The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-08-03

Aho oiu-tme telegIapners are TO nave re-
union in Washington before long The in
PRODUCTION of telegraphy into this country
was not SO long ago that many of them may
not be able to remember the beginning Of
the great invention In the city where it had
Its first practical tria'. The improvements
made In telegraphy within their lifetimes,
and the strides this method of communca-
tioa has made In popular favor will be never
ending themes of conversation with them.
The first attempt to report the doings Of Con-
gress by telegraph from the Capitol build
ing was in 1857. The first telegraph office in
the Capitol was then opened by affixing a
single instrument on a window sill In one of
the stairways leading to the old hall of the
House Of Representatives. The amount of
matter sent for many years was Insignificant
Up to 1861 this one office In the Capitol,
with one operator, handled all the press mat
ter and private dispatches. During this pc
riod the greatest number of words sent dug
ing the day session of Congress was 5000.
and the greatest number Of private dispatch
es $50. Up to the breaking out Of the war,
5000 words Of press matter was considered
good nights work at the main telegraph
ONCE The press sent 75.0 900 the night Presi-
dent Lincoln was assassinated, and at that
time 1t was considered an enormous feat. But
1t was little compared with what is done
now. A Washington correspondent has
certained that the day that President Gar
field was shot the Western Union sent 270,-
600 words. This was exclusive of the work
OF the Baltimore and Ohio lines. of the regu-
lar press associations over their own wires,
and Of the vast amoant of matter sent on the
private wires of the newspapers. The total
ranged between $4,000 and 100000. The
maximum of press work by the Western
Union was reached on the occasion of Presi-
dent Cleveland's Inauguration. The total on
that day was 100000. Besides, the press as
soclations and the special wires were corres-
pondinely busy, The present daily summer
average Of the Western Union is from $4,000
to $4,000 words. The average during the
sessions of Congress now ranges from 100000
to 100000 daily. This is the work In single
city, although perhaps the greatest city in
the country for the transmission of press de.
spatches. But the commercial business of
Washington cannot be anything like that Of
New York or Chicago. Wonderful progress
the old telegraphers have witnessed in the
days Of the years of their pilgrimagesl
The Argus returned to the tariff Saturday
and signalized its exploit with the assertion
that the duty on raw sugar was strictly a
protective duty. We will admit that the duty
on sugar was intended to be protective
duty when 1t was put on. 1t was thought
that enough sugar might be produced in
Louisiana to supply the needs of the country
alta low price. But after fair trial it was
found out that Louisiana could not produce
enough to supply our wants, and that our
main reliance must be upon foreign sugar
Hence 1t becomes evident that the tariff on
sugar was essentially the same as the tariff
on tea and coffee,-a revenue tariff and not
protective tariff. The Argus, in arguing
that the sugar tariff was a protective tariff,
says I'VE did produce sugar, we do produce
sugar, We can produce sugar. According to
the supporters of the Mckinley bill there is
every probability that in a few years we
shall produce all the sugar needed for our
own consumption and perhaps have sur
plus for export If this should be done by
the means of bounty, it will be convincing
proof that 1t could have been done under
protective tariff, provided the duty were high
enough to prevent the competition Of the
foreign products which is the principal of
the Mckinley bill as whole" This is
an entire misconceptlon of the exist
ing condition. We never have been
able to produce sugar as we have
produced paper and iron and other protected
articles, which have supplied our own mar
kets and competed with foreign products.
1t was because we expected never to be able
to do this that the duty on sugar was taken
off. The object of the bounty is entirely
misrepreseDted by the Argus. The bounty
was not intended to build up the sugar in
dustry In this country. There were many
sugar planters in the good old Democratic
State Of Louisiana who had invested great
deal Of money in farms and plants for the
manufacture of sugar, under the implied
promise of the government that they should
be protected. When 1t was Il und that this
protection taxed the Peep without any
prospect that 1t would ever lie anything but
a tax, the Republicans decided to remove it,
But In order that they might not use un-
fairly the men In Louisiana who had en-
barked their capital In the business, they
put on temporary bounty to take the place
OF the tariff until the sugar planters might
get out Of the business. The sugar bounty
was intended only to allow the sugar plant
ers to get out without ruin from the business
which the government had induced them to
enter under certain promises of recompense.
With this end in view the bounty decreases
each year. and terminates entirely within a
limited time. The sugar bounty was meas
ure Of good faith undertaken by Republican
Congress for the benefit Of the Democratic
sugar planters Of Louisiana. The Argus
misrepresents entirely the nature of the su-