Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-11-14
CONFISCA1I0N
The Term Applied TO Wanamak.
er's Telegraph Schedule.
The Western Union Protests But viii
Submit 10 Arbitration.

Ine Western UNION Pf0leSlS bul VII
Submit 10 Arbitration.
such Rates Would Incur Lose OF o..
OOO, 900 from Cost, aud are Not
Judicial, but vindictivs. Says PIest
Green.
| Nkw YoRk. Nov. Is.
| The following correspondence Was made
public today
| NKw Yoxx, Nov. ls.
| To Hon John WsnamAker, Postmaster Gen
ersl, Washington, ID. C..
| Dear Sir II have your favor Of October
S0th enclosing your official order Of same
date, purporting TO fix the rates for govern
ment telegraph service for the fiscal year.
The order has had all the careful and de-
| lberate consideration that AN official docu-
ment from such high source 10 entitled to
receive, and after such full consideration the
executive committee of the board Of direc-
| tors has expressed itself in a preamble and
resolutions, a copy of which enclose TO you
herewith:
From the rates fixed last year, which were
not remunerative, your present order makes
an average reduction Of = fraction over forty
per cent. On messages transmitted less than
four hundred miles, which embrace the larger
number of government messages, the reduc-
tion is fifty per cent, and on trans-continent-
al messages the reduction 10 from fifty To
twenty cents each ON the minimum message, |
or sixty per cent. On the signal service Of
the war department commonly known as the
weather report" the reduction 10 e-sixth
or something over sixteen per cent.
Cut Rates No Standard.
The statement upon which you presume
that no questions can arise as to the fairness
of these reductions, 10 that 1.-The reduced
rates hereby determined are practically the
same as those upon ~hich one of the divi
sions or departments of your company as
well as one of its principal competitors trans
acted business for the public generally for a
considerable time" The fact that the Mu
tuil Union Telegraph Co, a sma | organiza-
ton belonging to this company. did. for n
time, meet the Baltimore & Ohio Telegraph
Company in sending messages. shortly since
and below very few points. at ten cents, is |
no evidence that no loss of money was in
volyed.
If those companies had made, As you pro- |
pose, a rate of ten cents between all points
less than four hundred miles distant from
each other the Baltimore and Ohio telegraph |
system would have been sold out by the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 60. as y bad
investment long before it WAS sold, and that
rate would have reduced the earnings of the
Western Union Co below its actual eXpsn-
ses in that important department of our
business.
Four Millions Loss.
If the entire message business Of
this company for the fiscal year just closed |
had been sent at the rates named in your last
circular, our total receipts from that source
would have been about four millions of dol
lars less than the actual c)st to us of trans
acting that business. If the messages sent
by the government were equal in number for
the several distances, the rate named in your
circular, would average fifteen cents for the
minimum message of ten body words, ,estimat-
ing ten words free for address and signature
but as very much the greater number would
be sent distances under four hundred miles, |
and at the lowest rate established, II 10
probable that an average of fifteen cents
would allow for one or two additional body |
words in the message. If the whole of the |
"a, los, 1926 messages sent during the last
fiscal year had paid us but an average of If |
teeu cents, the aggregate revenue for trans
mitting messages would have been o., Il6,- |
24s90. our total expenses were $l4 ,565,-
I52. 81, after reductions from the expenses
the amount paid other lines, the refunded
and uncoleeted items, the rental and operat-
ing cost of our Atlantic and Cuba cables, the
cost Of maintaining leased wires and the
rental for expenses of the gold and stock and
commercial news department.
Not Remunerative.
There are still left as expenditures strictly
pertaining TO the handling of messages, sl2.-
lls, ,561 II which the entire revenue at the
rate YOU name would lack over four millions
of meeting even if the government message
were much longer than estimate and should
yield (Which is scarcely possible) an aver
age of twenty cents each, and all our busi
ness were done at that rate there would still
be dt fct of about two millions in tina, de-
parfmert of our service. Commodore Van
derb,it once met the attack Of q competing
line of steamers by establishing n passenger
rate of ten cents between New York and
Albany. Nobody supposed that ten cents
| was IL remunerat.Se Iatc Tor SO log pas
sage, but the move proved effective because
| it enabled the commodore to buy the compe-
titing line without paying q speculative price
| for il.
oucn course s some.imes entertained ny
| circumstances upon M'' COMPANY me
| competing companies are oIteh Iormen ho'
| for business profits, but to force US to buy
them out or to retire from the field. When
such compeuion occurs IL ma uans'ent and
70 seize upon one such feature, and 90 far
as your once a. an umpire may cop'oi;
10 MAKE 'na' .ne pasis OF rs'e 10 pe cnAlRen
on government business seemspc us no' !"u'-
c'si.ou Vihd'cuVe. ns 'ns we" you ns'e
'akeh 'hs' we especiany eR'e.. we may
seem 10 deserve feprehensloh, ou' 'ne ''a'u'e
uhner ~n'ch you are ac""s" " Ju''c'A' All"
not penal
Can Overlook Errors
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