The proposed union of the telegraph and postal systems Statement of the Western Union Telegraph Company — Text and Context

il the third year of the rebellion, when the depreciation of the currency necessitated the increasing of the salaries of employees from fifty to one hundred per cent, and enhanced the price of material in a corresponding ratio, compelling a considerable increase of the tariff on despatches. Since the war closed, most of the important tariffs have been reduced to their original standard, without any corresponding reduction of the price of material or labor.

In contrast with this, we need only to point to the large advance in railway fares and transportation, in the cost of entertainment at hotels, in the prices of daily newspapers, and in that of almost every commodity or service which the people enjoy; and yet the telegraph, like all other enterprises, has been burdened with the same increase in the cost of labor and materials.

NO SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE TELEGRAPH AND POSTAL SYSTEMS.

The idea which has been repeatedly broached, that the telegraph and postal communication are in the same category, is entirely fallacious. The telegraph does that which the post cannot do, and which, before the telegraph was invented, remained undone. If the public use the telegraph at a cost of 25 cents when they might use the mail at a cost of three cents, it is obvious that the use of the telegraph implies something essentially different from the use of the post. If they use the post, with its tardy departure and delivery, instead of the telegraph with its instant and continuous departure and delivery, it is equally obvious that there is something implied in the use of the post that is not to be obtained by the use of the telegraph.

Postal correspondence and telegraph communication are two very distinct things.

A telegram announces sudden illness; death; an accident; prices of gold every five minutes; prices of stocks every hour; sudden fluctuations in the values of commodities; orders rooms at a hotel, while the sender is _en route_ and flying to the distant city as rapidly as steam can carry him; countermands orders and instructions contained in letters sent by post; orders letters to be returned unopened; orders the arrest of fugitives from justice after they have taken their departure on the railway; orders the search for a package left in the cars, and its return by a succeeding train; announces that the Merrimac has destroyed several ships of war, and may get to sea in spite of the Monitor and ravage the coast; announces that the flag has been fired upon at Charleston, and in twenty minutes arouses the entire nation. None of these things are possible for the post. Before a letter could convey the intelligence of the sudden illness, the patient is dead, or convalescent; the dead is buried; gold has changed in price a hundred times; stocks have gone up and down; the man arrives at his hotel twenty-four hours in advance of his letter; the instructions in the letters have been acted upon, and no subsequent ones can repair the damage; the fugitive from justice escapes out of the country; the package left in the cars is irretrievably lost; the Merrimac has been sent to the bottom, and the alarm caused by the tidings through the post, which must continue until another arrival, is groundless; and the flag has been insulted a month, before all the patriots of the country have heard the tidings by the slow, plodding mail.

The telegram is often the index to the more full and copious information conveyed by the post, but it does not supersede it. There is no similarity in the conveyance of matter by post or telegraph.

A letter deposited in a post-office is placed in a bag, and carried to its destination with no less labor and expense than if _ten_ letters were so deposited. The time taken in transport is the same. A leather bag covers a thousand letters as easily as a solitary note. It was this fact which led to the reduction of postage. But it was accomplished without the loss of an hour to government, without the enlargement of a coach, or any considerable increase in the compensation paid for the service. It involved no new brain-labor, no new responsibilities, no new expense. Under such circumstances high postage was a folly, and to return to it would be almost a crime.

A communication by telegraph, on the contrary, demands a calm, unoccupied brain, and a steady hand to manipulate its contents, letter by letter. A slip of the finger from the manipulating key changes its meaning; a truant thought alters the manuscript; a shadow of forgetfulness mars its whole design. It demands a whole wire for its use, and a given time for its solitary passage. Hence the necessity for multiplying the wires and enlarging the operating staff.

Added to all this is the necessity for repeating this process when destined to any point not directly reached by the originating office.

Over and over again have many of the messages left in the hands of telegraph companies to be translated or re-written before they reach their destination; very different from the sealed letter, which needs but the toss of a practised hand to change its route and put it under the cover of a new bag.

