, 1875-08-23


i ment. During tho last year Of rriyate own
: ership the number of messages sent wo4 J.
t roahd numbers 10000 1t roso to 10000,
t u'o lilo hrst year of Government manage
: ment. Tho net profits to tho Treasury wer
l i3oo,0o0. Since then, however, while til
. number Of messages Inns Increased to tn
J enormous number Of eo,O0O, GOO ycar, tl'
! pec1,niary profits have decreased. Duri,s
tho year ending April l, 1876, tho profit,
| wero barcly more than 10000. The Lon
don 1tacs says: Tho estimates for the
present twolvemonth exhibit a positive def
cit of f2Gs,ooo. Tho opponents of postal
telcgraphy have greeGily seizcl upon these
facts to dccry the idea. It will not do to bc
deceived by this clamor Tho men who aro
busy inspiring 1t in this country aro working
10 eject tho consolidation Of all the lines in
tho United States into ono gigantic mo.
nopoly, controlled by jar GouLp aud soueez,
ing tile last possible cent ont of the peonlc
lhe5e spectators CHIN TINT tho Englisl, sys.
ten is fniuro. On the contrary. it IN n
magnificent s,,ccess
1Ae English Government did not buy the
lines to 1nako money, but to cheapen te]ea-
rnphy, to largely extend the system, to con.
meet 1t with places to which private corpora.
tons would never carry it, and to improve
tue management of the whole business, All
tins has been done to awonderful degrco. 1.
| mas necessarily been done at great expense.
lho rights md privileges of the existing
companies had to DO bought out at an cx-
ceHs've price. They held a ,nouopoly.
and could practically dictate their own
terms. The suln pnid WIS about five
times tue valuo Of tho "p1ant," 80 that so nor
cent OF it was il purchase md oxtinquisl.
ment Of tho monopoly. The companies Ind
many contracts with the railroads. These
had to be bought up also mud capitalized.
Costly patentrights Ind to be purchased. In
these ways, the prime cost wns swollen to
nearly sf0,o0o,oo0. Tho money was bor-
rowcd from tho Postal Savings Bank Fund at
abont .! per cont interest. This was onlv
tue hegnning of the expenditure. Most of
tho lines wcro old mud worn out. Tho wircs
wero rusty; the poles rotten; most of the in.
strumonts, tho old traps aud truck. the nc.
cunulation Of years of experimentation, had
to bo thrown away. What was retained wna
q nero nucleus for tho present systom. Tho
three Kingdoms hare been planted thick with
tafgo, strong posts, stayed with iron rods
and oased, to some extent, on stone, Tho
cheap No. IL wiros havo beon replaced with
the expensive No. 6, which aro Of Reat trans-
uniting power. Half dozen cables hayo
been carried across tho Irish Chaunel, Aa
tho business increased. now wires hayo been
strung on tho poles. For each six wirea in
operation five years ago, about twenty aro
working now. Then, too, new buildings boyo
oeen put up. The central Office in London
has live or six acres Of flooring. There arc
l,ioo employees in it. It cost, with its fit
E'ngs, nearly 94,oo0,00o. Whilo the systom
"as thus infinitely bettcrcd, the price Of q
message was reduced to ono shilling fo5
'ents) for all distances, and the message itself
vas heightened to twenty words. The reduc-
ion was full 70 per cent on old rates. The |
'harge Tor each e1tra word is only ono cent.
The result Of a1l this has been an enormous
ncreaae in tho popular uso Of tho tele. ranh
The annual number Of messages has laant
rom BIZ to twenty million! Tho cinngo is .
specially Noticeable in tue case Of the press. !
Under tho high tariff OF tho private comma .
'es, the best papers received only few pi,i. :
III scraps OF nova by telegraph. The Gov i
rnment cut down the newspaper rates to o =
alll1ng Per hundred words,--a quarter of a s.
ene per word! II dozen papers receive 9
10 aamo dispatch, they only haye to pny tho {
uarter-cont for zach word between them, a
he press prints, perbaps, fifty times ~ y
luch telegraphio nows as it did when priyats I.
onopo1y controlled tile wires. II the posta] =, ~
1esraph should yield no profit at ali, ii it u
lonld entil largo deficit, It would still u
y enormous dividends to tho British preaa ~
ID people in tho shape Of saving In expense tr
transmission of messages. It is now the ~ y
loapost thing in land Of cheap things 81
Tho United statos post-Ofilce Department IN !"
Is an annual deficit Of from So, ,UUo, 900 to se
''ooo,ooo. The deficit appears 10 be incroas- u
6, too. Tho Department las nevor patd
penses since the adoption of three.cont
'stage. It nover will until tie country ia IT
tiled thickly aud tho people in the iliterato ~ ~
ctlons are sufficiently educated to become ~
ter-wflters. But docs any QUO advocate ca
E''rn to tho old charge Of 10 cents for 80 pe
les, 10 cents for 100 miles, and 25 cents for MI
ything beyond that? Private companies pr
ing tho postal business Of the United States abb
uld close half the rost-ofnces In the coun. BEL
! restore tho old high postage charges, and Ia
N make large profits. Docs any ono be- oet
se tho Government ought to do this? The .s pss
t is that the direct loss In The shape Of The W. ~
aual deficit ia overhalanced twouty times bu,
tho indirect gain to the public In having loo,
zap and uniform postage. con
The mail-departnent Of tho Enalish Post tha
leo pays largo profit. The telegraph. Th'
'artment docs not at present. both s,s,
.ld 10 considered rs parts Of q whola i n!e'
tal system. Until The telegraph deficit ,na ,ha
. up the mail profit, thero is certainly no WV
! to the Treasury and therefore no reason A
complain. Foruntil then, tho Department. has.
4 whole, will 10 self-supportinv. Grao, Of
tain IL so small that the v,ros ,o,, 80 Fell
mails by but few Aours at the farlhoss 'nsa
nth and n f1,tx vntn,,}nc ~ t1,- A%Sl