EUROPEAN TELEGRAMS COUNTED SEVERAL TIMES.
An examination of Mr. Hubbard’s statement of the number of messages sent in Europe, in 1866, will reveal the fact that he has included inland, international, and transit messages to make up the grand total. In this way he has counted the same message several times. For instance, messages sent from England to France, or any two contiguous countries, would be counted in each. Messages between France and Germany would be counted in France and Germany as international messages, and in Belgium and perhaps some other country as transit. The same would be the case between all European countries whose territories do not border on each other. A message going from France to Russia, or from England to Turkey, might be counted a dozen times.
In the United States each message is counted but once, although it may traverse thousands of miles in reaching its place of destination.
We have not the statistics to show what proportion the legitimate number of messages sent bears to this fictitious number; but by referring to the Belgian table it will be seen that 692,536 inland and 306,596 international messages were sent in 1866, in a total of 1,128,005. Taking this as a fair average for the whole of Europe, we shall find that only 14,012,795 messages were sent in 1866, at an expense, in United States currency, of $15,286,911.61, or about $1.09 each.