The difference between the use of the post and telegraph is well shown by the practice of the Western Union Telegraph Company, _which requires all of its employees to use the mail, instead of the telegraph, in every case where the interests of the company will not suffer by the delay_. All check errors, and discrepancies in accounts, are settled by correspondence through the mail, where the same might be done more readily, though at far greater expense, by the use of the wires. Now, if the company owning the lines, and working them, can better afford to pay the postage on its communications, than to block up the wires with its own free business, it shows a very radical difference between the expense of transmitting matter by steam, or horse-power, and doing the same by electricity.

COLLECTION AND DELIVERY OF TELEGRAMS BY LETTER-CARRIERS IMPRACTICABLE.

The plan proposed for the collection and delivery of telegrams by letter-carriers is equally impracticable. The rapid and safe delivery of messages is the great difficulty with which the telegraph companies have to contend, and the amount paid for this service forms a very material portion of the expense attending the operation of the system. How would this service be performed if left to the Post-Office Department? In 1865—the last year containing the statistics of the number of letters sent through the United States mail—the Postmaster-General estimates the number of letters transmitted at 467,591,600. No statement of the total number of letters delivered by carrier in the United States is given in the Postmaster-General’s reports for 1865 or 1866, but he states that the number of cities at which free delivery is established is 46, and the total number of carriers, 863; that 582 carriers are attached to ten offices, from which are delivered 38,060,009 letters. If the remaining 281 carriers, who are distributed among 36 offices, deliver as many in proportion, we have a total of 56,446,004 letters delivered for the year, or about nine per cent of the whole number transmitted through the mail. This does not present a very flattering result, and does not argue very favorably for the satisfactory delivery of thirteen millions of telegrams, through the same channel, at over 4,000 offices!

Compare with these meagre results the operations of the British Post-Office, which employs 11,449 carriers, and annually delivers 705,000,000 letters.

As for the collection of telegrams from street boxes, the very idea is in direct antagonism to the first principles of telegraphic communication. A street box may answer the purpose of a place of deposit for a letter intended for the next day’s mail, but those who desire to communicate by telegraph want immediate and speedy communication. They require their message conveyed, and very frequently answered, whilst they wait in the telegraph office. They have no idea of depositing their messages to await the diurnal collection from the street box. Indeed, the idea is too absurd to be seriously discussed. There are upwards of 100 telegraph offices in the city of New York alone, and a proportionate number of branch offices in all the cities. Is it probable that persons who wish to send a despatch will walk several miles to send it by government line rather than patronize private lines at their own doors?

We cannot think that a department whose expenses exceed its receipts by $6,437,991.85 in a single year; which cannot even _guess within a hundred millions_ of the number of letters it transmits per annum; which provides only forty-six free delivery offices out of a total of 29,387 post-offices in the United States; which does not even pretend to give the number of letters delivered free for any one year; and which sends over 4,500,000 letters to the Dead-Letter Office per annum, is a very proper guardian of so important an interest as the Electric Telegraph.

The space occupied for the various telegraph offices in all the principal cities of the United States is considerably greater than that required by the post-offices, while the rent paid by our company, owing to the more central and eligible situations of our offices, is greatly in excess of that paid by the Post-Office Department. In New York, our company pays $40,000 per annum for rent of its central office alone. So far as space and eligibility of location is concerned, we could much better accommodate the public by the delivery of their letters at our numerous offices, than they are now accommodated at the remote and inconvenient places provided for them by the government, and in all respects we could much better handle the mails than the post-office, as now located and generally conducted, could manage the telegraph.

MR. WASHBURNE’S PROPOSED EXPERIMENTAL LINE.

