MORE ERRONEOUS STATEMENTS.

Mr. Hubbard’s assertion that, “where a message is repeated, the expense is increased about seventy-five per cent, but on well-constructed lines, in ordinary weather, messages between any two stations east of a line from St. Paul to New Orleans require but one repetition,” hardly needs refutation. East of the line named there are more than four thousand telegraph offices, and at least 1,300 separate and distinct circuits. How, then, can separate wires be maintained between every two stations over this vast territory? Even confining the statement to one office at the East,—say Boston, for example,—how is it possible to maintain separate circuits that will enable that office to work direct with each one of four thousand offices? It would be more practicable to travel from every town in the United States to every other town, without change of cars, than it would to establishdirecttelegraphic connection between each.

The Western Union Telegraph Company maintains independent circuits, and works direct between New York and Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, Buffalo, Montreal, Chicago, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Portland, Plaister Cove, and many other points; but to work with every office in the United States without repetition would require more wires upon each pole than the mythical Briareus had hands.

It seems scarcely worth while to follow Mr. Hubbard in his statements regarding the capital of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the cost of its lines. We have given a statement on pages37to40of the organization of this company, the amount of its capital, length of lines, and other matters of interest.

Mr. Hubbard’s statement that the directors of the Western Union Telegraph Company have steadfastly refused to reduce rates until forced by competition, and then consolidated with the competing company, and again raised the rates, is without the slightest foundation in fact. We have previously stated that no increase in the rates has been made since the consolidation with the United States and American companies, but, on the contrary, theyhave been reduced to more than one thousand stations, while the opposition have less than three hundred offices all told.

Mr. Hubbard says:—

“The capacities of the line of telegraph are very great. 2,000 words an hour are easily transmitted by a good operator over a single wire. At this rate there could be sent over fifty-one of the eighty or ninety wires leading from the New York office of the Western Union Telegraph Company 2,448,000 words, or 97,920 messages of twenty-five words each, a day. This amount cannot be obtained. Forty messages an hour are easily transmitted by a good operator over a through line, and this number could be sent every hour by relays of operators. This estimate gives 1,224,000 words, or 48,960 messages. On through and local lines a deduction of one half for twelve hours of the day, during which the local lines are open, must be made,—918,000 words, or 36,720 messages, on through and local lines. The average number actually transmitted on these fifty-one wires is 184,378 words, or 7,375 messages. 733,622 more words, or 29,340 more messages might daily be transmitted over these lines. If the present business could be distributed over all the hours of the day, or if there were sufficient business for all the wires the whole day, the rates could be largely reduced.

“Nearly eighteen hours of each day the wires are idle, yet a considerable portion of the expenses of the line are no greater than they would be if messages were transmitted the whole time. Interest, depreciation, and repairs, office rent, salaries, and general management are the same, whether much or little business is transacted. These items constitute about one third of all the expenses on the Western Union line. The other expenses will not be increased in proportion to the increase of the time.”

In reply to the above, we assert that 2,000 words an hour are not easily transmitted by a good operator over a single wire. There are operators who can send at this rate for a short time, but they are very few in number, and none of them could maintain this rate of speed for any length of time. It must be recollected that a message must be copied with a pen as rapidly as it is sent. Now, we doubt if Mr. Hubbard even can write 2,000 words legibly within an hour, with pen and ink. It is well known that the celebrated horse Dexter has trotted a mile in the unprecedentedtime of 2.17, but would it not be absurd to state, on that account, that every good horse can easily trot twenty-six miles an hour? Why, Dexter himself cannot keep up this rate of speed for even a quarter of an hour. Because a celebrated pedestrian walked a hundred miles in twenty-four hours, would it be just to say that every good walker can easily walk 36,500 miles per annum? A man in California rode three hundred miles in twenty-four hours; would it be honest, therefore, to say that every good horseman can easily ride 9,000 miles a month? The maximum speed of the best operators is 1,500 words per hour, but the average speed of the best is very much below this.

