Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-07-30

mess is now done at loss. The table
on page OF the annual report shows the
average cost to the company of handling
messages to be 90 2-1O cents per mes
sage. If the Government business does
not pay more than this average, then it
must be done at loss, for the messages,
in order to yield such an average, must
be considerably above the average length
of business messages (about seventeen
Words; and it is a very exacting SER
vice, having precedence over all other
business, and requiring prompt and often
long distance message delivery, or re-
writing in some cases to the deliverer.
These exhibits demonstrate that the rate
as fixed for the past year is
GREAT INJUSTICE
To the telegraph companies, and not on O
fair business basis of living profits
awarded to railroad companies and other
corporations for services rendered. The
rates ought, therefore, to be increased
rather tLan diminished
By the present rate the Government is
saving large sum, probably 100000,
annually, by the reduced cost of it's tele-
graph service below what other patrons
have to pay, and that saving is Heces-
sarily made up from other customers. In
all justice and fair dealing, the existing
rate should therefore be increased. To
do the Government service for nothing
necessarily imposes heavier burdens
on the people who sustain the telegraph.
| If the railroads had to haul the mails for
nothing, they would have to collect more
for other service to sustain the expense
of operation and pay moderate return
for the capital employed. The Govern
ment is as able to pay, and every busi-
ness consideration demands that it shall
pay fair and reasonable consideration
for whatever service it may require.
RATES FOR THE ENSUING YEAR.
AS to the rate named for the ensuing
fiscal year in your official circular to the
telegraph com panies, of the 29th ultimo,
which you sa, will be one mill word,
irrespective of distance, for all messages,
day or night, have obly to say that it
would not reimburse what this company
has to pay for the clerical service in re-
ceiving, counting, checking, routing,
mum bering and booking the message be-
| fore its transmission that it would not
REIN burse what this company has to pay
for the time of any one of from seven to
eleven operators that would be engaged
| in the transmission of a message from
| w
message of the ordinary length would
not reimburse what we have to pay for
its delivery by messenger after it has
reached it's destination, to say nothing OF
any part of the rest of maintaining the
lines, battery supplies, stationery, super
intending Offices and other incidental ex-
penses, and finally it would not reim-
burse the cost to this company of gather
ing up the business. making up the &C.
counts and making the collections.
HOW MESSAGES ARE SENT.
A message handed in at Washington
is received, counted and checked by the
clerk at the window. 1t is then sent in
to the operating room, where the circuit
manager routes and numbers it and
sends it to the proper instrument. After
it's transmission, it goes to the book
keeper to be entered. What we have to
pay for the time of these several en-
ployees is certainly more than one cent,
the value of ten-word message, and
probably more than two cents, which
would be the price of a twenty word
message at the rate named. In further
examination OF the practical operation of
transmitting messages from New York
or Washington to points on the Pacific
Coast, l find that they are not sent through
repeaters all the way in one compound
circuit. All west-bound business is re.
layed at Chicago or st. Louis, 80 that q.
message is first sent from Washington to
Chicago through one repeating station
requiring three operators. From Chi
cago to San Francisco it is transmitted III
one compound circuit through four in
termediate repeating stations employing
six operators, which, added to the three
first named, make nine. Then, if it has
to go to Oregon, passing through re-
peators at one intermediate station, it
would require three more operators.
| THE COST OF MESSENGER SERVICE.
This company transmitted during the
last fiscal year, 81 1896, 1854 messages.
The cost for messenger service was, in
round numbers, $l,120,000 making the
average cost of delivery per message
about 2 5 cents, although large num-
ber of messages to the floors of ex-
changes, to newspapers by special-wire
deliveries, did not require the use of
messenger; in fact in most large cities,
as in Washington City, we pay by con-
tract with district messenger companies
l2% cents per message for max
log deliveries. You may answer
that the Government sends letters a
thousand miles and delivers them for
two cents but neither the Government
nor any other patron of the telegraph
would submit to the class of deliveries
made by the letter carriers; in fact, the
Government itself in this city charges
ten cents per letter for special deliveries,
and every telegraph message requires a
special delivery. Over more than half
the area of this city we pay five cents per
message for delivery.
| THE COST OF COLLECTING.
At many of our small stations they
| have but one Government message dur
ing a month. The War Department re-
quires that the messages themselves be
rendered as vouchers. If any agent or
employee of any of the departments is
detained at small station by railroad
interruption and sends message of ten
words, the manager of that station finds
| it his duty to enclose that message by
mail to the auditor of the company here
| for collection. That would cost this
COMPANY 2 cent postage stamp. Then
we 81 have sent the message, paid l. u
cents to each operator engaged on it, 21a
cents for delivering it, and 2 cents to the
Government to forward the original mes
sage as voucher, and when the &C
count is made up we get cent back.
We have always been ready to serve
the Government in the promptest and
best manner in our line of business, aud
have done a great deal for the Govern
al0 ~. g