Omaha daily bee., 1883-10-26

and the corporation service which prevails
in the United States. In 1869 the
English government took possession of
all the telegraph lines in the country at
an appraised value. The number of miles
of line purchased in 1869 was 5,601
miles in 1880, 1856. There were
$500, 900 messages sent in 1869, and
26, 547. 137 in 1880. The increase in the
plant has been paid for out of the earnings
of the department, and $40, 600, 600 has
been paid on account of interest on bonds
issued by the government to purchase
the plant. The rate established is one
shilling, about % cents, for twenty words
to any part of the kingdom. The Western
Union Telegraph Company operated in
1866 with 1880 miles of line and 20, $50
miles of wire. The following year it
sent 5,S79,2S messages. for which the
receipts we're Sc, 56S, 925, at an expense
of 1924, 005, leaving a profit of
S2,241, 6l0. Compared to this the
statement for 1882 is as follows: Number
of miles of line, l31, 032; miles of wire,
374,204; number of messages sent,
30, 900, 900; receipts, S17, ia, 155; expen-
ses, 80, 1896, 095; profits, S7,11S, 070. The
capital stock of the company increased
from 1886, 700 in 1868 to S22, 900, 600 in
1866, of which 1898, 600 was issued in
purchasing competing lines, while nearly
SlS, 00O, 000was issued as stock dividends.
The Western Union has since absorbed
the United States Company, for which
purpose S7,116,300 in stock was issued,
the American Telegraph Company, for
which 81, 1888, 100 of Western Union
stock was issued, the Atlantic and Pacific
with a nominal capital of SIS, 900, 600,
and the American Union with the same
valuation. The competing companies
have been purchased, so far as the public
is informed, at a price from three to five
times their cost, and this increased value
is added to the capital stock on which
dividends are declared. Out of gross
earnings of S17, 900, 900 in 1882 dividends
were upward Of 81, 1000, 600, or about
Forty per cent of the whole. Large
amounts are meantime devoted to the
the value of the plant and the earning
capacity of the corporation without other
expense to the stockholders than the
limitation of dividends to forty per cent
of earnings. By various changes, some
of which have been mentioned, the capital
stock of the Western Union has been
increased to $50, 000, 900, on which sum
six per cent dividends are annually paid.
The New York Board of Trade thinks the
telegraph business can be done more
cheaply by the government. The argu-
ments in favor of a postal telegraph under
government control are many and conclu-
sive. The exclusive right to conduct the
mail service might, by the adoption of
this more expeditions mode of convey ance,
be deprived of it's original purpose if the
government is limited to the means at its
disposal when the government was
established. A telegraph message is, in
fact, a letter sent under different condi-
tions and by q different mode of convey
ance. The change in the modes of
transmission counts for nothing. The
government should at all times be in a
position to perform the work the consti-
tuition devolves upon it in the bestmanner
possible at the time. 1t is now said that
the telegraph companies are willing to
dispose of their lines at a fair price.
Probably the government would be
expected to pay more than the cost of
constructing lines over the same routes,
but a fair price, under all the circum-
stances, could be arrived at, as in England,
through appraisers.