The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-05
CANNOT EXACT THE
EXTRA WORD CHARGE
Order in Favor of Postal Company
Made by New York Service
= Commission

Albany February 4.-tSpecial)-In re-
lation to the order of the upstate serv-
ice commission prohibiting the Western
Union Telegraph company from cents a
word for the via" and the name of the
place necessarily added when messages
are to be transferred to the Western
Union for transmission to destinations
not reached by the Postal lines, the
Western Union company is required to
advise the commission by February 10
whether or not it will obey.
The Postal company now receives mes
sages at competitive points for points at
which it has no office. but at which the
Western Union has offices The Postal
transmits the message to its 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 point of adj
dress, the Western Union charging the
regular rate between the point at which
it receives the message and the point at
which 1t is delivered In addition to this
regular charge the Western Union
charges for the words referred to.
Ou ANONcillDti thc tOiiiiiiSSioh
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 kilograms
delivered to the Western Union company
originating at the point of transmission.
In the cases now decided and also that
decided in. November, 1911, the commits
sion held that the charge exacted was
unjust and discriminatory. In the pro-
ceeding of 1911, the Western Union
claimed that the additional charges 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 indi-
cate that point. While the hearing was
going on. sthe Western Union changed
its position and claimed the words
charged for were the original 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 transfer and cuts
down the number of words from four or
five to three. In the hearings of the
second complaint now passed upon, the
Postal asserted that the changing of
rules was merely to obey the decision
of the commission and this contention
was supported by the fact that through
out 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 company makes
no charge for extra words on trans
ferred messages, that the Great North
western Telegraph company makes no
such charge and that by reason of the
discrimination against it by the Western
Union it had been obliged to discontinue
transmitting messages part way because
the extra charge of the Western Union
amounted to more than was received for
the message.
The decision of the commission just
made forbids the imposition of charge
for any words attendant upon transfer
of messages from one company to the
other and is victory for the Postal
company. The order is effective on
March |.