The amount of business done upon a wire in a given time is vastly greater in this country than in any other. In Europe there are 355,218 miles of wire, while in the United States there are less than one third as many, and yet the wires in this country transmit more telegraphic matter per annum than all the lines in Europe. This almost incredible fact is explained by the superior character and ability of our operating staff. In Europe they still use recording instruments, and slowly and laboriously pick out their messages upon strips of paper. Here, on the contrary, every operator—except in the small villages—reads by sound, and does three times as much work upon a wire as the poorly paid and inefficient European operator. Now, this being the case,—and the statistics prove it,—it can hardly be pretended that our company gets much less out of its wires than they can reasonably perform, and yet Mr. Hubbard says we “could easily send on fifty-one wires 97,920 messages per day, while in reality we only send 7,375.” Here is a difference between theory and practice that beats even Dexter’s 2.17 as the rate of speed which every horse in America can average.

Mr. Hubbard says, “If the present business could be distributed over all the hours of the day, or if there were sufficient business for all the wires the whole day, the rates could be largely reduced”; but neither of these propositions can be realized. The telegraph is an errand-boy which every one uses when the exigencyrequires it, and which no one will use unnecessarily, even though it work for nothing. In order to utilize the wires during those portions of the day and night when they are comparatively idle, the Western Union Telegraph Company adopted the following rates for night messages:—

“This company will transmit messages between the principal cities on its lines east of St. Louis and New Orleans, both inclusive, during the night, and deliver the same the succeeding morning, on the following terms: For a message of 20 words or less, the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged. For a message of more than 20 words, and not exceeding 60 words, twice the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged. For a message of more than 60 words, and not exceeding 120 words, three times the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged. For each additional 100 words, or part thereof, in excess of 120 words, the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged in addition. Such messages will be known asNIGHT MESSAGES. They will be received for transmission at any time during the day or evening, and will be sent during the succeeding night.No additional charge will be made for cipher messages.”

The very moderate success of our night-message experiment, notwithstanding the large inducements offered, proves that the use of the telegraph is required not merely for communication, but for emergency and despatch. It is also a fact worthy of notice, that very little of this business is done between Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, notwithstanding the low rates, whereby over a hundred words can be transmitted for a dollar. It is done mainly between remote places like Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Memphis, and New Orleans, communication between which by mail requires from two to four days.

In support of this theory we submit a statement of the night-message business between New York City and all points on our lines for the months of March, July, and October. These months represent fairly the varying phases of our business in respect to trade in different sections of the country at different seasons of the year.

The total number of night messages sent and received betweenNew York City and all places on our lines for the three months named was 6,273, divided as follows:—

Our night-message experiment has proved that the telegraph will not be used at night, at any tariff, except to a moderate extent and between distant points.

The absurdity of placing the telegraph and postal systems in the same category has been fully shown on pages43and44. Mr. Hubbard appears to have read Mr. Scudamore’s charges against the English system, and applied them literally to the telegraphs of this country. Unfortunately, however, charges which may be true as applied to the companies operating the telegraphs in the United Kingdom have no pertinency when reproduced as the shortcomings of the American system.

Mr. Hubbard says:—

“It is not considered expedient either for the government to purchase the existing lines, or to construct and operate lines. How, then, can the desired results be best attained? The Post-Office Department has no facilities of its own for the transmission of correspondence either by rail or telegraph. It contracts with the railroad companies for carrying the mail, and it is proposed that it shall contract with a telegraph company for transmitting messages.

“A bill was introduced at the last session of Congress, and referred to the committee on Post Roads and Routes, to incorporate the ‘United States Postal Telegraph Company, and to establish a postal system.’

“The first, second, third, fourth, and fifth sections of the bill incorporate the company, with power to construct lines on all the post roads and routes of the country.

“The sixth section authorizes the Postmaster-General to receive bids from any telegraph company for the transmission by telegraph of messages received and delivered through the post-office, to all cities and villages of 5,000 inhabitants and over, and to towns on the line of the telegraph, where stations may be established by order of the Postmaster-General.

“The seventh section authorizes the Postmaster-General to contract for the transmission by telegraph of messages with the company that will engage to transmit them for the least sum, provided such sum does not exceed twenty-five cents, including five cents postage for each message of twenty words, including date, address, and signature, for each and every 500 miles or fractional part thereof the message may be transmitted, with five cents for each added five words. All messages to be prepaid by stamps, or written on stamped paper.

“Messages to be received at any and all post-offices, street-boxes, or other receptacles for letters, and to be delivered by special carrier without extra expense.

“Messages requiring immediate despatch to have priority of transmission on payment of extra rates.

