“The capacities of the line of telegraph are very great. 2,000 words an hour are easily transmitted by a good operator over a single wire. At this rate there could be sent over fifty-one of the eighty or ninety wires leading from the New York office of the Western Union Telegraph Company 2,448,000 words, or 97,920 messages of twenty-five words each, a day. This amount cannot be obtained. Forty messages an hour are easily transmitted by a good operator over a through line, and this number could be sent every hour by relays of operators. This estimate gives 1,224,000 words, or 48,960 messages. On through and local lines a deduction of one half for twelve hours of the day, during which the local lines are open, must be made,—918,000 words, or 36,720 messages, on through and local lines. The average number actually transmitted on these fifty-one wires is 184,378 words, or 7,375 messages. 733,622 more words, or 29,340 more messages might daily be transmitted over these lines. If the present business could be distributed over all the hours of the day, or if there were sufficient business for all the wires the whole day, the rates could be largely reduced.
“Nearly eighteen hours of each day the wires are idle, yet a considerable portion of the expenses of the line are no greater than they would be if messages were transmitted the whole time. Interest, depreciation, and repairs, office rent, salaries, and general management are the same, whether much or little business is transacted. These items constitute about one third of all the expenses on the Western Union line. The other expenses will not be increased in proportion to the increase of the time.”
In reply to the above, we assert that 2,000 words an hour are not easily transmitted by a good operator over a single wire. There are operators who can send at this rate for a short time, but they are very few in number, and none of them could maintain this rate of speed for any length of time. It must be recollected that a message must be copied with a pen as rapidly as it is sent. Now, we doubt if Mr. Hubbard even can write 2,000 words legibly within an hour, with pen and ink. It is well known that the celebrated horse Dexter has trotted a mile in the unprecedented time of 2.17, but would it not be absurd to state, on that account, that every good horse can easily trot twenty-six miles an hour? Why, Dexter himself cannot keep up this rate of speed for even a quarter of an hour. Because a celebrated pedestrian walked a hundred miles in twenty-four hours, would it be just to say that every good walker can easily walk 36,500 miles per annum? A man in California rode three hundred miles in twenty-four hours; would it be honest, therefore, to say that every good horseman can easily ride 9,000 miles a month? The maximum speed of the best operators is 1,500 words per hour, but the average speed of the best is very much below this.
The amount of business done upon a wire in a given time is vastly greater in this country than in any other. In Europe there are 355,218 miles of wire, while in the United States there are less than one third as many, and yet the wires in this country transmit more telegraphic matter per annum than all the lines in Europe. This almost incredible fact is explained by the superior character and ability of our operating staff. In Europe they still use recording instruments, and slowly and laboriously pick out their messages upon strips of paper. Here, on the contrary, every operator—except in the small villages—reads by sound, and does three times as much work upon a wire as the poorly paid and inefficient European operator. Now, this being the case,—and the statistics prove it,—it can hardly be pretended that our company gets much less out of its wires than they can reasonably perform, and yet Mr. Hubbard says we “could easily send on fifty-one wires 97,920 messages per day, while in reality we only send 7,375.” Here is a difference between theory and practice that beats even Dexter’s 2.17 as the rate of speed which every horse in America can average.
IMPOSSIBILITY OF UTILIZING THE TELEGRAPH LINES BY NIGHT AS WELL AS DAY.
Mr. Hubbard says, “If the present business could be distributed over all the hours of the day, or if there were sufficient business for all the wires the whole day, the rates could be largely reduced”; but neither of these propositions can be realized. The telegraph is an errand-boy which every one uses when the exigency requires it, and which no one will use unnecessarily, even though it work for nothing. In order to utilize the wires during those portions of the day and night when they are comparatively idle, the Western Union Telegraph Company adopted the following rates for night messages:—
“This company will transmit messages between the principal cities on its lines east of St. Louis and New Orleans, both inclusive, during the night, and deliver the same the succeeding morning, on the following terms: For a message of 20 words or less, the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged. For a message of more than 20 words, and not exceeding 60 words, twice the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged. For a message of more than 60 words, and not exceeding 120 words, three times the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged. For each additional 100 words, or part thereof, in excess of 120 words, the usual tolls on a ten-word message will be charged in addition. Such messages will be known as NIGHT MESSAGES. They will be received for transmission at any time during the day or evening, and will be sent during the succeeding night. No additional charge will be made for cipher messages.”
The very moderate success of our night-message experiment, notwithstanding the large inducements offered, proves that the use of the telegraph is required not merely for communication, but for emergency and despatch. It is also a fact worthy of notice, that very little of this business is done between Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, notwithstanding the low rates, whereby over a hundred words can be transmitted for a dollar. It is done mainly between remote places like Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Memphis, and New Orleans, communication between which by mail requires from two to four days.
In support of this theory we submit a statement of the night-message business between New York City and all points on our lines for the months of March, July, and October. These months represent fairly the varying phases of our business in respect to trade in different sections of the country at different seasons of the year.
The total number of night messages sent and received between New York City and all places on our lines for the three months named was 6,273, divided as follows:—