a fact worthy of notice, that very
little of this business is done between Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and Washington, notwithstanding the low rates, whereby over a
hundred words can be transmitted for a dollar. It is done mainly between
remote places like Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Memphis,
and New Orleans, communication between which by mail requires from two
to four days.
In support of this theory we submit a statement of the night-message
business between New York City and all points on our lines for the
months of March, July, and October. These months represent fairly the
varying phases of our business in respect to trade in different sections
of the country at different seasons of the year.
The total number of night messages sent and received between New York
City and all places on our lines for the three months named was 6,273,
divided as follows:—
Between New York and Charleston, S. C. 276
Between New York and Chicago, Ill. 904
Between New York and Cincinnati, O. 326
Between New York and St. Louis, Mo. 433
Between New York and Milwaukee, Wis. 176
Between New York and Memphis, Tenn. 316
Between New York and Montgomery, Ala. 176
Between New York and Mobile, Ala. 402
Between New York and New Orleans, La. 1,195
Between New York and All other places 2,069
—————
Total, 6,273
Our night-message experiment has proved that the telegraph will not be
used at night, at any tariff, except to a moderate extent and between
distant points.
The absurdity of placing the telegraph and postal systems in the same
category has been fully shown on pages 43 and 44. Mr. Hubbard appears to
have read Mr. Scudamore’s charges against the English system, and
applied them literally to the telegraphs of this country. Unfortunately,
however, charges which may be true as applied to the companies operating
the telegraphs in the United Kingdom have no pertinency when reproduced
as the shortcomings of the American system.
PROPOSED INCORPORATION OF THE UNITED STATES POSTAL TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
Mr. Hubbard says:—
“It is not considered expedient either for the government to
purchase the existing lines, or to construct and operate lines. How,
then, can the desired results be best attained? The Post-Office
Department has no facilities of its own for the transmission of
correspondence either by rail or telegraph. It contracts with the
railroad companies for carrying the mail, and it is proposed that it
shall contract with a telegraph company for transmitting messages.
“A bill was introduced at the last session of Congress, and referred
to the committee on Post Roads and Routes, to incorporate the
‘United States Postal Telegraph Company, and to establish a postal
system.’
“The first, second, third, fourth, and fifth sections of the bill
incorporate the company, with power to construct lines on all the
post roads and routes of the country.
“The sixth section authorizes the Postmaster-General to receive bids
from any telegraph company for the transmission by telegraph of
messages received and delivered through the post-office, to all
cities and villages of 5,000 inhabitants and over, and to towns on
the line of the telegraph, where stations may be established by
order of the Postmaster-General.
“The seventh section authorizes the Postmaster-General to contract
for the transmission by telegraph of messages with the company that
will engage to transmit them for the least sum, provided such sum
does not exceed twenty-five cents, including five cents postage for
each message of twenty words, including date, address, and
signature, for each and every 500 miles or fractional part thereof
the message may be transmitted, with five cents for each added five
words. All messages to be prepaid by stamps, or written on stamped
paper.
“Messages to be received at any and all post-offices, street-boxes,
or other receptacles for letters, and to be delivered by special
carrier without extra expense.
“Messages requiring immediate despatch to have priority of
transmission on payment of extra rates.
“The effect of the proposed reduction will be better appreciated by
comparing the present and proposed rates.
┌──────────────────────────────┬───────┬────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ DISTANCES. │Present│Proposed│ │ Pro Rata │
│ │Rates. │ Rates. │Reduction.│Reduction.│
├──────────────────────────────┼───────┼────────┼──────────┼──┬───────┤
│To stations within 500 miles │ $0.41│ $0.30│ $0.11│26│per ct.│
│To stations between 500 and │ │ │ │ │ │
│ 1,000 miles │ 1.43│ 0.55│ 0.88│62│ „ │
│To stations between 1,000 and │ │ │ │ │ │
│ 1,500 miles │ 2.41│ 0.81│ 1.60│67│ „ │
│To stations between 1,500 and │ │ │ │ │ │
│ 2,000 miles │ 3.41│ 1.47│ 1.94│56│ „ │
├──────────────────────────────┼───────┼────────┼──────────┼──┼───────┤
│Averages │ $1.00│ $0.47│ $0.53│53│ „ │
└──────────────────────────────┴───────┴────────┴──────────┴──┴───────┘
MESSAGES DELIVERED WITHIN A MILE OF THE OFFICE FREE.
The rule was established coincident with the introduction of the
telegraph in the United States to deliver all messages in the town
within a mile of the receiving office free. Special and free delivery
should be the rule as far as practicable. And yet it is impossible,
without rendering the telegraph of no avail in important emergencies, to
establish free delivery everywhere. A message from an Eastern city to a
Western village announcing peril, disaster, or death is addressed to a
person two or three miles from the telegraph station. The charge for
transmitting this message is, say, fifty cents. Two modes of delivery
are presented,—one to drop it in the post-office, where it may lie until
the next day; the other, to hire a conveyance, and send a special
messenger with it to the person addressed. The cost of this special
service will vary from one dollar to two dollars. Our practice is to
deliver by special messenger, and charge therefor the actual cost of the
service.
EUROPEAN CHARGES FOR DELIVERING TELEGRAMS.
A similar custom prevails in Europe, as will appear from the following
extracts from the rules and regulations applicable to stations in the
Austro-Germanic Telegraph Union, which comprises Austria, Prussia,
Hanover, Holland, Saxony, Wurtemburg, the German Duchies, also France
and the whole South of Europe:
CHARGES FOR POSTAGE, FOOT MESSENGER, AND ESTAFETTE.
The instruction for forwarding despatches beyond Telegraph lines must be
inserted in messages immediately after receiver’s address and charged
for; messages with no instructions will be sent on from Terminal
Telegraph Station by post.
_The sender is responsible for an insufficient address, and can only
rectify the same by sending and paying for a new despatch._
By Post (as Registered Letter) to all places in Europe, 0_s._ 10_d._
By Post (as Registered Letter) to all other places, 2_s._ 0_d._
Messages addressed to “Poste Restante” are subjected to the above
charges for postage.
By Express (Foot Messenger) within seven English miles, 2_s._ 6_d._
By Estafette (Mounted Messenger) a charge must be made at the rate of
2_s._ 6_d._ per three English miles for countries comprised in the
Austro-Germanic Union, but for other towns the charge is 1_s._ 6_d._ per
English mile. If, however, the distance is unknown, a sufficient deposit
must be taken.
All charges to be prepaid by sender.
TELEGRAMS TO BE PLACED IN THE STREET BOXES.
Mr. Hubbard’s proposition to put telegrams into street-boxes is simply
absurd. Telegrams are always of an important nature, and need despatch.
Imagine a message announcing sickness, death, or any other circumstance,
being dropped in the street box, to be taken out when the carrier
happens round! As for post-offices, how many are there in any of the
large cities even? Few have more than one, and this is closed when a
mail arrives,—a circumstance that seems to have rendered the closed
condition the normal one with many post-offices.
To give an idea of the extent of present facilities in the principal
cities, the following statement, showing the number of telegraph offices
now open, is submitted:—
New York, 100 offices.
Philadelphia, 35 „
Baltimore, 19 „
Washington, 16 „
Boston, 24 „
Chicago, 22 „
Cincinnati, 21 „
PRIVILEGED PERSONS TO HAVE PRIORITY IN THE USE OF THE WIRES.
Mr. Hubbard’s plan of allowing “messages requiring immediate despatch to
have priority of transmission on payment of extra rates,” would abolish
the rule which has always been observed since the establishment of the
telegraph in this country, “first come first served,” and give
privileged persons the priority in the use of the wires. What an
excellent opportunity this would afford speculative combinations (like
that which locked up twenty millions of currency in Wall Street a short
time ago) to extend their operations all over the country, by
practically controlling the telegraph?
This plan would not answer at all. No system of variation of rate is
feasible, consistently with public policy, but that which offers a lower
rate for business which will consent to be delayed until another day.
In regard to the establishment of a money-order system by telegraph, we
would say that we have long done something in the way of transmitting
deposits and money orders by telegraph. We have made no effort to bring
it prominently before the public, with a view to extending this
department of our business, for the reason that as an established system
it would be comparatively easy for rogues to abuse it. It is only
resorted to in cases of great emergency, where money orders by post
cannot be delivered in time to meet the necessities of the case. It is
also confined mainly to the transmission of small sums. It involves
necessarily the sending of two messages. Large amounts required in
commercial transactions are daily transmitted or exchanged in this
manner by the regular banking houses in all the principal cities.
PROPOSITION TO OPERATE TELEGRAPHS AT A LOSS, AND MAKE MONEY BY IT.
Mr. Hubbard proposes, by his new plan, to send telegrams at an average
reduction of 53 per cent from the present charges, which we have shown
to be 25 per cent less than the European rates. Now, the total receipts
of the Western Union Telegraph Company for the year ending June 30,
1867, were $6,568,925, and a reduction of 53 per cent would leave
$3,087,405.
The working expenses for the year were $3,944,005
Receipts with Mr. Hubbard’s proposed tariff, 3,087,405
—————————
Loss for the year $856,600
Mr. Hubbard acknowledges that neither the government nor any company can
transmit messages at the above rates without loss, but claims that “a
company with well-constructed lines, _built for cash_, can transmit
messages at these rates, in connection with the post-office, and realize
a large profit.” Precisely how this is to be done, or what the lines
“built for cash” have got to do about it, does not appear. Mr. Hubbard
says in his pamphlet that “the largest part of the lines of the Western
Union Company were constructed before the rise in prices, and on a gold
basis.” Now, if he means that lines built on a paper basis can be worked
cheaper than those constructed on a gold one, we would be glad to hear
his reasons for so singular a notion.
SPECULATIVE TELEGRAPH SCHEMES.
We consider it our duty to say a word concerning the swarm of
adventurers who are canvassing the country for subscriptions to utterly
worthless telegraph stock, and who are besieging the halls of Congress
every year for some recognition or advantage which shall enable them the
more readily to impose upon the public.
The National Telegraph Company is an example in point. This concern,
which claims to have organized two years ago under an act of Congress,
and which has filled the country with runners begging for subscriptions
to its stock, has never set a pole.
