Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-02
UNAVOIDABLE.
The Opinion in Regard to the
Taulbee-Kincaid Affair.
Investigation of the Civil Service Com
mission has Stirred up Pretty
Mares Nest.
Gus wilke Picking Bone With the Secretary
of the Treasury-Dr. NOryin Green still
Fighting Postal Telegraphs.

Fighting Postal Telegraphs.
| srecisI TO the Gazette.
WASHINGTON, March 1.-Gus Wilke,
| who was sub-contractor on the Texas
capitol under the FarweIl syndicate, is
in Washington on business OF some in
terest to Texas readers. 1t will be re-
membered that Wilke imported num-
| Der Of Scotch granite cutters to work on
| the state house, which was violation
| of the Federal law and for which
he was muIcied in the United States
court to the extent of S64, 900. he is
here now to plead with the secretary
| of TIE treasury to remit his heavy
penalty. 1t is in the discretion OF that
| official to do go in whole or in part,
| provided the judge before whom the
case was tried, after an examination
| recommends il. Wilke does not antici-
pate favorable action by the secretary,
! but even if the fines stand against HIM 1t
| is extremely doubtful if he can be made
| to liquidate. ANYWAY, the matter dOesn t
| seem to trouble him much.
! W. Driskill, formerly a well-known
| Texas stockman, now located in South
| Dakota, is here.
James Sheeks of the Austin bar is in
the city.
TAULBEE's CONDITION.
| WASHINGTON, March L. Ex-Repre-
| sentative Taulbee, who was shot yester-
| day by Charles Kincaid, is resting easy
to-day. He is still at Providence hos
| pital. At 10 O'Clock this morning his
| physicians said there was no material
| change in his condition. It is thought he
! will recover.
| POSTAL TELEGRAPH MATTERS.
WASHINGTON, March DIR. Norvin
Green, president of the Western Union
telegraph company to-day continued his
statement respecting the pending postal
telegraph bill before the house commit
| tee on pUstoffices and postroads. He
said he had seen it stated that the wire
on the Pacific railroad lines belonged to
the government. He did not so under
stand it and, as a matter OF fact, the
government had no power to fix rates
over those lines.
Respecting rates generally, DR.. Green
said that they were about one-half of
those prevailing twenty-five years ago.
The ratio between our own Sand the
The general proposed to re-
duce these rates one-half, and this
in the face of the fact that the
British system had been operated
20 deficit of SI1 800 800 in the past
eleven years, and probably $50 900, 900
since its establishment. Yet the British
system has been instituted under 81 sol
emn pledge that it should be self-sup-
porting The salaries of the British
operators averaged from twenty-SiX TO
twenty-niue dollars per month, while in
New York the average Ciucluding male
and female operators) was SCI As, more
than double the British average. The
British system had about one-ffth of the
poles and one-quaTter OF the wire of those
owned by the Western Union; that it
was comprised in an open, closely set
tied country, so that Its maintenance
cost about one-tourth of the cost OF main
tanning the lines in this country. If our
government embarked in the telegraph
business, it must have managers,
or the business would go to the
bottom. The government could
not do the business as cheaply as
| the Western Union. All of the small
and new companies were under much
larger proportionate expense than the
Western Union, which handles over q
hundred thousand messages day at New
York alone. 1t was cheaper TO do n
large bushes than a small one. An
operator could not be made in year
Operators had TO have eight or ten years
experience before they could be trusted
to manage heavy wire.
DR.. Green presented figures TO show
that the actual cost to the Western Union
was % 4 cents a message. Each Of the
i,rms, wires, poles, rents, salaries, etc. 4,
would cost a small company more in pro-
portion than large one.
Taking up the details of the post
master-general IS plan, DR.. Green said
that at many of the postofices there
would not be sufficient telegraph
business TO pay expenses. It had
been suggested that the postmasters
ut those offices might learn to work the
wires, but would not do so, as they were
usually business men fully employed in
caring for their shops. Then special
corps of operators would have TO be or
. ganized in rooms separate from the post
Office to preserve the secrecy Of the mes
sages. Large battery rooms would have
to be procured, and. altogether, the
present postofiee buildings could not be
made TO accommodate the telegraph sys-
tenn.
! DR.. Green made comparison between
our domestic telegraph rates with those
in Europe, showing that for all distances
over 500 miles our rates were much
lower. Yet, said he, the postmaster
general would establish uniform rate
for I5OO-mile distances. distance over
! which no single wire had ever been sue
cessfuIlv worked. As TO the low rates
, the Western Union had never fought
; opposition companies with low rates. The
. opDosition companies had usually butted
against the Western Union. The last
! formi table competitor it had was the
| | Baltimore and Ohio telegraph company
They had started in to smash things and
il had done it. That company and
ruined three competing companies and