NO ANALOGY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND SWITZERLAND.
The analogy between the United States and Switzerland seems in every sense imperfect. The telegraph stations in Switzerland only number 252, or less than the number contained within a radius of fifty miles in and around the city of New York.
The total number of despatches transmitted annually in and through Switzerland only amounted in 1866 to 668,916, whilst of these probably more than half were either transit or international. These transit telegrams, of which there are none in our country, involve a most important difference. Belgium and Switzerland can make up the deficiencies which arise from losses on internal communication by the surplus derived from transit telegrams.
In 1852 the average number of messages per day, for all Switzerland, was less than ten. As the system became extended, and the people were educated to its use, the number of messages increased, until in 1866 they exceeded 2,000 per day, approximating, for the entire country, the number sent and received daily by fifteen female operators in one of the rooms of the Western Union Telegraph Company, in the city of New York. Probably one half of these were transit messages passing through Switzerland from stations in France, Belgium, and Italy, leaving about 1,000 messages per day of inland business, which, divided among 252 offices, would leave an average of a little less than four messages per day for each office! This is not a very magnificent result, and is not over encouraging as a model system, which gives to its twenty-five cantons ten offices, with an average revenue from each; for inland business, of only three francs per day! And this, notwithstanding that the government coaches convey, without any extra charge, messages, from towns unsupplied with offices, to the nearest telegraph station.
TABLE M.
| Statement showing the Progress of Telegraphy in Switzerland. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date. | Number of Messages. | Gross Receipts in Francs. | Average Cost per Message in Francs. |
| 1852 | 2,876 | 3,541.95 | |
| 1853 | 82,586 | 127,870.04 | 1.55 |
| 1854 | 129,167 | 208,887.36 | 1.62 |
| 1855 | 162,851 | 251,391.27 | 1.53 |
| 1856 | 227,072 | 319,947.22 | 1.44 |
| 1857 | 260,164 | 369,226.01 | 1.42 |
| 1858 | 247,102 | 343,597.38 | 1.35 |
| 1859 | 286,876 | 425,587.57 | 1.48 |
| 1860 | 303,930 | 408,429.04 | 1.34 |
| 1861 | 331,933 | 448,056.05 | 1.35 |
| 1862 | 373,452 | 530,417.50 | 1.42 |
| 1863 | 456,871 | 630,748.26 | 1.38 |
| 1864 | 514,952 | 615,317.00 | 1.20 |
| 1865 | 591,214 | 726,564.16 | 1.23 |
| 1866 | 668,916 | 684,319.89 | 1.03 |
| 1867 | 708,974 | 775,024.00 | 1.09 |
It will be observed that the increase in the number of messages transmitted in Switzerland was from 2,876 in 1852 to 668,916 in 1866, or more than 230,000 per cent in fourteen years, although the tariff had only been reduced 33 per cent.
SPAIN.
Spain, with a population of over 16,000,000 souls, and possessing the advantages of forming the pathway between France and her African possessions, as well as between Portugal and the rest of Europe, transmits a less number of telegrams per annum than the Dominion of Canada, with her 3,000,000 inhabitants. That this insignificant amount of business for so great a country is owing to government control is evident from the following royal decree, issued in conformity with the request of the Minister of State, who says: “The petitions presented to your Majesty from different towns, companies, and private individuals are so numerous and repeated, praying that the advantages of telegraphic communications should be granted to them, that the minister who now humbly addresses your Majesty has lamented more than once that the care of the government has not extended that satisfaction to legitimate wishes so deserving of attention.”