FRANCE.
The French system of telegraphs comprised, in 1866, 20,628 miles of route, 68,687 miles of wire, and 1,209 stations open to the public. The number of messages amounted to 2,842,554. The gross receipts for the year were 7,707,590, and the expenditures were 8,983,460, showing a loss for the year of 1,275,870.
The receipts are divided as follows:—
These stations are situated in 89 departments, viz.:—
Nine other departments collect annually between 90,000 down to 50,000 francs, the remaining seventy from 49,000 down to 4,653 francs.
Paris (Départment de la Seine) has forty-six stations within the fortifications. The gross receipts amounted, in 1866, to 2,794,768.40 francs, being more than one third of the total receipts of the whole empire.
The receipts in Paris are divided as follows:—
Six other stations collect from 85,000 to 50,000, six from 50,000 to 20,000; the remainder from 19,000 down to 2,123 francs.
The telegraph system of France constitutes a distinct department of the government service under Viscount A. de Vougy as Director-General. Under him are five general inspectors, forming a kind of council, nine division inspectors, seventy-five inspectors, thirty-eight sub-inspectors, and one electrical engineer. There are altogether 3,708 persons on the staff.
DECREES REGULATING THE USE OF THE TELEGRAPH IN FRANCE.
The following is a digest of the decrees issued by the French government regulating the use of the telegraph in the empire.
1st.All persons whose identity is established are allowed to correspond by the government electric telegraph.
2d.Private correspondence is always subordinate to the necessity of government service.
3d.Despatches are to be written inordinary and intelligible language, dated and signed by the sender, and to be given to the officer of the telegraph station, whose duty it is tocopy in full the despatch, with the address of the sender.
4th.The director of a station may, on grounds of public order and morality,refuse to transmit a despatch. In case of dispute, reference is to be made, in Paris, to the minister of the interior; in the provinces to the prefect, sub-prefect, or other constituted authority. On the receipt of a despatch, the director of the station maywithhold its deliveryfor like reasons.
5th.Private correspondence may be suspended at any time by the government.The government will not assume any responsibility for errors in the transmission of despatches.
6th.The director of the station must be satisfied as to the identity of the sender’s signature. If the director refuses the transmission of a message, he must state his reason in writing on the despatch. He must indorse on it “political,” “offensive,” “not consistent with public good,” etc.
7th.No line of electric telegraph can be established or employed for the transmission of correspondence except by the government, or on its authority.Any person transmitting, without authority, signals from one place to another, whether by electric telegraph, or in any other way, is liable to imprisonment from one month to a year, and a fine of 1,000 to 10,000 francs, and the government may order the destruction of the apparatus and telegraph employed.
8th.Any oneaccidentallyinterrupting the correspondence of the electric telegraph, or injuring in any way the lines or apparatus, is liable to a fine of from 16 to 3,000 francs.
9th.Any one wilfully causing an interruption, by injuring the lines or apparatus, is punishable by imprisonment from three months to two years, and a fine of 100 to 1,000 francs. Any one who shall menace an operator during periods of insurrectionary movements is subject to a fine of 1,000 to 5,000 francs.
10th.Written statements by telegraph officers to be received as evidence in all complaints.
11th.Reimbursements of charges on despatches, in consequence of delays or errors in transmission, cannot be made except by the administration. When a despatch is withdrawn by the forwarder before transmission, the expense of delivery only can be refunded.
The charge on despatches sent in the night will be double the usual tariff for the day business (the exact opposite of the American rule).
The telegraph lines in France are nearly all owned and managed by the government. The English Submarine Company, however, is a private enterprise, and works from Paris through Calais to the United Kingdom. There is also another company organized under permission of the imperial government, for the extension of the lines into the French colonies of Africa. This association is called the Mediterranean Electric Telegraph Company, and it has constructed its line from Spezzia, in Sardinia, across Corsica, Sardinia, and the Mediterranean, to Bóne, in Africa.
