The following table will serve to show the remarkable contrast, in this respect, between the systems under government and private control. The number of messages delivered to the press are obtained for this comparison by dividing the total number of words furnished to the press by 20, the European standard:—
| Statement showing the Average Cost of Telegrams in Continental Europe and the Average Cost of Press Telegrams in the United States, with Total Amount of each per annum. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Total number of messages transmitted in Continental Europe for the year 1866, | 12,902,538 | Total number of messages furnished to the newspapers of the United States for 1866, | 14,725,181 |
| Gross receipts for the above, | $11,597,632.71 | Gross receipts for the above, | $521,509 |
| Average cost of telegrams in Continental Europe, | 81 cts. | Average cost of press telegrams in the United States, | 3½ cts. |
The above exhibit illustrates the difference between what can be accomplished under a popular government which leaves the press and telegraph free and untrammelled, and the results of the paternal system which the governments of Continental Europe impose upon their subjects. For these great benefits the people of this country are indebted to the government for the one negative quality of letting the press and telegraph alone. For the positive quality which actually provides them they are solely indebted to the enterprise and public spirit of the press, and the Western Union Telegraph Company, the latter furnishing the reports at a price which barely covers the cost of service employed in transmitting them, and leaving nothing to defray the expense of the wear of the lines, or interest on the investments for their construction.
In no other country in the world is there such a system, and in none can there ever be, until the policy of our government is imitated, and the people left to manage their own private affairs, leaving the press and the telegraph free and untrammelled by governmental control or repression. What our government, with such an example already set, might be able or disposed to do, in the event of its monopolizing the telegraphs, it is impossible to say; but it is unquestionably true, that no other government has ever made such a use of them to promote the education and general well-being of its people.
We believe it would prove a serious misfortune to the press and the people, if the government were to destroy, by its interference, this admirable co-operative system of obtaining telegraphic news at such low rates.
The tariff for special press reports is as follows: For the first one hundred words, full rates; for the next four hundred words, a discount of thirty-three and one third per cent; for the next five hundred words, one half the ordinary tariff; and all over one thousand words, a discount is made of sixty-six and two thirds per cent.
Mr. Washburne’s bill provides for a general tariff of one cent per word for telegrams, with an additional charge of three cents for postage, and two cents for delivery, and stipulates that a reduction of not more than fifty per cent shall be made for press reports. This rate would increase the average cost of news for the press of the United States more than three hundred per cent, and thus the newspapers would be compelled to pay an extra tax of a million dollars per annum for the privileges they now enjoy.
If these facts show any results to warrant governmental assumption or interference in the business of telegraphing, we fail to perceive them.
REVIEW
OF
MR. GARDINER G. HUBBARD’S LETTER TO THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL ON THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN SYSTEMS OF TELEGRAPH.
We have recently received a pamphlet from Gardiner G. Hubbard, Esq., of Boston, entitled a “Letter to the Postmaster-General on the European and American Systems of Telegraph, with Remedy for the present High Rates,” which we will briefly review.