THE ARGUMENT FOR THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE TELEGRAPHS
The indictment of the telegraph companies. The argument
from foreign experience. The promise of reduced tariffs
and increased facilities. The alleged financial success of
foreign State telegraphs: Belgium, Switzerland and France. The
argument from British company experience.
In 1856 the Chambers of Commerce of Great Britain, under the leadership
of the Chamber of Commerce of Edinburgh, began an agitation for the
purchase by the Government of the properties of the several British
telegraph companies. In 1865, the telegraph companies, acting in
unison, withdrew the reduced rate of twenty-four cents for twenty
words, address free, that had been in force, since 1861, between
certain large cities. That action, which will be described further on,
caused the Chambers of Commerce to increase the agitation for State
purchase. In September, 1865, Lord Stanley of Alderley, Postmaster
General, commissioned Mr. F. I. Scudamore, Second Secretary of the
Post Office, "to inquire and report whether, in his opinion, the
electric telegraph service might be beneficially worked by the Post
Office--whether, if so worked, it would possess any advantages over
a system worked by private companies--and whether it would entail
any very large expenditure on the Post Office Department beyond the
purchase of existing rights."
In July, 1866, Mr. Scudamore reported, recommending the purchase
of the telegraphs. In February, 1868, he submitted a supplementary
report; and in 1868 and 1869, he acted as the chief witness for the
Government before the Parliamentary Committees appointed to report on
the Government's Bills proposing to authorize the State to acquire
and operate the telegraphs.[4] The extent to which the Government,
throughout the considerations and negotiations which finally ended in
the nationalization of the telegraphs, relied almost exclusively upon
evidence supplied by Mr. Scudamore, is indicated in the statement made
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. G. W. Hunt, on July 21, 1868,
that Mr. Scudamore "might be said to be the author of the Bill to
acquire the telegraphs."[5]
[Sidenote: _Indictment of the Telegraph Companies_]
Mr. Scudamore reported that the Chambers of Commerce, and the various
writers in the periodical and newspaper press who had supported the
proposal of State purchase, had concurred in the following general
propositions: "that the charges made by the telegraph companies were
too high, and tended to check the growth of telegraphic correspondence;
that there were frequent delays of messages; that many important
districts were unprovided with telegraphic facilities; that in many
places the telegraph office was inconveniently remote from the centre
of business, and was open for too small a portion of the day; that
little or no improvement could be expected so long as the working of
the telegraphs was conducted by commercial companies striving chiefly
to earn a dividend and engaged in wasteful competition with each other;
and, finally, that the growth of telegraphic correspondence had been
greatly stimulated in Belgium and Switzerland by the annexation of the
telegraphs to the Post Offices of those countries, and the consequent
adoption of a low scale of charges; and that in Great Britain like
results would follow the adoption of like means, and that from the
annexation of the British telegraphs to the British Post Office there
would accrue great advantage to the public, and ultimately a large
revenue to the State." Subsequently, before the Select Committees of
Parliament, Mr. Scudamore maintained that in the hands of the State the
telegraphs would pay from the start.
Mr. Scudamore continued his report with the statement that he had
satisfied himself that in Great Britain the telegraph was not in
such general use as upon the Continent; that "the class who used the
telegraphs most freely were stock brokers, mining agents, ship brokers,
Colonial brokers, racing and betting men, fruit merchants and others
engaged in business of a speculative character, or who deal in articles
of a perishable nature. Even general merchants used the telegraphs
comparatively little, compared with those engaged in the more
speculative branches of commerce." He added that from 1862 to 1868 the
annual increase in the number of telegraphic messages had ranged pretty
evenly from 25 per cent. to 30 per cent., indicating merely a gradual
increase in the telegraphic correspondence of those classes who had
been the first to use the telegraphs. He said there had been none of
those "sudden and prodigious jumps" that had occurred on the Continent
after each reduction in the charges for telegraphic messages, or after
each extension of the telegraph system to the smaller towns.
