The Elk Mountain pilot., 1918-01-03

ANS, further down the street the National and
American express offices. And in the
field of communication, sacred to the postal
system, under the Constitution, what do you
see? Well, all still in sight, you see the sep
arate Offices of the Western Union and the
presumtiously named Postal" telegraph COM
panies, all vying with each other and the
press companies in the prodigious waste of
the postal resources. When Alexander G. Bell
found he could talk over a wire the news was
cabled to Europe, and the postal telegraph
engineers soon found they could the tele
graph wires for telephoning and telegraphing
at the same moment, and in Europe you see
only one line of poles for both. But the
Maryland roads. the glory of the Union, you
three lines of poes-the Western Union,
the Postal Telegraph (neither rendering any
telephone service,) and the pole lines of the
Bell SYSTEM better telegraph structure
than either telegraph companies, yet it is
dering no public service whatever. Three
pole lines. Yes, even a fourth, for sometimes
the pole lines of competing telephone COM
panes stalk into the phantasmagora. Waste,
waste, perfect carnival of waste of over
head, of men, of material, of capital, of man.
agerial and executive labor.
Now some one is paying this egregious bill
of waste. How is the bill collected? Through
their rates, of course. Let first take the
telegraph rates:
Distance in miles. $50 $50 700 5000
Europe, average .sO.12 sO12 sO.12 "sO.24
United States 80. OPS 0.3O O.5O 100
Australia and Russia.
Before the Parcel Post we had the highest
parcel rates. We still have the highest tele-
graph rates; they run, as YOU see, from two
to four times high with postal systems
for the same distance. The effect of these
rates is that they choke off about four
of our natural telegraphic correspondence.
New Zealand. with our wage and price levels,
and with IL cent rate, shows nine kilograms
per capita, the United States but one Q.15)
per capita. And yet with the letter
rates send 1O1 letters per capita, and the
New Zealander, closest rival, sends SO.
But we rank thirteenth, not first, among the
telegraph users of the world
The Chicago and Milwaukee Telegraph Co.
used to have rate of 10 cents, and later Is
cents, for 10 words. In 1910 the rate
raised to % cents. The kilograms which be-
fore numbered 1O3,24S fell to 1859 in 1910.
while the working cost per telegram rose
from IA to "a cents. Low rates, high utiliza-
tion; high rates, low utilization Low utiliza-
tion, high cost per unit of production, high
utilization, low cost per unit of production.
1t is only common
Gentlemen, look at the telephone, the
toll or long distance rates. They run from
three to seven times high the postal tel
ephone rates of other countries Here is a
statement of the average rates for nine coun-
tries on the continent of Europe.
Distance in miles 100 300 400 500 700
Continental rate 1920 SO.37 s0.39 sO.46 s053
Bell rate ....... O.60 1.s0 24O 800 420
That is, for 100 miles we pay three times,
f~r ,;1a Et,o fnr q
times and for 700 miles eight times the rate
on the Continent of Europe for three-min-
ute conversation.
l am obliged to make seemingly
tional statement about these long distance
rates. Our electrical commitment tions do not