The losses which have occurred in the operation of competing lines are
enormous. The country is full of people who have lost money in these
schemes, which, after a brief existence, are wound up and their effects
disposed of by the sheriff.
The present condition of all the opposition lines is very precarious.
The Franklin Company was made by a consolidation of the Insulated
Company, having four wires between Boston and Washington, and the old
Franklin Company, having two wires between Boston and New York. The
capital of the former was $1,250,000, and of the latter $500,000. The
new organization has been in operation about two years, during which
time its receipts have fallen so far below its expenses that it has
contracted a debt of $125,000; and its lines have deteriorated to such
an extent that a large sum would have to be expended to put them in
proper condition for business. The stock of such companies is valueless
as an investment, and, in respect to some of them, it is doubtful if
their property could be sold for a sum sufficient to pay their
indebtedness.
The Atlantic and Pacific Company has a line from New York to Chicago,
_via_ Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Sandusky, averaging about two
wires for each line. Its lines are built under a contract to take stock
in payment, at the rate of $1,666.66 per mile for a line of two wires.
The operation of these separate and irresponsible lines, during the
brief period of their existence, retards the progress of legitimate
telegraphy, and impairs the general unity of the system. Any legislation
of Congress which is made to further such schemes has the direct effect
of aiding a class of speculators to fleece a credulous public, by
inducing them to invest their money in the construction of lines which
never have paid, and never can pay, the expenses of operating them, and
which are of no benefit to any persons but those who originate them, and
profit by their construction.
MORE STARTLING INVENTIONS FOR RAPID TELEGRAPHING.
We quote from Mr. Hubbard:—
“Instruments have been recently invented, and are in operation,
either in England or in this country, by which two great hindrances
to the efficiency of the telegraph are remedied. Mr. Stearns,
president of the Franklin Telegraph Company, has invented an
instrument by which messages are transmitted both ways at the same
time, on the same wire, thus doubling its capacity without any
increase of expense. Sir Charles Wheatstone, in England, has
invented an instrument by which double the number of words can be
transmitted and received on the same wire, at an increased expense
in the preparation of the message for transmission. Instruments are
also in operation in Great Britain, worked by boys, after
instruction of one or two days.”
In regard to Mr. Stearns’s apparatus for working both ways over one wire
at the same time, we are compelled to say there is nothing new in the
idea. Doctor Gintl, of Germany, invented it many years ago, and it was
published in an Italian work,[20] with steel-plate illustration, issued
in 1861, translated into English by George B. Prescott, of Albany, and
published in the Telegraphic Journal, London, May, 1864. Moses G.
Farmer, Esq., of Boston, invented another apparatus for doing the same
thing, and worked it between Boston and Portland, in 1849. If there is
any practical value in this apparatus it is open—like the Morse
Telegraph—to the use of all. Sir Charles Wheatstone’s apparatus, by
which double the number of words can be received on the same wire, will
probably prove of the same practical value as many similar inventions,
which in theory can transmit intelligence with the greatest accuracy at
the astonishing rate of five or ten thousand words an hour, but in
practice have never proved of the slightest value.
Footnote 20:
Manuale di Telegrafia Elettrica, di Carlo Matteucci, Torino, 1861.
It is suggestive, that, of more than a hundred inventions designed to
supersede the Morse telegraph, the latter instrument is used to-day on
more than 490,000 miles of wire out of the total of 500,000 in operation
in all parts of the world. Mr. Hubbard’s assertion, “that instruments
are in operation in Great Britain, worked by boys, after instruction of
one or two days,” may be true. From all accounts, the use of boys—and
charity boys at that—has been the great curse of telegraphy in England,
until the saying has become common there, when describing a remarkably
poor specimen of chirography, that “it is written as badly as a
telegraph despatch.” We hope the day is far distant when our messages
shall be transmitted by boys with one or two days’ instruction.
We hardly need say that it is for our interest to adopt every
improvement whereby the despatch of business within a given time can be
materially increased. It is certainly cheaper for us to provide new
instruments, at almost any cost which will ever be charged therefor,
than to put up, keep in repair, and operate additional wires to produce
the same results.
ERRONEOUS TABLE OF EUROPEAN STATISTICS.
We reproduce Mr. Hubbard’s statistical table for the purpose of pointing
out some very serious errors contained in it.
In U. S. Gold. In U. S.
Gold.[21]
The Austrian florin is rated by Mr. Hubbard at $0.41 True value $0.48
Franc is rated by Mr. Hubbard at .2 True value .19
£ Sterling is rated by Mr. Hubbard at 4.84 True value 4.86
Lira is rated by Mr. Hubbard at .18–6⁄10 True value .19
Dollar of Norway is rated by Mr. Hubbard at .53 True value 1.09
Rouble is rated by Mr. Hubbard at .21–3⁄7 True value .77½
Dollar of Spain is rated by Mr. Hubbard at 1.00 True value 1.04½
Footnote 21:
We are indebted for the estimation of the value of these foreign coins
in United States gold to E. B. Elliott, Esq., of Washington, D. C.,
who has recently prepared a valuable work on the subject.
These errors, in reducing foreign money into United States gold currency
caused the following discrepancies in gross receipts for the year:—
Value in United States Gold, True Value in Difference.
according to Table. United States Gold
Austria, $674,344 $789,476.16 $115,132.16
England, 2,481,500 2,491,756.02 10,256.02
Italy, 766,750 782,859.09 16,109.09
Norway, 182,131 374,573.15 192,442.15
Russia, 372,309 1,451,310.72 1,079,001.72
Spain, 554,475 576,654.00 22,179.00
—————————————
Discrepancy, $1,435,120.14
France, 1,541,518 1,464,442.10 77,075.90
Belgium, 194,442 182,611.28 11,830.72
Bavaria, 136,894 132,383.26 4,510.74
—————————————
Discrepancy, $93,417.36
Thus we find that in reproducing from their various currencies the gross
telegraphic receipts of six nations into United States gold, Mr. Hubbard
makes the amount $1,435,120.14 less than it should be, and in reducing
those of three other countries into our coin he makes the amount
$93,417.36 more than it should be.
He has also failed to give the receipts of the three great Submarine
Telegraph Companies, which transact so important an amount of
continental telegraph business.
Mr. Hubbard gives the number of stations in Switzerland at 333, while
the best English authority[22] gives it at 252. He also gives the number
of messages transmitted in England, in 1866, as 6,127,000, while Mr.
Scudamore, in his reply to the statement of the Electric and
International Telegraph Company, published in May, 1868,[23] points out
the fact that only 5,781,189 messages were transmitted throughout Great
Britain and Ireland during that year.
Footnote 22:
Government and the Telegraphs. London, 1868.
Footnote 23:
Return to an order of the Honorable the House of Commons for copy of
further correspondence between the Treasury and the Postmaster-General
relating to the Electric Telegraphs Bill.
It will be observed that Mr. Hubbard has “estimated”—that is, guessed
at—the number of and receipts for telegrams in the Netherlands, Denmark,
Sweden, Turkey, and Greece. He estimates the average cost per message to
be 42 cents; but as we happen to know that the average cost in Denmark
was more than twice this amount, we are not willing to accept any of his
estimates.
ERRONEOUS TABLE OF EUROPEAN STATISTICS.
From Mr. Hubbard’s pamphlet:—
_Statistics of the Telegraph in Europe for the Year 1866._
┌───────────┬────────┬──────┬──────────────┬──────────┐
│ NAME OF │ Number │Miles │ │Number of │
│ COUNTRY. │ of │ of │Rates in 1866.│Messages. │
│ │Stations│Wire. │ │ │
├───────────┼────────┼──────┼──────────────┼──────────┤
│England │ 2,151│80,466│1 shilling. │ 6,127,000│
│France │ 1,209│68,687│½ and 1 franc.│ 2,842,554│
│Austria │ 851│73,854│ │ 2,507,472│
│Prussia │ 538│55,149│ │ 1,964,003│
│Belgium │ 356│ 6,146│½ franc. │ 1,128,005│
│Switzerland│ 333│ 3,717│½ franc. │ 668,916│
│Bavaria │ │ 4,945│ │ │
│Norway │ 73│ 2,710│ │ 269,375│
│Russia │ 308│37,330│ │ 838,653│
│Italy │ 529│22,214│ │ 1,760,889│
│Spain │ │ │ │ 533,376│
├───────────┼────────┼──────┼──────────────┼──────────┤
│Netherlands│ │ │ │ │
│Denmark │ │ │ │ │
│Sweden │ │ │ │ 1,500,000│
│Turkey │ │ │ │ │
│Greece │ │ │ │ │
├───────────┼────────┼──────┼──────────────┼──────────┤
│Total │ │ │ │18,640,243│
│Messages │ │ │ │ │
├───────────┴────────┴──────┴──────────────┴──────────┤
│Average rate per message in Europe $0.42│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌───────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ NAME OF │ │
│ COUNTRY. │ RECEIPTS. │
│ │ │
├───────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│England │£ sterling 521,707 × $4.84 = $2,481,500.00│
│France │Francs 7,707,590 × 0.20 = 1,541.518.00│
│Austria │Florins 1,644,742 × 0.41 = 674,344.00│
│Prussia │Thalers 1,275,785 × 0.72 = 918,565.00│
│Belgium │Francs 961,112 × 0.20 = 194,442.00│
│Switzerland│Francs 684,471 × 0.20 = 136,894.00│
│Bavaria │Florins 322,876 × 0.41 = 132,383.00│
│Norway │Rix Dolls. 343,645 × 0.53 = 182,131.00│
│Russia │Roubles 1,872,659 × 0.21–3⁄7 = 372,309.00│
│Italy │Lira 4,120,311 × 0.18–6⁄10 = 766,750.00│
│Spain │Dollars 554,475 × 1.00 = 554,475.00│
├───────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│Netherlands│ │
│Denmark │ │
│Sweden │ × 0.42 = 630,000.00│
│Turkey │ │
│Greece │ │
├───────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│Total │ Total receipts $8,585,311.00│
│Messages │ │
├───────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│Average rate per message in Europe $0.42│
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
EUROPEAN TELEGRAMS COUNTED SEVERAL TIMES.