Mr. Scudamore held that it was a serious indictment of the manner
in which the telegraph companies had discharged their duties to the
public, that the small tradesman had not learned to order goods by
telegraph, and had not thereby enabled himself to get along with a
smaller stock of goods kept constantly on hand; that the fishing
villages on the remote coasts of Scotland that had no railways, had no
telegraphs; that the public did not send "millions of messages" of this
kind: "I shall not be home to dinner;" "I will bring down some fish;"
"You can meet me at four;" and that the wife and children, away from
their home in the country village, did not telegraph to the husband and
father: "Send me a money order." Mr. Scudamore's notions of the uses to
which the telegraphs ought to be put were shared by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, Mr. Hunt, who looked forward to the day when "persons
who have a difficulty in writing letters will have less difficulty in
going to a telegraph office and sending a message to a friend than
writing a letter."[6]
[Sidenote: _Argument from Foreign Experience_]
Mr. Scudamore supported his position with the subjoined reports from
countries in which the State operated the telegraphs. The Danish
Government had reported that the telegraph was used by merchants
generally and for social and domestic purposes. Prussia had reported
that in the early days, when the charges had been high, the use of the
telegraph had been confined almost exclusively to bankers, brokers,
large commercial houses and newspaper correspondents, but that with
each reduction in the charges, or extension of the telegraphs to small
towns, the number of those who regularly sent out and received messages
had increased considerably. Switzerland had reported that messages
relating to personal business and family affairs formed as important
a part of the whole traffic as the messages of banking interests and
other trading interests.
France had reported that 38 per cent. of the messages related to
personal business and family affairs; and Belgium had reported that
nearly 59 per cent. of the messages related to personal business and
family affairs.
To indicate the manner in which the use of the telegraph increased
with reductions in the charges made, Mr. Scudamore reported that in
Belgium, in 1863, a reduction of 33 per cent. in the charge had been
followed by an increase of 80 per cent. in the number of telegrams;
and that, in 1866, a reduction of 50 per cent. in the charges had been
followed by an increase of 85 per cent. in the traffic. In France, in
1862, a reduction of 35 per cent. in the charge, had led to an increase
of 64 per cent. in the number of messages. In Switzerland, in 1868, a
reduction of 50 per cent. in the charge had been followed, in the next
three months, by an increase in business of 90 per cent. In Prussia,
in 1867, a reduction of the charge by 33 per cent. had, in the first
month, increased the number of messages by 70 per cent. The increase in
business always had followed immediately, said Mr. Scudamore, showing
that new classes of people took up the use of the telegraphs.
Finally, Mr. Scudamore stated that in 1866, the proportion borne by the
total of telegrams sent to the aggregate of letters sent, had been:
in Belgium, one telegram for every 37 letters; in Switzerland, one
telegram for every 69 letters; and in the United Kingdom, one telegram
for every 121 letters. The relative failure of the people of the United
Kingdom to use the telegraph freely, Mr. Scudamore ascribed to the
high charges made by the telegraph companies, and to the restricted
facilities offered by the companies.
In 1868, the British companies were charging 24 cents for a twenty-word
message, over distances not exceeding 100 miles; 36 cents for distances
between 100 and 200 miles; and 48 cents for distances exceeding 200
miles. For messages passing between Great Britain and Ireland, the
charge ranged from $0.72 to $1.44. In all cases the addresses of the
sender and of the sendee were carried free.
[Sidenote: _Promise of Lower Charges and Better Service_]
The Government proposed to make a uniform charge of 24 cents for twenty
words, irrespective of distance. Mr. Scudamore stated that he fully
expected that in two or three years the Government would reduce its
charge to 12 cents. The only reason why the Government did not propose
to adopt immediately the last mentioned rate, was the desire not to
overcrowd the telegraphs at the start before there had been the chance
to learn with what volume of traffic the existing plant and staff could
cope.[7]
In 1868 there was in the United Kingdom one telegraph office for
every 13,000 people. The Government promised to inaugurate the
nationalization of the telegraphs by giving one office for every 6,000
people.[8]
In the shortest time possible, the Government would open a telegraph
office at every money order issuing Post Office. At that time the
practice was to establish a money order office wherever there was the
prospect of two money orders being issued a day; and in some instances
such offices were established on the prospect of one order a day.
The contention that the public interest demanded a great increase in
the number of telegraph offices, Mr. Scudamore supported by citing
the number of offices in Belgium and France. In the former country
there were upward of 125 telegraph offices which despatched less than
one telegram a day. In fact, some offices despatched less than one a
month. The Belgium Government, in figuring the cost of the Telegraph
Department, charged that Department nothing whatever for office rent,
or for fire, light and office fittings; nor did it charge the smaller
offices anything for the time given by the State Railway employees and
the postal employees to the Telegraph Department. In France there were
301 telegraph offices that took in less than $40 a year; 179 offices
that took in from $40 to $100; and 185 offices that took in from $100
to $200.
