The New York herald., 1873-10-19

REFORM Fayt
Postmaster General Creswell, at repubh-
can meeting held on Friday last at Baltimore,
has opportunely revived the question of the
expediency of the establishment of a postal
telegraph system and of ''postal savings
banks" as they now exist in Europe. As MIR.
Creswell predicts, there will no doubt be great
opposition to both propositions on the part of
those who are interested in retaining the de
posits of the savings of the people in the in
dividual banks and of those who desire to
maintain the existence of a telegraphic mo-
nopoly but both must eventually fail as the
questions are more fully understood by the
people. The idea of establishing post Office
savings banks has in it nothing novel; 1t has
already been practically carried out in Europe.
To the poor laboring man or mechanic who
has managed through industry and frugality
to get together a little capital it
gives security that his hard-earned
money shall not be lost without
any error or fault of his own 1t renders the
savings of the people as secure as national
currency, pledging for them the credit and
good faith of the nation. In addition to the
great advantage of entire security, it affords
depositors the advantage of taking their saw
ings bank with them into any part of the
Union. If a mechanic now has money depos-
tied in savings bank and is suddenly called
away to work at distant locality, he is COM
PEELED to be at the trouble Of drawing his
money and at the risk of carrying it with him.
Under the postal savings bank system he car
ries his bank with him wherever he may 60,
and can draw his balance wherever and when
ever he may please without disturbing the
money. In Europe the system has been found
to work with advantage, both to the depositor
and the government; and in this country, with
its great distances and its migratory popula-
ton, its benefits would be proportionately
greater to both
In regard to the proposed postal telegraph the
opinions of the HERALD have already been fully
given, and are only confirmed by the experience
of our own and other countries The report of
the President of the Western Union Telegraph
Company to the stockholders, recently made,
presents some points which are Of as much
interest to those who use as to those who own
the lines. Its statements show how material
the transmission of messages under govern
mental system, with lines built at legitimate
cost, and how little hope there is of the cheap
ening of rates while the telegraphic business
remains in the hands of private monopoly.
We learn from the report that fourteen and
ho1f mil &c <1o
Western Union wires during the year ending
June 80, 1873, and that the gross receipts for
their transmission were So, 333, 900, being an
average of nearly 644 cents tolls collected on
each message. The average is incorrectly |
stated in the report to be 81 cents per message.
amount of 10 per cent on the gross receipts
reaching $685. 900 and leaving net profit
of 50, 1884, ,0O0 The working expenses of the
European lines, owned and operated by
the governments, average only 40 per
cent of the gross receipts. During the year
s1,722,OOO was expended on construction
account, interest, &C., and balance of
81, ,036, 900 remained, which if paid in div
idends would be little over 81 per cent
on the capital stock of the company.
The capital stock is, in round figures,
Sal, 900, 900, and the debt s6,O00,0 900, making
a total of s47,0OO,OOO 1t is admitted
that the lines owned by the Western Union
could be duplicated with the best English |
wire, the best instruments now in use and
the best poles for s120OO,00O The stock
of the Western Union is watered up to
three and half times the real value of the
plant. With legitimate capital invested,
with the working expenses reduced down to
the ordinary rate and with the same amount
of business now transacted over the Western
Union lines, a government telegraph could
transmit messages at one-half the present
rates in the United States and realize profit
of per cent to form q sinking fund for
the payment of its cost
The increase in the number of messages
sent over the Western Union lines in 1873 over
those transmitted in 1872 reaches 16 per
cent. This increase is attributable to two i'm
portant notifications of the tariff; the first
being the abrogation of all rates over 50 so
per word-above which heavy charge the tariff
was found to be prohibitory-and the equali-
zation of rates West and South. This equali-
zation and its necessity are explained in the
report The charges to points reached by
competing lines are called especial rates."
The ''square rate" is misnomer for the tariff
extorted to points where there is no opposi-
ton. The opposition lines would send mes
sages over their own wires as far as they
reached, and then forward them at local rates
to places beyond, at a through rate much less
than the ''square rate" demanded by the West
ern Union. The report gives the following
as an example: The square rate" of the
Western Union from New York to q place,
say in the vicinity of Chicago, where there
was no opposition, was 50 per word The