Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1888-03-29

NeRvin Green and ReheFt
lngeFseil Dent Agree.
The csaenel says he kssws Jay 6sala
and hss Capacity fer cs,larisx
csrporatiens.

WAM.SosoS, March q DIR. Norsi,
Green. president OF tho Western Uniol
IelearapA Coz pany, addressed The sen
ate committee ca Interstate ccmu.ro
On ths spooces interstate telegraph bill
He sa;d &c did rot appear 10 oppose
fair and rsesouahlc enacfnens ter IN,
regulation OF telegraph. II TELEGRAPH
vas ccDUerce IN constisuiiorai senss
and ti,s supreme court bad decsded aha
Its ScsIEees Is commerce. there cocld b,
no question of the power Of Congress {.
enact Law soch as that proposed. Or
diuaftiy hfs coUpany would desire 80 b,
iet alone, bet under the circumstance.
1t vAs not averss 10 ssch an enactnaen
- proposed With certain ohjec;isnaha,
features stricken out. He sas led q
this ccRelusioE tron the fact that hi,
company owns and operates perhaps
esven-eiehshs Of all teseRvapha IN ID,
uuited stat .. and is therefore &C CD
parent m~nopoiy. While tn point o,
fact u has no exclusive franchises. NJ
legal privileges thas any body else can,
not get. has the telegraph tas dfifsst
into combination, uos from the grasp
tS& tA1At9 Va 20 0@G Ala0 Gx HCb Ol
men. bot by patofsl laws OF trade.
Hates have been cheapersd and business
greatly improved ir Its facilities are in
promptress Of serviee.
He said there we're gross popular er-
fors regarding the maintenance OF tele-
greph property. The government could
not tend Q message for 10 cents and make
the iines self-supportina. He believed
that the Western Union property could
not be Duplicated for its cost.
Senator Cullom Do you mean to ssy
that youF property cost $50. loo. .00f
DIR. Green-Yes, mean TO say that il
could not be reproduced for that sum.
There vas another popular error az
TO the sanctity OF messages. The idsa
that any oEe man bad access to the
messages passing ever the Western Tn
ion wires was too absured 90 discuss.
coming to what he described "a objsc-
features of the bill refuted by
The postcffi coBmittee. be first took
up tbe arbitrary section relative 10 the
of messages according to the
Iime of their receipt. He believed that
The section should be qualified BY she
addition of the words "ss near a. pes.
sible." The general scope Of the sec
lion forhidding discrimination 10 for
wasding messages also Sufficiently COW
cred the osse without any specific re-
quirement. As 10 the long and short
clause he said In fnsver to Q question
That no higher tariff vas charged be-
tween points on tine lines from New
York to Omsha than between the ter
minsls. II the second section Of the
bill gave the inter state commerce COM
mission the right TO say What charges
Were unreasonable, IL would amount to
q copfiecation of the compapy's lines.
lie would substitute the word "exhofbi-
tant" for unreasonable" The long
and short line clauses should also
be modified By the insertion Of the
words under like
In section five the bill
provided that parties accepting nexs
service should be charged like Fsfes. In
that respect ii 10 different from the in-
terstate railroad bill, which made g
Number o; exceptions relating to char
itiss, employees, officers, etc. The
Western Unieu had contracts with 600
raiir ads for which free and half-price
service was rendered liz retarn for trans
service. The Western Union
wanted q provision like that in the rail-
road bill to cover railroad contracts.
DIR. Green said thai the company would
liks to have an emendment adopted
settling the question OF the liability of
bis company es to The production OF
tel grams under sutpeuas from courts
and congress. There had been all sorts
Of rulings oH tha; point. The faises,
ruling Was that made in the Bsbcooh
case In st. Louis, when 1t was decided
that the company was bound to pro-
doce only such messages ss we're Sccu
rateiy described. He would like TO see
a provision In the bill limiting the dam
ages to be paid for the delay Of the
transmission of messages, say to COO
times the amount paid for transmits
sion. II vas perfectly absurd that a
telegraph colnt ang should be srbjscted
to f25 900 or $4,000 damages for delay
in o message for which twenty i've
cents vas paid.
In conclusion DR.. Green addressed
himself to the Anderson bill reqairinR
the Pacific railroads TO maintain and
operate their own telegraph lines, and
criticised some Of its features. The e.
feet of the MEASURE, be said, would be
decrease of the revenues OF the roads
By such legislation the railroad COM
panies wooit be losers- The govern
ment would be loser and nobody
would be benefited.
General Swain, Of the counsel for the
Western Union Telegraph Comranv
followed 10 an Argument against TIE
Anderson bill.
Colonel Robert q. Iseersoli. repre-
ssntipe the Postal and UnIted lines
said to the committee that these line,
are nov Substantially under enc iran
saement. They met tie N7rthSrn Pa
cite road ss St. Paal. the CDion Paciat
At Omahs and the Santa Fe at Kansas
CITY. At these posbts The lines bs
"a presented had 20 stop. The iine'
over the Pacids railroads were al
operated by tie Western Union
Consequently the Only ooniention VA
whether the iines Of the companies
which he represented should have eqns
facilities over the rosds built by the
people urder the various Pacific rail
road acts OF whsiher they mnst pay
tribute 10 the Western Union from tn.
terminal poipts be bad named. Their:
018 VIII 3nBta-i 4aIEkhtAA @A[t1Et ~
company could even Be allowed 10 pui
their own lines along ihese roads. The
prise Of q message from Nsv York q
san Frarcis,o Sks 81. II vas aiso 81
from Omaha 10 San Francisco. All al
lines could do ssuld be to sand mess
see to Omaha and then pay 81 to havs
il sent 10 San Francisco, so thst they
you'd not be on sn equality With the
Western Uoion ''nrIsss ve could d
business for nothing between hsv YcrA
ana Omaha al q prc1t-' Having hs
this arrangement beea driven en-. u the
Cuited States territory these iiBes bad
maze connection vis tie Canadian Pa
c.as With tie Psaifis coast, and had
buils freu British Colombia do~n 90
San Frarcssc He cited Authorities to
prove that the Pacific roads had no right
70 mske contract By which toe West
EN- Union bad q uouopoiy Of tsls-
sssphic facilities and no right to resus.
10 transmit the b7siusss ban3ed tbeu
by oupsline lines. He sssd there
would slxays be tvo eses. telegraph
rsrupsries 10 this c7untry. TIE psopie
vculd nst submit to hsss the sEtirs
<lrsrspa owned BY oue company and
,hst company esued By ens mar.
Or Green asktd n, after the stssenen,
A n. A