Mr. Scudamore over and again assured the Parliamentary Select
Committee of 1868 that the telegraphs in the hands of the State would
be self-supporting from the start, and that ultimately they would be
a considerable source of revenue. But he supported his indictment
of the telegraph companies of the United Kingdom by drawing upon
the experience of the State telegraphs of Belgium, Switzerland, and
France, under very low rates on inland telegrams, as distinguished
from telegrams in transit, or telegrams to and from foreign countries.
In taking that course, Mr. Scudamore ignored the fact that the inland
rates in question were not remunerative.
[Sidenote: _Belgium's Experience_]
The Belgium State telegraphs had been opened in 1850. In the years
1850 to 1856, they had earned, upon an average, 36.8 per cent. a year
upon their cost. In the period 1857 to 1862, they had earned, upon an
average, 24.3 per cent. In 1863 to 1865, the annual earnings fell to an
average of 13.5 per cent.; and in 1866 to 1869, they reached an average
of 2.8 per cent. only. The reasons for that rapid and steady decline of
the net earnings were: the opening of relatively unprofitable lines and
offices; increases in wages which the Government could not withhold;
a slackening in the rate of growth of the profits on the so-called
foreign messages and transit messages; and a rapid increase in the
losses upon the inland messages, which were carried at low rates for
the purpose of stimulating traffic.
At an early date the Belgium Government concluded that the first three
of the four factors just enumerated were beyond the control of the
State, and therefore permanent. It resolved, therefore, to attempt to
neutralize them by developing the inland traffic to such proportions
that it should become a source of profit, that traffic having been, up
to that time, a source of loss. Accordingly, on January 1st, 1863, the
Government lowered the charge on inland messages from 30 cents for 20
words, addresses included, to 20 cents. As that reduction did not prove
sufficiently effective, the charge on inland messages was reduced, on
December 1st, 1865, to 10 cents for 20 words. Under that reduction the
loss incurred upon the inland messages rose from an annual average of
$13,800 in 1863 to 1865, to an annual average of $59,500 in 1866 to
1869; and the average annual return upon the capital invested fell to
2.8 per cent. This evidence was before Mr. Scudamore when he argued
from the experience of Belgium in favor of a uniform rate, irrespective
of distance, of 24 cents for 20 words, not counting the addresses. Mr.
Scudamore shared the opinion of the Belgium Government that the rate of
10 cents would so stimulate the traffic as to become very profitable.
As a matter of fact, things went from bad to worse in Belgium, and
for many years the Belgian State telegraphs failed to earn operating
expenses.[9]
By way of explanation it should be added that the so-called transit
messages and foreign messages were profitable for two reasons. In
the first place, the Belgian Government kept high the rates on those
messages. In the second place, those messages are carried much more
cheaply than inland messages. The transit messages, say from Germany
to England, have only to be retransmitted; they are not received
across the counter, nor are they delivered across the counter and by
messenger. The foreign messages are burdened with only one of the two
foregoing relatively costly operations. In 1866 the Belgian Government
stated that, if the cost to the Telegraph Department of a given number
of words transmitted as a message in transit be represented by two, the
corresponding cost of the same number of words received and transmitted
as a foreign message would be represented by three, while the cost of
the same number of words received and transmitted as an inland message
would be represented by five.
[Sidenote: _Swiss Experience_]
The Swiss State telegraphs, the experience of which Mr. Scudamore also
cited in support of his Report, were opened in 1852; and in the period
from 1854 to 1866 they earned, on an average, 18 per cent. upon their
cost. Throughout that period the average receipts per inland messages
were 21 cents, and the average receipts per foreign message were 39
cents. In the year 1865 the average receipts per message were 21 cents
for inland messages, and 30 cents for foreign and transit messages,
which constituted 39 per cent. of the traffic. In the following year,
1866, the average receipts upon the inland traffic remained unchanged;
while those upon the foreign and transit traffic, 43 per cent. of the
total traffic, fell to 20 cents. This reduction of 33 per cent. in the
average receipts upon the foreign and transit traffic, caused a decline
of 45 per cent. in the total net receipts, and reduced the earnings
upon the capital from 15.2 per cent. in 1865, to 7.5 per cent. in 1866.