“The effect of the proposed reduction will be better appreciated by comparing the present and proposed rates.

The rule was established coincident with the introduction of the telegraph in the United States to deliver all messages in the town within a mile of the receiving office free. Special and free delivery should be the rule as far as practicable. And yet it is impossible, without rendering the telegraph of no avail in important emergencies, to establish free delivery everywhere. A message from an Eastern city to a Western village announcingperil, disaster, or death is addressed to a person two or three miles from the telegraph station. The charge for transmitting this message is, say, fifty cents. Two modes of delivery are presented,—one to drop it in the post-office, where it may lie until the next day; the other, to hire a conveyance, and send a special messenger with it to the person addressed. The cost of this special service will vary from one dollar to two dollars. Our practice is to deliver by special messenger, and charge therefor the actual cost of the service.

A similar custom prevails in Europe, as will appear from the following extracts from the rules and regulations applicable to stations in the Austro-Germanic Telegraph Union, which comprises Austria, Prussia, Hanover, Holland, Saxony, Wurtemburg, the German Duchies, also France and the whole South of Europe:

The instruction for forwarding despatches beyond Telegraph lines must be inserted in messages immediately after receiver’s address and charged for; messages with no instructions will be sent on from Terminal Telegraph Station by post.

The sender is responsible for an insufficient address, and can only rectify the same by sending and paying for a new despatch.

Messages addressed to “Poste Restante” are subjected to the above charges for postage.

By Express (Foot Messenger) within seven English miles, 2s.6d.

By Estafette (Mounted Messenger) a charge must be made at the rate of 2s.6d.per three English miles for countries comprised in the Austro-Germanic Union, but for other towns the charge is 1s.6d.per English mile. If, however, the distance is unknown, a sufficient deposit must be taken.

All charges to be prepaid by sender.

TELEGRAMS TO BE PLACED IN THE STREET BOXES.

Mr. Hubbard’s proposition to put telegrams into street-boxes is simply absurd. Telegrams are always of an important nature, and need despatch. Imagine a message announcing sickness, death, or any other circumstance, being dropped in the street box, to be taken out when the carrier happens round! As for post-offices, how many are there in any of the large cities even? Few have more than one, and this is closed when a mail arrives,—a circumstance that seems to have rendered the closed condition the normal one with many post-offices.

To give an idea of the extent of present facilities in the principal cities, the following statement, showing the number of telegraph offices now open, is submitted:—

Mr. Hubbard’s plan of allowing “messages requiring immediate despatch to have priority of transmission on payment of extra rates,” would abolish the rule which has always been observed since the establishment of the telegraph in this country, “first come first served,” and give privileged persons the priority in the use of the wires. What an excellent opportunity this would afford speculative combinations (like that which locked up twenty millions of currency in Wall Street a short time ago) to extend their operations all over the country, by practically controlling the telegraph?

This plan would not answer at all. No system of variation of rate is feasible, consistently with public policy, but that which offers a lower rate for business which will consent to be delayed until another day.

In regard to the establishment of a money-order system by telegraph,we would say that we have long done something in the way of transmitting deposits and money orders by telegraph. We have made no effort to bring it prominently before the public, with a view to extending this department of our business, for the reason that as an established system it would be comparatively easy for rogues to abuse it. It is only resorted to in cases of great emergency, where money orders by post cannot be delivered in time to meet the necessities of the case. It is also confined mainly to the transmission of small sums. It involves necessarily the sending of two messages. Large amounts required in commercial transactions are daily transmitted or exchanged in this manner by the regular banking houses in all the principal cities.

Mr. Hubbard proposes, by his new plan, to send telegrams at an average reduction of 53 per cent from the present charges, which we have shown to be 25 per cent less than the European rates. Now, the total receipts of the Western Union Telegraph Company for the year ending June 30, 1867, were $6,568,925, and a reduction of 53 per cent would leave $3,087,405.

Mr. Hubbard acknowledges that neither the government nor any company can transmit messages at the above rates without loss, but claims that “a company with well-constructed lines,built for cash, can transmit messages at these rates, in connection with the post-office, and realize a large profit.” Precisely how this is to be done, or what the lines “built for cash” have got to do about it, does not appear. Mr. Hubbard says in his pamphlet that “the largest part of the lines of the Western Union Company were constructed before the rise in prices, and on a gold basis.” Now, if he means that lines built on a paper basis can be worked cheaper than those constructed on a gold one, we would be glad to hear his reasons for so singular a notion.

