The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-08-10
The Telegraph Controversy.

DR.. Norvin Green, the President of the
Western Union Telegraph Company, has
written long reply to Postmaster General
Wanamaker's last letter relative to the tele-
graphic rates for government business. In
the first place DR.. Green takes issue with the
Postmaster Generals assertion that under
law of Congress the Western Union COM
pany claimed the right to use, without COM
pensation of any kind, as Alright of way, all
the highways Of the country on the ground
Of being post roads. DR.. Green says that all
that his company has claimed under that act
is the right to do telegraphic business in all
the States of the Union. 1t has never
claimed that the act conferred the right
to plant Its poles on any lands except gov
eminent lands, and no court has ever con-
strUed the law as comforting any such right.
The company has to contract for those rights
with the parties who own them. This act,
too, conferred no special privilege on the
Western Union company, for it applied to all
telegraph companies equally. As to the rights
to take stone and timber from government
land, and preempt government land, the
Western Union has never awaited itself of
any Of them. Its poles have been purchased
In Canada, because there cedar poles could
be obtained, which arelmore durable than the
timber on the government lands. The COM
pany has had no need of stone, and when
there has arisen a demand for a telegraph
station on government lands the company
has always found all the land occupied, and
their power of prompting land for the sta
ton gone.
With regard to rates, Dr. Green still claims
that the government is the most favored Gus
toner, and that the rate given the govern
ment during the last five years, consd-
ering the character of the service, is
lower than that given to any other
patron. The rate has been one cent
q word for every thousand miles or less.
There is no comparison with the newspapers,
because the Dispatches to the papers, though
numbering great many words, make few
distinct messages. The newspapers fire.
quently receive despatch of 5000 words.
This would make 176 messages Of thirty
words each, which is about the average of
government message. These 5000 words
sent to newspaper require but one check
ing, booking, numbering, writing, envelop--
ing and special delivery But the same num-
Der OF words in government messages would
require each Of these acts to be per-
formed 176 times. But no newspaper is
given general rate Of one half a cent
word in the day time nor quarter of cent
at might. That rate applies only between
New York, Philadelphia and Washington;
and 1t is not true that large newspapers are
granted lower rates than small ones. In the
same city the same rate applies to every
newspaper, whether large or small. DR..
Green shows that since 1884 the rates on
government messages have been reduced an
average OF 80 per cent. while the reduction
on pubic business has not averaged more
than 30 per cent. Meanwhile the reduction
OF cost OF handling messages has only been
about 20 per cent, so that the reduction TO
the government has been two and a half
times greater than the reduction in the cost
of handling messages.
Though the Postmaster GrhcIal and the
President of the Western Union are still far
apart as to the facts, both of them express n
willingness to do what is just The Post
master General, as we understand his last
letter, has no intention of reducing the rate
on government messages below what is right.
and the President of the Western Union ex-
pressly says his company asks no more.
The question to be determined is then, What
is a just rate? To compel the Western
Union TO do government business for less
than it costs them would not be just, and the
law of Congress authorizing the Postmaster
General to fix the government rate was never
meant to be taken advantage of to extort
from the Western Union service without fair
equivalent. The passage of a law with such
a purpose in view would diShonor the coun-
try. Besides 1t would be clear violation Of
the constitution, inasmuch as 1t would be