Thus far the receipts from the inland messages had not covered the
operating expenses incurred on account of those messages. The profits,
which had been very large, had come from the foreign messages and
messages in transit.[10] The Government, alarmed at the decline in
profits resulting from the fall in the average receipts per message
in the foreign and transit traffic, resolved upon a special effort to
stimulate the growth of the inland traffic. Accordingly, on January
1st, 1868, it lowered the rates on inland messages of 20 words, address
counted, from 20 cents to 10 cents. The inland traffic immediately
doubled; but the cost of handling it more than doubled. The increase
in the traffic necessitated the stringing of additional wires, and
the employment of more instruments, linemen, telegraphers and office
clerks. At the same time the Government was obliged to concede all
round increases of wages and salaries, in consequence of the general
increase in the cost of living which accompanied the world-wide
revival of trade ushered in by the discovery of gold in California and
Australia, the introduction of steamships upon the high seas, and the
building of railways in all parts of the world.
The inland messages increased by leaps and bounds from 397,289 in 1867
to 2,118,373 in 1876; and still the receipts from them did not cover
the operating expenses. In 1874 and 1875, for example, those expenses
averaged 14 cents per message. Accordingly, in 1877, the Government
adopted a new scale of charges on inland messages, to wit: an initial
charge of 6 cents per message, to which was added 0.5 cent for every
word transmitted. The Government assumed that the average length of the
inland messages would be 14 words; and that the average receipts per
message would be 13 cents. It hoped soon to reduce the average cost
per message below 13 cents, and hoped thus to make the inland traffic
remunerative. But those expectations never were realized; and to this
day the inland messages have been carried at a loss.[11]
[Sidenote: _French Experience_]
In 1861, the French State telegraphs reduced the rate for messages of
20 words, counting the address, to 20 cents for intradepartmental[12]
messages, and to 40 cents for interdepartmental messages. In 1866 the
average receipts per message were: 38 cents on the inland traffic;
$1.38 on the foreign traffic; and 55.8 cents on the traffic as a whole.
With these average receipts per message, the earnings were $1,541,519;
while the operating expenses were $1,796,692. In other words, the State
telegraphs lost $255,173 on the working, besides failing to earn any
interest on the capital invested in them, $4,760,000.
In making the foregoing statement, no allowance is made for the value
of the messages sent "on public service," messages for which the
State would have been obliged to pay, had the telegraphs been owned
or operated by companies. No such allowance can be made, because the
several official French statements submitted by Mr. Scudamore as to
the number of messages sent "on public service" applied to the years
1865 and 1867, years for which the operating expenses were not given.
Furthermore, the messages sent on public service in 1865 and 1867 were
so numerous as to indicate so loose a construction of the term "on
public service" as to make the returns worthless for the purpose of
determining the commercial value of the saving resulting to the State
from the public ownership of the telegraphs. For 1865, the number of
messages "on public service" was returned as 568,647, the equivalent of
23 per cent. of the number of messages sent by the public. For 1867,
the number was returned as 168,999, the equivalent of 5.94 per cent.
of the messages sent by the public. That those figures represented
an unreasonable resource to the telegraph for the transaction of the
State's business, is proved by the fact that in the United Kingdom,
in the period 1871 to 1890, the value of the messages sent "on public
service" was equivalent to less than 2 per cent. of the sums paid
by the public for the transmission of telegraphic messages. On the
basis of any reasonable use of the telegraphs "on public service,"
the financial results of the French State telegraphs would not have
been altered materially. The deficit, in 1866, on account of operating
expenses, $255,173, was sufficient to permit of the sending of 457,300
messages "on public service," the equivalent of 16 per cent. of the
messages sent by the public. It would be unreasonable to assume that
the State could have need of such recourse to the telegraphs.
[Sidenote: _Summary of Foreign Experience_]
To sum up the evidence from Belgium, Switzerland, and France,
submitted by Mr. Scudamore in 1866 to 1869: This evidence was that
rates of 20 cents and 10 cents for 20 words, applied to inland
messages, developed an enormous inland traffic, but that that traffic
was unremunerative. So long as the rates on foreign messages and
transit messages had remained very much higher than the rates on inland
messages, the Belgian and Swiss State telegraphs had paid handsomely.
