The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-04-03
THE WIRES.
AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW
THE TELEGRAPH MAGNATES
NOW IN THIS CITY.
A Line to be Extended TO Oatman-
vile at 0uce so the Gentle
men say.
Many Other Interesting Things Re.
garding the Telegraph
Service.

the interests of the Western Union
Telegraph company, reached this
city yesterday on tour OF
inspe ton of the various lines
and service of the company. The
party consists of Col. r. CloWry,
general superintendent of the western
division; Col. L. c. Baker, district
superintendent for this district; M. G.
Bristol, superintendent OF constructor
for the western division; &. w. Ham
mond, railroad superintendent of con-
struction of the lines of the Missouri
Pacific and leased routes, including the
southwestern system, Mr.. Woodwork
the secretary of Col Clowry and Col.
j. l.. Thompson, general solicitor of
the company in Chicago. Mrs. Glow
ry and Miss Springer are the ladies ac-
companying them. The party came
from Chicago and st. Louis in d Spe-
cial car provided by the company by
way of Marshall, Houston, Galveston
and San Antonio, and will leave to-
day
| ON THEIR RETURN ROUTE
by way of Fort Worth and Dallas.
The object of the trip, as
stated by Col. Clowery, is merely
an annual inspection for which they
have adopted the special car system,
to make the inspection as thorough as
possible. They will be absent from
Chicago in all about three weeks. The
inspection consists not only in inves-
tigating the service, and any COM
plants which may be brought to their
attention, but improving the system
where possible, retrenching expenses
and extending the service as much as
practicable. They have made some
additions to the lines in some places
where deemed advisable, including a
new line, which has been ordered here, |
to connect Austin with Oatmanville |
on account of the extent of business |
being done at the quarries in connec- |
with the work on the state capitol |
So much for the objects of the inspec-
ton.
Referring to the recent action of |
the company in reducing rates, Col |
Onel Clowry remarked that there had |
been a general reduction, and that |
the reduction had been made regard |
less of the difference in expenses and |
costs of the service at differen1 points. |
To give uniformity to the rates
AS FAIRLY AS POSSIBLE
the country had been DIVIDED into |
squares and the rates fixed |
accordingly, and the maximum
between any two points in the country |
from Maine to California, or Texas or |
New Mexico. or New Y ork to Oregon,
was but one dollar per ten words. |
Said Mr.. Hammond, it is surprising
how many people were really ig-
nOrant of the trifiing cost of |
telegraphing, and imagined it was
so very expensive. Many, for in
stance, did not know that it now costs
only 25 cents for message from here
to San Antonio, against 40 cents the |
former rate. The reductions which
had been made he considered remarka-
BILE in comparison with what
they were, till quite recently
and especially in contrast |
with the rates before the war, and
even few years ago. Col. Clowry
wondered how the half-cent-a-Word
newspaper rate could have been es-
tablished in big state like Texas. and
inquired of Mr.. Pillow, local Superin-
tendent of Austin, if the receipts
under the new reduction Of rates gen.
eral, had sensibly affected the revenues
of the Office here, to which Mr.. Pillow
replied he had noticed
NO SPECIAL FALLING OFF
in the receipts. THE STATESMAN
representative inquiring what were
some of the reductions which had been
made, Mr.. Pillow stated to several
principal points-New Orleans, New
York and the New England states
the rate had been reduced one-fifth,
being from $125 to $100 from here to
New York, ETC., and from 70 cents
to 60 cents from here to New Orleans
to points in Arkansas, from IS cents
to 60 cents; to Virginia and points
north of tnat state, from $1.25 to SS1.O0;
to California and Arizona, ETC., from
$3.50 to $1.O0; to- Colorado and Kan
sas, from $1.25 to $1.00 to all points
on the Sun Set route, from 40 cents to
25 cents to Laredo from 80 cents to
so cents and so correspondingly to
various numerous points he
named in Texas. He remembered,
he said when a message to California
cost 81 and one to Virginia cost So,
and as to the present reduced rates
they were now three times as cheap
as those of European lines for CORES
ponding distances in Europe. And
all this, added ECol. Clowry, without
any such responsibility and liability
for damages, and without any liabili-
ty whatever, he said, for failures or
ERRORS IN TRANSMISSION,
and without any such obligation as
American lines are under to
have their agents see that
messages sent to an Office
are delivered to the party addressed.
AS to the faithfulness of the service
Col. Clowry illustrated by stating that
while an operator might be excused
for derilictions, if once discharged, as
he is sure to be should he even care
lessly much less wilfully disclose any
message entrusted to him for trans
mission, he could never get back into
the service. Even the fact of the
sending of a message much less any
intimation of it's character was and
imperative secret with the employees
of the company The company had
spent thousands of dollars in resisting
attempts to force information from its
employ es. Nor was the company In
the least tinged with political influen-
ces as was evidenced by the fact that