An examination of Mr. Hubbard’s statement of the number of messages sent
in Europe, in 1866, will reveal the fact that he has included inland,
international, and transit messages to make up the grand total. In this
way he has counted the same message several times. For instance,
messages sent from England to France, or any two contiguous countries,
would be counted in each. Messages between France and Germany would be
counted in France and Germany as international messages, and in Belgium
and perhaps some other country as transit. The same would be the case
between all European countries whose territories do not border on each
other. A message going from France to Russia, or from England to Turkey,
might be counted a dozen times.
In the United States each message is counted but once, although it may
traverse thousands of miles in reaching its place of destination.
We have not the statistics to show what proportion the legitimate number
of messages sent bears to this fictitious number; but by referring to
the Belgian table it will be seen that 692,536 inland and 306,596
international messages were sent in 1866, in a total of 1,128,005.
Taking this as a fair average for the whole of Europe, we shall find
that only 14,012,795 messages were sent in 1866, at an expense, in
United States currency, of $15,286,911.61, or about $1.09 each.
LABOR THE PRINCIPAL ELEMENT OF EXPENSE IN OPERATING TELEGRAPHS.
The principal element of expense in our business is the cost of
labor.[24] If we can do our work as cheaply as another party, it is
clear that rates can never be reduced below the point at which receipts
and expenses are equal. Any material increase of business, no matter
what the rates may be, must be attended with increased expense. And when
the capacity of the wires provided for a particular service is
exhausted, a new question is presented by the necessity for providing
additional facilities. By the extension of our lines this year west of
Chicago, and by the moderate increase in the volume of our business in
that section of the country, it will probably become necessary during
next year to provide two additional wires between Chicago and the
Atlantic coast. The cost of these wires, if erected on poles now
standing, will be about $120,000. We shall also be obliged to put up an
additional wire between Washington and New Orleans, and between the
latter place and Louisville. The cost of maintaining the lines will be
somewhat increased by the addition of these wires, and the cost of
operating at each end, and looking after them at intermediate points,
must also be included. How is the additional capital necessary to
provide such increased facilities to be raised? By reducing rates, the
result of which is, that, even if gross receipts are not diminished, the
expenses are increased? Is it not by gradually increasing lines out of
current profits, and as gradually reducing rates after facilities for an
enlarged business have been provided?
Footnote 24:
The Western Union Telegraph Company expended $2,573,434.80 for labor
for the year ending June 30, 1867. See comparison of cost of labor in
Europe and the United States on page 26.
PREVAILING ERROR OF ALL THEORIZERS ON THE BUSINESS OF TELEGRAPHING.
All theorizers upon the subject of the telegraph fall into the error
that the amount of business which may be done at any point (the rates
being low enough) is in the ratio of population. An investigation of the
subject will show this to be entirely erroneous. Three years ago, when
the subject of telegraphic communication between the Eastern and Western
continents was discussed by those most intimately connected with the
enterprise, no one estimated the number of messages which would pass
between the two continents, daily, at a rate of $50 gold for ten words,
below 500. But few placed the figures so low. Most of them estimated the
number at two or three times this minimum.
In 1863 Mr. Cyrus W. Field made the following remarks before the Chamber
of Commerce of New York, in relation to the probable amount of business
that would be done between Europe and America when communication by
telegraph should be established: “To express my own opinion, from pretty
large experience on the subject, I do not believe that _ten_ cables
would begin to do the work which would, in a short time, be given to
it.”
At the banquet given in London, in 1864, to inaugurate the renewed
attempt by the Atlantic Telegraph Company to unite Europe and America by
means of the Atlantic cable, Mr. Cromwell F. Varley made the following
remarks touching the amount of business that would be offered for
transmission over the cable: “I feel great confidence that, when once a
cable is successfully laid across the Atlantic, the demands upon it will
be so great that you will have to lay one or two per annum for the next
twenty years, or even more.”
Their disappointment was, therefore, very great when, after the Atlantic
Cable was in operation, it was found that the daily average at the $100
tariff was but 29 messages, and at the $50 tariff, which was in
operation thirteen months, it was but 64. At the $25 rate the average
advanced to 131; and although the rate has been still further reduced to
$16.85, the average is but 201. This illustration is sufficient to prove
the fallacy of all reasoning concerning telegraph business based merely
upon population. We venture the prediction that, at the rate of $5
between Europe and America, the number of messages which would pass per
day would never equal the number exchanged daily between New York on one
hand, and Philadelphia and Boston on the other. The reason is simply
this: The number of messages which will pass within a given time between
two points depends, first, upon a reasonable charge for transmission,—a
charge conveniently within the means of those having occasion to
communicate; and secondly and mainly, upon the number of people at
either extreme having intimate business relations with those at the
other. The vast commerce of the Old World and the New is not exchanged
in detail, but in bulk. A few banking houses on each side make all the
exchanges for both continents, and the agricultural products and the
manufactures of both are also exchanged in substantially the same
manner.
We have shown how fallacious is the claim that the increase of business
is dependent upon the tariff, by the statistics of our own and foreign
countries, by which it appears that business has sometimes largely
increased at an advanced rate. We do not desire to be understood,
however, as saying that low tariffs, under similar circumstances, will
not bring more business than high ones. But we do say that it is
susceptible of proof, that the minimum rate is undoubtedly much higher
than most of those who theorize upon this subject are willing to
believe. Take the case of the Atlantic Cable as an illustration. During
the three months at which the tariff was $100, and the daily average of
messages 29, the receipts per day were £505. During the thirteen months,
at the average of 64 messages daily, the receipts were £579. During the
nine months, at the average of 131 messages per day, the receipts were
£635. And for the two months since the rates were reduced to $16, the
daily average has been 201 messages, and the average receipts £596.
Now it happens, fortunately for the Cable Company, that the present
volume of business is considerably less than the capacity of their
cables; so that the increase of that business has been attended with but
a very slight additional expense, the cost to operate being the same at
offices open day and night, whether operators are occupied all or only a
part of the time. But suppose, for illustration, that the limit of the
capacities of the cables will be reached when the average number of
messages per day is 250. To undertake to transmit any number beyond this
without further facilities would result in crowding and confusing the
business to an extent which would inevitably produce dissatisfaction. On
the other hand, to provide an additional cable would cost a sum of money
which it might be exceedingly difficult to raise. It seems proper,
therefore, that the profits from this business should always be
considerably more than enough to yield a proper return for the capital
invested, so that greater facilities may be provided out of surplus
profits; and, as facilities are increased, rates may be gradually
reduced, until, by judiciously pursuing this course, the charges for
telegraphing may be materially diminished, without endangering the
revenues to which owners of telegraph property are justly entitled.
_Statistics of Traffic through the Atlantic Cables from July 28, 1866,
to November 1, 1868._
┌────────┬─────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┬───────┐
│ Number │ Daily │ │Average│
│ of │ Average │GROSS AMOUNT of RECEIPTS accruing to the │Amount │
│Messages│ No. of │TWO ATLANTIC CABLES, between Valentia and│ per │
│ per │Messages.│ Heart’s Content. │ Day. │
│ Month. │ │ │ │
├────────┼─────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 1,104 }│ 29 │From July 28th 1866, under [25]£500 }│ £505│
│ │ │to 31st Aug., £20 Tariff │ │
│ 837 }│ │From Sept. 1st 1866, under 456 }│ │
│ │ │to 30th £20 Tariff │ │
│ 831 }│ │From Oct. 1st 1866, under 491 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £20 Tariff │ │
├────────┼─────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 1,530 }│ 64 │From Nov. 1st 1866, under [26]502 }│ £579│
│ │ │to 30th £10 Tariff │ │
│ 1,582 }│ │From Dec. 1st 1866, under 493 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £10 Tariff │ │
│ 1,686 }│ │From Jan. 1st 1867, under 466 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £10 Tariff │ │
│ 1,764 }│ │From Feb. 1st 1867, under 549 }│ │
│ │ │to 28th £10 Tariff │ │
│ 2,147 }│ │From March 1st 1867, under 666 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £10 Tariff │ │
│ 2,624 }│ │From April 1st 1867, under 722 }│ │
│ │ │to 30th £10 Tariff │ │
│ 2,262 }│ │From May 1st 1867, under 705 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £10 Tariff │ │
│ 1,843 }│ │From June 1st 1867, under 597 }│ │
│ │ │to 30th £10 Tariff │ │
│ 1,432 }│ │From July 1st 1867, under 542 }│ │
│ │ │to 27th £10 Tariff │ │
│ 1,693 }│ │From July 18th 1867, under 401 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st Aug., £10 Tariff │ │
│ 1,860 }│ │From Sept. 1st 1867, under 515 }│ │
│ │ │to 30th £10 Tariff │ │
│ 2,505 }│ │From Oct. 1st 1867, under [27]715 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £10 Tariff │ │
│ 2,292 }│ │From Nov. 1st 1867, under [27]661 }│ │
│ │ │to 30th £10 Tariff │ │
├────────┼─────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 3,901 }│ 131 │From Dec. 1st 1867, under [27]732 }│ £635│
│ │ │to 31st £5.5 Tariff │ │
│ 4,739 }│ │From Jan. 1st 1868, under [27]756 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £5.5 Tariff │ │
│ 5,128 }│ │From Feb. 1st 1868, under [27]860 }│ │
│ │ │to 29th £5.5 Tariff │ │
│ 4,507 }│ │From March 1st 1868, under [27]707 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £5.5 Tariff │ │
│ 4,320 }│ │From April 1st 1868, under [27]718 }│ │
│ │ │to 30th £5.5 Tariff │ │
│ 3,538 }│ │From May 1st 1868, under 550 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £5.5 Tariff │ │
│ 2,884 }│ │From June 1st 1868, under 447 }│ │
│ │ │to 30th £5.5 Tariff │ │
│ 3,217 }│ │From July 1st 1868, under 490 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £5.5 Tariff │ │
│ 3,740 }│ │From Aug. 1st 1868, under 558 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £5.5 Tariff │ │
├────────┼─────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┼───────┤
│ 5,053 }│ 201 │From Sept. 1st 1868, under 501 }│ £596│
│ │ │to 30th £3.7.6. Tariff │ │
│ 6,341 }│ │From Oct. 1st 1868, under 615 }│ │
│ │ │to 31st £3.7.6. Tariff │ │
│ 6,877 }│ │From Nov. 1st 1868, under 670 }│ │
│ │ │to 30th £3.7.6. Tariff │ │
└────────┴─────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┴───────┘
Footnote 25:
During this month over £100 per day were paid by the New York Herald
for news reports, and many persons sent messages as a novelty.