But as soon as the latter rates had approached the level of the former
rates, the net revenue had tumbled headlong; and there was, in 1868 and
1869, no certainty that it would not disappear entirely, or be reduced
to such proportions as no longer to afford an adequate return upon the
capital invested in the telegraphs. In the case of France, no evidence
was presented that the State telegraphs ever had paid their way, though
the prices obtained for the transmission of foreign messages and
transit messages were between three and four times the returns obtained
from the transmission of inland messages.
[Sidenote: _English Companies' Experience_]
While the evidence from Belgium, Switzerland and France, presented by
Mr. Scudamore, did not support the proposition of a low uniform rate,
irrespective of distance, the evidence furnished by the experience of
the telegraph companies of the United Kingdom pointed strongly to the
conclusion that a uniform rate, irrespective of distance, of 24 cents
for 20 words, addresses not counted, was not remunerative in the then
state of efficiency of the telegraph. In this connection it must be
borne in mind that at this time messages had to be retransmitted at
intervals of 200 or 300 miles; and that, while the maximum distance a
message could travel was only 160 miles in Belgium, and 200 miles in
Switzerland, it was 600 miles in the United Kingdom.
In 1861 the telegraph business of the United Kingdom was in the
hands of two companies which had been organized in 1846 and 1852
respectively: the Electric and International Telegraph Company, and the
British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company. In that year, 1861, a new
company, the United Kingdom Electric Telegraph Company, invaded the
field with a uniform tariff, irrespective of distance, of 24 cents for
20 words, addresses free. The established companies had been charging
24 cents for distances up to 25 miles; 36 cents for distances up to 50
miles; 48 cents for distances up to 100 miles; 60 cents for distances
up to 200 miles; 96 cents for distances up to 300 miles; and $1.20 for
distances up to 400 miles.[13]
The United Kingdom Company began operations in 1861 with a trunk line
between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and intermediate and
neighboring towns. Shortly afterward it opened a second trunk line from
London to Northampton, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Barnsley,
Wakefield, Leeds and Hull; and across through Bradford, Halifax,
Rochdale, and Huddersfield to Manchester and Liverpool. Subsequently
the company extended its line to Edinburgh and Glasgow, thus
lengthening to upward of 500 miles, the distance over which messages
were transmitted for 24 cents.[14]
In July 1865, the Board of Directors reported as follows to the
stockholders: "The Directors much regret to state that, notwithstanding
their earnest efforts to develop telegraphic communication so as to
render the shilling [24 cent] rate remunerative, the company has been
unable to earn a dividend. The system of the company consists of
trunk lines almost exclusively embracing nearly all the main centres
of business, telegraphically speaking, of the country. Seeing that
the company was working under the greatest possible advantages, and
that upward of four years had elapsed since the formation of the
company without the payment of any dividend to the proprietary, the
directors conceived that they would not be justified in continuing the
shilling [24 cent] system, and arrangements were therefore agreed to
for its alteration. The directors waited until the last moment before
reluctantly adopting this step, but having sought publicity in every
way, having persistently canvassed in every department of business, and
having endeavored by personal solicitations of numerous active agents
to attract trade, they at last saw themselves compelled to agree to a
measure that was greatly antagonistic to their personal wishes, but
absolutely essential for the well-being of the company, and requisite,
as they believe, for the permanent interests of the telegraphing
community."
In 1865, the United Kingdom Telegraph Company joined with its
competitors, the Electric and International Telegraph Company, and the
British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company, in the following rates
for 20 words, addresses free: 24 cents for distances up to 100 miles;
36 cents for distances between 100 and 200 miles; and 48 cents for
distances beyond 200 miles.
In July, 1866, the directors of the United Kingdom Telegraph Company
reported that in the last half-year "the company earned an amount
of profit equal to 6 per cent. dividend over the whole of its share
capital."
When the United Kingdom Company had entered the field, in 1861, with
the 24 cent rate, the old established companies, the Electric and
International and the British and Irish Magnetic, had been compelled
to adopt the 24 cent rate between all points reached by the United
Kingdom Company. In February, 1863, the directors of the Electric and
International Company reported that the 24 cent circuit between London,
Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham still was unremunerative. The
company was losing money on every message transmitted, though the 24
cent rate had increased business to such an extent that the company
had been obliged to add two wires to the circuit in question. Since
the business done by means of the additional wires did not pay, the
directors had charged the cost of those wires to operating expenses,
not to capital account. The company did not care for the business, but
could not refuse to take it. In July, 1865, the directors reported:
"After a trial of four years, the experiment of a uniform shilling
rate [on certain circuits] irrespective of distance, has not justified
itself."