The telegraph in France is regarded as one of the most important arms of the government, and the wires are known as thefingers of the police. The Emperor would no sooner relinquish their control than he would that of his armies. By imperial decree, every operator is created a spy in the service of the government. The wires from every part of France centre in the imperial chamber, and not a message passes throughout the empire which is not examined by government inspectors.
Of the promptness, regularity, or correctness with which French telegraphs are conducted no proof is given by which superior excellence is established. There is nothing in the whole exhibit, or in the actual working of the French telegraphs, which presents any reason for the assumption that governments manage telegraphs better than the people.
TABLE J.
It will be observed, by an examination of the above table, that low tariffs are not the only causes of the enlarged use of the telegraph. The annual percentage of increase in messages, as tariffs were gradually reduced, was vastly less than during those years when the rates remained unchanged. During the year of 1851 only 9,014 telegrams were transmitted through the French empire, the tariff averaging $1.60 per message. Five years later, notwithstanding that the average cost per message had beenincreasedto $1.73, the number of messages had increased to 360,299, and in 1858 to 463,973,—more than fifty times the number sent in 1851, oran increase of more than five thousand per cent in eight years, without any reduction in rates. The increase in the number of messages during the next eight years, from 1858 to 1866, was only six hundred per cent, notwithstanding a reduction in the tariff from 7.60 to 2.79 francs.
This same peculiarity of increase, without regard to the cost, is also observable in all other countries, as will be seen by a perusal of the official tables.
TABLE K.
The Kingdom of Greece has twelve telegraph stations. All the messages between the Greek and European lines pass through Turkey, and consequently the rate is very high. It is proposed to establish a direct line between Greece and Southern Italy by continuing the Corfu cable to Pauras or Missolonghi, across the Ionian Islands.
In Prussia the number of messages transmitted in 1866, the last year of which we have data, was 1,964,030, and the gross receipts were 1,275,785 thalers, making the average cost per message seventy cents in our currency. Prussia had in that year a population of 17,740,000, and the area of her territory was somewhat less than the New England States and New York. Distance being regarded, the Prussian rates were at that period double our own.
TABLE L.
It will be observed that the number of messages transmitted in 1852 was 48,751, and in 1860, 384,335, being an increase in nine years of nearly 800 per cent, although there was no reduction in the average tariff during this period. From 1860 to 1866 there was an increase of only 500 per cent, notwithstanding a reduction in the rates from 2.06 to 0.656 thalers per message.
Prussia was among the earliest of Continental countries to adopt the electric telegraph, and it is still far in advance of most of its neighbors in the practical development of the enterprise; and yet, with a population more than half as great as the United States, she only transmits one sixth as many messages per annum. Were the system left to private enterprise, as in this country, there can be no doubt that this enlightened and thrifty people would greatly extend the system, and in place of the meagre supply of 538 offices she would have upwards of 2,000, and in place of 1,964,030 messages per annum would transmit seven or eight millions.
European Russia, with a population considerably more than twice as great as the United States, contains but 308 offices, or one to230,000 of people; and sends annually but 838,653 messages, or one to each 80,723 of her population.
Any person examining the telegraphic map of Russia will be satisfied that the rose-colored descriptions of government telegraphs as illustrated in Russia are overdrawn. The lines radiating from St. Petersburg, and extending to Warsaw, Moscow, Odessa, Sebastopol, Nichni-Novgorod, to the Persian frontier, and to Kiakhta in Siberia,—all important military points,—and with scarcely any connecting interior lines, suggest anything but a desire to afford ample telegraphic facilities to the people.
