Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-07-30
ONE MILL PER WORD.
The Western Unions En-
phatic Protest.
GREEN'S LETTER TO wANAMAKER
What Shall the Government Pay
for Its Telegraphic
Messages?

substance Of the protest OF the Western
Union Telegraph Company against the
Postmaster Generals great cut of the
rates to be paid for telegraph service in
the transmission and delivery of Govern.
ment messages:
After giving the history and objects Of
the act OF 1866 and the actions heretofore
taken under it, President Green's letter
goes on to say that the rates in force for the
past five years have not been a uniform
rate of one cent per word as many papers
have assumed, but increasing on scale
of distance above one thousand miles,
with minimum of twenty cents per
message and maximum of two and q
half cents per word. The Telegraph
Company hold and are so legally advised
that the language of the act does not
give the Postmaster General absolute
power to fix any rate he may deem fit.
That power is qualified by constitution q
restrictions. In Article is the language :;
"Nor shall private property be taken for
public use without just compensation. J"
The power depends therefore on the
question: Is one mill per word
JUST COMPENSATION.
llll6 IObNlccu DtututCSJ CllbIdNl
the acts of July "a, 1866, and of June 10,
1872, was the outgrowth of the first
efforts to induce Congress to establish
Government telegraph. A scheme was
pressed bef re committee OF Congress
to incorporate new telegraph company
by the General Government, with which
the Government should contract to trans
NIT kilograms at price to be agreed
upon, the Government receiving and de-
| livering the messages, and being the
only party known to the patrons of the
telegraph. This scheme was justified on
the ground that the Government had no
right to take existing telegraph proper
ties, except at prices and on terms &C.
ceptable to the companies that owned
them, and the scheme was objected to by
the telegraph companies then existing
on the ground that the Government,
entering upon the telegraph business at
rates that would not pay expenses,
would simply destroy existing telegraph
properties. 1t resulted in
COMPROMISE
Between the telegraph companies and
the committee of Congress of which, l
believe, the lamented Garfield was chair
man, giving to the telegraph companies
certain franchises and privileges, and to
the Government certain advantages and
privileges, including priority of service
at rates to be annually fixed by the
Postm aster- General, and what was
deemed at the time of the most i'm
portance to the Government, the right
to take the existing telegraph properties
of the companies who accepted the pro-
visions of the act, at an appraised value,
to he ascertsined by arbitrators, as de-
scribed in Section 5,267. This COM
promise agreement was enacted into
law, subject to its formal acceptance by
the telegraph companies, and their ac-
ceptance filed with the Government rem.
dered it to all intent5 and purposes a
compact between the Government and
the telegraph companies, the operation
If which was intended to be that the
Government should have the right to
take all telegraph properties, and that if
it should elect to establish Government
telegraph it should take the existing
telegraph properties on terms to be
ascertained as the law directs.
This Section 5,267, Revised Statutes,
of 1873, annotated as being enacted June
10, 1872, giving the Government the
right to take telegraph properties, is in
su bstance the same language as the pro-
viso at the close of Section of the orig
inal act of July "a, 1866, and there ore a
part of the compact accepted by the
Western Union Telegraph Company in
June of 1857.
THE FIXING OF RATES
Does not appear TO have been considered
an imperative duty on the Postmaster
n hQUa
been taken by that officer in the direc
tion OF fixing rates until July l, 1871,
when the necessity for 1T was alleged TO
have arisen by reason OF the complicated
character of the service in transmitting
the Signal weather reports. A confer
ence with the telegraph companies was
invited by Postmaster General Creswell,
through Captain Howgate, the acting
head of the Signal Service and discus
ion of the subject was had at Washing
ton, President William Orton represent
ing the Western Union Telegraph Com
pany, and the Postmaster General having
the assistance of Assistant Attorney Gen.
eral Whiting and the head OF the Signal
Bureau; and the rates were fixed salts
factorily to the telegraph companies
They we're not annually revised until
some years later, and in almost every in.
stance the telegraph companies were con-
suited as to what they could afford to do
the service for. In two instances Post
master- General Jewell aud Postmaster
General James, at the instance Of the
telegraph companies, recalled and modi-
fed their orders after they had been
officially proclaimed. The language of
the act. that messages between the sew
eral Departments of the Government
shall have priority over all other business
at such rates as the Postmaster General
shall annually fix, may be construed as
contemplating the fixing OF a higher rate
than is paid by other patrons, because OF
such priority in transmission over all
other business. Certainly it never was
contem plated comforting the power to fix
the rates below the actual cost of the
.ervics. Such action is nothing short Of
confiscation and appropriation of the
property and service of employees to the
nse of the Government without just
compensation therefor.
THE RATE AS LAST FIXED,
Twenty cents for twenty words or less,
for distances of 900 miles or less, aud
one cent for each additional word, and
one-ten,h of a cent per word for each ad-
ditional 100 miles or fraction thereof, is,
for distances of about 100 miles las be-
tween Washington and Nork York, or
ST.. Louis and Chicago, scarcely one'hali
the rate paid by the public on current
messages. For distances OF 800 miles
and under, it is about three-fourths the
commercial rate.