“In the present position of the finances of the country, it would hardly be wise to enter upon an extended experiment. It should be tried at first on a limited scale, and at small cost. If it proves successful, and becomes what the telegraph under other government control has become in other countries,—a source of revenue, as well as an inestimable boon to the community,—it ought to be, and doubtless will be, extended. The amount necessary to construct a suitable line from Washington to New York, and to sustain it until it becomes self-sustaining, will not exceed $75,000, and it is the belief of experienced telegraphers that, with a tariff of charges as low as that of Belgium and Switzerland, and with an additional charge of single postage upon each message, the line would be self-sustaining from the beginning, and would probably repay its entire cost long before the value of the structure was materially impaired.”

The results of lowering tariffs for telegrams to a point approximating the charge for letter postage has been tried so often in this country, as not to require a new demonstration. The following statement will show the result of a recent trial between the two important cities of Chicago and Milwaukee.

On the 12th of August, 1867, a rival line was opened between those two points, having no connection with any other at either end. The competition, therefore, was for local business only. The tariff previously had been sixty cents. The average number of messages transmitted per day for the ten days preceding the beginning of business by the new company was sixty-nine, and the daily receipts fifty-five dollars. On the opening of the rival line the rate was reduced to forty cents, and the average number of messages sent by both was eighty-seven, the receipts forty-seven dollars. On the 16th September the rate was further reduced to twenty cents, with the following results: Average number of messages per day for both lines, one hundred and thirty-three. Average receipts, thirty-seven dollars. On November 8th the rate was reduced to ten cents, and remained so for the next fourteen days, during which the number of telegrams transmitted daily by both lines was one hundred and sixty-seven, and the average receipts twenty-six dollars.

About the 20th November the rates were advanced to forty cents, by mutual agreement, and afterwards the lines and records of the new company came into our possession.

_Statement showing number of Messages sent between Chicago and Milwaukee for first twelve days in August, 1867, at a Tariff of sixty cents, and same for 1868, at a Tariff of forty cents, together with daily Receipts._

┌─────────╥─────────────────────────────╥─────────────────────────────┐ │ DATE. ║ August, 1867. ║ August, 1868. │ │ ║ Tariff 60 and 4. ║ Tariff 40 and 3. │ ├─────────╫─────────┬─────────┬─────────╫─────────┬─────────┬─────────┤ │ ║ Sent. │Received.│Receipts.║ Sent. │Received.│Receipts.│ ├─────────╫─────────┼─────────┼─────────╫─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ │August 1║ 41│ 48│ $67.40║ 49│ 37│ $39.64│ │ „ 2║ 31│ 38│ 57.00║ 4│ 2│ 1.87│ │ „ 3║ 36│ 25│ 49.63║ 53│ 42│ 58.25│ │ „ 4║ 2│ 1│ 1.78║ 69│ 39│ 53.02│ │ „ 5║ 41│ 34│ 55.98║ 46│ 41│ 43.36│ │ „ 6║ 41│ 40│ 63.39║ 67│ 46│ 54.60│ │ „ 7║ 42│ 49│ 73.77║ 51│ 39│ 42.44│ │ „ 8║ 45│ 27│ 55.75║ 56│ 50│ 52.08│ │ „ 9║ 39│ 38│ 61.68║ │ │ │ │ „ 10║ 40│ 40│ 63.91║ 52│ 44│ 47.30│ │ „ 11║ │ │ ║ 62│ 42│ 51.70│ ├─────────╫─────────┼─────────┼─────────╫─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ │ Totals ║ 358│ 340│ $550.29║ 509│ 382│ $444.26│ ├─────────╨─────────┴─────────┴─────────╨─────────┴─────────┼─────────┤ │1867, Average, 69 Messages │ $55.00│ │1868, Average, 89 Messages │ 44.42│ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────┘

_Statement showing number of Messages transmitted between Chicago and Milwaukee, over the Western Union Independent Telegraph Lines, from August 12th to August 26th together with the daily Receipts._

