The following list of some of the more important telegraph companies now
doing business in the United States will convey an idea of the
importance of this interest: Bankers and Brokers’ Telegraph Company,
capital $1,050,000, lines extending from New York to Washington; Pacific
and Atlantic Telegraph Company, capital $3,000,000, lines completed from
Philadelphia to Pittsburg and Cincinnati, and extending; Franklin
Telegraph Company, capital $1,000,000, lines extending from Boston to
Washington; International Telegraph Company, capital $300,000, lines
completed from Boston to Bangor, Me., and will be extended farther east;
Keystone Telegraph Company, lines extending from Philadelphia to
Harrisburg and Pittsburg; International Ocean Telegraph Company, lines
extending from Lake City to Key West and Havana; Northern Telegraph
Company, capital $100,000, lines completed from Boston to Bristol, N.
H., and extending; Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, capital
$5,000,000, lines completed from New York to Chicago and extending;
Great Western Telegraph Company, line completed between Chicago and
Milwaukee; Northwestern Telegraph Company, capital $1,150,000, lines
extending from Milwaukee through Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, and
Minnesota; Mississippi Valley Telegraph Company, lines extending between
St. Paul, Minn., and St. Louis, and from Dubuque to Chicago; Western
Union Telegraph Company, capital $40,347,700, lines extending from the
Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, and from the Atlantic to
the Pacific ocean. There are in addition to this list quite a large
number of companies, covering more or less territory, which, with all of
the above mentioned, are independent organizations, and nearly all of
them engaged in competition with each other.
Private enterprise has with us, so far, achieved much greater results
than governmental management in Europe. As regards the tariff for
messages, they are less than the rates established in Europe.
Considerable reductions have been made within the past year, amounting,
in some cases, to as much as 50 per cent. The reductions have taken
place to the greatest extent in those sections of the country where
there are opposition lines, the rates over some of these routes being
less than the expense of doing the business, but the reductions are not
confined to these sections.
The Western Union Telegraph Company has reduced its rates between
upwards of one thousand offices where there is no opposition; and it is
now preparing a new tariff of rates, based upon airline distances,
between all stations, irrespective of the circuitous routes that the
lines take to reach them, which will still farther simplify and cheapen
the system.
It is the purpose of this company to do the telegraphing of the United
States as well, and at as low rates, as it can be done by any
organization which can be formed, and thus maintain its possession of
the first and most extensive system of telegraphy in the world.