The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-02-04
Defeat in Committee Of the Postal Teie-
graph Bill.


Defeut in Committee of the Postal Tele-
graph Bill.
We are advised from Washington that the
House committee to which was referred Mr..
Washburne's bill to appropriate seventy-ive
thousand dollars for the establishment OF
test postal telegraph between New York and
Washington has decided to report adversely to
the same. The question has yet to come up in
the House, and we trust that in that body it
will receive the favorable consideration which
it merits. Enormous efforts are being made
by the Western Union Telegraph Company to
defeat the trial of the proposed experiment, on
the ground that it is a fallacy to assert that
government can conduct the telegraphic
transmission of the country, as an adjunct to
the postal service, more economically and
with greater efficiency than is now done by
private hands. The question is one between
the whole country and the telegraph monopoly,
and the experiment is proposed to be tried at
q cost of the paltry sum Of seventy-fve
thousand dollars. If the telegraph company
is SO morally certain of the facts it alleges we
should suppose it would advocate the imme-
date trial of the experiment as the most con-
elusive manner of proving the rightfulness of
its position and the logic of its argument.
But the telegraph company knows very well
that its position is not rightful and logical
one, and hence it wishes to defeat the proposed
experiment. The astute spectators who con-
troll that powerful corporation know that it is
futile to resist the increasing conviction in
the popular mind that the telegraph should be
an adjunct of the postal system of the country ;
and their policy is addressed, not to the defeat
Of an idea which they are already convinced
will prevail, but to the making of the best
terms they can with the government for the
sale of their entire apparatus. Hence it is
important to them to defeat Mr.. Washburne's
proposition; for if the experiment be tried it
may reveal too much in regard to the actual
cost of construction and working of effective
lines Of telegraph, and materially affect the
terms of the bargain in their contemplated
sale to the government. Herein lies the wis
dom Of Mr.. Washburne's proposed experiment
and the reason why the House should at once
pass the proposed bill and appropriation.
Every interest in the country is concerned
in the trial Of the experiment; but there are
two great class interests which are more i'm
mediately affected by the question, and which
should take early action in regard to it. These
are the press and the merchants. No one COM
prehends more fully than we do the private
reasons which impel many publishers to pre-
sent a seeming opposition to the plan Of a pos
tai telegraph when they are well convinced
that if it can be established it will accrue i'm
mediately to their own personal benefit. i
behooves them, therefore, to use every legiti
mate influence they may possess with indivi
dual members of Congress, by letter and By
personal influence, in favor of the Washburnt
BILL
date and open action in the question; for they
cannot be reached by strangulary measures, al
many Of the minor journals can be, through
the resentment of the telegraph monopolists
To show how Immediately their interests are
affected we need only to cite the fact stated
by Mr.. Gardner Hubbard before the House
committee that he proposed to transmit mes
sages from New York to Chicago and st. Louis
for forty-i cents, to New Orleans and Mobile
for sixty-ave cents and to San Francisco fQl
one dollar and twenty-five cents. Now, if each
merchant will direct his bookkeeper to report
to him what saving these rates would have
effected in the actual cost of the telegraph mes
sages he has sent during the last three months
he will have practical proof of how and tc
what extent the experiment interests him. Bu
there is a step which as class our merchants
should at once take. Every Chamber Of Com
merce and Board Of Trade in the country
should Immediately adopt resolutions in favol
Of the passage Of Mr.. Washburne's bill and
the trial by the government of the postal tele-
graph experiment between New York and
Washington, and transmit copies for presenta
ton to Congress. We trust that this grea
class will look at this matter earnestly ant
lend their immediate assistance to the passag'