El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1919-01-28
PLAN FOR UNIVERSAL SERVICEI
OF TELEGRAPH, MUCH CHEAPER

IF the Moon bill before congress should be enacted
into before the telegraph and telephone companies
restored TO their owners It viii mean universal tee-
Eapheleph0ne service such as the country never knew
before and at greatly reduced rates.
By its provisions It viii permit joint working arrange
between the telegraph and telephone companies,
which with the recently perfected inventions VIII bring
about couveniences hitherto believed possible One Of
these is the utilization by telegraph companies Of the te
phone wires Of the country. Millions Of miles Of wires
being wasted today because the telegraph companies
not use the telephone wires.
When the Bell Telephone company acquired the West
Union Telegraph company an attempt was made to
put into effect what the Moon viii permit
combination working ARRANGEMENT between the two com
ps1es 10 the greater benefit OF the pubcbut the She
antitrust law invoked and a dissolution
forced improvements which had already inaugUraed
held BY this decision The Moon measures, which
hoped to have enacted before the wire companies
returned to their owners, VIII permit the joint operation
Of any telegraph and any telephone company and, by
placing the entire wire system of the country under gov
eminent supervision viii make this operation impartial
For instance II the Bell company should enter into any
Of agreement with the Western Union such agree
snt would also be open to the Postal any other tee
graph company. Not only would the Bell company be
permitted TO enter into working arrangements with the
Telegraph companies but any private telephone corporation
could do the same and N cities where private telephone
systems IN operation they would have the option Of
enjoying any benefits the Bell company might receive
result Of its working afation with the telegraph
paHy.
The biggest convenience to the public as result Of
such arrangement would be a universal telegraph
vice Fer instance every telephone toll line would be
telegraph station also where messages would be received
telegraph company. Say example, Urgan New
Mexico has only telephone line At present, send
message New YORK from Las Cruces It so cents From
Organ to Las Cruces the long distance call is IS cents
Under the arrangement which the Bell Telephone company
the Union Telegraph company had before the
dissolution (Which would be restored under the Moon
mesure, teegraphc message would be received at the
Organ long distance office the teegaphie rate such
message would be received for New York if Organ had
regular telegraph station As Organ further from
New York than Las Cruces the Organ would get the
benefit Of the Las Cruces telegraph rate and would have
10 pay but 80 cents for his message 1t would be tee
ph0ned from Organ to Las Cruces and from there tee
grsphed New York The telegraph company would lose
a few cents and the telephone company would lose
few cents but the Organ would be getting the same
sort Of service he could get he lived Cruces OF
Fl Paso He cannot get this tiday Instead Of choking
competition this arrangement would help competition for
The Organ telephone would have give the message
at Las Cruces 70 the company having the drec route
70 New York whether the company the Postal the
Western Union
Nov for the saving that viii come to the public By
recent invention, which has been tested and proved thor
oughy worthy and reliable II IS possible carry five
telephone conversations copper circuit which IN
the past carried but conversation Also It possible
&c carry seTers-at least sx-teegraph circuits over the
sane vre while the conversations in progress neither
interfering with the other As the telephone wires are all
copper and better adapted to eegaphc than the
wires o. the telegraph companies II IS natural that the
telegraph companies would ike to employ these wires
They would be compelled under the Moon measure to ut
these wires before creating Naturally this
VII reduce the cost Of operating and, with government
peTvon Il must bring down the to the public-and
stl the companies would much their investment
as ever The overhead and construction cost would be
greatly reduced; the public would get the benefit Of It.
As example Of how this works. the Bell Telephone
company has two pairs Of copper between FL Paso
and Los Angeles equal to at least Y telegraph circuits
Used at the present time; these leased BY the Asso
GATED Press There vacant copper circuits for teIe
graphic between Los Angeles and E Paso for several
more distinct circuits the lines Of the Bell Telephone
company today which the company could use for CONNER
cal purposes The Noon would only permit
s uuI would compel the use OF these circuits by tele
graph companies before they did any new construction.