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.
As an illustration of the manner in which this service is performed, we
will take the State press of New York for an example. The report is
compiled by the agent of the Association for the various editions of the
newspapers requiring it, and it is then handed to the telegrapher, who
with the manipulation of his magic key transmits it simultaneously to
Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Albany, Troy, Utica, Syracuse, Auburn, Elmira,
Binghamton, Owego, Rome, Oswego, Rochester, and Buffalo, New York, to
Rutland and Burlington, Vermont, and to Scranton, Pennsylvania. These
stations are not all on a single wire, nor on the same route, and the
question may be asked, How can they all receive the same information
from a single impulse? This is accomplished by a combination of circuits
through an instrument called a repeater, by which the intelligence can
be transmitted to a thousand offices as easily as to one.
The news is sent to the Eastern press in a similar manner. The
manipulation of the key at New York transmits the report simultaneously
to Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, Waterbury, and Norwich, Conn.,
Providence, R. I., and to Springfield, Worcester, Boston, Fall River and
New Bedford, Mass.
The operator at each of these places receives the reports by the click
of the instruments,—reading by the sound of the armature,—and with an
agate pen copies them upon manifold paper, making as many impressions as
are necessary to furnish each paper with a duplicate copy.
Direct wires carry and bring news from and to Chicago, Cincinnati, St.
Louis, Washington, New Orleans, Plaister Cove, and other important
points. Sixteen wires work out of New York every night to transmit or
receive news reports, and all over the United States the ubiquitous iron
threads are permeated by the subtile and invisible fluid during all the
silent hours of the night, conveying intelligence of passing events in
all sections of the civilized world for publication in the morning
journals throughout the country.
It is a singular and suggestive fact, that the amount of news which we
furnish to the press of the United States, for an aggregate sum of
$521,509, is considerably greater than the entire telegraphic
correspondence of Continental Europe, for which the paternal governments
of those enlightened and enterprising peoples receive $11,597,632.71.
The following table will serve to show the remarkable contrast, in this
respect, between the systems under government and private control. The
number of messages delivered to the press are obtained for this
comparison by dividing the total number of words furnished to the press
by 20, the European standard:—
_Statement showing the Average Cost of Telegrams in Continental Europe
and the Average Cost of Press Telegrams in the United States, with
Total Amount of each per annum._
┌─────────────────────┬──────────────┬─────────────────────┬──────────┐
│Total number of │ │Total number of │ │
│ messages │ │ messages furnished │ │
│ transmitted in │ │ to the newspapers │ │
│ Continental Europe │ │ of the United │ │
│ for the year 1866, │ 12,902,538│ States for 1866, │14,725,181│
│Gross receipts for │ │Gross receipts for │ │
│ the above, │$11,597,632.71│ the above, │ $521,509│
├─────────────────────┼──────────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────┤
│Average cost of │ │Average cost of press│ │
│ telegrams in │ │ telegrams in the │ │
│ Continental Europe,│ 81 cts.│ United States, │ 3½ cts.│
└─────────────────────┴──────────────┴─────────────────────┴──────────┘
The above exhibit illustrates the difference between what can be
accomplished under a popular government which leaves the press and
telegraph free and untrammelled, and the results of the paternal system
which the governments of Continental Europe impose upon their subjects.
For these great benefits the people of this country are indebted to the
government for the one negative quality of letting the press and
telegraph alone. For the positive quality which actually provides them
they are solely indebted to the enterprise and public spirit of the
press, and the Western Union Telegraph Company, the latter furnishing
the reports at a price which barely covers the cost of service employed
in transmitting them, and leaving nothing to defray the expense of the
wear of the lines, or interest on the investments for their
construction.
In no other country in the world is there such a system, and in none can
there ever be, until the policy of our government is imitated, and the
people left to manage their own private affairs, leaving the press and
the telegraph free and untrammelled by governmental control or
repression. What our government, with such an example already set, might
be able or disposed to do, in the event of its monopolizing the
telegraphs, it is impossible to say; but it is unquestionably true, that
no other government has ever made such a use of them to promote the
education and general well-being of its people.
We believe it would prove a serious misfortune to the press and the
people, if the government were to destroy, by its interference, this
admirable co-operative system of obtaining telegraphic news at such low
rates.
The tariff for special press reports is as follows: For the first one
hundred words, full rates; for the next four hundred words, a discount
of thirty-three and one third per cent; for the next five hundred words,
one half the ordinary tariff; and all over one thousand words, a
discount is made of sixty-six and two thirds per cent.
Mr. Washburne’s bill provides for a general tariff of one cent per word
for telegrams, with an additional charge of three cents for postage, and
two cents for delivery, and stipulates that a reduction of not more than
fifty per cent shall be made for press reports. _This rate would
increase the average cost of news for the press of the United States
more than three hundred per cent, and thus the newspapers would be
compelled to pay an extra tax of a million dollars per annum for the
privileges they now enjoy._
If these facts show any results to warrant governmental assumption or
interference in the business of telegraphing, we fail to perceive them.
REVIEW
OF
MR. GARDINER G. HUBBARD’S LETTER TO THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL ON THE
EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN SYSTEMS OF TELEGRAPH.
We have recently received a pamphlet from Gardiner G. Hubbard, Esq., of
Boston, entitled a “Letter to the Postmaster-General on the European and
American Systems of Telegraph, with Remedy for the present High Rates,”
which we will briefly review.