Morning journal and courier., 1884-02-04
Monday, February 4. 1884.
GARRETT Vs. GOULD.

GARRETT VS. GOULD.
 The question whether or not the govern
 ment of this great, glorious and free country ought to go into the telegraph business is 1 again up for discussion, and President Green | Of the Western Union Telegraph company 1 has appeared before the Senate Committee ! on Postoffces and Post roads, and made a | strong argument against making the tele- l graph business 8 government monopoly. | This action of Dr. Green indicates that the
 Western Union company is not as anxious to
 sell out to the government as some have said
 It was. Dr. Greens saik to the committee | was interesting, but still more interesting are | some remarks made by Mir. Robert Garrett,
 who seems to be just now decidedly down
 on" an old friend of his, namely, Jay Gould.
 MT. Garrett's revelations concerning the
 cost of large part of the propesty of the
 Western Union company are instructive,
 and have an important bearing upon the question before Congress. He says he is very glad to get an opportunity to say few
 things about telegraph properties in this country. He then remarks that he was asked by MT. Gould to become 0 director in the Atlantic and Pacific property, and, before deciding not to become one, went carefully over the books of that concern, and discover ed that the total amount of cash put into the Atlantic and Pacific by Gould and his friends was less than $1, 100000. Mir. Gould after ward sold this property to the Western Union for, Mir. Garrett thinks, $9, 900, GOO. He cid later on become director in the American Union Telegraph company. This property cost, he says. about LOGO GOO, although some additional sum in money may have been turned over to the Western Union whsn it purchased the American Union company for $15, ,00O, 900, and upon the acquisition of these two most valuable properties, extra dividends of $15, GOO, 900 of Western Union stock were declared. In other words, about $40, ,OOo,- : 900 of Western Union capital to-day is repre- sented by cash expenditure of &, ,OOO, ,OOO Since that the Western Union has guaren- teed, he believes" some $1O, 900, 900 of the bonds of the Mutual Union company, and he has never heard it asserted that the face of those bonds went into the property. They have, he ''believes," also guaranteed the stock of the Mutual Union, this latter cen cern, he understands. being largely composed of turnpike lines. They have also guarsn- tsed per cent. upon the $14,0oO, ,oOo cable stock, thus throwing on the Western Union the burden of paying the interest on $7 ,oOo, 900 or $8, GOO, 900 unexpended money.
 Mir. Garrett goes still further and handles MT. Gould in very lively way. He says: ''Mr. Gould stated, when the Atlantic and Pacific was started, through his agencies. that the Western Union telegraph was the most vulnerable property in the United States. He further said, later on, that mis take had been made about the Atlantic and Pacific lines, that they were inferior, and for this reason he had sold out; but. he said, at aprics which puts Western Union in 8 still more vulnerable position than it was before Now, say it was vulnerable and proved to be so, for by the expenditure of about fonr or five millions MT. Gould added about thirty-one additional millions to the stock of the Western Union" MT. Garrett thinks the Western Union is the weakest property of the kind in the United States, and that if the public attach much importance to what Gould says about it's value they may be finan- cially 'tleft."
 This and much more does Mir. Garrett say. Much of what he says appears to be unanswerable, and it is not probable that MT. Gould will attempt to answer it. He certainly cannot satisfactorily explain why the public should be heavily taxed to pay a big dividend on the enormous amount of water that has been put into the Western Union.