Part 1
THE PROPOSED UNION OF THE TELEGRAPH AND POSTAL SYSTEMS.
STATEMENT
OF THE
WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
CAMBRIDGE:
WELCH, BIGELOW, AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
1869.
CONTENTS.
REVIEW OF HON. E. B. WASHBURNE’S PAPER ON THE UNION OF THE TELEGRAPH AND POSTAL SYSTEMS.
Page
A merited Compliment to Professor Morse 1
Congressional Aid 2
Erroneous Charges against the American Telegraph System 3
Brief Statement of Facts 4
Statistics of the Telegraph in Europe and America for the year 1866, from Official Reports 5
The Complaint of Indifference to Public Convenience without Foundation 5
Official Statistics of the Telegraphs in Europe for the year 1866 7
Statistics of the Western Union Telegraph Company, of the United States, and of the Montreal Telegraph Company, Dominion of Canada, for the year ending June 30, 1867 7
The asserted Union of the Postal and Telegraph Systems in Europe an Error 8
The Shortcomings of British Telegraphs 9
The Telegraph System of the United States Unparalleled for its Extent and Efficiency 10
Asserted Effect of Governmental Control on Belgian Telegraphs 11
Early Belgian Rates contrasted with American 12
Natural Increase in Telegraphy 13
Unfortunate Effects of Low Rates and Competition 15
American and European Rates compared 15
The Peculiarities of the Belgian Telegraph Service 17
Belgian Officials acknowledge the Imperfections of their System 18
Instructive History of Belgian Telegraphs 19
Singular Idea that a Small Telegraph System is more Difficult to Manage than a Large One 20
Necessity for the Unification of the Telegraph System 22
Estimate of the Cost of Building Telegraph Lines 24
Doubts regarding the Estimates of Telegraph Experts as to Cost of Constructing Lines 27
Incorrect Assertion that American Telegraphs are not constructed according to Specifications 29
Cost of American Telegraphs estimated by European Data 30
Value of Western Union Telegraph Property, based on European data 32
Erroneous Estimate of the Value of the Western Union Telegraph Company’s Property 33
The Organization of the Western Union Telegraph Company 35
Financial Statistics of the Western Union Telegraph Company 36
Stations, Lines, and Employees of the Western Union Telegraph Company 39
English and American Telegraphs compared 40
Acknowledged Superiority of the early American Service 41
Remarkably Low Tariffs of the early American Telegraphs 42
No Similarity between the Telegraph and Postal Systems 43
Collection and Delivery of Telegrams by Letter-Carriers Impracticable 45
Mr. Washburne’s proposed Experimental Line 47
London District Telegraph Company 50
Telegraphs under Government and Private Control compared 51
The Telegraph and the Press 52
REVIEW OF MR. GARDINER G. HUBBARD’S LETTER TO THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL ON THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN SYSTEMS OF TELEGRAPH.
Erroneous Statements relative to Belgian Telegraphs 56
Belgian Telegrams delivered by Post 58
Want of Uniformity in Rates 58
Assertion that Commercial Messages are transmitted at a Loss 61
Correction of Erroneous Statements 62
Tariffs not Increased by Consolidation of the Lines 63
Erroneous Assertion that a Large Proportion of the Offices are at Railroad Stations 64
American and European Telegraph Tariffs compared 65
Rules of the European Telegraphs 66
Rules of the Western Union Telegraph Company 66
Statement showing the Minimum Rate for Telegrams from London to Principal Cities in Europe, and from New York to Principal Cities in America 67
Singular Notions of Practical Telegraphy 68
Absurd Theories regarding the Working Capacity of Telegraph Lines 69
Impossibility of Utilizing the Telegraph Lines by Night as well as Day 70
Proposed Incorporation of the United States Postal Telegraph Company 72
Messages delivered within a Mile of the Office free 73
European Charges for delivering Telegrams 74
Telegrams to be placed in the Street Boxes 75
Privileged Persons to have Priority in the Use of the Wires 75
Proposition to operate Telegraphs at a Loss, and Make Money by it 76
Speculative Telegraph Schemes 77
More Startling Inventions for Rapid Telegraphing 78
Erroneous Table of European Statistics 79
European Telegrams counted Several Times 82
Labor the Principal Element of Expense in operating Telegraphs 82
Prevailing Error of all Theorizers on the Business of Telegraphing 83
Statistics of Traffic through the Atlantic Cables from July 28, 1866, to November 1, 1868 86
PROGRESS OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH IN AMERICA AND EUROPE.
