Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-03-29
PRESIDENT GREEN.
OF the Western linton, On the spooner In
tsr-State Telegraph Bili.

OF the Western linton, on the Spooner In
tsr-stats Telegraph Bili.
WASHINGTON, March 2s.-Dr. Norviu
Green, President Of the Western Union
Telegraph Company, addressed the Senate
Committee on Interstate Commerce this
morning on the Spooner Interstate tele.
graph bill. He said he did not appear to
oppose fair and reasonable enactment for
the regulation of the telegraph. II the
telegraph was commerce N the constitu.
tiopal sense and the Supreme Court had
decided that its business is commerce, then
there could be no question of the power OF
Congress to enact such law, such ss that
proposed.
Ordinarily his company would desire to
be let alone, but under the circumstances
it was not ayerse TO such an enactment as
proposed, with certain Objectionable feat
ures stricken ont. He was led to this con.
clusion from the fact that his company
owns and operates four-flfths, perhaps
seven-eighths Of all OF the telegraphs in
the United States and is therefore an ap-
parent monopoly, while in point Of fact il
has no exclusive franchises-no legal privi-
leges that anybody else cannot get. The sl-
emeutary patents have expired. and except
as TO some improved methods anybody
might build and operate telegraph. But
the telGgraphs had drifted into combina'
ton not from the grasPing efforts OF any
one man or set Of men, but from the neces'
sitous laws OF trade. The rates had been
cheapened and the business greatly im-
proved in its facilities and in promptness
Of service.
1t was fact that in 1866 the old lines
were prettily heavily capitalized. The com.
pany had 10 give sum equal to its capital
stock for patents, and that duplicated the
stock of the property. Since that date the
water had been squeezed out of the stock
in divers ways. There were gross popular
errors as to the cost OF maintaining the
property, and he referred TO the destruc.
tion OF telegraph poles and wires by the
recent blizzard to show that il cost some
thing to maintain telegraph system. The
persons who said that the government
could send messages for ten cents and
make the line self-sustaining knew moth
ing about the business II was
utterly impossible. He believed that the
Western Union property could not be
duplicated for its cost.
Senator Cullom-Do you mean 10 say
that your property cost eighty millions Of
dollars?"
POPULAR ERRORS CORRECTED.
DIR. Green-Yes. / mean to say that IL
could not be reproduced for that sum.
There was another popular error "a TO the
sanctity Of telegrams. The idea that any
one man had access to messages psssing
over the Western Union wires was too
absurd to discuss. Another popular error
was that this great property WAS
controlled by one man. The act
ual fact about it was this: The
thirty directors Of the company hold
less than SGT 600, 600 of the stock, leaving
nearly $60. 900, 900 in the hands Of sundry
parties. The largest holding of any one
man was $50, 900, 900. The voting power
outside Of the property was larger than the
voting power inside Of the property, and
the action taken by the company was not
always in accordance with the wishes of
the largest stockholders.
Coming to what he described a. the OBJ
iectionable features Of the bill reported by
the Postoffice Committee, he first took up
the arbitrary section relative 10 the
handling Of messages, according to the
time of their receipt. He said
that in the smaller offices that
rule could easily be observed, but
II was not so in the larger offices like New
York with eighteen hundred wires. One
operator might work faster than another,
and it wonld be almost impossible 10 ex-
actly distribute the messages and keep
them in their precise order. Therefore, he
believed that the section should be quail
fled by the addition of the words "As near
as possible" The general scope OF the sec
tion forbidding discrimination in forward
ing messages, also sufficiently covered the
the case without the specific requirement.