The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-01-15

for the sun to rise on its lines and the feat
had been performed of publishing in the
San Francisco morning papers quotations
and transactions of the closing of the Lon
don exchange at o'clock the same day. He
referred to this preliminary because a resolu-
ton had been recently offered in the House
for inquiry to the best steps to be taken
to improve and reduce the cost of telegraphc
service. He asserted now land when it be-
came necessary would be prepared to prove)
that the Western Union company was per-
forming better te!egraphic service than was
being done anywhere in the civilized world,
and taken all in all, at lower rate of tolls.
There was perhaps, in England and in some
OF the governments of the continent larger
area of 25-cent rates, but the Western Union
hid considerable area of Is and
l0-cent rates which those countries
had not and the 50-Cent rate COW
cred much larger territory than
any of the compound rates OF
England and the Continent. Nowhere in the
world could message be sent the distance
from Bo ton to Portland, Ore, for $3.50 the
rate of the Western Union between those
points. A New York banker had told him
wnen he was in London he could get mes
sages from New York or Chicago great deal
quicker than he could from Paris, and the ex-
eperience of the distinguished advocate of
postal telegraphy in the United States,
Gardner c. Hubbard, had corroborated the
Experience of others, that he could obtain no
such service in the Old World as he could
over the Western Union lines, and that, ex-
cept for large area of the shilling rate it
was at higher prices
OBJECTIONS TO THE MEASURE.
Referring more specifically to the bill
nnder consideration, DIR. Green said the first
section contemplated precisely what the tele-
graph and cable companies were now doing,
had always done and were required to do by
State legislation. Messages transmitted in
part by any telegraph company and handed
over to the Western Union, or to
any cable company we're taken and
forwarded without discrimination. But the
second section assumed to compel the
Western Union to take free of charge GER
tain words necessary to perfect a message
which it did not take free of charge from
anybody. Rule of the company limited
the free words of message to the date, ad
dress within prescribed bounds, and sigma
ture, also with limitation as to title. The
free signature was limited to no more than
two words in addition to the name and the
date was limited to the place at which the
message was received by his company
whether it came from the telegraph company
or an individual. He instanced the case of
a message sent from New York, but dated
Albany, and said that the date was additional
matter which had to be paid for. If Con-
gress had the right to make these two or
three additional words free of toll, il had the
right to make the whole message free of
tolls and give over to the adversaries of the
Western Union what was really attempted in
this bill-the right to use its lines to run in
competition with it. The bill also sought to
compel his company to receive from opposi-
tion companies messages which they could
not send foot of the way In the interest
of the public service it was right this
should not be submitted to, as there was al
ways delay in transferring business from one
company to another and it was fraud upon
ghe customer, who did not know the COM
pany with which he entrusted his message
could not send 1T to its destination. In ad-
dition to being a fraud on the customer, it
was forgery 10 make the customer sign a con-
tract with a company which he never in
tended to contract with. The committee
was probably aware that by the decisions of
most States the printed heading on which
the Western Union messages were received
was held to be a contract limiting the re-
sponsibiity of the company for errors, delays
or misdeliveries. 1t has not, however, been
the uniform ruling of courts that the COM
pany should identify the senders' messages,
but it has been held it must exercise due and
reasonable caution to see that they were
genuine. When messages came through
knew to be unfriendly. it felt it could
complained by the gentleman who had ap-
peared in advocacy of this bill that his COM
pany had been compelled to send some of
their messages back to customers, who were
very angry. He (Green) fancied their anger
was with the company that received their
messages without informing them they could
not be sent. He did not intend to argue the
question as to the general power of Congress
to say what should or should not be charged
for transmitting messages. He confessed he
could see no difference between railroad and
telegraph lines as far as that power was con-
cerned, but reference to title sixty-five, Re-
vsed Statutes would satisfy the committee
that when that act was passed in 1866, it
was not assumed that Congress had power
over that subject. On the contrary, the
theory of the act was that the Post
master-general acquired the right to fix
rates for government telegraphic service as a
condition to the company accepting the act.
The inference was the government had not
that right without the consent OF the COM
pany.
The third section of the bill fixed the pen
atty for refusing to allow competing com
panies to use Western Union lines to run in
competition to it. The fourth section,
though not the most distasteful, was really
the most humiliating intimating, it did,
that the officers of his company had the
privilege of inspecting and examining mes
sages. In his long experience he had never
heard such a charge made and sustained.
There was nothing particularly Objectionable
in this enactment, but there was no necessity
for it, as all the States had penal statutes for
this offense.
At the close of Dr. Green's argument the
committee adjourned.
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