Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-01-18
POSTAL TELEGRAPH.

POSTAL TELEGRAPH.
Interesting Brochure of David A.
Wells.
The Relations of the Federal Govern.
ment to the Telegraph Service.
New YORK. Jan. i7.-At tho request of
the Western Union Telegraph Company,
Mfr. David A. Wells has prepared an elabo-
rate treatise on the relations of government
TO the telegraph service, which has been
fled with the House Committee on Appro-
nriations. Mr.. Wells in the outset reviews
tbe origin, development and present condi-
tion of the teleAraphic system Of the United
States, and clearly establishes the following
facts: :.
/. That, unlike the railroad system OF
the country, the telegraph in the United
States. with the exception of small Con-
eressional appropriation to enable. Prof.
Morse to test his invention, has substan-
tally no fsvot IN the public or Federal Gov
ernInept, but on the contrary, IN opposi-
ton to the practice of all other countries,
has been subjected from the very first to
onerous National and State taxation, the
taxes paid to the Federal Government alone
ftom 1865 to 1870 having been in excess OF
| 81 500, 600.
2. That having been thus left exclusively to
private enterprise, the telegraph has devel-
oped more rapidly and to comparatively
greater extent than in any other country,
| there being one mile of wire to every Z22
persons in the United States as compared
with 631 in Europe, while the rates OF mes
sages transmitted is one to every three per-
| sons in the former to every nine in the lat
| ter. As illustrating further what the tele-
| graph is, respectively, under free and un'
| der a Government system, attention IS ask
| ed to the fact that at the present time, if we
| were to compute all the news matter de-
liyered by the American telegraph to the
| American press as separately transmitted TO
| each paper, it would compose an aggregate
! equal to all the dispatches Of every kind
sent over all the telegrsphs of the world,
within a given period, selected for the com
parison.
3. That since the Consolidation of the
various lines in 1866 to form the Western
Union, not a single year has elapsed IN
which there has not been a marked reduc-
ton of rates by this company, the recent
| official assertion of the Postmaster General
| to The contrary notwithstanding; go that at
| she present time the average sum charged
for the transmission of messages is not in
excess of half that required in 1866 for
| similar service. And as a contribution TO
| economic science, attention is asked to the
| circumstance that the average charge at
| which telegraph messages are now trans
| nitted in the United States for the public
press. is less than the average cost for doing
equivalent service in 1866, although there
has been a marked advance in the wages Of
the employeea in almost every department
of the service, and very great increase IN
the cost of wires, telegraph poles and some
other materials.
The value of telegraph stock rs an invest
ment is shown by the fact that from 1866 to
| 1872 the aggregate dividends paid 10 The
stockholders and the several companies has
not equalled 2 per cent. per annum. Dur
ing the last fiscal year the apparent nat
| profits of the Western Union company
were s., 100000, or less than seven per cent.
on the capital; but out of this net gain or
profit the company constructed or
| purchased additional lines, all of which
was necessary as essential to the ae-
commodation of the business and local in
terests, IS vas the expenditure not
included in the surplus of $4,000 during
the same time for the maintenance and re
pairs of lines previously existing. And if it
be replied that the amount thus derived
from the receipts and expenditures for i'm
proyements and construction represents
profits, equally with the dividends paid di-
Tectly to stockholders, it is sufficient that If
it be so it is profit that up to the present
time has accrued to the public and not to
the stockholders, and that for an indefinite
period large annual expenditure for sim
liar purposes will be absolutely indispensa-
hle. Coming next to the consideration of the
question Of federal interference with the
telegraph, Mr.. Wells submits the follow
ing points: Under the head of direct cost,
he shows that the proboble immediate ex-
penditure to be made by the National Treas
ury would be from 60 to 20 million dol
lars. The absurdity Of the estimate sub
| mitted by the Postmaster General IN his re-
cent report that all the existing lines of the
country could be replaced for about Sl2, ,O00,-
900 is shown by the fact that fully that sum
has been expended for so much only OF the
existing telegraphic system OF the United
States as has been constructed since 1866,
and that the cost of such labor and material
as would be required in any present con-
struction has Tnot1 since experienced any
decline, but on the contrary in some res
poets has been augmented. To meet this
necessary large expenditure new
national loan would probably have
to be authorised, the Government
would be again placed in the position of a
borrower, the whole necessitating new is
sue of bonds, new suspicious of partizsn
and Federal patronage and commissions, an
unavoidable further continuance of that
Interference with the financial interests of
the country which has already given to the
Treasury Department power and influ-
ence which the trainers of the Constitution
never anticipated or intended.
But this idea Of making the telegraph,
any more than the postofice, self-support-
ing in the hands of the Government, does
not really enter into the plans of those who
advocate the scheme of Federal interfer-
ence. 1t is to be called to mind that in one
of the earliest bills brought before Congress
and earnestly advanced, it was seriously
propos ed that the Government should con-
struct telegraph lines and work them in
conjunction with the postofiice, at a uni
form rate of 8 cents per word-a propcsl-
ton then, equally as the one now advocated,
equivalent to saying that the necessity OF
affording the people of the United States a
cheaper telegraph service, is so imperative
and important as to demand that the Gov
ernment shall annually add to the already
heavy burden Of taxation large additional
| burden, in order that 50 desirable result
may be effected. But it does not seem to
! have occurred 70 those gentlemen whose
bosoms swell 50 readily with the idea OF
Government philanthropy, that the Gov
ernment has never anything to give to the
people in the way Of pecuniaTy aid OF
bounty other than it has previously taken
from the people under the form of tax
with some 8 per cent. additional to pay fol