Footnote 26:
During this month the despatches sent by the United States government
averaged over £100 per day.
Footnote 27:
During these months there was extraordinary excitement in cotton.
A single wire between New York and Plaister Cove, Cape Breton, the
eastern terminus of the Western Union Telegraph Company’s lines, not
only promptly transmits all the telegraphic business that is done
between Europe and America, but every message is telegraphed back for
comparison with the original, to insure correctness.
PROGRESS
OF THE
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN AMERICA AND EUROPE.
THE UNITED STATES.
The United States not only has the distinguished honor of being the
birthplace of the inventor of the universally-used electric telegraph,
but of having constructed the first line of practical telegraph, and of
being the foremost nation in the world, at the present time, in the
number of her telegraph stations, extent of her lines and wires,
cheapness of her rates, and amount of business done.
The United States contains 4,126 telegraph offices; 62,782 miles of
line; 125,564 miles of wire; and transmits annually 12,904,777
telegrams.
She has nearly as many telegraph stations as, and sends a greater number
of telegrams annually than, all Continental Europe, and contains as many
miles of line as Belgium, Bavaria, France, Great Britain and Ireland,
Italy, Russia, Switzerland, and Spain combined.
PROPORTION OF TELEGRAMS TO LETTERS.
The proportion of telegrams to letters in the United States is difficult
of determination, from the fact that our Post-Office Department
furnishes no statistics of the number of letters sent through the mails,
and has no means of ascertaining the number approximately, except by the
number of stamps sold annually. This mode of estimation is very
defective, because the stamps sold may not have been used, or if used,
may have covered the postage on books, parcels, and other matter. The
Postmaster-General states, in his report for 1867, that there were
283,762,300 three-cent stamps sold during the preceding year. Supposing
each of these stamps to represent a letter, we have the following
comparative result of the number of telegrams to letters in the various
countries where the telegraph is most extensively used:—
Proportion of telegrams to letters in the United Kingdom, 1 to 121
Proportion of telegrams to letters in Switzerland, 1 to 69
Proportion of telegrams to letters in Belgium, 1 to 37
Proportion of telegrams to letters in United States, 1 to 22
EARLY HISTORY OF THE TELEGRAPH IN AMERICA.
During the first few years after the introduction of the electric
telegraph its progress was very slow. Capitalists were afraid to invest
in an undertaking so novel and precarious, and as a natural consequence
there was great difficulty in raising funds for properly building the
lines, and they were constructed in a very unreliable manner, breaks and
interruptions being rather the normal condition of the wires than the
exception.
At a very early period in the history of the electric telegraph in the
United States, a misunderstanding occurred between the Morse patentees
and a contractor under them, the result of which was that rival lines
were constructed throughout the country before the system had been
sufficiently developed to be remunerative, even without such
competition.
The invention of the letter-printing telegraph by Mr. House, in 1846,
and the introduction of the electro-chemical telegraph of Mr. Bain into
this country, in 1849, greatly facilitated the construction of competing
lines.
The first line operating under the House patent was completed in March,
1849, from Philadelphia to New York City. The Boston and New York
Telegraph Company, using the same patent, was completed in the autumn of
the same year, and was followed by one from New York to Buffalo, and
subsequently to St. Louis and Chicago.
During the year 1849, which was very prolific in the production of
competing lines, the Bain patent was introduced upon lines extending
between New York and Buffalo, and New York and Washington, and, in the
succeeding year, upon lines extending between Boston and Montreal, and
Boston and Portland.
In 1851 there were seven Bain lines in operation in the United States,
having over 2,000 miles of wire; eight House lines, having about 300
miles of wire; and sixty-seven Morse lines, having 20,000 miles of wire.
In the autumn of this year, the Morse and Bain lines between New York
and Washington were consolidated; and in the succeeding spring the Morse
and Bain lines between New York and Boston were united under one
company. The union of these lines was followed by that of the New York
and Buffalo Morse and Bain lines, and subsequently by those of the House
lines between these points.
EVILS ARISING FROM SEPARATE ORGANIZATIONS.
The consolidation of these lines was a step in the right direction, as
it increased the receipts and lessened the expenses of the companies,
while it enabled them to do the business better, by possessing greater
facilities. Still, the great number of separate organizations remaining
throughout the country prevented that unity and despatch in the conduct
of the business so essential to its success. Under these circumstances,
the public failed to realize the brilliant thought of instant
communication between distant points.
A Boston house, doing business with Chicago, was obliged to be content
with responses received on the second or third day. On Boston despatches
for Chicago four tariffs were charged; and a message had to be copied
off and handed over to other companies for transmission at New York,
Buffalo, and Detroit, before it reached its destination.
All this process required time, and yet the loss of time was the least
of the evils connected with such a state of things. The message, as it
left the writer’s hands in Boston, was not unfrequently a very different
document when it reached the Western parties, owing to errors caused by
its numerous retransmissions, and thus the necessity became urgent to
unite these separate companies into one living, vigorous organization,
by which not only repetition and error might be avoided, but the
messages followed to their destination under a single direction, and
undivided responsibility.
THE UNIFICATION OF THE TELEGRAPH ACCOMPLISHED.
It was at this period, when segregated lines were feeling their
weakness, and their revenues were unequal to even a current vigorous
support, that a few clear-sighted men in the West conceived the project
of buying up the groups of feeble organizations, and making them direct
leaders between the large Western cities. The stock was comparatively
valueless, and easily and cheaply bought. The needs of commercial
intercourse were pressing. The project had in it the true elements of
success, and it was accomplished.
For seven years thereafter the purchasers went on improving the lines
thus acquired, and rendering their connections more certain. During all
these years no dividends were paid. Time and money and all the earnings
of the line were devoted to that series of combinations which, from a
mass of weak and perishing organizations, culminated in the Western
Union Telegraph Company.
This combination of lines saved the system from disgrace, and made it
available to commerce and to public wants. No increase of rates followed
any of these movements; and none would ever have been made, had not war
come to change values, and rendered it necessary.
At the East, the American Telegraph Company, organized in 1855, followed
a similar course, and ultimately controlled lines extending throughout
the Atlantic seaboard and Mississippi Valley. These two companies,
working in connection and harmony, covered the entire area of the United
States, and performed the business of telegraphing better than it had
ever been done before.
In 1863 the United States Telegraph Company was organized, and
constructed lines in the territories occupied by both the Western Union
and American companies; but in 1865, with 16,000 miles of wire,—all
newly built,—worked to their full capacity during the year they were
unable to meet their current expenses; but under the most vigorous
administration, with its expenses reduced within the closest limits,
found that it was conducting its business at an average net loss of
nearly $10,000 per month.
In the spring of 1866 the Western Union, American, and United States
Telegraph Companies were consolidated, thus producing a complete
unification of the great telegraphic system of the United States, and
rendering it the most complete and extensive in the world. This
consolidation, however, gave the Western Union Telegraph Company no
monopoly of the business. The Morse patent having expired, and no
exclusive privileges being granted by either State or national
governments, the construction and operation of telegraph lines within
the jurisdiction of the United States remained freely open to all.
TELEGRAPH COMPANIES IN THE UNITED STATES.
The following list of some of the more important telegraph companies now
doing business in the United States will convey an idea of the
importance of this interest: Bankers and Brokers’ Telegraph Company,
capital $1,050,000, lines extending from New York to Washington; Pacific
and Atlantic Telegraph Company, capital $3,000,000, lines completed from
Philadelphia to Pittsburg and Cincinnati, and extending; Franklin
Telegraph Company, capital $1,000,000, lines extending from Boston to
Washington; International Telegraph Company, capital $300,000, lines
completed from Boston to Bangor, Me., and will be extended farther east;
Keystone Telegraph Company, lines extending from Philadelphia to
Harrisburg and Pittsburg; International Ocean Telegraph Company, lines
extending from Lake City to Key West and Havana; Northern Telegraph
Company, capital $100,000, lines completed from Boston to Bristol, N.
H., and extending; Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, capital
$5,000,000, lines completed from New York to Chicago and extending;
Great Western Telegraph Company, line completed between Chicago and
Milwaukee; Northwestern Telegraph Company, capital $1,150,000, lines
extending from Milwaukee through Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, and
Minnesota; Mississippi Valley Telegraph Company, lines extending between
St. Paul, Minn., and St. Louis, and from Dubuque to Chicago; Western
Union Telegraph Company, capital $40,347,700, lines extending from the
Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, and from the Atlantic to
the Pacific ocean. There are in addition to this list quite a large
number of companies, covering more or less territory, which, with all of
the above mentioned, are independent organizations, and nearly all of
them engaged in competition with each other.
Private enterprise has with us, so far, achieved much greater results
than governmental management in Europe. As regards the tariff for
messages, they are less than the rates established in Europe.
Considerable reductions have been made within the past year, amounting,
in some cases, to as much as 50 per cent. The reductions have taken
place to the greatest extent in those sections of the country where
there are opposition lines, the rates over some of these routes being
less than the expense of doing the business, but the reductions are not
confined to these sections.
The Western Union Telegraph Company has reduced its rates between
upwards of one thousand offices where there is no opposition; and it is
now preparing a new tariff of rates, based upon airline distances,
between all stations, irrespective of the circuitous routes that the
lines take to reach them, which will still farther simplify and cheapen
the system.
It is the purpose of this company to do the telegraphing of the United
States as well, and at as low rates, as it can be done by any
organization which can be formed, and thus maintain its possession of
the first and most extensive system of telegraphy in the world.
DOMINION OF CANADA.
In the Dominion of Canada as in the United States, the telegraph is free
and untrammelled by governmental interference, and, next to the United
States, is the best in the world.
STATISTICS OF THE TELEGRAPH IN THE DOMINION OF
CANADA.
