The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-11-02
GOVERNMENT CONTROL PAYS.
Telegraph and Telephone Systems
Seem to Flourish in Germany.
San Francisco Cal.

odl ISHClScO Call
In Germany they do not operate the tele-
graph and telephone on the same plan as
prevails in the United States, and many
thinking travellers assert that the system i'm
duct of those enterprises, as we'll as the
railroad, is a model fit for all nations TO
adopt Details of the way in which EN-
peror Williams country manages the cleo
trical department of government were re-
lated TO a Call reporter yesterday by Helm
rich Hofmeister director of the German
cable station at Emden. He arrived here
on Sunday from Central America, where
he had gone on official business for his
government, and is the guest of his kins-
man, Capt. Herman Meyer, of Meyer, VIII
son & Co. This is DR.. Hofmeister's first
visit to California, though he has often
crossed the ocean TO the Atlantic States.
Asked to state the difference between tele-
graphic service in his country and this DR..
Hofmeister said
''The greatest difference which I have OBJ
served is that we do more for the small
We have arranged it so that the smallest
communities have service twice day for
letters, newspapers, packages and money,
and that they have an efficient telegraph
and telephone service. IN Germany the
mails, the telegraph and telephone are COM
bined in one department, known as the
reichS postant, or as you would call it, the
its head. and since 1876 his strong person
atty has been bent to this one end that in
the matter of intercommunication the peo-
pie Shall have perfect service at the min
iinum of cost. His success has been won
world. His theory is that effective service
at low rates multiplies business. His slogan
was Reduce the tariff
How Go your tolls compare with the
rates in this country" was asked.
Very much lower. The charge for a ten
word message to any part of the empire is
5O pfennigs, or l212 cents of your money"
Irrespective of distance?'
Yes. 1t is the same for five miles as for
five hundred"
''What are tho fa1apbopa fo1lc
Twenty-Five cents for five minutes con
versation. We do not take distance into
account. You can talk from Berlin to
Hamburg at the same rate as to the near
est station. We charge individual sub
scribers $50 marks about $3.50 year for
the of the telephone and there ia no
charge for switches"
is there a deficit or surplus at those
rateS?''
on a handsome surplus every vaar
which Is turned into the general treasury
Lest you may think the charges by your
private corporations are too high as COM
pared with ours l ought in justice to say
graph and telephone system conjointly. In
small places one man acts as postal clerk
When we added the telephone service we
did not incur in many places additional
cost for buildings, employees and incidental
expenses. But, as l said before, the people
OF the interior are better served than Amer
leans. We provide fire alarms, calls for
physicians, weather reports, etc, and we
DO you still string wires on poles?"
Indeed not. We abolished overhead
wires long ago, not only i'm cities. but
throughout the empire. We employ un-
foreground cables, containing seven hard
copper wires. constructed like subma-
rine cables and in encased in iron pipes
like gas mains Germany is one gigantic
spider web of underground cables Main
lines radiate from Berlin TO the outermost
edges of the country. and these radiating
lines are Joined together at regular inter
walls. Spider web exactly describes the sys-
TEN. 1t is DR.. Won Stephan's chef d'oeuvre
With this network under the earth no
meteorological disturbance, however severe
can interfere with the perfect working OF
the wires from Berlin TO any part of the
realm. No invading army could cut the
wires, unless it dug trenches over the face
Of the empire.
Occasionally we string wires on poles In
the country, but we use two poles, strongly
braced, 10 support the cross arms, much
porcelain insulators, which prevent the es-
cape of the electric current. 1t seems to
me that i'm this country your poles are too
ilimsy and your glass insulators imperfect"
DO you think government control of the
telegraph and telephone applicable TO the
United StateST
"Why not? This system is a success in
Europe under every form of government.
You must come II IL sooner or later The
. people demand the best facilities for inter-
communication at the minimum of cost,
and these cannot be secured from private
corporations but only from the government
itself, and IL matters little whether such
government be monarchial or democratic"