Year: 1873

The ExtorttOns OF the Anglo-American


and Western Union Telegraph Conn


pnnies-Another Letter from Minister


schcnck.


We publish in the HERALD to-day another
official communication addressed by General
Schenck to Secretary Fish on the subject of
the excessive charges made by the Anglo
American and Western Union Telegraph
companies on transatlantic messages sent
through the cable and over the land lines OF
the latter corporation to points south and west
of this city. Some time since our Minister Mt
London brought to the knowledge of the
United States government the fact that
combination exists between the two companies
in question, by which such messages are taxed
o much higher tariff per word than is charged
on home messages transmitted over the West
ern Union lines from New York to the same
points. This statement was substantiated by
quotations from the published rates of the
two companies 1t was shown that on cable
despatch sent from London to Washington the
Anglo American Company in the former city
collects, besides the regular rate for the
cable service to New York, an additional
tariff per word of moro than double
the published charge of the West
ern Union Company on messages passing
between New York and Washington. Tho
same excessive rates were proved to be ex-
torted on messages destined to Albany, Buff
falo, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other large
cities, and even on those passing only to
Brooklyn and Jersey City. The exaction was
shown to be the more outrageous from the
fact that the excessive tariff is collected on the
address and signature of the cable message,
while in accordance with the rules of the
Western Union Company, the address and sig
nature are entitled to 60 free. General
Schenck based his exposure of this unjust
practice upon the immediate ground that the
government of the United States is q sufferer
thereby, being compelled to pay on all de-
spatches passing between Europe and WASH
ington o double tariff for the land service
between New York and the national capital,
amounting in year to very considerable
item but of course the whole business COM
munity is interested in the matter, and it
would have been equally the duty of our Min
lister to have exposed the extortions of o for
eign corporation enjoying privileges from the
United States if the government had not been
the loser of dollar by the exaction.


There have been two attempts to reply to
the first statement put forth by General
Schenck-one by the President of the West
ern Union Company here, the other by the
General Manager of the Anglo-American Com
pany in London. These replies are charac-
teristic of the parties from whom they ema-
nate. The Western Union, bold in it's sense
of power, half denies and half justifes its
alleged extortions. Seizing upon the asser-
ton made by General Schenck, that the ex-
cessive tariff is divided between the two cor
porations in the proportion of one-third to
the English company and two-thirds to the
American, Mr. Orton avows that no such
arrangement exists. He quotes the rates to
some of the most distant points, to which few,
if any, cable messages are ever sent, in order
to refute the charge OF extortion, and he
shrewdly seeks to befog the issue by referring
to the charges of the Western Union on mes
sages received in American cities outside
New York for transmission through the cable.
He also meets the Ministers solicitude by the
statement that the dispatches of our govern
ment are sent over the cable at half rates.
The brief letter addressed by the manager
of the Anglo-American Company to General
Schenck can scarcely be digniied by the
name of reply to tho Minister'S statement
1t is simply waspish complaint of the ''un-
warranted structures" alleged to be con-
tanned in that statement and rather imperti-
nent assertion that the government OF the
United States has 'only paid half the current
rates of the (Anglo-American) company for
some years past" General Schenck's present
communication to Secretary Fish is in response
to the letters called forth from the officers
of the two companies by his first expose He
shows that no denial has been made by either
corporation of the main charge, that ''sys-
tematic imposition" is practised by them in
the collection of tariff more than double the
regular published rates on all cable messages
passing beyond New York to the South or
West, and by the imposition of such excessive
tariff on the words contained in the address
and signature to such messages, which are
entitled to 60 free over the Western Union
lines. General Schenck argues, justly, that
if the dispatches of the United States
government were in reality transmitted
at half rates over the cable, that fact
would not justify the extortion by the COM
bined monopolies of an excessive tariff for
the land service; but he explains that the pre-
H. = =
reality only an arrangement by which ciphers
used in an official despatch for the purpose of
secrecy shall not be charged double rates.
The exaction of a double rate for cipher de-
spatchcs is one of the greedy tricks of the