┌─────────╥───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ DATE. ║ Tariff 40 and 3. │ ├─────────╫─────────────────────────────╥─────────────────────────────┤ │ ║ W. U. and Independent. ║ Western Union. │ │ ║ August, 1867. ║ August, 1868. │ ├─────────╫─────────┬─────────┬─────────╫─────────┬─────────┬─────────┤ │ ║ Sent.│Received.│Receipts.║ Sent.│Received.│Receipts.│ ├─────────╫─────────┼─────────┼─────────╫─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ │August 12║ 33│ 47│ $52.96║ 44│ 42│ $47.82│ │ „ 13║ 35│ 52│ 66.35║ 49│ 38│ 50.11│ │ „ 14║ 35│ 50│ 59.00║ 54│ 42│ 53.35│ │ „ 15║ 44│ 46│ 55.27║ 52│ 41│ 48.28│ │ „ 16║ 34│ 45│ 53.61║ 1│ │ .52│ │ „ 17║ 38│ 45│ 62.38║ 58│ 52│ 63.21│ │ „ 18║ │ 2│ 2.02║ 45│ 33│ 45.69│ │ „ 19║ 45│ 51│ 70.45║ 40│ 45│ 52.39│ │ „ 20║ 41│ 50│ 68.51║ 47│ 44│ 64.77│ │ „ 21║ 39│ 46│ 62.67║ 54│ 40│ 50.22│ │ „ 22║ 37│ 39│ 49.42║ 48│ 38│ 46.77│ │ „ 23║ 39│ 41│ 52.97║ 3│ 2│ 2.21│ │ „ 24║ 30│ 33│ 56.15║ 43│ 45│ 59.57│ │ „ 25║ 2│ │ 2.10║ 54│ 66│ 73.26│ │ „ 26║ 63│ 41│ 55.31║ 48│ 57│ 62.89│ ├─────────╫─────────┼─────────┼─────────╫─────────┼─────────┼─────────┤ │ Totals ║ 515│ 588│ $769.17║ 640│ 585│ $721.06│ ├─────────╨─────────┴─────────┴─────────╨─────────┴─────────┼─────────┤ │1867, Average, 73 Messages │ $51.28│ │1868, Average, 81 Messages │ 48.07│ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────┘

Statement No. 1 exhibits a comparison for the first ten days of August, 1867, before the opening of the rival line, and when the tariff was sixty cents, with the same period in 1868 after the tariff had been forty cents for nearly a year. Statement No. 2 makes a similar comparison between the aggregate business of the Western Union and the competing line for the first fifteen days after the latter opened in 1867, and the same period in 1868, when, although the rate was the same, there was no competition. By Table No. 1 it appears that, at a tariff of sixty cents, the number of messages per day last year was sixty-nine, and the receipts therefor fifty-five dollars. That during the same period this year, at a reduction of one third in the tariff, there was an increase of about thirty-three and one third per cent in the number of messages, but a loss in revenue of twenty per cent. In other words, our work has been considerably increased, and our compensation therefor sensibly diminished. Statement No. 2 shows that last year, under the stimulus of active competition, and a reduction in rates of one third, the average number of messages per day for fifteen days was but four more than for the ten days next preceding. It also shows that, after the reduced rate had been in operation a year, and, notwithstanding the fact that the telegraph business in all sections of the country in the month of August this year was somewhat larger than last, the average had been increased but eight messages per day, and this increase was attended by a loss of over three dollars per day in the revenue.

From September 1 to November 3, 1868, the number of messages transmitted per day between these places was one hundred four and a quarter, and the average daily receipts $56.41.

On the 4th of November another rival line was opened between Chicago and Milwaukee, but no change in rates was introduced until the 24th of November. The average number of messages transmitted per day by the Western Union Telegraph Company between these places, from the 4th to the 23d of November, inclusive, was seventy-eight, and the daily receipts $43.27.

On the 24th of November the rates were reduced to twenty cents per message, with the following results: Average number of messages transmitted per day between Chicago and Milwaukee by the Western Union Telegraph Company, sixty-eight; average daily receipts, $24.59.

