ESTIMATE OF THE COST OF BUILDING TELEGRAPH LINES.
Mr. Washburne says:—
“Any one at all familiar with the prices of materials and labor in the various countries will see that, as to materials for the construction of lines, they are cheaper here than in any European country, and that the whole cost of constructing telegraphic lines must be less here than in Belgium or Switzerland. In the latter country a large proportion of the lines are erected upon iron posts, the prime cost of which with the stone base is from $6 to $9 each, or from five to seven times the cost of the posts usually employed in America.
“As to the exact cost of constructing lines in the United States it is difficult to procure reliable data. There are few questions apparently so simple upon which so many conflicting opinions have been printed. So simple a matter as the cost of posts, say thirty feet long, the placing of them in the earth, furnishing and placing the necessary iron wires and insulators and the fitting up of stations with instruments and furniture, ought not, one would suppose, to be a difficult thing to fix. Yet persons claiming to be experts, and even authorities in all matters relating to telegraphs, have differed very widely. Mr. Prescott, a telegraph superintendent, and the author of a work on ‘Electric Telegraphs,’ estimates the cost of a mile of telegraph, built as they ordinarily are, at $61.80[[7]]....
[7]. This statement was written in 1859, and the object of the author was to show the inferior manner in which a majority of the lines were constructed at that time.
“This is about the cost of construction of a majority of our lines, but if built as they should be, they would cost $150 per mile. If additional wires are added, each wire put up would be, per mile, $32.80.”
Mr. Washburne’s statement, that telegraph lines can be built cheaper in the United States than in Europe, is entirely incorrect. Labor, wire, machinery, insulators, and every appliance peculiar to the telegraph, are very much cheaper in Europe than in America, and large importations of wire are constantly being made from Belgium and England, notwithstanding the heavy duty.
The difference in the cost of labor in Europe and America is very great. The most recent authentic publication on the subject[[8]] states that the general average rates paid for all kinds of labor in the United Kingdom are as follows: For adult males, in England, $4.96 per week; in Scotland, $4.52; in Ireland, $3.16. For boys and youths, under twenty years of age, in England, $1.44; in Scotland, $1.70; in Ireland, $1.38. For adult women, in England, $2.76; in Scotland, $2.32; in Ireland, $2.06. For girls, under twenty years of age, in England, $1.88; in Scotland, $1.80; in Ireland, $1.62. These rates are stated to be high, as compared with other countries in Europe.
[8]. Wages and Earnings of the Working Classes. By Leone Levi, F. S. S., F. S. A., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Commerce in King’s College. London: John Murray. 1867.
In Belgium, coal-miners earn from 33 cents to $1.00 per day, the average being 56 cents. In iron-furnaces, a puddler earns from 92 cents to $1.10, and the under hands from 50 cents to 62 cents per day. In iron-foundries, a moulder earns from 44 cents to 62 cents per day. In Paris, the average for adult male labor is 76 cents per day, and for women 38 cents; but in the interior of France the price is much less. In Prussia, first-class engineers earn $1.10, and second-class 83 cents.
Among the working classes in the United Kingdom are included all who, whether as workers for others or as workers for themselves, are employed in manual labor, be it productive of wealth or not; and they are divided into five classes, viz. professional, domestic, commercial, agricultural, and industrial. The total number of workers is estimated at eleven millions, and the average weekly earnings in the United Kingdom are: Men, under twenty, $1.59; from twenty to sixty, $4.18; women, under twenty, $1.72; from twenty to sixty, $2.41. Average weekly earnings from every avocation in Great Britain and Ireland, $3.16.
Thirty per cent of the people of the United Kingdom live in houses the rental of which is less than $31 per annum, and seventeen per cent in those under $45 per year.
In the preparation of the following table we have consulted Professor Levi’s work on Wages and Earnings in England; “Government and the Telegraphs” (London, 1868); “Special Report on the Electric Telegraph Bill”; “Publications of the Statistical Bureau at Washington”; and the official records of the Western Union Telegraph Company.
| Statement showing the Average Cost of Labor in England and the United States. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Prices paid per Day. | England. | United States. |
| Carpenters and Builders | $1.14 | $3.25 |
| Dock Laborers | .68 | 2.25 |
| Engineers | 1.32 | 3.85 |
| Farm Laborers | .42 | 2.00 |
| Iron Founders | 1.10 | 3.25 |
| Moulders | 1.25 | 3.50 |
| Letter-Carriers[[9]] | .74 | 2.18 |
| Printers | 1.02 | 2.50 |
| Policemen | .85 | 3.00 |
| Railroad Conductors | .92 | 3.85 |
| Soldiers | .22 | .62 |
| Servant-girls | .16 | .48 |
| Telegraph Employees[[10]] | .41 | 1.29 |
[9]. The number of letter-carriers employed by the British Post-Office Department for the year 1866 was 11,449, and the total expenditures for the same $2,664,000, being an average of $232.68 per annum for each man.
The number of letter-carriers employed by the Post-Office Department of the United States for the year 1866 was 863, and the total expenditures for the same $589,236.41, being an average of $682.77 for each man.
[10]. The cost of labor of telegraph employees is obtained by dividing the total amount paid for labor by the number of persons employed of all kinds. The average price per day for operators in the United States is $2.25, and in England 62 cents.
With a knowledge of the great difference in the cost of labor and material in Europe and America which the above statistics show, we cannot comprehend the propriety of Mr. Washburne’s assertion that the whole cost of constructing telegraphic lines must be less here than in Belgium or Switzerland.
Even our poles are purchased in the Dominion of Canada, and paid for in gold. The cost of transportation from the St. Lawrence to New York cannot be much, if any, more than the cost of their delivery at London, Havre, or Brussels.
In the United States, telegraph-poles are of cedar or chestnut,—more generally of the former. In England, the larch is the most common; in Russia, the pine; in France, pine, alder, poplar, and other white woods; and in Germany, spruce and pine.[[11]]
[11]. Telegraph Manual.
The cost of a telegraph line depends, like the cost of a house or any other structure, upon how it is built, but Mr. Washburne, or any other intelligent man, ought to know that the price appropriated in his bill for a four-wire line from Washington to New York cannot possibly build it, even should government build such a structure as those which a dozen years ago cursed the enterprise, and made it a reproach and shame. When government builds a line of telegraph on the plea of public necessity, it should require that its structures at least be equal to those of its citizens. It is not strange that, with the crude and cheap ideas formed by Mr. Washburne of telegraph structures, he disparages and undervalues the properties of the existing companies, and ridicules the estimates furnished Congress in their communications.