The United States 87
Proportion of Telegrams to Letters 87
Early History of the Telegraph in America 88
Evils arising from Separate Organizations 89
The Unification of the Telegraph accomplished 90
Telegraph Companies in the United States 91
Statistics of the Telegraph in the Dominion of Canada 92
Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Austria 93
Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Belgium 94
Bavaria 98
Denmark 98
Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Great Britain and Ireland 100
Decrees regulating the Use of the Telegraph in France 102
Peculiar Character of the French Telegraph 103
Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in France 104
Increase in Telegrams not due to Low Rates 104
Greece 105
Prussia 105
Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Prussia 106
Russia 106
Switzerland 107
Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Switzerland 109
Royal Decree relating to Telegraphs in Spain 110
Turkey 111
REASONS WHY GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT ENTER INTO COMPETITION WITH THE PEOPLE IN THE OPERATION OF THE TELEGRAPH.
Political Reasons why Government should not Control the Telegraph 113
The Post-Office Department not Competent to manage the Telegraphs 114
Government assumes no Responsibility 116
The Proposition to Erect Competitive Governmental Telegraphs Unfounded in Public Necessity 117
The Telegraph Bill proposed to be enacted by Congress without National Example 118
REVIEW OF HON. E. B. WASHBURNE’S PAPER ON THE UNION OF THE TELEGRAPH AND POSTAL SYSTEMS.
In the second session of the Fortieth Congress, 1868, a bill was introduced and a paper submitted by Hon. E. B. Washburne, of Illinois, relating to the “Union of the Telegraph and Postal Systems” in the United States, which has naturally attracted public attention, and especially of that large class of our citizens who are identified with the Telegraph interests of the country. The paper bears upon its face such evident marks of care, and the case is presented with so much earnestness and apparent sincerity, notwithstanding the frequency of its errors and the illusory character of its appeals to the practice and experience of foreign nations, that it cannot fail to produce upon the public mind an unjust impression that the usefulness of this great invention is injuriously restricted, and its operations unfaithfully managed, by the organizations having it in control.
To correct these erroneous impressions by calmly and respectfully criticising the statements thus presented, and proving the honesty and fidelity with which the Telegraph service is performed in this country, is the object of this paper.
A MERITED COMPLIMENT TO PROFESSOR MORSE.
In the acknowledgment made by Mr. Washburne, in the opening of his paper, that “the world is indebted to the genius of a citizen of the United States for the practical development of the electric telegraph as a means of communication,” we heartily concur. That citizen is still a member of the Company to which his great discovery gave birth, and on whose success he largely depends for support. To it he gives his ripened genius and matured wisdom, justly priding himself upon the success of his invention, and desiring for it the largest and widest use.
But Professor Morse needs more than the simple honor of making a great discovery and of placing it at the disposal of his fellow-men throughout the world, and when it is considered that the effect of the system proposed to be inaugurated by Mr. Washburne’s bill would be the inevitable destruction of all existing telegraph investments, and possibly the impoverishment of the great inventor himself, the compliment seems a barren one indeed.
CONGRESSIONAL AID.
Congress, it is true, aided the introduction of the Telegraph by an appropriation of thirty thousand dollars for a public experiment and test of its capacity. But it may well be questioned whether this appropriation was not, after all, an injury rather than a benefit, both to the inventor and the people. It left no property to enrich its possessors, and no models to guide them in erecting new structures, while it was obtained by sacrifices which have cost the inventor infinite sorrow, and clouded a score of years with litigation. The time occupied by Congress in the consideration of the offer of the invention to government for one hundred thousand dollars (which was rejected) consumed nearly two years of the patent, and exposed the inventor to the endurance of a most annoying uncertainty.
Government, however, most effectually insured its successful extension, when, contrary to the practice of European powers, it declined to assume the control of the Telegraph, and referred its inventor, after the thorough investigation of the Postmaster-General, to the people as the proper recipients of his discovery. It was the healthy act of a government which recognized its duty to protect, instead of absorbing, the enterprises of its citizens. That duty is as clear to-day as it was then.
