Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-09-26

eiaDOfate ana exhaustive puDllcatlOn
on the merits of this question, Hdtthe
highest american rates dre to5Cer than
the higheStfOreiga rates; tie acreage
american rates are tOlceT than the az
erGge foreign rates; and thQt the forrest
american rates are tOWer than the forrest
lfOFeion rates. This assertion is accom-
panied by a statistical table showing
a list of sixty principal stations in Eu-
rope and America, with the tariffand
distances, in air lines, from London
and New York respectively. The diff
ference, as presented in this table, av-
erages, in favor of the cheapness ofthe
tariffs in the United States, nearly
forty per cent. This, of itself, ought
to settle the question of tariffs.
Butlest it may hA supposed that 1
have resOrted to a partial source for
these statistics, | beg leave to refer
you to the following extract from the
able report of the Committee on Post
Office and Post Roads of the United
States House of Representatives, of
which Mr.. Farnsworth, of Illinois,
was Chairman. This extract cannot
be cOntrOverted either as to the accu-
racy of its statistics or the importantly
of its statements. Says this report:
The statistics of the telegraph in
Europe for 1866 1.-THE latest year of
which there are full returns) are as
follows: Total number of messages,
1858, 727. Receipts, reduced to
American gold, $10,328, 994 81, or with
gold attic, Sl4, 460, 5g2 IL i'll United
States currency, showing an average
of az cents a message.
The statistics of the Western Union
Telegraph Company, whose business
constitutes more than n~ine-tenths of
the whole American service, and from
whom alone returns have been re-
eeived, give the following results for
the year ending June 30, 1861. Total
number of messages 1905, 678. Re
ceipts for the same, s., 1927 So. Av-
| erage cost of each message 81 cents.
These returns do not include railroad
messages, of which the number is
very great, as on many of the prinei-
pal lines the running of trains is man.
aged by telegraph, nOr the regular re-
ports for the press, which in the num-
Der of the words delivered exceeds
all the other business put together,
having amounted in the last year to
iii JUO,ODu hOluHs C4OdA W lfsl-DsAC1
kilograms of 20 words each.
In comparison with these figures,
the press business of Europe is very
incOnsiderable, not exceeding a tenth
part of that of the United States.
Another illustration of the compare
tive cost of European and American
kilograms has been presented to the
committee in the form of a table,
showing the cost Of a message sent
from New York and from London to
81 principal places on the two CONT
nentS of similar distance-the Ameri-
can distances being generally greater.
In almost every instance the English
rate is much the highest, the average
exceeding the American average by
nearly 40 per cent.
As to the other two points, touch
ing the facilities afforded to the people
of the two continents to enjoy tele-
graphic communication, which in
cludes both the number of persons
served in each and the extent OF terri
tory covered by their lines, | again
introduce an extract from this lucid
report, which is absolutely decisive of
the question, and settles, beyond all
cavil or dispute, the superiority of the
American system of telegraphic COM
m~unicatiOn, under the control of pri-
vate enterprise over the restrictive
Governmental control adopted in Eu-
rope, thus demonstrating that the ge-
MUS of the two Governmental systems
has worked out the results peculiar to
each-the one being for the benefit of
classes and the other for the welfare of
the masses; the one being guarded by
the utmost jealousy and the other free
as the flag that iOated over the capi-
tol when the Constitution was inaugu-
rated:
1--WE have already shown the vast
superiority Of the American telegraph
over the European, in the diffusion of
general information through the press;
let US now show to what extent the
opportunities of Geographic inter-
course are afforded to the people of
the United States as compared with
those Of European countries, and the
extent to which they are respectively
availed of. We give only the more
favored countries. The number of
telegraph stations in Prussia is one to
every 32,9j5 of the population; in
France, one to every 81 ,6S1 in Great
Britain and Ireland, one to every 49,
$50; in Belgium, one to every 12,4IG;
in Switzerland, one to every 10000,
and in the United States one to every
1919. In the Pacific States of the
Union there is an office to every $500
people.
According to the returns of 1866,
the number of messages annually sent
in France is one to every thirteen per-
sons; in Prussia, one to every nine;
in Great Britain and Ireland, one to
every five; in Belgium, one to every
four; in Switzerland, one to every
four, and in the United States one to
every two and a half.'
l might Introduce table after table
of statistics showing the somewhat
varying but always comparatively
uniform superiority Of the existing
individual telegraph agency in this
country. But the results here shown
arAsufficient to establish the PROPOSE
ton ! have affirmed. 1t is foreign to
my purpose, and would be far beyond
the limits | have assigned for these
letters, written from friend to friend,
to heap up facts, all of which are
cumulative of the idea that for the
people of the United States to volun-
tarily surrender to the Government
an establishment whose perfect free
dom is so necessary to their CONNER
cial advantage, as we'll as to their pO-
litical safety, would be an act of sui
cidal folly scarcely known in the his
tory Of mankind. European institu-
tions are founded on repression.
There the end is worked out and justi-
fies the means. But in the land where /
freedom always encouraged genius to
expand, and where being thus free to
explore Natures fields and learn Ma
lures laws, it taughtthe electric fluid
to do its bidding, it would be a sacri-
lege-tO harness this subtle yet power
full agent in the car of political and
party Despotism-not unlike the SUI
perstitious tyranny which crushed
out the intellectual discoveries of the
illustrious GallileO in the dungeons of
the Inquisiti0n,
Yours truly.
LEON. TROUSDALE.
a True Economy.
NJ door - said a lOUinO SnOuaa IN