The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-01-18
AUSTRALIA FAIREST coMPAR-
ISoN, AND THERE MESSAGES
COST LITTLE OVER ONE.
THIRD THE UNITED STATES
RATE, WITH NO DEFICIT.
BY gibson GARDNER.
special Correspondence to The Press


would be the result of government
supervision or ownership of the tel
egraph. This is the conclusion of
the investigation made by the bu-
reau of labor under the supervision
of Commissioner Charles S. Neill
The governments conclusions
come at a time quite opportune for
answering certain statements re-
Gently put into circulation by Of
ficials of the telegraph companies.
One of these, for example, in the
form of an interview with ]. c.
bmith. superintendent at Dallas for
Me southwestern district of the
Western Union Telegraph Co., says
0mong other things:
"The rates in this country. when
Oileage is taken into consideration,
Ore lower than the rates in other
countries, even where the tele-
Draph Is in the hands of the gov
0rnment It is my understanding
chat the telegraph department of
the British government deficits
many million dollars ecah year"
The facts are exactly contrary to
the above statement. In all coun-
tries where the telegraph is owned
or managed by the government the
service is better and the rates are
lower than in the United States.
But the simplest and fairest COM
parison is that drawn from the ex-
perience of Australia. In Australia
there are great distances to be con-
sidered, just as in the United
States. though the population of
Australia is only about 100000,
as compared with 100000 in the
United States.
1t may be surprise to some peo-
pie to learn that the telegraph rate
in Australia is less than a half and
probably not more than third of
the rate in the United States. The
area of Australia is about the area
of the United States. The Difficult
ties of building and maintaining
telegraph lines are much greater in
Australia Many of their lines are
built through regions which were
UNEMPLOYED until they were eX-
plored for this purpose. But in
spite of the physical difficulties
and the 10 wrates the Australian
telegraph system is run without
any deficit.
In Australia there are $4,000
miles of telegraph lines, with some
thing over a hundred Thousand
miles of wire. With the exception
of Russia. France and Germany the
mileage in Australia is actually
greater than in any European coun-
try. Considering the inhabitants,
and excepting only New Zealand,
the mileage of the Australia tele-
graph is six times as great as that
of any country in the world.
In the United States we have ii
postoffice for every 1000 persons
and a telegraph station for every
5000. In Australia there is a post
office for every $50 persons and a
telegraph station for every 1900
persons. We, with a population of
S5.000.000, have about $1,000 tele-
graph stations, while Australia,
with a population of 100000, has
above 5000 telegraph stations. In
Australia practically every post
office is a telegraph station. The
telegraph is run as an incident of
the postal service. If we had tele-
graph offices in our postoffices we
would have 1900 telegraph offices
instead of $4,000.
How much cheaper telegraphing
is in Australia than in the United
States appears in a glance at the
following, which are the Australian
rates:
For town and suburban messages
suburban meaning practically a
radius of 10 miles beyond the city
limits-the rate fixed is II cents
for a message not exceeding 16
words, which includes the address
and signature.
For messages to any point within
the same state from which they are
sent the charge is fixed at Is cents
for the same number of words.
For messages to any other state
within the commonwealth the
charge for a message of similar
length is "a cents. In all cases the
charge for extra words beyond the
16 Is q uniform rate of two cents a
word. Delivery is made within
radius of one mile from the receiv-
ing office and for this there is no
extra charge.
II Is interesting to compare the
Australian rate with the rate in the
United States. For example. the
rate on 20 word message from
Washington, ID. c.. to Birmingham,
Ala, is so cents. Under the Aus
tralian system 1t would be 22k
cents. From Washington, d. c., to
Prescott, Ariz., our rate Is dollar.
In Australia the same service
would cost 80 cents. From Wash
ington 10 Chicago our rate is so