When government rejected the control and ownership of the Telegraph, although offered for so paltry a sum by the inventor, it was accepted by the people as a legitimate enterprise, and they have given to it all the capital, skill, and labor required for the fullest development of its usefulness.
Although many years elapsed after the introduction of the Telegraph in this country during which it maintained but a feeble existence through numerous weak and limited organizations, that rendered the business expensive and precarious, it now begins to crystallize into strength and harmony; and the projectors and promoters of the enterprise feel that they have a right to expect the fruit of their labors, in the proper and legitimate return which the humblest citizen receives for his work, and which government was, in part at least, organized to secure. We therefore pronounce the Washburne bill an unwarranted and unjust measure, which, while proposing an ostensible public good, essays to provide it by the destruction of vast private interests for which it proposes no compensation.
ERRONEOUS CHARGES AGAINST THE AMERICAN TELEGRAPH SYSTEM.
To the charges made by Mr. Washburne, in the prefatory sentences of his paper, against the management of the Telegraph system of the United States, little need be said. They are without the shadow of proof, and require no other answer than an explicit denial. Yet American telegraph companies may justly complain that a public man, while ostensibly performing a service in the interests of the people, should deem it necessary to traduce a vast interest by the use of terms so broad as to attract to it, even without proof of their justice, unwarranted disparagement and suspicion.
Mr. Washburne’s statement that “the telegraphic system has made less progress toward perfection, and has been practically of less value to the masses of the people in our country, than in any other civilized country on the globe,” is so sweepingly erroneous as to excite our profound astonishment, which is increased by the still broader assertion that, “while in nearly every country in Europe the telegraph has become a speedy, certain, and economical medium of communication, the inestimable benefits of which are extended to the inhabitants of small towns and communes as well as to the great centres of trade, in this country telegraphic communication has always been uncertain and expensive, and limited to chief towns and cities.”
BRIEF STATEMENT OF FACTS.
In reply to the above we desire to present the following facts.
The population of Europe at the last authentic census was 288,001,365, nineteen twentieths of which belonged to the Caucasian race. It contains thirty-nine cities, each possessing more than one hundred thousand inhabitants, and the accumulated wealth of nearly two thousand years of civilization.
The United States has a population of only 31,148,047, and contains but ten cities of one hundred thousand inhabitants, while its utmost civilized history reaches back scarcely two and a half centuries, and the accumulated wealth of its civilization cannot average fifty years throughout its cultivated area.
The population of Europe being nearly ten times greater than that of the United States, as is also its accumulations of years of civilization, while, according to Mr. Washburne, its telegraph facilities vastly outstrip ours, it should, of course, possess far more than ten times the number of telegraph offices.
But, in truth, there is not even an approximation to this provision of telegraphic convenience based on population; for while the United States alone possess 4,126 telegraph offices, all Europe contains but 6,450, of which 2,151, or more than one third of the whole number, belong to Great Britain, where the telegraph has heretofore been free from government control.
It is significant of American enterprise that continental Europe, with a population of 260,000,000, possesses but one hundred and seventy-three more telegraph offices than the United States, with her 31,000,000 of widely scattered people. While in the United States there is a telegraph office to every 7,549 of its inhabitants, in continental Europe there is only one to every 60,249!
The following table will serve to show the proportion of telegraph offices to population in the principal countries of Europe and of the United States, the number of miles of line, and amount of telegraph business of each.
TABLE A.