It should be remembered that the business from which these exhibits are derived is between two of the most important inland commercial cities in the country. Both are largely interested in two important branches of commerce,—grain and lumber; and probably no other points could be selected from which more reliable results could be obtained.

The reason why the Chicago and Milwaukee table is the only one given to show the results of competition is, that such comparisons are only valuable when they exhibit the effect upon the business of both competitors. This is impossible in other cases, because our opponents will not furnish us with their figures. We have written to every Telegraph Company in the United States for such statistics for publication, but none of them has responded to our request.

LONDON DISTRICT TELEGRAPH COMPANY.

We copy the following official statement of the London District Telegraph Company from the Telegraphic Journal, London, July 30, 1864. The capital of the company is £60,000, and the average cost of telegrams transmitted over its lines, for distances that cannot exceed ten miles, was 6_d._, equal to eighteen cents in our currency, and yet the loss in four and a half years’ business was £9,573 3_s._ 7_d._:—

┌──────────────┬─────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┐ │ Half-year │Number of│ Receipts for │ Expenditures. │ Deficiency. │ │ ending │Messages.│ Messages. │ │ │ ├─────────┬────┼─────────┼─────┬────┬────┼─────┬────┬────┼─────┬────┬────┤ │ │ │ │ £ │_s._│_d._│ £ │_s._│_d._│ £ │_s._│_d._│ │June, │1860│ 26,155│ 550│ 19│ 11│2,282│ 10│ 7│1,326│ 2│ 4│ │December,│1860│ 47,365│1,058│ 19│ 2│3,294│ 0│ 6│2,168│ 1│ 7│ │June, │1861│ 64,785│2,137│ 1│ 7│4,394│ 12│ 3│2,177│ 11│ 4│ │December,│1861│ 77,939│2,592│ 15│ 10│4,663│ 5│ 4│1,995│ 13│ 7│ │June, │1862│ 123,280│3,956│ 4│ 8│5,077│ 17│ 11│1,077│ 15│ 4│ │December,│1862│ 124,222│3,999│ 3│ 2│4,958│ 4│ 2│ 894│ 0│ 4│ │June, │1863│ 129,710│4,216│ 6│ 11│4,721│ 1│ 3│ 440│ 9│ 4│ │December,│1863│ 131,216│4,326│ 4│ 0│5,125│ 9│ 4│ 796│ 15│ 4│ │June, │1864│ 152,795│4,802│ 10│ 0│4,863│ 17│ 10│ 60│ 12│ 0│ └─────────┴────┴─────────┴─────┴────┴────┴─────┴────┴────┴─────┴────┴────┘

The Directors of the above company express much satisfaction in being able to present to the shareholders so favorable a statement of its business; but it strikes us that a system which entailed a net loss of one sixth of the capital invested in a little over four years is not a desirable one for imitation.

TELEGRAPHS UNDER GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE CONTROL COMPARED.

The assertion that the Telegraph facilities are better in those countries where it is under governmental control than in those where it is left to private enterprise is entirely erroneous, as the following tables, compiled from official data, will show.

_Statistics of Telegraphs constructed and operated under Government Control_.

