Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-01-29

| telegraph at rates less than half the
former rates of postage of British and
/ American letters.
This feat is one of the great achieve
ments of the age, one of the great tri-
4 umphs of modern science.
| While in Great Britain there is at pre-
sent but one telegram for one hundred
/ and tWenty-one letters, and in Switzer-
land one for sixty nine, Belgium has
one for forty-seven, and the disparity
between kilograms and letters is fast di-
| minishing.
The administration of Belgium, in
their official report in 1866, remark that
| the telegraph yields some indirect rev.
enue to the nation beside its direct re-
| turns. The different departments OF
| gratuitously; and out of 81, ,S37 free
| official messages (one-fourth of all the
messages sent), but twenty-eight thou
sand were on account of the telegraph
itself.
The public rarely avaiIs itself of the
night service; and, to satisfy its real
requirements, it would be sufficient to
keep the four principal Offices open un-
til one A. n.
The capacity of the Belgian lines for
transmitting kilograms is by no means
exhausted With the best Instrum ments
forty messages per hour may be sent
D
gfan lines the average number of mes
sages sent is still but one hundred and
eighty-one a year. per mile of telegraph,
so that we may well anticipate future
extension.
Belgium, having but two millions of
people, although it Lad few more miles
of telegraph lines, namely 2,l30 miles
of line with 3,717 miles of wire in 1865,
in place of 1000 miles of line, and 5,395
miles of wire in Belgium. It has, how
ever, a decided advantage for tele-
graphing, namely, less miles of railway,
for this deficiency delays the transmits
sion of letters.
kilograms are not, like letters, de-
spatched together, but are sent one by
one in the order of their arrival and
when many messages, in the busy hours
of the day, arrive simultaneously, or
in case of any sudden accumulation,
much time may be required for their
transmission. Where railways exist
and mail trains are frequent, the NOR
chant is tempted by their frequency and
low rates of postage to resort to the
first in preference to the telegraph
and doubtless the deficiency in rail-
ways has contributed to use of the tele-
graph in Switzerland, where the Alps
pede the progress of railways. Swift
zerIand, too, in proportion to her in
habitants, has more Offices than .Belgi-
UNI; while the latter has but one Of
fee for sixteen thousand people, the
Swiss Republic has one for every ten
thousand. and, beside her two hundred
and fifty-two offices, has twenty-eight
places for deposit.
The uniform charge for transmission
from one part of Switzerland to another
irrespective of distance, is twenty cents
per message of twenty words, with half
q dime for a line not exceeding ten
DE- a1a =.
prompt delivery Of the message at the
house of the person addressed when
that house is within three-fOuFths of
N lie of the telegraph Office, without any
further expense; and if his residence is
more remote, the writer is entitled to a
special messenger at the rate of twenty
cents for three miles distance, or in
that proportion.
The Swiss system has another adVan-
tags, as money orders may be sent
BY teIegraph,-an advantage due to the
union of the post-ofice with the tele-
graph.
In 1867 the income of the Swiss lines
from kilograms, drawn from zoe, 900
messages, had risen to $165, 900, and the
expenses amounted to but $3.50, 900.
There was in Switzerland in 1867 one
telegram for eighby-four letters, and in
1866 one for sixty-nine letters only,
while in the British Isles there was
one mailed letters. E-
The great distinction between the
British and the SWISS ana Betgian syaz
TENS is, that the latter have been PLAN
netl-CEutr are conducted for the solo benz
eft of the public, while the former has
been managed to subserve the interests
of the stockholders more than those of
the people; though the cost of working
and maintaining lines in the United
Kingdom is less than it is in Belgium
three countries but twenty-five dollars
per mile of wire.
There is, therefore, no necessity of
charging more for their use in the Uni
ted Kingdom than on the Continent, on
account of difference in cost. By the
evidence submitted to Parliament it
appears that the lines of the Continent
were all conducted by government at
lower rates than those of the British |
telegraph. Among the papers submit |
ted were two interesting letters from
Australia, addressed to Lord |
Stanley, the Postmaster-Ge General, by |
Montefiore, the manager of the postal !
and telegraph systems at Victoria. In |
these he urges the Department to adopt |
that have proved successful /
in that colony, remarking that tfthe tel |
egrapb, like tho post-ofhce, cannot be |
so we'll conducted by companies as by |
the govern ment The latter alone can
can make them reach every district, |
and, when necessary, pass the frontiers, |
and is in the best position to make /
favorable arrangements with foreign |
states. Every argument in favor of the |
control of the post-ofd by the govern |
ment has equal weight for its control of |
the telegraph, which should be consid- |
cred only as a more rapid mode of post |
al communication when still greater |
speed is reQuisite.o
Every post-office and sub-ofaee and |
every pillar-box should be depository |
and cleared once an hour or half-houF. |
Thus would the electric telegraph, with |
all its wonderful ADVANTAGES, be brought |
to the very doors of the people, as is at /
present the admirable, although SLOW
er, system of the postal service.
By the adoption of a moderate and /
rate, it is certain that, not only i
would the telegraphic business now, in
existence be greatly increased, but an
new class of persons would rec
ogniZe and make use of the advantages
offered, who have hitherto been de-
TERED by the want of facilities and the
uncertainty of cost. Even under the
present arrangements, In every case
where decrease of charge has been
made. a vast corresponding increase In
quantity has been the result.
Therefore, it may be anticipated with
certainty that the business of the tele-
graph Will duEsul0u IN acCOrOauC6 Win
the facilities in a ratio equal to the in
crease in the postal department since
the Introduction of penny postage.
The effect of reduction from high to
moderate rates is well illustrated also
by the report of the Atlantic Telegraph
At the meeting of the COM
pany held at the London Tavern, Sep
tember z, 1885, it was officially stated
that each successive reduction from
e2O to $40, from 21O to e5, and finally
TO e3 IT'S. 3D., had increased the reve-
nue,-the last having raised it from
1885 to 9525 per day.
II is little surprising that there was
not more opposition to the consolida-
tiOn of the telegraph lines with the post
office in Great Britain but the unanim-
ity OF the Board of Trade and of the
public journals in support Of the meas
1re prove the success of the department
in the discharge of its multifarious du-
Ties. The only opposition which ap-
peared in print was from Mr.. Grim
5ton, the chairman Of the International
Electric Telegraph Company. This
had extended its lines
the principal part of Great
and established charges much
above the present rates. In 1862 new
A1.n TTnFE1d /