Footnote 30:
From the Cincinnati Gazette.
The building of telegraph lines in the United States, from the date of
their inauguration down to the present time, has been overdone. There
are now too many wires for the business, at the prices that are charged;
consequently there are few, if any, lines that pay a fair interest on
the cost of their construction. So great is the cost of maintaining and
operating lines, too, that it is a question whether sufficient business
could be done, as it is conducted at very low rates, to pay expenses. In
business hours, for example, there is a great rush of messages,—say from
9 A. M. to 3 P. M.—that is, between commercial centres. After 3 o’clock
there is comparatively little business, except what is furnished by the
newspapers. Consequently, in the after part of the day, and during the
night, many wires and operators are idle. In order to make business for
this portion of the twenty-four hours, the telegraph companies adopted a
low schedule of rates for night messages, but this has been attended
with poor success. The lines are mainly used, it is found, by business
men and newspapers. Business messages require immediate delivery, and
are not valuable except when transmitted and delivered during business
hours. Hence the reduced rates for night messages has not created much
new business. Neither would low rates for day messages create new
business, unless the despatches could be promptly forwarded and
delivered. Low rates for day messages, prompt delivery being insured,
would undoubtedly largely increase the business, but this would require
more wires and more men. The question then is, would the income at low
rates be sufficient to pay for the increased expenditures? Telegraph
managers have decided this question in the negative. There is, it must
be borne in mind, a limit to the capacity of telegraph wires for
conveying news. Herein this system differs from the postal system. There
is, practically, no limit to the capacity of the railroad companies for
carrying the mails, and, of course, the profits of the postal department
are in proportion to the amount of business they transact. These
preliminary remarks are made in order that the public may the better
understand the proposition which has been made, and is being agitated,
looking to the purchase of the telegraph lines by the government, and
their operation in connection with the postal system. The pretext is,
that the government could afford to reduce the tariff to a low point,
say one cent per word for five hundred miles or less, and two cents for
over five hundred up to one thousand, &c. This would make the tariff
between Cincinnati and New York three cents, whereas it is now ten
cents, for private messages. This is the pretext, but the real secret of
the movement is this. There are two parties who favor the proposition.
One of these has been quietly buying up telegraph stock at thirty or
forty cents on the dollar. They propose to have Congress pass a law
authorizing the President to appoint three commissioners to value the
telegraph lines of the United States and providing for their purchase at
such valuation. Here is a fine chance for speculation. It would afford
an admirable opening for the gentlemen who practise in the lobby. The
second party favoring the purchase is composed of members of Congress
who are anxious to have the franking privilege extended to the telegraph
lines. What a splendid thing it would be if members of Congress could
use the telegraph lines free, as they use the mails. But the people
would have to pay for the free business on the telegraph lines,—pay
dearly, too, as they pay for the uses and abuses of the postal franking
privilege. Besides, the government, in connection with the postal
system, is mainly conspicuous for its mismanagement. It does not compete
successfully with private enterprise, and never can so long as the
abominable system of filling and vacating offices is continued. The
telegraph business is decidedly complicated. It requires skilful men to
operate it. How would it be if telegraph offices were to be filled as
post-offices and revenue offices are filled? We need not stop to answer
this question. Besides, secrecy is an important feature of the telegraph
business. It is not as carefully enforced as it should be; but what a
political machine the telegraph would become if partisan politicians
should get hold of it! Imagine the telegraph during an exciting
presidential campaign, with one party controlling the wires and reading
all the private despatches that passed over the lines! There would be no
secrecy about it; neither would it be reliable, and in the end it would
cost the people more than those using it would save. Not one man in
twenty would use the telegraph if rates were even lower than is
proposed; and consequently nineteen men would be taxed for the benefit
of one. The whole thing would be a tax upon the people, without
compensating advantages. If private enterprise, with sharp competition,
cannot carry messages between New York and Cincinnati, at ten cents per
word, and make money, the government could not do it at three cents, or
at any price up to ten. Nothing more certain than that. Besides, the
corruption connected with office-holding and office-getting, in this
country, is sufficient to cause the people to shudder at the mere
proposition to add fifty thousand offices to the already enormous
federal patronage. The government is staggering now under the tremendous
load of corruption consequent upon the federal patronage and the mode of
distributing it, and the people must soon choose between a reform in
this or a revolution. Let it be first demonstrated, therefore, that the
government can successfully, honestly, and economically manage the
business intrusted to it before it undertakes to assume exclusive
control of other branches of private enterprise. But, as already stated,
the present movement is merely a scheme to saddle upon the government
the non-paying telegraph lines of the United States, at three or four
times their value. The result would be amazing corruption in the
management of the lines, the violation of private confidence for
personal or political purposes, and a cost to the people for
telegraphing greater than is now borne by those who use the wires.