The Evening critic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1881-1885, 1881-10-20
THE TELEGRAPH WAR;


The following letter, which explains
ITSELF was sent to the officers of the Western |
Union Telegraph Company in New York
yesterday afternoon
Executive Office Of the Mutual Union Telegraph |
Company, Al Pine street, Ne'o York, Oct
49, 1881.
To the President and Directors of the |
Western Union Telegraph Company We
have in our control, aud now on special
deposit in trust for tho Western Union
Telegraph Company, three fifty-dollar
United States legal tender notes, numbered
as follows: Y 1906, series Of 1869 L 49,.
733 and T. 321 ne, both of series of 1874,
and one one-hundred.dollar United States
legal tender note, numbered s0,153, series
of 1873. These notes, being in all $3.50,
were paid by certain officers and directors
of the Western Union Telegraph Company
tho 800 bill having come directly
from the treasury of that company--to a
clerk in the employment of the contractors
building the lines of the Mutual Union
Telegraph Company, to induce him to steal
from his employers for the benefit of the
Western Union Telegraph Company certain
documents which 1t was hoped might be
used to the injury of the Mutual Union
Telegraph Company. We have also an
original letter of Erastus Wiman, of the
firm of Dunn, Wiman & Co., one of the di-
rcctors of the Western Union Telegraph
Company, directing the payment of the
money TO the clerk, and requesting that one
of the documents thus to be obtained from
him should be delivered to the general
manager of the Western Union Telegraph
Company also the receipt of Thomas L.
Eckert, the general manager the Western
Union Telegraph Company, for the paper
delivered in pursuance of Mr.. Wiman's re.
quest, which receipt discloses upon its face
l., 1n,1., at t1,.nu
paper was obtained also u memorandum
in the handwriting of D. ii Bates, assistant
general manager of the Western Union
Telegraph Company, specifying certain adj
ditional information which the clerk was
| expected to procure also an autograph
letter of Erastus Wiman, offering to provide
the clerk with a situation at salary of one
thousand dollars per anum in the event of
his losing his present situation, and we are
credibly informed that the assurances of
this letter were verbally confirmed in the
strongest manner by Mr.. Eckert and Mr.
Bates. How far this conspiracy has eX
tended we, ofcourse, cannot positively know.
The list furnished by Mr.. Bates, implies the
necessity of suborning confidential clerks
| in the Office of the Mutual Union Telegraph
Company, but before it shall be carried
any further we make this appeal to the
governing body of the Western Union Tele-
graph Company that it be stopped. If the
persons named are so useful to the Western
Union Telegraph Company that their SER
vices cannot be wholly dispensed with, we
respectfully request that their zeal be re-
strained within the limits of common
honesty, and that in their efforts to break
down the Mutual Union Telegraph Com
pany they shall not be allowed to break
down all the rules ofmorality and business
honor and all sentiments of fidelity and
loyalty in employees toward their employ
ers. Permit us to remind you that the
Western Union Telegraph Company is en-
gagged in u business which makes its en-
ployees the repository not only ofpapers re-
lating to its own transactions, but of the
business and domestic secrets of thou
sands of Others. Such corporation
should be the last to engage in corrupting
the clerks of others. We respectfully re-
quest that all of the papers relating to our
affairs which have been procured in this
dishonorable manner be returned, and that
hereafter the opposition to this company be
limited to an honorable rivalry. The very
high character of the large majority of the
directors of the Western Union Telegraph
Company, and the relations which they
sustain to the other great corporations of
the country, give us every confidence that
they will not even by their silence appear.
to approve oflthis conduct of their associates.
The two hundred and fifty dollars will be
returned when application shall be made
for it and proper receipt given. In con-
clusion, it should be said that the value or
Importance of the documents obtained in the
manner stated is no part of the issue be-
tween us. 1t is the method by which they
were procured that is alone the ground of
our objection and protest. BY order of cx-
ecutive committee.
c. F. PECK, Secretary.
A Positive Denial.
n. Y. Herald to-day.
81 am perfectly thunderstruck," said Mr..
Wiman to u Herald reporter last evening,
Eat the story imputing any improper con.
duct on my part as one of the directors OF
the Western Union. / was elected o direc-
tor only last week, and really know but
very little as yet as to the affairs of the COM
: pany."
"Do you deny having written the letter
which you are accused of writing ?"
3 "Therc is not shadow of truth in the
story. There is no such letter in existence
I for the very good reason that never wrote
it. defy anybody to produce such q letter
2 am perfectly willing to have this matter
siftcd to the bottom, for my record is clean
. and challenge any one to show to the con-
trary."
How about the allegation of your offer
Z ing IL place with salary of 81 900 to 9
Z Mutual Union clerk if he should lose his
=. place through stealing any Of the Mutual
z Unions papers and giving them to thu
Western Union managers ~
. "This is just as untrue as the rest of thu
4 story"
l., How do you account for these grav'
Z charges against youp"
L Many parties know, and have made II,
4 special attempts to conceal the fact, that
Z have been endeavoring to learn something
about the affairs of the Mutual Union Com
a pany. My principal object was to ascertain
Z whether the company was started in oppo
= sition to telegraph companies in Canada il
4 which am interested. am curious to know
z what amount has been subscribed to tn
;, stock of the company. The story is thai
{ $4,000 was subscribed in Canada, and an
anxious to know whether there has no
;, been illegal division of the money for tn
Z purpose of building telegraph lines in thi
Z country. But in all my inquiries in thi
Y direction claim to have acted properly, an
Y certainly have done some of the thing
imputed to me. Come to think of 1t, an
. not sure but / am able to rightly conjectur
the origin of the offer of 81 900 position
Y clerk. In the brief time | have bee
3 director have received many application
for positions. Mr.. Martin, of the firm Q
Messrs. Satterly, Bostwick q Martin, wrot
to me for a photographer. Having hear
through my own photographers of
g young man wanting such place wrote t