The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-21


Telegraph Company, whereas IN point vi
fact 7 have exhibits here TO show that at
80 old Government rate, where the govern
,,,a,t IVES charged for what was given 10
other people free-that IS, the address ana
signatu-e--the gross tolls under thss Oh
rate were only anoaI % per III " oor Nc
tolls to the public. That all comes
- in the suit which we
bsva brought against the government to
80 +ba Question v neither the fixing of rates
below the cost of the service IS not contis-
cation of property without just compensa-
ton.
Va have made I'D an account for three
months. and we have made it up at three
rates. The services as charged for have been
certified TO, and the issue is substantially
made up. The rates to the public on that
account are just twice as much, or about
twice as much, as the rates to the govern
roant for the last year and for
the last six years and about four time as
much as the rates fixed by the Postmaster
General on Oct. so last for the present
fiscal year. which rate was 500 per cent
greater than the rate contained in his pub
lished order of June so, the rate of mill
per word for all distances.
Mr.. Bingham-This bill provides that.
charges for ali words in excess of the first
twenty words shall be at the rate of cent
per word. How does that compare with
your rates
Mir. Green-For most short distances it is
only so per cent. of our rate. For long dis
tances it is only ne-fifth. or 20 per cent. of
our rates. As, for instance, our rate of
81 o. Our rate is usually p cents and
cents: but for many 81 ort distances it is %
cents and l cent For transcoDtinental
messages it is 81 O5. Fifty cents and 3 cents
for additional words is our standard rates,
and rs cents and 4 cents, so that the rates
q AL
40 per cent and 20 per cent of our rates for
additional words.
AFTER CHARTER.
Mr.. Bingham-I have here sent to me
postal telegraph scheme which states that
the undersigned, d. H. Bates, Henry Wise
Garrett, Walter H. Smith, Robert Andrews
and James ii. Hood, by these presents, pur-
suant to and in conformity with the stat
utes, apply, under the law of the state of
Virginia, for a charter. Do you know any
of these parties, or anything about them?
Mr.. Green-I do not know much about
them. | know Mr.. Bates very well. He
was for q long while in the employ of my
company, and afterward in the employ of
the Baltimore q Ohio Company. AS far as
/ have been able to learn, the gentlemen
who are named in these articles of incor-
poration will never build line without
help. Who their backing is do not know.
Mr.. Bingham thought possibly you
might know these telegraph men.
NOT A NEW SCHEME.
Mr.. Green-I want to remind the chair
man, who is an old member Of congress and
probably knows the fact, that this is SUBJ
stantially the same scheme that has been
before congress for twenty-four years, and
has been rejected by every congress which
it has come before. 1t is the Hub
bard scheme. The Postmaster-Gene
now has discovered that he has as much
TO start a line with, as he at first supposed
he had, that his clerks and employees would
not have time to do telegraph business,
that they could not learn the little tick
quite so quickly as he had supposed
they tine o SGoa Hna n the rGsR in in
expected The floor area in our main Office
employed in our business is more than equal
to two acres. We have one floor of 1850
square feet, and four others of IL, 200 square
feet each, which are necessary to our bust
ness, and even then we have to move the
commercial news business out of the build
ing into another one which we have down
Broad street.
WANTS THE Committeeman IN NEW YORK.
l was in hopes that the committee would
accept my invitation to come to New York
and examine our books. They would learn
more with regard to what it takes to consti-
tute telegraph company in one day by an
inspection of the practical operation of it
of the battery rooms, of the dynamo to
manufacture the current, of the re-
ceiving room, of the bockkeep-
ing department. and the depart
ments - than they could ever learn
here. By the way, we have reduced the
bookkeeping to about one-fifth of what it
used to be. Mr.. Hubbard said that we had
made no Improvement in it for twenty-five
years. That shows how little he knows
about it. The Postmaster Generals scheme
was exceedingly impractical He had
about as much to start a telegraph system
with as the countryman when he found a
tar bucket and had to buy wagon and
team to make it Of any use to him.
THE OLD HUBBARD SCHEME.
He has backed out of that and adopted
the old Hubbard scheme of contracting
with new company. That was the original
scheme of the National Telegraph Company.
He wanted congress to charter it and give
him contract, and he has been harping on
that for twenty-five years, but it has been
rejected by every congress which it has
been before. There is one other thing. Mr.
Chairman, to which 1 desire to call atten-
ton. While all the European governments
own and operate the telegraph, there is not
government in Europe that ever estab-
iished telegraph in competition with its
own citizens. There is not government in
a
without buying all the existing properties
at fair price where there were any to buy.
TELEGRAPHY is COMMERCE..
There is not statesman in Europe that
would not sheer at the injustice of the gov
eminent going into business, a.commercial
business. The supreme court of the United
States, byFChief Justice Waite, has declared
that the telegraph is commerce itself and
that it bears the same relation to it that
railways do, not carrying the property in
fact, but the duplicate of it,
and that is generally an adjunct
of 1t. And yet the government proposes to
go into commercial business and give it's
patronage and its assistance to competing
companies against large interested capital
to protect which | insist, under the act of
1866, the good faith of the government is
pledged. More than four-fifths of the tele-
graph properties have been created
since that act. There are num-
Der of other things, and some most
outrageous Misrepresentation l want to
correct, and I want to be heard / will
be here at any day the committee will
name.
ARMED WITH PROOFS
have the record proofs; have got the
original act establishing the overland tels-