Year: 1869

statement designed to show by ngures the
great advantage to the public in general and
to the press in particular Of leaving the tele-
graph business of the country in the hands of
grasping and ''pestiferous" monopoly, and
the injury they would suffer by allowing the
government to become the transmitter Of tele-
graphic messages, as it now Is Of mail corre-
spondence. The object is to make 1t appear
that the people enjoy better accommodation,
cheaper rates and more liberality and courtesy
from private company in the telegraph busi-
ness than they would if the lines were under
control Of government employees. "Might
your name be Smith 2" asked stranger of
passenger in the street. swell, it might be,
was the reply; 'sbut it's not Smith, by darned
sight" The case made out by the telegraph
ring might be good one but for the difficulty
that all the figures are bogus and all the pre-
tended facts the merest fiction.


The truth is that the acquisition of the tele-
graph by the government in every instance
wherever it has been tried has led to three
results-the extension of facilities to the pub
lic, the cheapening of rates and the increase
in the number OF messages sent over the
wires. In Belgium the adoption of the gov
ernment system was followed by reduction
of thirty-three per cent in the rates, which
Immediately occasioned an increase of eighty
per cent in the number of messages. A
further reduction of fifty per cent in the rate
in the same country in 1866 produced an
additional increase of eighty-fve per cent in
the messages. In Prussia in 1867 reduction
of thirty-three per cent in the rate was fol-
lowed by an increase in the very first month
after the change of seventy per cent in the
messages. In France in 1862 reduction Of
thirty-fve per cent in the rate was followed
by an increase Of sixty-four per cent in the
messages. In Switzerland, in January 1868,
the inland rate Of telegraphing was reduced
fifty per cent, and in the first three months
there was an increase Of ninety per cent in
the number of inland messages over the cor
responding three months of the previous year.
committee of the British Parliament from
official reports Of the several governments,
and they show, first, that the reduction of the
rates Of telegraphing is a uniform result of the
government system, and that such reduction
Immediately draws into the use of electric cor
respondence large number of additional per-
sons, and thus increases and extends the use
fulness of this important means Of communi-
cation. Equally clear from statistical state
ments is the fact that the rate of telegraphng
in III xuh <ho 1iuo ~ 1 L.
government and worked in the interest of the
people is from fifty to seventy-fve per cent
lower than in countries where the business is
in the hands of private corporations. What
ever fraudulent statements and bogus figures
may be paraded to deceive the uniformed and
to aid the lobby in their efforts to defeat the
proposed telegraphic reform, it is clearly
established that the government system
secures cheap rates, increases the facilities for
telegraphing and largely extends the use Of
the electric wires among the people as means
of communication.


The character of this fraudulent plea for
the Western Union monopoly is shown in the
statement which purports to prove the advan-
tages derived by the press where the tele-
graph is in private hands by pretended COM
parison Of the rates in Continental Europe
and the United States. A table is made out
of the gross receipts and average cost of tele-
grams in Continental Europe for the year
1866, showing the latter to be eighty -one
cents per message, and Of the gross receipts
and average cost of press kilograms in the
United States for the same year, showing the
latter to be three and half cents per mes
sage. But the European statement is based
upon individual kilograms, while the latter is
for press kilograms, there being no fair COM
parison between the two. Nor is this all.
The bogus figures pretend to show that the
gross receipts of the Western Union Company
for messages furnished to all the newspapers
in the United States in 1866 were only Eve
hundred thousand dollars. The HERALD itself
paid to the Western Union Company in 1866
more than one-ffth of that amount, exclusive
Of cable special dispatches. Thus, either the
statement is false or the HERALD pays for its
telegraphic news more than one-fifth Of
the whole amount paid by all the rest OF
the American press from Madawaska
to San Diego. But the fact is that
the press, even more than the general business
community, is benefited by the government
telegraphic SYSTEM for the decrease in press
rates has uniformly been even greater than
that in general rates. DR.. Cameron, the pro-
pfietor Of the Glasgow North British Mai,
testified before the Parliamentary committee
that the Scottish newspapers paid to the pri-
vate telegraph companies seven hundred and
fifty pounds year for the exclusive use Of
special wire for eight hours, while under the
Post Office system they were to have special
wire for twelve hours every night for five hun
dred pounds year. In twelve hours twenty
four thousand words could be transmitted over
tha &C 4hia ..uda= 4ho