Number of miles of pole line, 6,746 miles.
Number of miles of wire strung, 8,935 miles.
Number of offices, 382 miles.
Number of messages (in 1867), 573,219 miles.
Gross receipts from all sources, $258,000
Gross expenses, 180,000
Of which, accruing for labor, 105,000
AUSTRIA.
The telegraph is under the control and management of the State.
At the end of 1866 the system comprised 851 stations, with an extent of
73,854 geographical miles of wire.
The total number of persons employed by the telegraphic department is
1,884.
TABLE C.
_Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Austria._
┌───────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ │ Number of │Gross Receipts in│Average Cost per │
│ DATE. │ Messages. │ Florins. │ Message in │
│ │ │ │ Florins. │
├───────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ 1851│ 44,911│ 128,736│ 2.86│
│ 1852│ 62,716│ 209,547│ 3.34│
│ 1853│ 109,347│ 308,159│ 2.81│
│ 1854│ 190,522│ 549,697│ 2.88│
│ 1855│ 204,221│ 607,745│ 2.97│
│ 1856│ 251,948│ 778,294│ 3.08│
│ 1857│ 381,720│ 888,905│ 2.32│
│ 1858│ 419,449│ 760,811│ 1.81│
│ 1859│ 692,379│ 951,240│ 1.37│
│ 1860│ 700,795│ 991,275│ 1.41│
│ 1861│ 846,953│ 1,226,404│ 1.44│
│ 1862│ 946,675│ 1,267,966│ 1.33│
│ 1863│ 1,130,625│ 1,290,447│ 1.14│
│ 1864│ 1,610,663│ 1,322,948│ 0.82│
│ 1865│ 1,786,955│ 1,435,478│ 0.80│
│ 1866│ 2,507,472│ 1,644,742│ 0.65│
└───────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┘
Austria transmitted 44,911 messages in 1851, and 381,720 in 1857, being
an increase of over 800 per cent without any average reduction in rates.
The increase in the number of messages from 1857 to 1866 was less than
700 per cent, notwithstanding the great reduction in the rates from 2.32
to 0.65 florins.
BELGIUM.
The statistics respecting the working of the telegraph in Belgium are
used by Mr. Washburne primarily to prove the superior advantages and
excellence of the Belgian telegraphic system and arrangement, but
chiefly to show that a cheapened rate has increased its use, and that to
secure that result in this country the telegraph must be placed under
governmental control.
Scarcely any two nations could be named whose conditions are more
unlike.
The area of Belgium is about one fourth that of the State of New York,
with nearly the same population. Its greatest length is 175 miles, its
width 105.
The three chief cities of Belgium are not more than thirty miles apart,
while those of secondary rank are equally contiguous. All the railroads
in the kingdom belong to the government, and a large proportion of the
telegraph offices are at the railway stations, the post-offices being
merely offices of deposit, from which messages are despatched free of
charge to the nearest telegraph office, if in the same district;
otherwise by special messenger, on the payment of an extra fee.
As the government of the United States owns no railroads, they could not
use the stations for offices, except by special arrangements, which can
as readily be effected by private companies.
TABLE D.
_Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Belgium._
┌───────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ │ Number of │Gross Receipts in│Average Cost per │
│ DATE. │ Messages. │ Francs. │ Message in │
│ │ │ │ Francs. │
├───────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ 1851│ 14,025│ 88,674│ 6.32│
│ 1852│ 27,217│ 165,973│ 6.07│
│ 1853│ 52,050│ 265,536│ 5.10│
│ 1854│ 60,415│ 280,845│ 4.65│
│ 1855│ 61,443│ 265,939│ 4.33│
│ 1856│ 99,273│ 359,579│ 3.62│
│ 1857│ 119,050│ 407,011│ 3.42│
│ 1858│ 145,726│ 413,926│ 2.83│
│ 1859│ 196,240│ 506,006│ 2.57│
│ 1860│ 225,819│ 527,743│ 2.34│
│ 1861│ 268,968│ 588,532│ 2.19│
│ 1862│ 291,787│ 605,044│ 2.07│
│ 1863│ 416,113│ 612,313│ 1.47│
│ 1864│ 564,497│ 789,399│ 1.44│
│ 1865│ 674,034│ 865,640│ 1.28│
│ 1866│ 1,128,005│ 962,213│ 0.85│
│ 1867│ 1,293,770│ 1,074,214│ 0.85│
└───────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┘
TABLE E.
_Statement showing the Lengths of Lines, &c._
┌─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐
│ DATE. │ Lengths of │ Lengths of │ Number of │ Number of │
│ │ Lines. │ Wires. │ Stations. │Instruments. │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ │ Miles. │ Miles. │ │ │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ 1862│ 1,174│ 2,983│ 196│ 290│
│ 1863│ 1,644│ 3,875│ 252│ 365│
│ 1864│ 1,856│ 4,421│ 280│ 420│
│ 1865│ 2,000│ 5,400│ 307│ 460│
│ 1866│ 2,187│ 6,146│ 356│ 556│
│ 1867│ 2,232│ 7,161│ 374│ 574│
└─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┘
TABLE F.
_Statement showing the Number of Messages._
┌────────────┬─────────────┬──────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐
│ DATE. │ Inland. │International.│ Transit. │ Total. │
├────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ 1851│ 6,652│ 6,054│ 1,319│ 14,025│
│ 1852│ 9,807│ 10,103│ 7,307│ 27,217│
│ 1853│ 14,159│ 20,656│ 17,539│ 52,050│
│ 1854│ 16,719│ 29,492│ 14,204│ 60,415│
│ 1855│ 17,279│ 34,725│ 9,429│ 61,443│
│ 1856│ 32,862│ 45,375│ 21,036│ 99,273│
│ 1857│ 41,434│ 48,367│ 29,249│ 119,050│
│ 1858│ 47,673│ 58,094│ 39,959│ 145,726│
│ 1859│ 65,465│ 83,780│ 46,995│ 196,240│
│ 1860│ 80,216│ 95,499│ 50,404│ 225,819│
│ 1861│ 97,945│ 115,121│ 55,902│ 268,968│
│ 1862│ 105,274│ 129,935│ 56,578│ 291,787│
│ 1863│ 188,825│ 162,178│ 65,110│ 416,113│
│ 1864│ 252,301│ 197,547│ 96,649│ 546,497│
│ 1865│ 332,721│ 252,133│ 89,183│ 674,037│
│ 1866│ 692,536│ 306,596│ 128,873│ 1,128,005│
│ 1867│ 819,668│ 359,652│ 114,550│ 1,293,870│
└────────────┴─────────────┴──────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┘
TABLE G.
_Statement showing the Gross Receipts._
┌────────────┬─────────────┬──────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐
│ DATE. │ Inland. │International.│ Transit. │ Total. │
├────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ │ Francs. │ Francs. │ Francs. │ Francs. │
│ 1852│ │ │ │ 88,674│
│ 1853│ │ │ │ 265,536│
│ 1854│ │ │ │ 280,845│
│ 1855│ │ │ │ 265,939│
│ 1856│ │ │ │ 359,579│
│ 1857│ │ │ │ 407,011│
│ 1858│ │ │ │ 413,926│
│ 1859│ │ │ │ 506,006│
│ 1860│ 142,344│ 232,877│ 149,969│ 527,743│
│ 1861│ 171,225│ 237,748│ 158,558│ 588,532│
│ 1862│ 176,643│ 280,449│ 147,952│ 605,044│
│ 1863│ 211,063│ 277,266│ 124,033│ 612,368│
│ 1864│ 282,591│ 307,956│ 198,850│ 789,399│
│ 1865│ 345,289│ 340,103│ 180,247│ 865,640│
│ 1866│ 408,634│ 369,900│ 183,680│ 962,214│
│ 1867│ 480,887│ 444,245│ 149,082│ 1,074,214│
└────────────┴─────────────┴──────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┘
TABLE H.
_Statement showing the Receipts and Expenditure of Telegraphs._
┌────────────┬─────────────┬──────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐
│ DATE. │ Receipts. │Expenditures. │ Loss. │ Profits. │
├────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ │ Francs. │ Francs. │ Francs. │ Francs. │
│ 1851│ 88,674│ 309,116│ 220,431.39│ │
│ 1852│ 165,973│ 102,947│ │ 63,025.88│
│ 1853│ 265,536│ 170,735│ │ 94,800.85│
│ 1854│ 280,845│ 139,795│ │ 141,050.61│
│ 1855│ 265,939│ 161,500│ │ 104,439.67│
│ 1856│ 359,579│ 202,599│ │ 156,980.11│
│ 1857│ 407,011│ 283,171│ │ 123,840.23│
│ 1858│ 413,926│ 293,891│ │ 120,035.19│
│ 1859│ 506,006│ 375,343│ │ 130,662.75│
│ 1860│ 527,743│ 403,500│ │ 124,243.73│
│ 1861│ 588,532│ 408,261│ │ 180,271.33│
│ 1862│ 605,044│ 515,800│ │ 89,241.86│
│ 1863│ 612,363│ 653,280│ 41,417.19│ │
│ 1864│ 789,399│ 670,424│ │ 118,974.83│
│ 1865│ 865,640│ 948,516│ 22,876.20│ │
│ 1866│ 962,214│ 1,217,496│ 255,282.00│ │
│ 1867│ 1,074,214│ 1,128,703│ 54,489.00│ │
└────────────┴─────────────┴──────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┘
TABLE I.
