The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-03-29
CONTROL OF THE TELEGRAPH
Or. NorVin Green Addresses Congress
sionaI Committee on the SpOoner Bill,
And Furnishes Information as to the Cost of
the Western Union Plant and the Average
Expense of Transmitting Messages.

did not appear 20 oppose a fa1r ana reasonable
enactment for the regulation OF the telegraph.
IF the telegraph commerce In the con-
stitutional sense, and the Supreme Court had
decided that it's business is commerce. then
there could be no question of the power of Con-
Rress to enact law such that proposed
Ordinarily. his company would desire to be let
Alone but under the circumstances it was not
averse to such an enactment as proposed, with
certain Questionable features stricken out. He
led TO this conclusion from the fact that
his company owns aud operates four fftns. per-
haps seven-eighths. of all ofthe telegraphs inths
United States. and is therefore an apparent
monopoly. while in point of fact
it has no exclusive franchise-no legal
privileges that anybody else cannot
get The elementary patents have expired,
and, except as to some improved methods, any
body might build ard operate telegraph. But
the telegraphs lad drifted into combination,
not from the grasping efforts of any one man or
set of men, but from the necessitous laws of
trade. The rates had been chopped aud the
business greatly improved in its facilities and
in promptness of service. Nothing could better
illustrate the effect of the combination than a
table which he had prepared, showing thee aver
age cost to the company and to the public every
year, from 1868 to 1887, inclusive. In the for
mer year the average expense to the company
of handling a message had been IS 4-10 cents; in
1887 it had been reduced to % cents. The cost
per message to the public had been reduced dur
ing the same period from 81 o. 40 to 30 40
cents. In 1868 the profit to the company a
message had been over 10 cents; in 1887 it cot a
profit of but 40 cents. The committees would
appreciate the economy of the CONSOLE
dation of telegraph interests. The business
was done better and cheaper; but because the
business had gone almost entirely into the
hands of one company there appeared to
be proper reason why the government should
intervene and see that the public was protected
from imposition. The Western Union was not
here to oppose that That company hoped to be
able, by thorough investigation, to disabuse
the public mind of the many great errors that
had been actively propagated as to number
of things connected with the telegraph One
had an idea that telegraphs could be built for
little or nothing The Western Union company
could demonstrate that since the consolidation
of teegraphs, IL 1866. 1t had expended $55, 6OO,-
600 on its plant Thirty millions of this had
been in actual money. and some OF 1t had been
in stock paid for other property. 1t was q fact
that In 1866 the old lines were pretty heavily
capitalized. The company had to give sum
equal to it's 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 to the cost of maintaining the
property. and he referred to the destruction, Of
telegraph poles and wires by the recent blizzard
to show that it cost something to maintain a
telegraph system. The persons who said that
the government could send messages for ten
cents and make the line self-sustaining, knew
nothing about the business. 1t was utterly inn
possible. He believed that the Western Union
property could not be duplicated for its cost.
Senator Cullom-Do you mean to say that
your property cost $50 000, 000l
DIR. Green-Yes. mean TO say that ii could
not be reproduced for that sum. There was
another popular error as to the sanctity of the
messages. The idea that any one man had ac-
cess to messages passing over the Western
Union wires was too absurd to discuss. Another
popular was that this great property WAS
controlled by one man. The actual fact about
it was this: The thirty directors of the COM
pany held less than S27. DOC, 900 of the stock,
leaving nearly $60, 600, 900 in the hands of sundry
parties. The largest holding of any one man
was a little over 500. 600 000 The voting power
outside of the property was larger than the vot-
ing power inside of the property, and the ac-
ton taken by the company was not always in
accordance with the wishes of the large stock
holders.
Coming to what he described as the objection
able features of the bill reported by the post
Office committee, first took up the arbitrary
section relative to the handling of messages ac-
cordihg to the time Of their receipt He said
that in the smalereofices that rule could be
easily observed, but it was not so in the larger
Offices, like New York. with 1900 wires. One
operator might work faster than another, and it
would be almost impossible to exactly distribute
the messages and keep them in their precise
order. Therefore, he believed that the section
las near as possible The general scope of the
section forbidding discrimination in forwarding
messages also sufficiently covered the case,
without the specific Requirements: As to the
long and short line clause, he said in answer to
question, that no higher tariff was charged
between points on the lines from New York TO
Omaha than between the terminals. If the
second section of the bill gave the interstate
commission the right to say what charges were
unreasonable, it would amount TO confscatiOn
of the companys lines. He would substitute
the word "exorbitant' for unreasonable" The
long and short line clause should also be modi-
fed by the insertion of the qualifying words
s'under like circumstances. He did not make
any protest against the section, as 1t was 50
framed not to interfere with the present sys-
tenn, because it provided that the messages
must be sent in the same direction and over the
same lines
In Section 5 the bill provides that parties, ex-
cepting the news service. shall be charged like
rates. In that respect it differed from the inter-
state railroad bill, which made a number Of ex-
ceptions relating to charities, employees, officers.
etc. The Western Union had contracts with
600 railroads. for which free and half price
vice was renderd in return for transportation
services. The w estern Union wanted q pro-
vision like that in the railroad bill to cover the
railroad contracts. Dr. Green said that his
company would like to have an amendment
adopted settling the question of the liability of
his company to the production of kilograms
under subpoena from courts and committees.
There had been all sorts of rulings on that
point. The most outrageous the ruling of
the United States Senate, some years ago, when
the Western Union Company had been
PEELED to produce q, 900 kilograms bearing on
the nracediny presidential elaction The fair
est ruling was that made in the Babcock case. in
ST. Louis when it was held that the company
was oOunu TO prOQuco only Suc0 messages as
were accurately described. He would like to
see a provision in the bill limiting the damages
to be paid for delay IN the transmission of mes
sages, say TO FIVE hundred times
the amount paid for the trans
mission That he thought was a
able rate 1t was perfectly absurd that telegraph
company should be subjected to s25. 900 or 500
600 damages for delay in message for which
p cents paid.
In conclusion, Dr. Green addressed himself
to the Anderson bill requiring the Pacific rail
road COMPANIES to maintain and operate their
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 the railroad companies
would be losers. the government would be .
loser, and nobody would be benefited.
General Swayne. of counsel for the Western
Union Telegraph Company, followed IN an argu-
mont against the Anderson DILL
Col Robert G.. Ingersoll. representing the
Postal and United lines. said to the committee
that these lines are now substantially under one
They met ths Northern Pacific
railway at ST. Paul, the Union Pacific at