“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.
In reply to the statement that our company is anxious only for profit,
and that its charges are exorbitant as compared with those of other
countries, we respectfully call attention to the following table,
showing the average cost of telegrams in Europe and America for the year
1866.