St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-12
Postmaster General Wanna
maker Wants a Postal Tele-
graph Service.
1t will Be OF Incalculable
Benefit to the Masses Of
the People.
Rates Will Be Cut in Halves
and Everybody Will
Use 1t.
Besides, It Will Make Up the
Deficit in the Postal De-
paptment.

WASHINGTON, req. ll.-GOStlldStcI
General Wanamaker tonight, speaking
of his proposed postal telegraph bill.
which he submitte to the house COM
mittee on postoffices and post routes to-
day. said that it invested the postmaster
general with authority to contract with
responsible parties to connect the free
delivery postoffices of the country by
telegraph, by leasing wires and instru-
ments to be operated by postOffice en-
ployes. He does not propose in his bill
that the government should pur-
chase or build telegraph lines;
nor that a large sum be appro-
priated; nor that new body OF
employees be created, but simply the
utilization of the postoffice buildings,
clerks and carriers now i'll use, and by
the convenience and economy Of Ser-
vice, to greatly accommodate the public
in a business that should not be di-
vorced from the postoffice, as it is moth
ing more or less than the carrying of
messages. Mr.. Wanamaker said to
the committee to-day, in support of his
proposed measure, that he proposed
union of postal and telegraph business
on basis that will not Interfere, to any
rights, but that will
AFFORD INCALCULABLE SERVICE
to classes not now enjoying the use OF
the telegraph to any large degree. He
suggested to the committee to-day that
authority be given him to lease in the
different cities telegraph wires, such as
the great newspapers. great corpora
lions, brokers and others have from city
to city, in order that the common peo-
pie may communicate through their
business offices (the pOStofficeS) from
city to city, or by dropped messages In
their mail boxes. The business offices,
the postoffices. the postmaster general
said, the people already enjoy. They
have the clerks and carriers who travel
with letters over the same streets tray
erSed by the telegraph messengers, and
all that is needed to build
up their service is authority and
wire. He argued that such service
is the legitimate work OF the pOStOffice.
and that the people are right in stoutly
demanding telegraph facilities at postal
stations. He then gave brief history
of the origin and duties of the postofflce
department, and spoke of how the tele
graph, when first brought into use, was
placed under the direction of the post
master general; but owing to the failure
1S47, it passed into the hands of private
persons. While numerous companies
have since come into existence. yet now
the postmaster general said the tele-
graph business Of the country is practi-
cally under the control of the Western.
Union Telegraph company. After
tracing the movement inaugurated in
1869 for a
POSTAL TELEGRAPH SERVICE
and the unanimous report III it's favor
from pOStmaSterS general, and from con-
gressional committees of both parties,
MIR. Wanamaker said that the opposi-
ton to it Is believed to come from two
most powerful and interested parties.
He then went on to compare the re-
ceiptS of the postOffice department, and
the Western Union, and said that the
gross revenue of the department In 1871
was $40, 1885, 900, while the receipts of
the Western Union last year were. S20,-
1888, 900. One hundred million dollars of
net profits, he said, have been paid over
by the people to this one company in
twenty-three years. The revenues of the
department have doubled within fifteen
years, while the business and receipts
of the Western Union have doubled in
ten years. He read statistics showing
that this country led Great Britain in
mail, but was far behind in the number
of kilograms. He maintained that ex-
perience has shown that every decided
advance III the way of added facilities,
conveniences and cheapnesS has been
appreciated by the public, and cited as
examples the reduction of postage
from three to two cents and the In
PRODUCTION of the postal card and
the increase in business and in
revenue that followed both of these
changes. He thought this would prove
to be the case If the telegraph rates
were reduced. Referring to the argu-
ment that only about 5 per cent of the
kilograms sent were family and social
and the rest commercial and Specu-
lative; and that as not more than per
cent of the people use the telegraph
the rest should not be taxed to pay the
deficit sure to be caused by cheap tele-
graph rates, Mr.. Wanamaker argued
that if the postmaster general was au-
thoriZed to contract with telegraph
company now organized, or to be
formed for this purpose, that the post
Office will largely increase Its business,
and that
THERE WILL BE NO DEFICIT.
''The poStOffice department" Mr..
Wanamaker maintained, ''is not now
self-sustalning, because it is charged
with carrying free the vast volume of
mail matter of the various executive de-
partments Of the government; handles
the newspapers of the country for prac-
tically nothing. and allows the oppor-
tunity to pass by not handling cheap
Geographic messages because of the in
corporated companies who dispute the
ground" Instead of interfering with
the business of the present companies
this plan, he thinks, would have the
effect of increasing the demand.
The Western Union has 1S,740 offices,
while the government has $4,000 post
Offices, and the latter are always CEN
trally located to the business centers,
and not always with special reference
to railroad convenience. In conclusion,
MIR. Wanamaker presented to the COM
mittee copy of the bill which, he
said, embodied his views as he had ex-
planned them. Under the proposed bill
the telegraph tolls in any one state shall
not exceed 10 cents for messages of
twenty words or less, counting the ad-
dress and signature, nor over 25 cents
for any distance under 1,50O miles, nor
over so cents for any greater distance,
said rates and rules and regulations tn