Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1874-02-28
telegraph.
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Mr.. Orion, in his recent review Of the
| report Of the postmaster general upon
s governmental telegraph. uskes three
points
l. That the plan for postal telegraph
hAs been rejected BY congress.
, That the government t~elegraphs
abroad have been s constant drain upon
the public treasury.
3 That the rates here are b1t little
higher than abroad, while the telegraph
is as freely used here as there.
Two propositions foS the transmits
sion Of correspondents have been pre-
San.ei to congress n by M. Cress,
we'll who favcrs S purely governmental
system. with lines purchased, Owned,
and oysrataI By the postcAce depart
ment This plan hiss never been sP-
proved By sly committee o. congress
The other is the postal telegraph sys.
ten advocated BY Mr.. Hubbard. This
proposes 10 have telegraphIc, Ike other
c5resp5ndence, received and 6lS:rfe-
u.ed through the posto&E, and trans.
mittsd by telegraph between postsl
telegaph-o4ces, byparties running aud
operating the lines, under contract VIA
the possofiea department, st rates fixed
BY co1Eress-about 3 per cent, less
than those nov charged. This plan vas
first recommended BY Pos,uAst4r'Gtn-
ersl Randall to congress. II two dii'
iererl sessions favorable reports accom-.
panied hT bills have been made II the
senate. The committee on spproprla.
tons in the house, instead Of Ignoring
the matter, as minated b. Mr., Orion,
made a report in It's favor, one year ago.
The bill vas not reached in the house,
and, therefore, WAS not acted upon.
NJ. Orion says the telegraph has been
a constant loss 10 the European states,
forgetting that abroad the sole object
Of the governments is not to make the
rates high enough to realize profits for
the stockholders Of q private corpora
ton, but TO make them 50 low that they
barely pay the expenses. With thisend
in view, frequent reductions in rates
have been made, with the knowledge
that after a year or two the increased
business would more than compensate
for any loss sustained at first. In Bel
GUM and Switzerland the telegraph
has paid, not only all operating e1pen-
ses, but the cost Of construction. The
latest statistics for the European states
show that the receipts a little exceed
the operating expenses.
Mr.. Orion arrives at a different re-
suit by including the cost Of cOnstruc-
ton Of new lines as a part Of the oper-
ating expenses, although he excludes
them when computing the expenses Of
his own business. Mr.. Orion says the
rates here are ga low as the average
rates in European countries, and that
the rates here are fifty cents. His re-
port for the year ended the Both Of
June last, published in October, shows
hat the average rate paid by the public
for telegraphic messages for the year
was sixty-seven cents. 1t has been
somewhat reduced since then, md is
now about sixty. Mr.. Orion includes
the dead-heads with the paid es,
and so makes the average appear con
siderably less than it really is. The
annual number of messages transmit
ted in Europe, by the latest returns we
have, were 50, 400, coo. The gross re-
ceipts were $40, 28S, Ago, which gives the
average rate at thirty-six cents. The
rates for inland messages average TWEEN,
t%y-nine cents, one-half the rates charged
by the Western Union telegraph com.
panY,
The use of the telegraph, in proper
ton to population, is greater abroad
than with us, and is increasing il
Great Britain, Switzerland and Belgium
much more rapidly than here, where i
does not keep pace with other business