The herald., 1897-04-11
The leading banks of Europe reported

|
The leading banks of Europe reported
specie on hand on the 1st as follows:
| Bank of England. nd............... l96 40. 900
| Bank of France. e................. & 6ssV @ w ~
| Austro-H Hungary Bank.......... 2ls.lN. 900
| Bank of Netherlands. .......... 1927. 900
| Bank of Belgium. ................ 2Qs!I.0OO
| Bank of Spain. in................... v6.5l5,OVl
April 2, 1895 ..................... 146i 4ol 900
Decrease NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. $2OfiS,Ov
The difference between this year and
| last is becoming less from month to
! month. Two months ago it was s4S 646.
0OO The Bank of England has s44, 600, 900
less than last year, and the Bank of
France s10,550000 less, more than one
half of which represents loss of gold.
The Austro- Hungary bank has $2S,292,-
900 more than year ago.
Apropos of the trouble which the new
Home Telephone company has been hav-
ing with the council in getting permis-
sion to draw its breath as a healthy
business bantling in competition with
the beneficent if expensive monopoly
now existing, it may be of interest to
councilmen and taxpayers as well as to
users of the telephone TO suggest that
under a decision recently rendered by
Nathan Goff, judge of the United States
circuit court of Virginia, telephone COM
panies and the people who want to start
and maintain them are not altogether
at the mercy of the governing body of
municipality. Judge Golf decides that
a telephone company is, in effect, tele-
graph company; that it has the right of
use of the public streets of city under
reasonable conditions, Independent of
such ordinance impositions as councils
may decide. However, the opinion fur
ther indicates that telephone and tele-
graph companies must submit to reason
able regulations. provided these regula-
tions do not tend to undermine their ex-
istence.
The decision is of such an important
character that we quote it in part. The
learned judge said:
TT Is set forth in the bill that the COM
plainant in the city of Richmond main
tains telephone office, connected by
wires with large number of subscrib-
ers, all of whom are connected with the
Office of the Western Union Telegraph
company in that city, and that all such
subscribers may, and many of them do,
transmit through their instruments
connected with said wires, and through
such Office of complainant to the West
ern Union Telegraph company, messages
addressed and intended to be sent, and
which are sent to other points In other
states. the District of Columbia, foreign
countries under an agreement which
has existed for years between the COM
plainant and said Western Union Tele
graph company.
"Complainant also claims that its
wires poles and instruments, as To-
Gated and used along and over the
streets of the city of Richmond are
so located and used under the provi~
sions of. and are protected by the laws
of the United States. for the reason that
on the 18th of February, 1889, it duly
filed with the postmaster-general of the
United States its acceptance of the
terms of the act of congress, entitled An
act to aid in the construction of tele-
graph lines and to secure to the govern.
ment the use of the same for postal
military, and other purposes approved
July "a 1866, by which it was, among
other things, provided that any tele-
graph company then formed or there
after organized under the laws of any
state, which would file a written ac-
ceptance with the postmaster general
of the restrictions and obligations Of
said act, should have the right to con-
duct. maintain and operate lines of tele-
graph over and along any of the mill
tary and postroads of the United States
which had then been, or might thereaf-
/. To-
The judge then quotes the ordinance
passed by the city of Richmond giving
the complainant permission to erect
poles and run wires thereon for the pur
pose of telegraphic communication
throughout the city of Richmond on the
public streets thereof, and also quotes
the ordinance which later repealed the
first one and practically put the COM
plainant company out of business
He then says: THE defendant insists
that the act of congress. before mer-
toned. entitled An act to aid in the
construction of telegraph lines and to
secure TO the government the use of
the same for postal military and other
purposes does not apply to the COM
plainant, and that, therefore, the claim
made in the bill that the complainant
is entitled TO the benefits secured there
by is wothout merit. The insistence is
that the complainant is a telephone
company and that said act of congress
only embraces telegraph companies.
"A number of courts the decisions of
which are worthy of our serious con-
sideration, if not binding authority upon
us, have held that telephone company
is a telegraph company, and that a COM
pany authorized to construct and oper-
ate telegraphs, was empowered to es-
tablish telephone service.
'On this question see Attorney-Gen-
eral VS.. Telephone company, @. B.,
Div. 244; Telephone Compay VS.. City
of Oshkosh, Wis. 3, 21 N. w. Rep S2s;
Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph
company VS.. United Electric Railway
company, AZ Fed, 173; Duke VS.. Central
New Jersey Telephone company, So,
New Jersey Law Rep. 341; Chesapeake