In the period 1855 to 1866, the messages carried annually by the British and Irish Magnetic Company grew from 264,727 to 1,520,640, an average annual growth of 17.58 per cent. At the same time the average receipts per message fell from $0.96 in 1855, to $0.48 in 1866.
In the period from 1855 to 1866, the number of messages carried annually by all of the telegraph companies of the United Kingdom increased from 1,017,529, to 5,781,989, an average annual increase of 16.36 per cent.
In the same period, from 1855 to 1866, the telegrams sent in Switzerland increased on an average by 13.14 per cent. each year; those sent in Belgium increased on an average by 31.45 per cent.; and those sent in France increased on an average by 25.40 per cent. When one takes into consideration that in Belgium, in 1867, only 38 per cent. of the messages transmitted related to stock exchange and commercial business, and that in France in the same year only 48 per cent. of the messages sent related to industrial, commercial, and stock exchange transactions, there is nothing in the comparison between the rate of growth in the United Kingdom on the one hand, and in the countries of Continental Europe on the other hand, to indicate that the use of the telegraphs for the purposes of trade and industry was held back in the United Kingdom by excessive charges or by lack of telegraphic facilities. So far as the United Kingdom lagged behind, it did so because the public had not learned to use the telegraphs freely for the transmission of personal and family news. And when, in 1875, under State owned telegraphs, the public of the United Kingdom had learned to use the telegraphs as freely as the public of Continental Europe used them, Mr. W. Stanley Jevons, the eminent British political economist, in the course of a review of the price paid for this free use of the telegraphs, said: “A large part of the increased traffic on the Government wires consists of complimentary messages, or other trifling matters, which we can have no sufficient motive for promoting. Men have been known to telegraph for a clean pocket handkerchief”—Mr. Jevons, in 1866 to 1869, had been an ardent advocate of nationalizing the telegraphs.[27]
Mr. Scudamore in 1866 to 1869 caused many people to believe that the United Kingdom was woefully behind the continental countries in the use of the telegraphs. He did so by publishing a table which showed that in 1866 there had been sent: in Belgium, 1 telegram to every 37 letters carried by the Post Office; in Switzerland, 1 telegram to every 69 letters; and in the United Kingdom, 1 telegram to every 121 letters. That table, however, really proved nothing; for in 1866, there were carried: in Belgium, 5 letters for every inhabitant; in Switzerland, 10 letters; and in the United Kingdom, 25 letters. Had the people of Belgium and Switzerland written as many letters proportionately as the people of the United Kingdom, the table prepared by Mr. Scudamore would have read: Belgium, 1 telegram for every 185 letters; Switzerland, 1 telegram for every 172 letters; and the United Kingdom, 1 telegram for every 121 letters.
Mr. Scudamore could, however, have prepared a table showing that the people of Switzerland and Belgium used the telegraph more freely than did the people of the United Kingdom, but not so much more freely as to call for so drastic a remedy in the United Kingdom as the nationalization of the telegraphs. The table in question would have shown that in 1866, there was transmitted: in Switzerland, 1 telegram to every 3.75 inhabitants; in Belgium, 1 telegram to every 4.25 inhabitants; and in the United Kingdom, 1 telegram to every 5.3 inhabitants. The table in question would also have indicated the necessity of care in the use of the several kinds of statistics just put before the reader. The table placed Switzerland in advance of Belgium, while the other sets of statistics had placed Belgium in advance of Switzerland.
Alleged Wastefulness of Competition
Mr. Scudamore’s concluding argument was that little or no relief from the evils from which the public was suffering 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.” In support of the charge of wasteful competition he stated “that many large districts are provided with duplicate and triplicate lines, worked by different companies, but taking much the same course and serving precisely the same places; and that these duplicate or triplicate lines and duplicate or triplicate offices only divide the business without materially increasing the accommodation of the districts or towns which they serve.” But when Mr. Scudamore sought to substantiate this charge of waste arising out of competition, he could do no more than state that not less than 2,000 miles of line in a total of 16,066 miles were redundant, and that perhaps 300 to 350 offices in a total of 2,040 offices were redundant.