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 than _four 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.