The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1884-02-14
ZEE rEE.oRAra: PsoRLE....
Dsseuss1en OF the Qassafo1 Before tA1
senate commitsee On Psstomcss and
Post Reads.


and particularly in answer TO the recent
argument of DR.. N.rvIn Green. esaid,
that under tbs pressure OF discussion
The Western Union company, according
| to the admission OF its president, had
been furced 70 begin the work Of Fedue-
Ing rates AID improving methods. Be
Iwetn the years 1869 a8d 1875 tie aver
age rates had b ea reduced from 81 o.
20 80 cents per mes .sge. Under this re-
d1ciion the nun1b-P of tele-
grams lLcst ased from 6,000, 900 10 a.
| 0c0 600 per unnum. and tue profits from
g, 600, 600 10 50 100000 Then a change
had taken place IN the policy OF the
Western Union company by which other
lines had been absorbed and
the reduction Of rates ceased. From
| 1878 to the pr. s-nt lime the Reductions
were only mills pr message. Was
this the way To Treat the publIcf Did
not the Western Union company know
that new mpeiitlon would be brought
out2 The whole history of the COM
pany, with the exception Of The period
| from 1868 10 1878, would teach this. It
was this COURSE of the Western Union
which had led the public 10 ask if its
stockholders had net Jared well enough,
and If SO, the pubic hal some rights in
the premises. Tue business was bound
TO be monopoly, whether carried on
by the Western UnHn company or not.
| 10 was true, We now had new companies.
Garrett would come before the commit
tee tomorrow aud say he does not pro-
pose 10 be fought out. So be said in
1873 when he had built ant ther set of
competing lines a. cost OF $4,000, GOO
and subsequently, sold them to the Wes-
tern Union for SIS 100000.
j. G RCfny, in'esrupiinR. said this
was inc rrtct. Gerret allied his Ines
with the American Union. but wben,the
Ann ricAn Union WAS sold 10 the Wsst-
ern Union Garrttt refused TO allJw the
Baltimore & Ohio lines to be trans
| ierred, and they remain iHIact to-day.
Hubbard. continuing, said if the lines
were built and managed as proposed in
the bill by the Chairman of the commit
1 tee Senator H.l), there would be an
| annual deficit, which the treasury would
/ pay, and private lines would be swept
away. EYarls had msintained that the
| government should not go into this mat
/ ter untess 1t purchased existing lines
| This he (Hubbard) would agree TO if the
| Western Union lines had been built by
/ contribution of the stockholders, but this
was not the case In 1866 the Western
Union bad 1900 miles Of wire. In 1888
| it had 432 900 miles. Not dollar of
4
was paid for by the public in addition to
| dividends To the s'ockholdeIs.
In answer To an Inquiry py Senator
Palmer, Hubbard said he supposed the
stockholders of The Western Union had
aciually contributed in money about
| $500 600, that the contributions of west
ern stockholders and oilers who Fad
built the competing ln"s, now part of
the Western Union, was altogether about
So. 100000.
Senator Hill ask d what ground the
| speaker had for asserting that under his
(Hill's) bill there would be an annual
deficit.
Hubbard said in reply that the aver
age cost If stnding a telegram was
twenty-five cents. Fourtsen cents OF
this was for operators, instruments, etc.,
the class of expenses which were pro-
portioned IN some way TO distance,
while the remaining eleven cents was
tor messengers and Office expenses, in
respect to which dist ince was not ma
terial. The average distance for tele
grams was 800 miles. A message sent
= shOr,er distance was handled at q
small,r expense, while FIR a distance of
more than 500 miles the expense of
handling WAS above the sum named.
Now q uniform rots would not increase
the volume of business for q short dis
lance because the rates were already be-
low the proposed rate. The increase
would be entirely ON messages for long
distances, The true policy under such
bill would be- to have two rates, one
each for long and short distances.
Senator Palmer referred TO what might
be termed the moral asI ect of the ques-
ton. The mos. difficult feature, ne
said, of the whole question was that in
4 hol II a. :.
money IN this sguck. He asked how
should that mater be delt with.
Hubbard reptile d that when the limo
cent lay down with the guilty THEY must
suffer the const quences. These purchas-
ers had associated thems-l with the
guilty Western Union 10 years ago, and
had said that neither the capital stOck
nor bonded debt should be increased ex
cept by consent Of g of the stock hold
ers. This was pledge to the country
They kept that pledge for time. and
, ra'es were redute ell. Thy changed theiI
policy in 1881 No one would object Il
pay for this stock before these coosolida
| lions Was il supposed these ''inno
cent stock holders" didn't get their share
of this waiered sock, There were Nc
, innocent stock holders
Senator Hull remarked that no ont
would VI niure ~ assert that congress, IL
the interest of the public, could not dis
regard these stock holders and establish
+ a telegraph system for the convenience
of the whole people. There were only
? about $500 stockholders ia The Western
Union, and enc man owned more thar
( half of the stock.
Hubbard, pro>e d NJ, said the rate
!. were too high for the general public
The business community were vel
served, but the community at large reap
: ed no benefits from the telegraph. Ev
| arts had said that the Western Uniol
;. forwarded messages in the order il
which they were received. This wa
+ only theoretically true. But there wa
sOmtt thing of more vital importance
than anything presented. What wer
the relations of the Western Union Il
the people of the country in their socIa
: and political interestsf The Western
] Union was controlled by three or fou
r gentlemen in New York Ii coz
= trolled the market price on all politica
and general news sent over its wires. ]
wires every single important persona
communication sent In the country, an
r this company was controlled by no Law
o except the interests of its wners. N
a state could pass q law which would hav
any tffcct on this corporation. Wa
4 there any other like power in the world
/ It would handle 16O.000,000 message
!. in ten years hence. Through it's age nc
! was COLI cted the market news in Lon
!. don and Paris. A fraction of a penn,
q on pound of cotton was fortune {
E any man. They admitted NO partnei
= ships in this business He made o.
charges, but he believed this was to
4 large power IN be entrusted to any ma
or any company. How was 1t With tn
!. press? The Western Union Telegraph
e Co and the associated press made q clos
3 corporation. He did not mean TO 50
e there was any fault 10 be found in th
2 present mauAg ment. Sometime az
. TWO papers in San Francisco DISGUISE
q the postal telegraph. The rates to thes
q papers wire increased. One paper die
q in consequence and the other ceased {
4 discuss the matter. A paper whic
4 rates doubled the next day. This va
' the power this corporation htld. Dr.
!, Green had said the Western Unio
n would be glad u come in and bid q
j (Hubbard) would favor the iatroductio
) OF a provision to permit this Evari
had referred TO g priv ate contract b
4 tween the sender of the message end d
/ Western Uuion company. What va
n the private contract? Why, simply.
. any error was msde in the transmisAii
= the company would refund the SUI
# paid for the transmissi, n. Nuthin
4 else.
I. The Alabama idea
Y WASHINGTON, Feb. lie. B. Weiga1I
e examiner for the department of justie
/. -,