SPECULATIVE TELEGRAPH SCHEMES.

We consider it our duty to say a word concerning the swarm of adventurers who are canvassing the country for subscriptions to utterly worthless telegraph stock, and who are besieging the halls of Congress every year for some recognition or advantage which shall enable them the more readily to impose upon the public.

The National Telegraph Company is an example in point. This concern, which claims to have organized two years ago under an act of Congress, and which has filled the country with runners begging for subscriptions to its stock, has never set a pole.

The losses which have occurred in the operation of competing lines are enormous. The country is full of people who have lost money in these schemes, which, after a brief existence, are wound up and their effects disposed of by the sheriff.

The present condition of all the opposition lines is very precarious. The Franklin Company was made by a consolidation of the Insulated Company, having four wires between Boston and Washington, and the old Franklin Company, having two wires between Boston and New York. The capital of the former was $1,250,000, and of the latter $500,000. The new organization has been in operation about two years, during which time its receipts have fallen so far below its expenses that it has contracted a debt of $125,000; and its lines have deteriorated to such an extent that a large sum would have to be expended to put them in proper condition for business. The stock of such companies is valueless as an investment, and, in respect to some of them, it is doubtful if their property could be sold for a sum sufficient to pay their indebtedness.

The Atlantic and Pacific Company has a line from New York to Chicago,viaAlbany, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Sandusky, averaging about two wires for each line. Its lines are built under a contract to take stock in payment, at the rate of $1,666.66 per mile for a line of two wires.

The operation of these separate and irresponsible lines, duringthe brief period of their existence, retards the progress of legitimate telegraphy, and impairs the general unity of the system. Any legislation of Congress which is made to further such schemes has the direct effect of aiding a class of speculators to fleece a credulous public, by inducing them to invest their money in the construction of lines which never have paid, and never can pay, the expenses of operating them, and which are of no benefit to any persons but those who originate them, and profit by their construction.

We quote from Mr. Hubbard:—

“Instruments have been recently invented, and are in operation, either in England or in this country, by which two great hindrances to the efficiency of the telegraph are remedied. Mr. Stearns, president of the Franklin Telegraph Company, has invented an instrument by which messages are transmitted both ways at the same time, on the same wire, thus doubling its capacity without any increase of expense. Sir Charles Wheatstone, in England, has invented an instrument by which double the number of words can be transmitted and received on the same wire, at an increased expense in the preparation of the message for transmission. Instruments are also in operation in Great Britain, worked by boys, after instruction of one or two days.”

In regard to Mr. Stearns’s apparatus for working both ways over one wire at the same time, we are compelled to say there is nothing new in the idea. Doctor Gintl, of Germany, invented it many years ago, and it was published in an Italian work,[20]with steel-plate illustration, issued in 1861, translated into English by George B. Prescott, of Albany, and published in the Telegraphic Journal, London, May, 1864. Moses G. Farmer, Esq., of Boston, invented another apparatus for doing the same thing, and worked it between Boston and Portland, in 1849. If there is any practical value in this apparatus it is open—like the Morse Telegraph—to the use of all. Sir Charles Wheatstone’s apparatus, by which double the number of words can be received on the same wire, will probably prove of the same practical value asmany similar inventions, which in theory can transmit intelligence with the greatest accuracy at the astonishing rate of five or ten thousand words an hour, but in practice have never proved of the slightest value.

20.Manuale di Telegrafia Elettrica, di Carlo Matteucci, Torino, 1861.

It is suggestive, that, of more than a hundred inventions designed to supersede the Morse telegraph, the latter instrument is used to-day on more than 490,000 miles of wire out of the total of 500,000 in operation in all parts of the world. Mr. Hubbard’s assertion, “that instruments are in operation in Great Britain, worked by boys, after instruction of one or two days,” may be true. From all accounts, the use of boys—and charity boys at that—has been the great curse of telegraphy in England, until the saying has become common there, when describing a remarkably poor specimen of chirography, that “it is written as badly as a telegraph despatch.” We hope the day is far distant when our messages shall be transmitted by boys with one or two days’ instruction.