_Statement showing the Average of Receipts, reduced to Dollars,
and the Average of Messages._
┌─────┬────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┬───────────┐
│ │ │ │ Number of │
│ │ │ │Inhabitants│
│DATE.│ Gross Receipts.│ Number of Messages. │ averaging │
│ │ │ │ to each │
│ │ │ │ Station. │
├─────┼───────┬────────┼──────────────┬──────────────┼───────────┤
│ │Average│ │ │ │ │
│ │ per │Average │ │ Average for │ │
│ │Mile of│ per │ Average per │ each 1,000 │ │
│ │ Line, │Station,│ Station. │ inhabitants. │ │
│ │ in │in Gold.│ │ │ │
│ │ Gold. │ │ │ │ │
├─────┼───────┼────────┼───────┬──────┼───────┬──────┼───────────┤
│ │ │ │Inland.│Total.│Inland.│Total.│ │
├─────┼───────┼────────┼───────┼──────┼───────┼──────┼───────────┤
│ 1851│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ 1852│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ 1853│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ 1854│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ 1855│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ 1856│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ 1857│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ 1858│ │ │ │ │ 11│ 24│ │
│ 1859│ │ │ │ │ 15│ 34│ │
│ 1860│ │ │ │ │ 18│ 40│ │
│ 1861│ │ │ │ │ 22│ 48│ │
│ 1862│$103.08│ $616.37│ 537│ 1,488│ 23│ 52│ 23,980│
│ 1863│ 74.50│ 586.00│ 749│ 1,651│ 41│ 78│ 17,857│
│ 1864│ 85.06│ 563.85│ 901│ 1,951│ 56│ 100│ 16,071│
│ 1865│ 86.56│ 563.94│ 1,084│ 2,195│ 74│ 130│ 14,658│
│ 1866│ 87.89│ 540.00│ 1,945│ 3,168│ 150│ 217│ 12,690│
│ 1867│ 91.70│ 666.40│ 2,191│ 3,450│ │ │ │
└─────┴───────┴────────┴───────┴──────┴───────┴──────┴───────────┘
The telegrams of Belgium are of three distinct sorts,—internal,
international, and transit. The system differs essentially from that of
the United States, inasmuch as the principal business of the Belgian
telegraph is to transmit messages from one country to another, whilst
the principal business of the American telegraph is the conveyance of
internal messages. The only international messages transmitted on the
lines in the United States are those sent to Europe by the Atlantic
cable, to Cuba by the Cuban cable, and to the various stations in the
Dominion of Canada.
One of the arguments used in favor of the assumption of telegraphs by
government is, that in its hands the telegraph is more largely
accessible to the people, and more freely used. The facts are as
follows, giving Belgium the benefit of the increase of messages shown by
the last reduction of her tariff.
BELGIUM.
Population, 5,000,000; messages, 692,536. Ratio, one message to each
seventh person.
GREAT BRITAIN.
Population, 29,500,000; messages, 5,781,189. Ratio, one message to each
fifth person.
UNITED STATES.
Population, 31,148,047; messages, 12,904,770. Ratio, one message to
every two and one half persons.
These facts prove a clear advantage in favor of private control.
BAVARIA.
This country possesses 2,115 miles of lines, and 4,945 miles of wire.
Gross receipts for 1866, 322,886 florins. Expenditures, 258,625 florins.
DENMARK.
This country now contains 2,515 miles of wire, and eighty-nine
telegraphic stations open to the public. The Morse apparatus is the only
one employed. Of these eighty-nine stations, fifty-three belong to the
government, twenty-one to private telegraph companies, and fifteen to
railroads.
The tariff is fixed at ninety cents for a local telegram of twenty words
between any points in the kingdom. In 1867 there were transmitted
308,150 telegrams, of which 174,560 were local and 133,590 foreign. All
the stations send written despatches in all languages, even in cipher,
the only conditions being legible writing in an alphabet transmissible
by the Morse apparatus.
Money orders to the amount of 50 rix-dollars can be paid at all
post-offices by means of the telegraph. The sum being deposited at the
original office, an official telegram is sent to the place designated,
ordering payment.
For this service the sender has only to pay the tariff on the official
telegram. Messages can be sent from points where there are no
telegraphic stations, by sending them by post or by any other mode of
transportation to the nearest telegraph station. These telegrams can be
paid by a postage-stamp affixed to a designated part of the form. These
forms are the same as the printed envelopes, and can be procured at all
post and telegraph offices. At the top of these forms is printed an
extract from the rules for the transmission of despatches. The stamps
are detached from the forms and sent to the Department of Finances at
the same time that the other reports are forwarded. It is proposed to
extend these privileges to the private and railroad telegraph stations.
From 1863 to 1867 the telegraphic intercourse between the Scandinavian
countries has increased each year twenty-five per cent.
ENGLAND.
England was among the first countries in Europe to adopt the electric
telegraph; and, next to the United States, is the foremost nation in the
world in the extent of her lines, the number of her offices, the
cheapness of her rates, and the number of messages annually transmitted.
With a population about three quarters as large as that of France, she
possesses nearly twice as many telegraph stations, and annually
transmits more than twice as many messages.
There are in operation in Europe fifty-five submarine cables, varying in
length from three to 1,500 miles, and containing a total length of over
11,000 miles of insulated wire, nearly all of which were laid and are
owned by English capitalists. The success of the Atlantic cables, also
laid by English companies, is another illustration of what can be
accomplished by private enterprise untrammelled by governmental
interference; and affords a striking contrast to the fate of the Red Sea
cable laid by the British government, and which has proved one of the
greatest failures recorded in the annals of submarine telegraphy. This
cable, which was to connect Suez and Kurrachee, 3,500 miles in length,
was laid in five sections, but never worked a day through its entire
length.
For some unexplained reason the British post-office department has been
determined to absorb the telegraph system of the United Kingdom, and
through the indefatigable efforts of Mr. Scudamore, one of the
secretaries of the department, the British government was finally
induced to purchase the property of all the telegraph companies in the
kingdom, and thus monopolize the business. The price to be paid for the
lines is twenty times the net earnings of the companies for the past
year.
That the English government has made a serious mistake in assuming the
control of the telegraph we have no question; but its operation will be
better in its hands than it would be in that of our government, for the
reason that its employees are not removed with every change of
administration, as government officials are in the United States.
_Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Great Britain and
Ireland._
┌─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐
│ YEAR. │ No. of │No. of Miles │No. of Miles │ No. of │
│ │ Offices. │ of Line. │ of Wire. │ Messages. │
├─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ 1860│ 1,032│ 10,854│ 51,556│ 1,863,839│
│ 1861│ 1,391│ 11,538│ 55,004│ 2,123,589│
│ 1862│ 1,616│ 12,711│ 57,879│ 2,676,352│
│ 1863│ 1,755│ 13,944│ 65,726│ 3,186,724│
│ 1864│ 1,831│ 14,981│ 72,374│ 3,924,855│
│ 1865│ 2,040│ 16,066│ 77,440│ 4,662,687│
│ 1866│ 2,151│ 16,588│ 80,466│ 5,781,189│
└─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┘
FRANCE.
The French system of telegraphs comprised, in 1866, 20,628 miles of
route, 68,687 miles of wire, and 1,209 stations open to the public. The
number of messages amounted to 2,842,554. The gross receipts for the
year were 7,707,590, and the expenditures were 8,983,460, showing a loss
for the year of 1,275,870.
The receipts are divided as follows:—
301 stations collect less than 200 francs each.
179 stations collect from 200 to 500 francs each.
185 stations collect from 500 to 1,000 francs each.
354 stations collect from 1,000 to 5,000 francs each.
84 stations collect from 5,000 to 10,000 francs each.
63 stations collect from 10,000 to 30,000 francs each.
17 stations collect from 30,000 to 50,000 francs each.
12 stations collect from 50,000 to 100,000 francs each.
6 stations collect from 100,000 to 200,000 francs each.
4 stations collect from 200,000 to 300,000 francs each.
2 stations collect from 300,000 to 400,000 francs each.
1 stations collect 527,000
1 stations collect 620,000
—————
1,209 total.
These stations are situated in 89 departments, viz.:—
1. Départment de la Seine, collecting 2,822,367 francs.
2. „ Bouches de Rhone, „ 747,228 „
3. „ Seine inférieure, „ 608,737 „
4. „ Rhone, „ 348,514 „
5. „ Nord, „ 265,705 „
6. „ Gironde, „ 260,615 „
7. „ Loire inférieure, „ 139,797 „
8. „ Haut Rhin, „ 135,483 „
9. „ Hèrault, „ 134,388 „
10. „ Alpes Maritimes, „ 101,183 „
Nine other departments collect annually between 90,000 down to 50,000
francs, the remaining seventy from 49,000 down to 4,653 francs.
Paris (Départment de la Seine) has forty-six stations within the
fortifications. The gross receipts amounted, in 1866, to 2,794,768.40
francs, being more than one third of the total receipts of the whole
empire.
The receipts in Paris are divided as follows:—
Place de la Bourse, 527,906 francs.
Rue de la Grenelle, 283,972 „
Grand Hotel, 271,880 „
Rue Lafayette, 250,967 „
Rue J. J. Rousseau, 198,465 „
Rue St. Cécile, 139,916 „
Aux Champs Elysées, 131,059 „
Six other stations collect from 85,000 to 50,000, six from 50,000 to
20,000; the remainder from 19,000 down to 2,123 francs.
The telegraph system of France constitutes a distinct department of the
government service under Viscount A. de Vougy as Director-General. Under
him are five general inspectors, forming a kind of council, nine
division inspectors, seventy-five inspectors, thirty-eight
sub-inspectors, and one electrical engineer. There are altogether 3,708
persons on the staff.
DECREES REGULATING THE USE OF THE TELEGRAPH IN FRANCE.
The following is a digest of the decrees issued by the French government
regulating the use of the telegraph in the empire.
_1st._ All persons whose identity is established are allowed to
correspond by the government electric telegraph.
_2d._ Private correspondence is always subordinate to the necessity of
government service.
_3d._ Despatches are to be written in _ordinary and intelligible
language_, dated and signed by the sender, and to be given to the
officer of the telegraph station, whose duty it is to _copy in full the
despatch_, with the address of the sender.
_4th._ The director of a station may, on grounds of public order and
morality, _refuse to transmit a despatch_. In case of dispute, reference
is to be made, in Paris, to the minister of the interior; in the
provinces to the prefect, sub-prefect, or other constituted authority.
On the receipt of a despatch, the director of the station may _withhold
its delivery_ for like reasons.
_5th._ Private correspondence may be suspended at any time by the
government. _The government will not assume any responsibility for
errors in the transmission of despatches._
_6th._ The director of the station must be satisfied as to the identity
of the sender’s signature. If the director refuses the transmission of a
message, he must state his reason in writing on the despatch. He must
indorse on it “political,” “offensive,” “not consistent with public
good,” etc.
