Show ten words by wire for a ceat new york sum postmaster general wanamakers Wana makers reduction of government telegraph rates from a cent a word to a mill a word made the western union officials in this city so indignant that they talk about it yesterday all the in forma tion that could be obtained there was that the matter was under negotiation the postal telegraph company wore also indignant but they could talk they said that unless mr wanamake they gokh tee government business free rather than bother with keeping accounts of such petty figures business at a cent a word pay for sending they said and at a mill a word it would be cheaper to do it free than to collect the tolls the portals Po total income from the government they said was only about a month anyway it is said that the western unions bill against the government is over 20 a year but even that a particularly serious matter either for the government or the company the postmaster general gets his power to fix the government rate under the laws granting the telegraph companies the right of way over post road and the free use of timber and stone fram government lands besides this special rate the companies have to give tb e government business precedence over private business the postal company officials say that the privileges of right of way and free timber and stone have never been of a cents worth of use tb them the western union however in its long lines through unsettled territory in the west must have profited from ahe privileges |