The situation of Switzerland, in the centre of Europe, and forming the pathway between nations, places her in a peculiar position with reference to the transmission of messages from one country to another. Just as Belgium is situated in relation to intercourse between France and Germany, so Switzerland is placed in regard to telegraphic communication between France and Italy, and Italy and Germany. Switzerland, from many circumstances, is a country in which telegraphic communication is eminently useful. In the first place it is a mountainous country, over which postal communication is necessarily slow, and conducted at all seasons under disadvantages. Besides all this, Switzerland, at certain seasons of the year, is a country full of travellers and tourists from all parts of the world, who find great advantage and convenience in being able to transmit short messages from one place to another, respecting hotel accommodations, baggage arrangements, lost packages, horses, places in the diligence, and general matters relating to their route, as well as business and social messages to their relatives, friends, and agents at home.
Switzerland is in the same position with Belgium in respect to the means of cheap telegraphic communication. The railways of the country all belong to the state; so that every railway is available, without charge, for the passage of wires along the line, and every railway official may be employed for telegraphic service, at the pleasure of the government, for nothing. It is scarcely necessary to point out how different must be the workingof such a system from that of the United States, where the railways are in the hands of private companies, and with whom terms have to be made for the right of way.
The analogy between the United States and Switzerland seems in every sense imperfect. The telegraph stations in Switzerland only number 252, or less than the number contained within a radius of fifty miles in and around the city of New York.
The total number of despatches transmitted annually in and through Switzerland only amounted in 1866 to 668,916, whilst of these probably more than half were either transit or international. These transit telegrams, of which there are none in our country, involve a most important difference. Belgium and Switzerland can make up the deficiencies which arise from losses on internal communication by the surplus derived from transit telegrams.
In 1852 the average number of messages per day, for all Switzerland, was less than ten. As the system became extended, and the people were educated to its use, the number of messages increased, until in 1866 they exceeded 2,000 per day, approximating, for the entire country, the number sent and received daily by fifteen female operators in one of the rooms of the Western Union Telegraph Company, in the city of New York. Probably one half of these were transit messages passing through Switzerland from stations in France, Belgium, and Italy, leaving about 1,000 messages per day of inland business, which, divided among 252 offices, would leave an average of a little less thanfour messages per day for each office! This is not a very magnificent result, and is not over encouraging as a model system, which gives to its twenty-five cantons ten offices, with an average revenue from each; for inland business, of only three francs per day! And this, notwithstanding that the government coaches convey, without any extra charge, messages, from towns unsupplied with offices, to the nearest telegraph station.
TABLE M.
It will be observed that the increase in the number of messages transmitted in Switzerland was from 2,876 in 1852 to 668,916 in 1866, or more than 230,000 per cent in fourteen years, although the tariff had only been reduced 33 per cent.
Spain, with a population of over 16,000,000 souls, and possessing the advantages of forming the pathway between France and her African possessions, as well as between Portugal and the rest of Europe, transmits a less number of telegrams per annum than the Dominion of Canada, with her 3,000,000 inhabitants. That this insignificant amount of business for so great a country is owing to government control is evident from the following royal decree, issued in conformity with the request of the Minister of State, who says: “The petitions presented to your Majesty from different towns, companies, and private individuals are so numerous and repeated, praying that the advantages of telegraphic communications should be granted to them, that the minister who now humbly addresses your Majesty has lamented more than once that the care of the government has not extended that satisfaction to legitimate wishes so deserving of attention.”
ROYAL DECREE RELATING TO TELEGRAPHS IN SPAIN.
In conformity with what the Minister of State for Home Affairs has proposed to me, for the concession of telegraph lines and stations.
I have decreed as follows:—
The districts, towns, and public establishments, who wish to form new lines or stations,can solicit them from the government, which will inquire into the influence of the establishment of the said lines or stations upon the state telegraphic system.
The necessary cost of the lines and service must be paid by the petitioners, and they must also give sufficient guaranty for the cost of repairs and service.
The petitioners will be obliged to pay to the state the difference that may result between the annual income and the cost of the service.
If at the expiration of five years the expenses exceed the returns, the line or station will be considered as property of the state. No line or station can be formed without the consent of the ministers in council.