_7th._ No line of electric telegraph can be established or employed for
the transmission of correspondence except by the government, or on its
authority. _Any person transmitting, without authority, signals from one
place to another, whether by electric telegraph, or in any other way, is
liable to imprisonment from one month to a year, and a fine of 1,000 to
10,000 francs, and the government may order the destruction of the
apparatus and telegraph employed._
_8th._ Any one _accidentally_ interrupting the correspondence of the
electric telegraph, or injuring in any way the lines or apparatus, is
liable to a fine of from 16 to 3,000 francs.
_9th._ Any one wilfully causing an interruption, by injuring the lines
or apparatus, is punishable by imprisonment from three months to two
years, and a fine of 100 to 1,000 francs. Any one who shall menace an
operator during periods of insurrectionary movements is subject to a
fine of 1,000 to 5,000 francs.
_10th._ Written statements by telegraph officers to be received as
evidence in all complaints.
_11th._ Reimbursements of charges on despatches, in consequence of
delays or errors in transmission, cannot be made except by the
administration. When a despatch is withdrawn by the forwarder before
transmission, the expense of delivery only can be refunded.
The charge on despatches sent in the night will be double the usual
tariff for the day business (the exact opposite of the American rule).
PECULIAR CHARACTER OF THE FRENCH TELEGRAPH.
The telegraph lines in France are nearly all owned and managed by the
government. The English Submarine Company, however, is a private
enterprise, and works from Paris through Calais to the United Kingdom.
There is also another company organized under permission of the imperial
government, for the extension of the lines into the French colonies of
Africa. This association is called the Mediterranean Electric Telegraph
Company, and it has constructed its line from Spezzia, in Sardinia,
across Corsica, Sardinia, and the Mediterranean, to Bóne, in Africa.
The telegraph in France is regarded as one of the most important arms of
the government, and the wires are known as the _fingers of the police_.
The Emperor would no sooner relinquish their control than he would that
of his armies. By imperial decree, every operator is created a spy in
the service of the government. The wires from every part of France
centre in the imperial chamber, and not a message passes throughout the
empire which is not examined by government inspectors.
Of the promptness, regularity, or correctness with which French
telegraphs are conducted no proof is given by which superior excellence
is established. There is nothing in the whole exhibit, or in the actual
working of the French telegraphs, which presents any reason for the
assumption that governments manage telegraphs better than the people.
TABLE J.
_Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in France._
┌───────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ │ Number of │Gross Receipts in│Average Cost per │
│ DATE. │ Messages. │ Francs. │ Message in │
│ │ │ │ Francs. │
├───────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ 1851│ 9,014│ 76,722│ 7.84│
│ 1852│ 48,105│ 542,891│ 11.28│
│ 1853│ 142,061│ 1,511,909│ 10.64│
│ 1854│ 236,018│ 2,064,983│ 8.74│
│ 1855│ 254,532│ 2,487,159│ 9.77│
│ 1856│ 360,299│ 3,191,102│ 8.68│
│ 1857│ 412,616│ 3,333,695│ 8.06│
│ 1858│ 463,973│ 3,516,633│ 7.60│
│ 1859│ 598,701│ 4,022,799│ 6.72│
│ 1860│ 720,250│ 4,188,065│ 5.81│
│ 1861│ 920,357│ 4,919,737│ 5.34│
│ 1862│ 1,518,044│ 5,302,440│ 3.49│
│ 1863│ 1,754,867│ 5,937,904│ 3.38│
│ 1864│ 1,967,748│ 6,123,272│ 3.13│
│ 1865│ 2,473,747│ 7,052,139│ 2.88│
│ 1866│ 2,842,554│ 7,707,590│ 2.79│
└───────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┘
INCREASE IN TELEGRAMS NOT DUE TO LOW RATES.
It will be observed, by an examination of the above table, that low
tariffs are not the only causes of the enlarged use of the telegraph.
The annual percentage of increase in messages, as tariffs were gradually
reduced, was vastly less than during those years when the rates remained
unchanged. During the year of 1851 only 9,014 telegrams were transmitted
through the French empire, the tariff averaging $1.60 per message. Five
years later, notwithstanding that the average cost per message had been
_increased_ to $1.73, the number of messages had increased to 360,299,
and in 1858 to 463,973,—more than fifty times the number sent in 1851,
or _an increase of more than five thousand per cent in eight years,
without any reduction in rates_. The increase in the number of messages
during the next eight years, from 1858 to 1866, was only six hundred per
cent, notwithstanding a reduction in the tariff from 7.60 to 2.79
francs.
This same peculiarity of increase, without regard to the cost, is also
observable in all other countries, as will be seen by a perusal of the
official tables.
TABLE K.
_Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in France._
┌─────┬────────────────────────────┐
│DATE.│Number of Messages Annually.│
│ │ │
├─────┼─────────┬────────┬─────────┤
│ │ Home. │Foreign.│ Total. │
├─────┼─────────┼────────┼─────────┤
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ 1851│ │ │ 9,014│
│ 1852│ │ │ 48,105│
│ 1853│ │ │ 142,061│
│ 1854│ │ │ 236,018│
│ 1855│ │ │ 254,532│
│ 1856│ │ │ 360,299│
│ 1857│ │ │ 413,616│
│ 1858│ 349,887│ 114,086│ 463,973│
│ 1859│ 453,998│ 144,703│ 598,701│
│ 1860│ 568,365│ 151,885│ 720,250│
│ 1861│ 734,252│ 186,357│ 920,357│
│ 1862│1,291,774│ 226,270│1,518,044│
│ 1863│1,490,023│ 264,844│1,754,867│
│ 1864│1,654,406│ 313,342│1,967,748│
│ 1865│2,098,645│ 375,102│2,473,747│
│ 1866│2,379,631│ 462,873│2,842,554│
└─────┴─────────┴────────┴─────────┘
┌─────┬──────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────┐
│DATE.│ Gross Receipts per Annum in Francs. │ Average Cost per │
│ │ │ Message. │
├─────┼────────────┬────────────┬────────────┼─────┬────────┬──────┤
│ │ Home. │ Foreign. │ Total. │Home.│Foreign.│Total.│
├─────┼────────────┼────────────┼────────────┼─────┼────────┼──────┤
│ │ Fr. ct. │ Fr. ct. │ Fr. ct. │ Fr. │Fr. ct. │ Fr. │
│ │ │ │ │ ct. │ │ ct. │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ 1851│ │ │ 76,722.60│ │ │ 7.84│
│ 1852│ │ │ 542,891.58│ │ │ 11.28│
│ 1853│ │ │1,511,909.57│ │ │ 10.64│
│ 1854│ │ │2,064,983.71│ │ │ 8.84│
│ 1855│ │ │2,487,159.21│ │ │ 9.77│
│ 1856│ │ │3,191,102.04│ │ │ 8.68│
│ 1857│ │ │3,333,695.74│ │ │ 8.06│
│ 1858│1,749,913.35│1,721,715.35│3,516,633.70│ 5.13│ 15.09│ 7.60│
│ 1859│2,072,314.15│1,950,485.63│4,022,799.78│ 4.57│ 13.48│ 6.72│
│ 1860│2,358,525.21│1,829,540.05│4,188,065.26│ 4.15│ 12.05│ 5.81│
│ 1861│2,840,445.84│2,079,292.12│4,919,737.86│ 3.82│ 11.16│ 5.34│
│ 1862│2,984,490.21│2,317,950.34│5,302,440.55│ 2.31│ 10.24│ 3.49│
│ 1863│3,305,993.85│2,631,911.08│5,937,904.93│ 2.22│ 9.94│ 3.38│
│ 1864│3,565,933.68│2,557,338.38│6,123,272.06│ 2.15│ 8.16│ 3.13│
│ 1865│4,159,445.45│2,892,694.34│7,052,139.79│ 1.98│ 7.71│ 2.88│
│ 1866│4,513,095.32│3,194,495.29│7,707,590.61│ 1.90│ 6.90│ 2.79│
└─────┴────────────┴────────────┴────────────┴─────┴────────┴──────┘
GREECE.
The Kingdom of Greece has twelve telegraph stations. All the messages
between the Greek and European lines pass through Turkey, and
consequently the rate is very high. It is proposed to establish a direct
line between Greece and Southern Italy by continuing the Corfu cable to
Pauras or Missolonghi, across the Ionian Islands.
PRUSSIA.
In Prussia the number of messages transmitted in 1866, the last year of
which we have data, was 1,964,030, and the gross receipts were 1,275,785
thalers, making the average cost per message seventy cents in our
currency. Prussia had in that year a population of 17,740,000, and the
area of her territory was somewhat less than the New England States and
New York. Distance being regarded, the Prussian rates were at that
period double our own.
TABLE L.
_Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Prussia._
┌───────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ │ Number of │Gross Receipts in│Average Cost per │
│ DATE. │ Messages. │ Thalers. │ Message in │
│ │ │ │ Thalers. │
├───────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ 1852│ 48,751│ 114,539│ 2.350│
│ 1853│ 85,161│ 209,944│ 2.460│
│ 1854│ 116,313│ 328,506│ 2.820│
│ 1855│ 152,820│ 434,122│ 2.840│
│ 1856│ 221,411│ 591,038│ 2.670│
│ 1857│ 241,545│ 726,517│ 3.010│
│ 1858│ 247,202│ 730,584│ 2.950│
│ 1859│ 349,997│ 808,521│ 2.310│
│ 1860│ 384,335│ 791,101│ 2.060│
│ 1861│ 459,002│ 875,783│ 1.988│
│ 1862│ 660,501│ 954,550│ 1.450│
│ 1863│ 877,583│ 1,039,961│ 1.180│
│ 1864│ 1,259,590│ 1,150,008│ 0.913│
│ 1865│ 1,527,455│ 1,242,489│ 0.812│
│ 1866│ 1,964,030│ 1,275,785│ 0.656│
└───────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┘
It will be observed that the number of messages transmitted in 1852 was
48,751, and in 1860, 384,335, being an increase in nine years of nearly
800 per cent, although there was no reduction in the average tariff
during this period. From 1860 to 1866 there was an increase of only 500
per cent, notwithstanding a reduction in the rates from 2.06 to 0.656
thalers per message.