┌───────────┬────────┬──────┬───────┬──────────┬───────────┬───────────┐ │ │ │Number│Number │ │ │Proportion │ │ NAME OF │ Number │ of │ of │Number of │ │of Offices │ │ COUNTRY. │ of │Miles │ Miles │ Messages │Population.│ to │ │ │Offices.│ of │ of │ Sent. │ │Population.│ │ │ │Line. │ Wire. │ │ │ │ ├───────────┼────────┼──────┼───────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┤ │Austria │ 851│24,618│ 73,854│ 2,507,472│ 39,411,309│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 46,311│ │Belgium │ 356│ 2,187│ 6,146│ 1,128,005│ 4,984,451│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 14,000│ │Bavaria │ │ 2,115│ 4,945│ │ 4,541,556│ │ │Denmark │ 89│ │ 2,515│ 308,150│ 2,468,713│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 27,000│ │France │ 1,209│20,628│ 68,687│ 2,507,472│ 38,302,625│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 31,600│ │Italy │ 529│ 8,200│ 20,120│ 1,760,889│ 25,925,717│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 49,000│ │Norway │ 73│ │ │ 269,375│ 1,433,488│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 19,000│ │Prussia │ 538│18,386│ 55,149│ 1,964,003│ 17,739,913│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 33,000│ │Russia │ 308│12,013│ 22,214│ 838,653│ 68,224,832│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 221,000│ │Switzerland│ 252│ 1,858│ 3,717│ 668,916│ 2,510,494│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10,000│ │Spain │ 142│ 8,871│ 17,743│ 533,376│ 16,302,625│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 109,000│ ├───────────┼────────┼──────┼───────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┤ │ │ 4,347│98,876│275,090│12,486,311│ │ │ └───────────┴────────┴──────┴───────┴──────────┴───────────┴───────────┘

_Statistics of Telegraphs constructed and operated under Private Control_.

┌───────────┬────────┬──────┬───────┬──────────┬───────────┬───────────┐ │ │ │Number│Number │ │ │Proportion │ │ NAME OF │ Number │ of │ of │Number of │ │of Offices │ │ COUNTRY. │ of │Miles │ Miles │ Messages │Population.│ to │ │ │Offices.│ of │ of │ Sent. │ │Population.│ │ │ │Line. │ Wire. │ │ │ │ ├───────────┼────────┼──────┼───────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┤ │Great │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Britain and│ 2,151│16,588│ 80,466│ 5,781,189│ 29,591,009│1 to 13,714│ │Ireland │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Dominion of│ 382│ 6,747│ 8,935│ 573,219│ 3,976,224│1 to 10,400│ │Canada │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │United │ 4,126│62,782│125,564│12,386,952│ 31,148,047│1 to 7,549│ │States │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├───────────┼────────┼──────┼───────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┤ │ │ 6,659│86,117│214,965│18,741,360│ │ │ └───────────┴────────┴──────┴───────┴──────────┴───────────┴───────────┘

Thus it will be seen that Continental Europe, where the telegraphs are under government control, furnishes but 4,347 offices for a population of over 250,000,000, while Great Britain, the Dominion of Canada, and the United States, where telegraphy has been left to the control of the people, untrammelled by governmental interference, monopoly, or restriction, furnish 6,659 offices for a population of 64,000,000! The number of telegrams transmitted per annum in Continental Europe is only 12,486,311, while there were sent by the people of the three countries where it has hitherto been free from government repression, 18,741,360. The tariff of charges in Continental Europe averages eighty-one cents per message, while in the three countries where the people manage the business it averages but fifty-one cents.

Private enterprise alone laid the submarine cables through the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea, across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Vineyard Sound, the Strait of Florida, the English Channel, the North Sea, and the German and Atlantic Oceans.

THE TELEGRAPH AND THE PRESS.

In nothing, perhaps, is the superiority of private enterprise over governmental control more strongly marked than in the extraordinary amount of news furnished to the press of the United States, as contrasted by the meagre supply of the European journals.

By a system of co-operation among the newspapers of the United States and the Western Union Telegraph Company, the news of the world is daily furnished to the people of every portion of this country at a price within the reach of the poorest citizen.

On page 8 we have shown that 294,503,630 words are annually furnished to the newspapers of the United States, at an average cost of less than two mills per word. This immense amount of matter is not transmitted to each newspaper separately, but through a combination of wires only possible to a vast system like that owned by the Western Union Telegraph Company, it is sent to a large number of places simultaneously, with only one transmission.

The newspapers of the United States are associated together on the co-operative system. There is a general association having its headquarters in New York, which collects news from every part of the world; and there are local associations in every section of the country, which furnish their quota of intelligence to the general association, and receive in return such news as they require.