We hardly need say that it is for our interest to adopt every improvement whereby the despatch of business within a given time can be materially increased. It is certainly cheaper for us to provide new instruments, at almost any cost which will ever be charged therefor, than to put up, keep in repair, and operate additional wires to produce the same results.

We reproduce Mr. Hubbard’s statistical table for the purpose of pointing out some very serious errors contained in it.

21. We are indebted for the estimation of the value of these foreign coins in United States gold to E. B. Elliott, Esq., of Washington, D. C., who has recently prepared a valuable work on the subject.

These errors, in reducing foreign money into United States gold currency caused the following discrepancies in gross receipts for the year:—

Thus we find that in reproducing from their various currencies the gross telegraphic receipts of six nations into United States gold, Mr. Hubbard makes the amount $1,435,120.14 less than it should be, and in reducing those of three other countries into our coin he makes the amount $93,417.36 more than it should be.

He has also failed to give the receipts of the three great Submarine Telegraph Companies, which transact so important an amount of continental telegraph business.

Mr. Hubbard gives the number of stations in Switzerland at 333, while the best English authority[22]gives it at 252. He also gives the number of messages transmitted in England, in 1866, as 6,127,000, while Mr. Scudamore, in his reply to the statement of the Electric and International Telegraph Company, published in May, 1868,[23]points out the fact that only 5,781,189 messages were transmitted throughout Great Britain and Ireland during that year.

22. Government and the Telegraphs. London, 1868.

23. Return to an order of the Honorable the House of Commons for copy of further correspondence between the Treasury and the Postmaster-General relating to the Electric Telegraphs Bill.

It will be observed that Mr. Hubbard has “estimated”—that is, guessed at—the number of and receipts for telegrams in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Turkey, and Greece. He estimates the average cost per message to be 42 cents; but as we happen to know that the average cost in Denmark was more than twice this amount, we are not willing to accept any of his estimates.

ERRONEOUS TABLE OF EUROPEAN STATISTICS.

From Mr. Hubbard’s pamphlet:—

EUROPEAN TELEGRAMS COUNTED SEVERAL TIMES.

An examination of Mr. Hubbard’s statement of the number of messages sent in Europe, in 1866, will reveal the fact that he has included inland, international, and transit messages to make up the grand total. In this way he has counted the same message several times. For instance, messages sent from England to France, or any two contiguous countries, would be counted in each. Messages between France and Germany would be counted in France and Germany as international messages, and in Belgium and perhaps some other country as transit. The same would be the case between all European countries whose territories do not border on each other. A message going from France to Russia, or from England to Turkey, might be counted a dozen times.

In the United States each message is counted but once, although it may traverse thousands of miles in reaching its place of destination.

We have not the statistics to show what proportion the legitimate number of messages sent bears to this fictitious number; but by referring to the Belgian table it will be seen that 692,536 inland and 306,596 international messages were sent in 1866, in a total of 1,128,005. Taking this as a fair average for the whole of Europe, we shall find that only 14,012,795 messages were sent in 1866, at an expense, in United States currency, of $15,286,911.61, or about $1.09 each.

The principal element of expense in our business is the cost of labor.[24]If we can do our work as cheaply as another party, it is clear that rates can never be reduced below the point at which receipts and expenses are equal. Any material increase of business, no matter what the rates may be, must be attended with increased expense. And when the capacity of the wires provided for a particularservice is exhausted, a new question is presented by the necessity for providing additional facilities. By the extension of our lines this year west of Chicago, and by the moderate increase in the volume of our business in that section of the country, it will probably become necessary during next year to provide two additional wires between Chicago and the Atlantic coast. The cost of these wires, if erected on poles now standing, will be about $120,000. We shall also be obliged to put up an additional wire between Washington and New Orleans, and between the latter place and Louisville. The cost of maintaining the lines will be somewhat increased by the addition of these wires, and the cost of operating at each end, and looking after them at intermediate points, must also be included. How is the additional capital necessary to provide such increased facilities to be raised? By reducing rates, the result of which is, that, even if gross receipts are not diminished, the expenses are increased? Is it not by gradually increasing lines out of current profits, and as gradually reducing rates after facilities for an enlarged business have been provided?

24. The Western Union Telegraph Company expended $2,573,434.80 for labor for the year ending June 30, 1867. See comparison of cost of labor in Europe and the United States on page26.

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