Prussia was among the earliest of Continental countries to adopt the
electric telegraph, and it is still far in advance of most of its
neighbors in the practical development of the enterprise; and yet, with
a population more than half as great as the United States, she only
transmits one sixth as many messages per annum. Were the system left to
private enterprise, as in this country, there can be no doubt that this
enlightened and thrifty people would greatly extend the system, and in
place of the meagre supply of 538 offices she would have upwards of
2,000, and in place of 1,964,030 messages per annum would transmit seven
or eight millions.
RUSSIA.
European Russia, with a population considerably more than twice as great
as the United States, contains but 308 offices, or one to 230,000 of
people; and sends annually but 838,653 messages, or one to each 80,723
of her population.
Any person examining the telegraphic map of Russia will be satisfied
that the rose-colored descriptions of government telegraphs as
illustrated in Russia are overdrawn. The lines radiating from St.
Petersburg, and extending to Warsaw, Moscow, Odessa, Sebastopol,
Nichni-Novgorod, to the Persian frontier, and to Kiakhta in Siberia,—all
important military points,—and with scarcely any connecting interior
lines, suggest anything but a desire to afford ample telegraphic
facilities to the people.
SWITZERLAND.
The situation of Switzerland, in the centre of Europe, and forming the
pathway between nations, places her in a peculiar position with
reference to the transmission of messages from one country to another.
Just as Belgium is situated in relation to intercourse between France
and Germany, so Switzerland is placed in regard to telegraphic
communication between France and Italy, and Italy and Germany.
Switzerland, from many circumstances, is a country in which telegraphic
communication is eminently useful. In the first place it is a
mountainous country, over which postal communication is necessarily
slow, and conducted at all seasons under disadvantages. Besides all
this, Switzerland, at certain seasons of the year, is a country full of
travellers and tourists from all parts of the world, who find great
advantage and convenience in being able to transmit short messages from
one place to another, respecting hotel accommodations, baggage
arrangements, lost packages, horses, places in the diligence, and
general matters relating to their route, as well as business and social
messages to their relatives, friends, and agents at home.
Switzerland is in the same position with Belgium in respect to the means
of cheap telegraphic communication. The railways of the country all
belong to the state; so that every railway is available, without charge,
for the passage of wires along the line, and every railway official may
be employed for telegraphic service, at the pleasure of the government,
for nothing. It is scarcely necessary to point out how different must be
the working of such a system from that of the United States, where the
railways are in the hands of private companies, and with whom terms have
to be made for the right of way.
NO ANALOGY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND SWITZERLAND.
The analogy between the United States and Switzerland seems in every
sense imperfect. The telegraph stations in Switzerland only number 252,
or less than the number contained within a radius of fifty miles in and
around the city of New York.
The total number of despatches transmitted annually in and through
Switzerland only amounted in 1866 to 668,916, whilst of these probably
more than half were either transit or international. These transit
telegrams, of which there are none in our country, involve a most
important difference. Belgium and Switzerland can make up the
deficiencies which arise from losses on internal communication by the
surplus derived from transit telegrams.
In 1852 the average number of messages per day, for all Switzerland, was
less than ten. As the system became extended, and the people were
educated to its use, the number of messages increased, until in 1866
they exceeded 2,000 per day, approximating, for the entire country, the
number sent and received daily by fifteen female operators in one of the
rooms of the Western Union Telegraph Company, in the city of New York.
Probably one half of these were transit messages passing through
Switzerland from stations in France, Belgium, and Italy, leaving about
1,000 messages per day of inland business, which, divided among 252
offices, would leave an average of a little less than _four messages per
day for each office_! This is not a very magnificent result, and is not
over encouraging as a model system, which gives to its twenty-five
cantons ten offices, with an average revenue from each; for inland
business, of only three francs per day! And this, notwithstanding that
the government coaches convey, without any extra charge, messages, from
towns unsupplied with offices, to the nearest telegraph station.
TABLE M.
_Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Switzerland._
┌───────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┐
│ │ Number of │Gross Receipts in│Average Cost per │
│ DATE. │ Messages. │ Francs. │ Message in │
│ │ │ │ Francs. │
├───────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┤
│ 1852│ 2,876│ 3,541.95│ │
│ 1853│ 82,586│ 127,870.04│ 1.55│
│ 1854│ 129,167│ 208,887.36│ 1.62│
│ 1855│ 162,851│ 251,391.27│ 1.53│
│ 1856│ 227,072│ 319,947.22│ 1.44│
│ 1857│ 260,164│ 369,226.01│ 1.42│
│ 1858│ 247,102│ 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│ 514,952│ 615,317.00│ 1.20│
│ 1865│ 591,214│ 726,564.16│ 1.23│
│ 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.”
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 returns, 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 messages 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 whatever will be delivered out of the radius of the
locality wherein the station addressed to is situated, through any other
means than by post._
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 individuals 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 returned, or
if it should contain less words 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 discover 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 transmission of messages for the Ottoman
government, and the second for that of ambassadors and private persons.
In the case of an interruption of the cable which crosses the
Hellespont, the Dardanelles station is removed to Kaled-Bahas, and the
despatches are subjected 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 $2.80 to
$6.00, according to the distance.
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 incompetent. Repairers are
compelled to provide and keep a horse out of their pay of 300 piastres
($13.04) 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 government, much depends
upon the director-general of the department. 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
inspectors and operators, but the natural jealousy of employing
foreigners stands in the way. The Turks insist upon having all messages
sent through in Turkish, so that frequently, when retranslated, 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 almost worthless.
Repeated efforts have been made by the English telegraph companies, who
have so great an interest in the successful operation of these lines, to
induce the Turkish government to relinquish its management of them, but
thus far without success.
REASONS
WHY
GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT ENTER INTO COMPETITION 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 competition, 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 reduction, provided
present arrangements with railroad companies and others could be
maintained, by which the labor of the one is utilized 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 CONTROL THE TELEGRAPH.
One of the most serious objections to the government of the United
States assuming the control of the telegraph is the political one. In
monarchical countries, where the sovereignty is a patrimony 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 elections 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 telegraph 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 opportunities of seeing every telegram which
reaches or leaves that city on matters relating to the stock exchange
operations.
THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT NOT COMPETENT TO MANAGE THE TELEGRAPHS.
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 cannot even tell the number
of letters which it transmits per annum, whose receipts are unequal to
the cost of service by over $6,000,000,[28] 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.
Footnote 28:
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 expenditures of $6,337,991.85.
From the report of the Postmaster-General.
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 correspondence 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 telegraph 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 students in this new field of
practical science: without wishing to be invidious in our comparisons,
we may fairly say that the intelligence 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 important 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 private individuals for
losses caused by the errors or imperfection of its service. In no
country where the telegraph exists under government control is there any
assumption of accountability for errors or delays in the transmission of
messages. In some countries 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 notoriously 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 practically
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 despatch 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 telegraph contractor; while the latter would
answer that he was a servant of the government, and not responsible 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.
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 provision 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 deprecates 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 annual 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 thousands 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 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 estimates balances
which cannot be earned.
This scheme would be unjust to government, by undermining and perilling
a business which pays $300,000 per annum to its revenues, besides
casting upon a nation, great because 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 Company favor a
reduction of the rates on despatches as rapidly as the necessary
expenses of the service will admit; _and if the government will abolish
its tax on the receipts for transmitting telegrams, this company will
immediately lower its rates until the reduction 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 telegraphic 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 telegraph lines
depends largely upon the revenues of a few important cities, without
which the enterprise would not have an income sufficient 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.
In France, three departments collect 4,178,332, out of a total of
7,707,590 francs per annum; and of this amount, Paris (Départment 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 reactionary measure.
Mr. Hubbard’s bill to incorporate the United States Postal Telegraph
Company, and to establish a postal-telegraph system, provides for the
establishment of telegraph lines to all cities and villages 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
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 telegraphic 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 Arkansas, 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 Wisconsin
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.[29]
Footnote 29:
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 proposed 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.
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 eminently 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 invention 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.
APPENDIX.
THE TELEGRAPH AND THE GOVERNMENT.[30]
Footnote 30:
From the Cincinnati Gazette.
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
operating 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
newspapers. Consequently, in the after part of the day, and during the
night, many wires and 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 undoubtedly largely increase the business, but this would require
more wires and more men. The question then is, would the income at low
rates be sufficient 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 pretext, 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 commissioners to value the
telegraph lines of the United States and providing for their purchase at
such valuation. Here is a fine chance for speculation. It would afford
an admirable opening for the gentlemen who practise in the lobby. The
second party favoring the purchase is composed 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 business 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 mismanagement. 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 offices 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
compensating 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 successfully, honestly, and economically manage the
business intrusted to it before it undertakes to assume exclusive
control of other branches of private 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 violation 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.
POSTAL TELEGRAPH.—EXTENSION OF THE INTERFERENCE THEORY.[31]
Footnote 31:
From the Chicago Evening Post.
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
increased the number of officers necessary to insure the harmonious
working 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 merchandise 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 monopoly 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, certainty; third, celerity; fourth, promotion
of intercourse and traffic between 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 cheapness, certainty, and
celerity from Chicago to New York, as that the despatch 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 expect 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 increase 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
interference theory being established as the rule of its relation to the
people. As the growing of wheat and the production of meats, to supply
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,
haphazard business, pursued without the aid of adequate machinery or the
proper division of labor; as the cost of farm produce might, by the
universal adoption of improved methods, be greatly cheapened, thus
promoting the increase of the race, and adding immensely to the general
happiness, 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 government
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
having 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 prepared, quickly and neatly served, and peacefully eaten.
Put the National Telegraph by the side of the National Dinner, and see
how it is dwarfed by the comparison. Contrast the annoyance of a
telegram overcharged, 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 government 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 inflamed 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 cookshops to remain unestablished, we cannot make too
much haste in opening 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 operation
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 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
application 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, intelligence, 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
considerations of public convenience may recommend. It is primarily an
organization for the protection of person and property, and the
punishment 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 reason to complain.
TELEGRAPHING BY GOVERNMENT.[32]
Footnote 32:
From the New York Tribune.
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
purveying 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
attempts 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 gigantic 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 telegraph
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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
2. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
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