The half yearly reports of the British and Irish Magnetic Company from
1862 to 1865 reported that "for any but very short distances," the 24
cent tariff was "utterly unremunerative." The effect of the rate was to
absorb in unavoidable additional expenses a very large portion of the
increase in revenue coming from the increase in business.
In 1859 the London District Telegraph Company was organized for
the purpose of transmitting telegraph messages between points in
Metropolitan London. In 1860 the company had 52 stations and 73.5 miles
of line; and it carried 74,582 messages. In 1862 it had 84 offices and
103 miles of line, and it carried 243,849 messages. In 1865 the company
reached its highest point, carrying 316,272 messages. The company at
that time had 123 miles of line and 83 offices. The London District
Telegraph Company began with a tariff of 8 cents for 10 words, and 12
cents for a message of 10 words with a reply message of 10 words. It
soon changed its tariff to 12 cents for 15 words, experience having
shown that 10 words was an insufficient allowance.[15] Subsequently the
company added porterage charges for delivery beyond a certain distance.
In 1866, the company raised its tariff to 24 cents. The company never
earned operating expenses; and in November, 1867, its shares, upon
which $25 had been paid in, fluctuated between $3.75 and $6.25.[16]
Mr. Robert Grimston, Chairman of the Electric and International
Telegraph Company, in 1868 commented as follows upon the experience
of the London District Telegraph Company. "A very strong argument
against the popular fancy that the introduction of a low rate of charge
in towns and country districts would induce the shopkeepers and the
lower classes to use the telegraph is furnished by the example of the
London District Telegraph Company. A better or a wider field than
the metropolitan for an illustration of this theory could not surely
be furnished. The facts, however, being, that after several years of
struggling existence, the tariff being first fixed at 8 cents, and then
at 12 cents, the company has never paid its way."
FOOTNOTES:
[4] _A Report to the Postmaster General upon Certain Proposals which
have been made for transferring to the Post Office the Control and
Management of the Electric Telegraphs throughout the United Kingdom,
July, 1868_; _Supplementary Report to the Postmaster General upon the
Proposal for transferring to the Post Office the Control and Management
of the Electric Telegraphs, February, 1868_; _Special Report from the
Select Committee on the Electric Telegraphs Bill, 1868_; and _Report
from the Select Committee on the Telegraphic Bill, 1869_.
Unless otherwise stated, all the material statements made in this
chapter are taken from the foregoing official documents.
[5] _Hansard's Parliamentary Debates_, July 21, 1868, p. 1,603.
[6] _Special Report from the Select Committee on the Electric
Telegraphs Bill, 1868_; q. 2549 and 1581.
[7] _Special Report from the Select Committee on the Electric
Telegraphs Bill, 1868_; q. 2508; and _Report from the Select Committee
on the Telegraphic Bill, 1869_; q. 346.
[8] _Report from the Select Committee on the Telegraphic Bill, 1869_;
q. 327; and _Special Report from the Select Committee on the Electric
Telegraphs Bill, 1868_; q. 88.
[9] _Supplementary Report to the Postmaster General upon the Proposal
for transferring to the Post Office the Control and Management of the
Electric Telegraphs_, 1868; and Sir James Anderson, in _Journal of the
Statistical Society_, September, 1872.
BELGIAN STATE TELEGRAPHS
====+====================+====================+====================
| Inland messages | Foreign Messages |Messages in transit
----+-----+--------+-----+-----+--------+-----+-----+--------+-----
| Cost|Receipts| Loss| Cost|Receipts| Gain| Cost|Receipts| Gain
| per| per| per| per| per| per| per| per| per
| mes-| mes-| mes-| mes-| mes-| mes-| mes-| mes-| mes-
| sage| sage| sage| sage| sage| sage| sage| sage| sage
====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+=====
CENTS
====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+=====
1860| 42.0| 35.4| 6.8| 25.4| 49.0| 23.6| 16.8| 60.6| 43.8
1861| 38.4| 35.0| 3.4| 23.0| 44.8| 21.8| 15.4| 57.0| 41.6
1862| 39.4| 33.6| 5.8| 23.6| 43.2| 19.6| 15.8| 52.2| 36.4
1863| 30.0| 22.4| 7.6| 18.0| 34.0| 16.0| 12.0| 38.0| 26.0
1864| 27.0| 22.4| 4.6| 16.2| 31.2| 15.0| 10.8| 41.2| 30.4
1865| 25.4| 20.8| 4.6| 15.2| 27.0| 11.8| 10.2| 40.4| 30.2
1866| 18.0| 11.8| 6.2| 10.8| 23.4| 12.6| 7.2| 28.6| 21.4
1867| 18.2| 11.6| 6.6| 11.0| 24.0| 13.0| 7.2| 29.2| 22.0
1868| 18.4| 11.4| 7.0| 11.0| 22.4| 11.4| 7.4| 29.0| 21.6
1869| 17.2| 10.8| 6.4| 10.2| 21.2| 11.0| 6.8| 29.0| 22.2
====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+=====+=====+========+=====
[10] _Archiv für Post und Telegraphie_, 1903, p. 577.
