, 1888-03-29
The Flights OF the Western Union
Elsb0rately Set Forth
BY Prest. Green Before the Sen
ate Committee.
An Appeal From the Postal and
United Lines.

opoonsi liiter-sthtt Oil. ne SAiu
he did not appear To oppose fur and reas-
onabie enactment for the regulation OF tel.
egraph. The telegraph was commerce In
constitutional sense and the supreme court
had decided that its business is commerce,
then there could be- no question as to the
power OF congress to create u law such as
that proposed. Ordinarily bis company
would desire to be let alone, but under the
circumstance 1t was not aversc to such
amendment, ~ proposed, with certain oD-
jectiona5le features strikep' out. He was
led to this conclusion from the fact that his
company owns and operates perhaps seven
oighths of all the telegraphs In the United
States, and Is therefore an apparent monop-
oily while in point of fact it has no ex-
| cusiye franchises, no legal privileges that
anybody else cannot get, out telegraph had
| driftei into combination, not from the
| grasping efforts Of any one man, or set of
\ men, but from the necessities OF the laws OF
trode. Rates had been cheapened and
| business greatly improved In iis hands.
lie said there were gross popular errors
| regarding the maintenance OF telegraph
property. He said the government could
| not send messages for 10 cents aud make
the lines self supporting. He said he he.
lieved the Western Union property could
not be duplicated for its cost.
| Cullom-Do you mean that your prop
erty cost $50, 0,000,0O02
| DIR. Green-Yes; | mean to say that IL
could not be reproduced for that sum.
There was another popular error as to the
sanctty Of messages. The idea that any
one Man had access to messages passing
over the Western Union wires was too
described as tho Objectionable features Of
the bill reported by the postofiice commit
tee. be first took up the arbitrary section,
l rs to handling Of messages according to the
time of their receipt. He believed the Sec
tion should be qualified by the addition
| OF the words ms near as possible" in the
general scope of the section forbidding dis
| elimination in forwarding messages. As TO
| the long and short clause he said, in
answer To "A question, that no higher tariff
| was charged between points ON lines fori
New York 10 Omaha than between terminals
! II the second section OF the bill gave the
| Interstate commerce commission the right
to say what charges were unreasonable. it
would amount to the coniiscation of the
companys lines. He would substitute the
lwofd ''exorbitant" for unreasonable"
The long and short line clauses should also
De inOdifed by the insertion of qualifying
f&urds. "uuder like circumstances"
| III section s tho bill provided that parties,
excepting news services should be charged
like rates. In that respect 1t differed from
the Interstate railroad bills, which made
number Of exceptions relating to charities,
| employees, officers, etc. The Western Union
had contracts with 600 railroads. for which
free and half price service was rendered in
return for transportation services. The
| Western Union wanted provision like
that in the railroad bill to cover railroad
contracts. DIR. Green said his company
would like to have an amendment adopted
settling the question of the liability of his
company as to the production of kilograms
under subpoenas from courts and commit
| tees. There had been oil sorts OF rulings on
that point. The iairest ruling was that
which was made in the Babcock case, st.
| Louis, when it was held that the company
was bound to produce only such messages
AS were accurately described. He would
| like to see a provision in the bill limiting
damages to be paid for by delay In trans
mission OF message say to 500 times the
amount pad for transmission. 1t WAS alb
suId that that a telegraph company should
| be subjected to S25, 600 or $4,000 damages
for delay in a iuessage for which 25 cents
| was paid.
| In conclusion DR.. Green addressed him
| self to the Anderson bill, requiring the Pa.
| citic railroad to maintain and operate its
| own telegraph lines, and criticised some OF
| its features. The effect of the measure, he
said, would be to decrease the revenues OF
the roads. BY such legislation rail-
road companies would be losers, the gov.
| ernment would be u loser aud nobody
would he benefited
General Swaine, counsel for the Western
| Union Telegraph company, followed in an
| argument against the Anderson bill.
Col. RSG. lngersol representing the Pos
tai and United lines said to the COMMITTEES:
These lines are now substantially under
one management. 1hey met the Northern
Pscltic road ut st. Paul, the Union Pacific
at Omaha, the Santa Fe at Kansas City. At
these points the lines here present ted had to
stop. The lines over the Pacific roads were
all operated by the Western Union, oonse.
Iuently, the only contention WAS whether
the lines of the company which hs repre-
sented should have equal facilities over the
roads built by the people under various Pa
cific railroad Rcts, or whether they must
pay tribute to the Western Union from
these terminal points he had named. Still
could even DO allowed TO put their own
lines along these roads. The price
of message from New York to San Fran
cisco was 81. II WA also 81 from Omaha
to San Francisco. All his lines could dc
was to send message to Omaha and ther
pay 81 TO have it transmitted to San Fran
cisco, 40 that they would not he ON al
equality with the Western Union unless
we could do business for nothing betweeE
New York snd Omaha at q profit" Hav'
ing by this arrangement been driven out oi
United States territory these lines had made
connection via Canadian Pacific railway
via the Pacific coast and had bnilt from
| British Columbia down to San Francisco
Hecited authorities to prove that the Pacific
roads had no right To make contract by
| which the Western Union had u monopoly
OF telegraph facilities and no righttto refuse
10 transmit business handed them by cou,.
peting lines. He said there would always
be two great telegraph companies in this
country. The people will not submit tC
having the entire Telegraph owned by one
company and that company owned by one
man.
Special Precautions.
LONDON, March 23.-rhe Dublin Mail
Says that the London police have taken
II, lav