PROPOSITION TO OPERATE TELEGRAPHS AT A LOSS, AND MAKE MONEY BY IT.
Mr. Hubbard proposes, by his new plan, to send telegrams at an average reduction of 53 per cent from the present charges, which we have shown to be 25 per cent less than the European rates. Now, the total receipts of the Western Union Telegraph Company for the year ending June 30, 1867, were $6,568,925, and a reduction of 53 per cent would leave $3,087,405.
| The working expenses for the year were | $3,944,005 |
| Receipts with Mr. Hubbard’s proposed tariff, | 3,087,405 |
| Loss for the year | $856,600 |
Mr. Hubbard acknowledges that neither the government nor any company can transmit messages at the above rates without loss, but claims that “a company with well-constructed lines, built for cash, can transmit messages at these rates, in connection with the post-office, and realize a large profit.” Precisely how this is to be done, or what the lines “built for cash” have got to do about it, does not appear. Mr. Hubbard says in his pamphlet that “the largest part of the lines of the Western Union Company were constructed before the rise in prices, and on a gold basis.” Now, if he means that lines built on a paper basis can be worked cheaper than those constructed on a gold one, we would be glad to hear his reasons for so singular a notion.