Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1888-03-31
INTERSTATE TELEGRAPH
President Greene of the Western Union
COmbats Many Fallacies Current
About His Company-Mr Ingersoll
makes a Strong Showing for the United
Lines.

makes a Strong Showing for the Unltet
Lines.
WASHINGTON, March 2S.--Dr. Norvl
Green, President of the Western Uniol
Telegraph Company, addressed the Senat
Committee on Interstate Commerce on tn
SpOOner interstate telegraph bill. He SAT-
he did not appear to oppose fair ant
reasonable enactmentfor regulation OF tn
telegraph. If the telegraph was c0mmerc
in the constitutional sense (and tn
Ss4re1nc Court had decided that its buei
nea is COmmerce) then there could be NJ
question of the power OF Congress to enac
law such as that proposed. OrdiHariI,
his company desire to be let alone bu
under the circumstances it was not AYERS
to such all enactment as proposed, will
certain Objectionable features stricken out
He was led to this conclusion from III
fact that his company owns and operate
perhaps eeven-eighths Of All the telegraph,
in the United States and is therefore
AN APPARENT MONOPOLY,
while III point Of fact it has no exclusive
Il ''ilIIllSCi II' lCSCIt
else cannot get. But the telegraph hac
Grifted into a combinatiOn--not from thu
graspinG efforts Of any one man or set O
Iueu, but from The necessities Of the lava
OF trade. Rates had been cheapened and
business greatly improved i'll its facilities
..itd pr"mptnes5 OF service. He said there
were gross popular errors regarding tn;
maiItt nance ui the telegraph property
lie eilld the Government could not senC
messages for ten cents and make lireS self
He SAID be believed the West
crn Uniou property could not be dupli
icatpd for its cost.
Senator CuIom: Do YOU mean to say
iha' y.,ur property cost $50, ,OOO,OOG?
Dr. tire.u: US. | m"an t. say hat it
ruuI not be Ieprvduccd for that sum.
y! mere was
ANOTHER POPULAR ERROR
~ TO the sAnctity oi messages. The idea
that any one man had access to Il message
passing over the Western Union wires was
too absurd 10 discuss. Coming to what he
Il escribed aa the object iOnabIe features of
the bill reported by the PostOffice Ommit-
tee, he first took up he arbitrary section
relative to handling messages according to
I he time OF their receipt. He believed that
thu -@ct.ou should b" qualified by the addi-
ton of the words las near as possible" :"
The general scope Of the section fOrbidding
in forwarding messages also
covered the case without speci-
tic requirement. As to the long and short
haul clause, he said in answer to ques
tiOn tHH' no higher tariff was charged be-
tween points on les from New York to
Omaha than between the terminals If the
.rr0nd section oi the bill gave the Intcv-
state Commerce Commission the right to
'ay what charges were unreasonable, it
would
AMOUNT TO CONFISCATION
)I the company's lines. He would substi-
-utr the "or" "cX|rbitant' for "unTeasOn-
lbie." The long and snort line clauses
qualifying words under like circumstances
section ), the bill! provided that all
PARTIES, excepting news service. snoulu he
.harged like rates In that respect it
Uttered from ;he interstate railroad bill
vIricI. made a number Of exceptions relat
ng to charities, employees, officers, etc.
Che Western Union had contracts with 600
for which free and half-pricc
Irvice was rerirre,i in return for trans
)UrtatiOn services. The Western Union
wanted Il provision like that in the rall
oad bill to cover railroad contracts. DR..
freen said his company would like to have
IN amendment adopted settling the
QUESTION OF LIABILITY
II his company as to production ,i tcl2
ran : under subpoena from courts and
o1nmittees. There had been all sorts Of
uin4s on that point. The iairest ruling
vas that made in the Babcock case in St.
4uuis, when it WAS held the company was
,unud to- f,r, luce url Y such lncsasges as
y. re .!"clIr;,t..,.. Gr~"iihCd. i" would ill"
o zee IL pr"vi~!uu in the bill limiting dam
yes to be- paid for delay in the trans
il is@iOn OF message, say 10 five hundred
INES the amount paid iOr transmission. it
vas perfectly abs urd that a telc-rap}t COM
,anc s3UuId be subjected to S25, ,OON or
80, 900 damages for delay in 1t message
~ which t" cnry-tive cents was paid. In
,1ncluSion DR.. Green addressed himself t.
ne Anderson bli' requiring the Pacific rali-
,s.ds 10 maintain ani operate their own
eipgraDh lines and criticised some ii it.,
>atures The effect of the measure, lie
aid, would he decrease the revenues OF the
uads by SUCH legislation. Railroad COM
,anirs would De the losers, the Government
could be the lesser and nobody would be
,enttitcd.
General Swaine Of counsel for the West
I'll Union Telegraph Company, followed Ill
rgument against the Anderson bill.
ROBERT G. INGER5OLL,
eprcsenting tht Postal and United lines,
aid to the COMMITTEES: These lines are
ow substantially under one management.
'hev met the Northern Pacific road at St.
'aul. the Union Pacific at Omaha, and the
santa Fe at Kansas City. At these points
he lines he represented had to stop. The
ines over the Pacific Railroads were all
perated by the Western Uniom consc
uentIy the only contention was
,hcther the lines of the com
any which he represented should
ave equal facilities over roads
INIT by people under the various Pacific
abroad .;ris :, VI whether they must pay
liHute to t,.r Wc$ter;, Union from these
criminal points he had named. There
.as still another question: Whether his
could even be allowed to put
heir own lines along these roads. The
rice of a message from New York to San
Francisco WAS 81. 1t Was also 81 from
omaha to San Francisco. All his lines
DuDd do would be to send a message to
)mah; and then pay 81 to have it trans
Ittrd to san Francisco, so that they
you'd not be on an equality with the
Western Union 'uIllesS We could
DO BUSINESS FOR NOTHING
,etwcen New York and Omaha at IL profit
Having by this arrangement been driven
,ut ,,f initial STATES tprrit OrV these lines