_Statistics of the Telegraph in Europe and America for the year 1866, from official reports._
┌───────────┬─────────┬──────┬───────┬────────────┬──────────────┬───────────┐ │ │ │Miles │ Miles │Total Number│ │Proportion │ │COUNTRIES. │Number of│ of │ of │of Messages │Population.[1]│of Offices │ │ │Stations.│Line. │ Wire. │Transmitted.│ │ to │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Population.│ ├───────────┼─────────┼──────┼───────┼────────────┼──────────────┼───────────┤ │Austria │ 856│24,618│ 73,854│ 2,507,472│ 39,411,309│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 46,311│ │Belgium │ 356│ 2,187│ 6,146│ 1,128,005│ 4,530,228│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 12,416│ │Bavaria │ │ 2,115│ 4,945│ │ │ │ │Denmark │ 89│ │ 2,515│ 308,150│ 1,684,004│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 18,921│ │France │ 1,209│20,628│ 68,687│ 2,842,554│ 38,302,625│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 31,681│ │Great │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ Britain │ 2,151│16,588│ 80,466│ 5,781,189│ 29,591,009│ 1 to│ │ and │ │ │ │ │ │ 13,750│ │ Ireland │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │Italy │ 529│ 8,200│ 20,120│ 1,760,889│ 24,550,845│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 49,000│ │Norway │ 73│ │ │ 269,375│ 1,433,488│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 19,773│ │Prussia │ 538│18,386│ 55,149│ 1,964,003│ 17,739,913│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 32,955│ │Russia │ 308│12,013│ 22,214│ 838,653│ 68,224,832│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 221,508│ │Switzerland│ 252│ 1,858│ 3,715│ 668,916│ 2,534,240│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10,000│ │Spain │ 142│ 8,871│ 17,743│ 533,376│ 16,302,625│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 100,000│ │United │ 4,126│62,782│125,564│ 12,904,770│ 31,148,047│ 1 to│ │ States │ │ │ │ │ │ 7,549│ │Dominion of│ 382│ 6,747│ 8,935│ 573,219│ 3,976,224│ 1 to│ │ Canada │ │ │ │ │ │ 10,400│ └───────────┴─────────┴──────┴───────┴────────────┴──────────────┴───────────┘
Footnote 1:
From the Annual Cyclopædia. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1868.
In large sections of the United States the proportion is much greater. Thus, the Pacific States embrace an area of 600,000 square miles; Belgium, 11,000. The former provide an office to every 2,500 of their population; the latter, one to every 12,416. Thus, the Pacific States sustain five times as many offices in proportion to population as Belgium, to say nothing of the great disparity in the condition of service by the vast range of wild territory occupied by the one, and the fine roads and cultivated area of the other.
In view of the facts shown in the preceding table, how can it be said that in America the telegraph is less practically provided to the people than in any other civilized country on the globe?
THE COMPLAINT OF INDIFFERENCE TO PUBLIC CONVENIENCE WITHOUT FOUNDATION.
“Instead of an auxiliary to the postal system, controlled, like it, by the state, sought, like it, to be made useful to the great masses of the people without regard to the pecuniary profit to be secured, as in nearly every civilized country in the world, we see the system in this country in the hands of rival companies, anxious only for profit, extending their lines only to prominent places where such profits are to be secured, and too indifferent to the public convenience. In short, the popular verdict of the people of this country, if it could be heard, would be that the telegraphic system, in view of what it is in other countries and might become in this, is practically a failure.”
_The above complaint is without the least foundation. In no country in the world is there so vast a system of lines under one control as in this; in no country is the business done so well or so cheaply; and nowhere else has there ever been so earnest an endeavor made to serve the people faithfully and satisfactorily._
A great majority of the towns in this country having even less than five hundred inhabitants are already supplied with offices, and they are rapidly increasing. During the past two and a half years more than one million of dollars have been spent by the Western Union Telegraph Company alone in the construction of new lines, and during the same period it has opened more than eight hundred new offices. This it is constantly doing, as much to satisfy existing public wants as for the promotion of its own future interest. Over one hundred offices have long been sustained at a loss, because needed to protect the lines built through comparatively desert regions to reach distant points of intercourse, and several hundred more are maintained which barely pay expenses. In fact, it is a standing rule of the company to open and maintain a telegraph office at all places in the United States reached by its lines, on a guaranty that the receipts shall be equal to the necessary expenses; and, by associating the duties of the telegraphic service with other productive labor, they are often rendered extremely light. It also offers to extend its lines to any place not reached by existing lines, where the inhabitants will advance the cost of building them, the money so advanced to be refunded to the contributors in telegraphing at ordinary tariffs. Under this arrangement a large number of offices have been opened and extensive lines built, to the satisfaction of all parties.
Into such arrangements the government could not enter with any similar rapidity, or by so healthy and economic processes accomplish a like amount of substantial benefit to the people. The fact that there is scarcely a community to be found anywhere in America where the people are unable to meet these offers of the Telegraph Company, is the best reason why government should not furnish at public expense what the people are so able to provide for themselves.