Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-02-07
POSTAL CO. Wins
IN CHARGE RULE
Western Union Ordered to De-
sist in Applying Rate to
Transfer Words.

New York, Feb. I'm relation to
the order of the state public service
commission prohibiting the Western
Union Telegraph company from charg-
ing two cents a word for the word
via and the name of the place nee
essarily added when messages are 10
be transferred to the Western Union
for transmission to destinations not
reported by the Postal lines. says
statement issued from the Postal COM
pany's Offices, the Western Union
company is required to advise the com,
mission by Feb. II whether or not it
Will obey the order. The Postal com
pany now receives messages at com
petitive points for points at which
IL has no office, but at which the
Western Union has offices.
The Postal transmits the message
to the cOmpany's own Office that is
nearest to the point of delivery and
at such office transfers the message
to the Western Union and pays for
the transmission from there to the
point of address, the Western Union
charging the regular rate between
point at which it receives the mes
sage and the point at which it is de-
livered. In addition to this regular
charge, the Western Union charges for
the words referred to.
Nov. 8, 1911, the commission made
an order directing the Western Union
to desist from charging the Postal
for the originating address and date
upon transferred kilograms in all cases
where no charge is made for the orig
mating address and dates upon tele-
grams delivered TO the Western Union
company originating at the point of
transfer In the case now decided and
also that decided in November, 1911,
the commission held that the charge
exacted was unjust and discriminate
ing. In the proceeding of 1911 the
Western Unions answer was that the
additional charge was not for the
name Of the originating point OF the
| message and the originating date of
the message, but was for the words
added at the point Of transfer to in
uFSdtS tHdt punt. W AllC INC ACdA
ing was going on the Western Union
changed its position and claimed that
the words charged for were the orig
insl point and date.
The decision in the first case was
against the Western Union, but after
the decision the company made a new
/ rule, under which it now charges for
| the words added at the point of trans
/ fer and cuts down the number OF
words from four or five to three.
In the hearing of the second com
( plant, now passed upon, the Postal
asserted that the change of rule was
merely to obey the decision OF the
commission and this construction was
supported by the fact that throughout
the rest of the United States a new
rule was promulgated about the same
time by the Western Union that the
three extra words charged for should
be the place and state OF the origin
Of the message and the word via"
1t was shown that the Postal com
pany makes no charge for extra word:
on transferred messages, that tn;
Great Northern-Western Telegraph
company makes no such charge, and
that by reason Of the Discrimination
against it by the Western Union i
had been obliged to discontinue trans
hitting messages part way because
the extra charge together with II,
local charge Of the Western UnioI
amounted TO more than was received
for the messages. The decision 0