Service in all kinds of stations and lines can only be performed by a staff from the government telegraph corps.
All despatches passing through Spain (including the Balearic Islands) and France (including Corsica) will pay the rate of five francs per message of 20 words, no matter from what telegraph office they proceed or to what station they are addressed. Each ten words or part of ten words, beyond 20, will pay half the amount of a single message.
The cost of a single message transmitted from France to Algeria, orvice versa, passing through the Spanish or submarine lines, as also of the messages between Spain and Algeria, transmitted either by land or French cables, will always be eight francs. The messages received or forwarded to Tunis will pay two francs more.
The messages exceeding 20 words will pay an extra charge, in accordance with the rule already established.
No despatch whatever will be delivered out of the radius of the locality wherein the station addressed to is situated, through any other means than by post.
Telegrams addressed to localities where there is no station will be delivered by the last telegraphic office to the post, which will undertake to convey them to their destination as certified parcels.
When one despatch is addressed to several persons in the same locality, as many telegrams will be charged for as there are individuals to receive it.
The acknowledgment of the receipt of a telegram will be charged for as a new despatch.
Prepayment of despatches can be made, but if no answer is returned, or if it should contain less words than those paid for, no return of any kind will be made.If the answer contains more words than paid for, the station which sends it will charge the difference between the amount paid and the corresponding one to this new despatch.
The claims for delay or irregularity of telegrams will only give occasion for future inquiry into the causes which have produced the irregularity in the service, for the knowledge of the interested party, and to punish the functionary who should prove to be culpable.
Given at Aranjuez, on the 22d May, 1864.
If there is any special benefit accruing to the people of Spain by having the telegraph under government control, we fail to discover it.
Turkey contains twenty-eight telegraph stations, of which twelve are open for night service, nine during the whole of the day, and seven for a part only. Constantinople has two stations open for international correspondence,—one at Stamboul, the other at Pera; the first is principally confined to the transmission of messages for the Ottoman government, and the second for that of ambassadors and private persons. In the case of an interruption of the cable which crosses the Hellespont, the Dardanelles station is removed to Kaled-Bahas, and the despatches are subjected to an additional rate of 90 cents for their conveyance, by boat, from Kaled-Bahas to the Dardanelles. The tariff, upon messages between Paris to any Turkish station, varies from $2.80 to $6.00, according to the distance.
The construction of lines in Turkey is of the most defective description, and the materials used very inferior. The lines pass over the steepest and most inaccessible hills; and this state of things is made worse by a very inadequate inspection, by men who are both too few in number, wretchedly paid, and generally incompetent. Repairers are compelled to provide and keep a horse out of their pay of 300 piastres ($13.04) per month. The chiefs of stations, and all other employees, are Turks, whose lazy habits and incompetency cannot be wondered at, when the smallness of their pay is considered. Added to these difficulties, the service has to endure very frequent and arbitrary occupation of the wires by the government, interrupting, on many occasions, business of the most pressing nature, for the transmission of some trivial communication, which would lose nothing by a short delay. It may be imagined that as the service is in the hands of government, much depends upon the director-general of the department. Unfortunately, this official is in the unenviable position of holding office on such a poor tenure that it may be said he has a daily apprehension of being turned out, and replaced by one of those numerous intriguers who swarm about the cabinets of the ministers, or work through the more effectual influence of the harem,—the great bane of the country. It has been proposed to the Turkish government to employ a large staff of English inspectors and operators, but the natural jealousy of employing foreigners stands in the way. The Turks insist upon having all messages sent through in Turkish, so that frequently, when retranslated, they bear very slight resemblance to the original.
All the important telegraphic intercourse between Europe and India passes through the Turkish dominions. The effect of the control of the Turkish government over the telegraph is most disastrous, and renders this important connection with India almost worthless.
Repeated efforts have been made by the English telegraph companies, who have so great an interest in the successful operation of these lines, to induce the Turkish government to relinquish its management of them, but thus far without success.