[11] _Archiv für Post und Telegraphie_, 1903, p. 574.
[12] For administrative purposes France is divided into so-called
"Departments."
[13] _Journal of the Statistical Society_, March, 1881.
The Tariff of the Electric and International Co., for 20 words
(addresses not counted after 1854), was as follows:
In 1840, and for some years after, the charge was 2 cents a mile for
the first 50 miles; 1 cent a mile for the second 50 miles; and 5 cents
for each mile beyond 100 miles.
In 1850 the maximum charge for 20 words was reduced to $2.40; early in
1851 it was reduced to $2.04; and in November, 1851, it was reduced to
60 cents for 100 miles, and $1.20 for distances beyond 100 miles.
--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
1855 | 1862 | 1864 | 1865 |
-------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------+------+
Miles | $ | Miles | $ | Miles | $ | Miles | $ |
-------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------+------+
50 | 0.36 | 25 | 0.24 | 50 | 0.24 | | |
100 | 0.48 | 50 | 0.36 | | | | |
150 | 0.72 |100 | 0.48 |100 | 0.48 |100 | 0.24 |
151 and| 0.96 |200 | 0.60 |200 | 0.60 |100 to | |
beyond| |300 | 0.96 |300 and| |200 | 0.36 |
| |400 and| 1.20 | beyond| 0.72 |200 and| 0.48 |
| | beyond| | | | beyond| |
-------+------+-------+------+-------+------+-------+------+
-----------------------------------+--------+--------------+
| 1855 | 1865 |
-----------------------------------+--------+--------------+
| $ | $ |
To Ireland, by marine cable | 1.20 | 0.72 to 0.96 |
===================================+========+==============+
In February, 1872, two years after the uniform rate of 24 cents,
irrespective of distance, had been put in force by the Government, the
Telegraph Department made a careful examination of 7,000 messages sent
from the large cities to all parts of the United Kingdom. The average
charge per message was found to be 27 cents; under the rates enforced
by the telegraph companies in 1865, the average charge would have been
52 cents.--_Report of the Postmaster General_ for 1872.
[14] The United Kingdom Telegraph Co.
========+=============+=============+=========+===========+
| | |Number of| Number of |
|Miles of line|Miles of wire| offices | messages |
--------+-------------+-------------+---------+-----------+
1861 | 305 | 1968 | 16 | 11,549 |
1862 | 372 | 2741 | 22 | 133,514 |
1863 | 831 | 5099 | 48 | 226,729 |
1864 | 1343 | 8096 | 100 | 518,651 |
1865 | 1672 | 9506 | 125 | 743,870 |
========+=============+=============+=========+===========+
[15] _Journal of Statistical Society_, March, 1881.
[16] _Miscellaneous Statistics for the United Kingdom_, 1862, 1864,
1866 and 1868-9; _Parliamentary Paper_ No. 416, Session of 1867-68; and
_Journal of the Statistical Society_, March, 1881.
LONDON DISTRICT TELEGRAPH CO.
=======+========+========+=========+==========
|Miles of|Miles of|Number of|Number of
| line | wire | offices | messages
-------+--------+--------+---------+----------
1860 | 73 | 335 | 52 | 74,582
1861 | 92 | 378 | 78 | 114,022
1862 | 103 | 401 | 84 | 243,849
1863 | 107 | 430 | 81 | 247,606
1864 | 115 | 454 | 80 | 308,032
1865 | 123 | 470 | 83 | 316,272
1866 | 150 | 495 | 80 | 214,496
1867 | 150 | 495 | 81 | 239,583
1868 | 163 | | 82 |
=======+========+========+=========+==========