Show POSTAL TELEGRAPH It is Considered in the Senate Committee PRESIDENT flOBVUS1 GEBJfiN Of the Western Union DrAkes an Address Ad-dress A Government Telegraph Tele-graph VIpvrs of O hers Government Telegraph WAsHiNGTON January 20 Senator Sawyer chairman of the Senate post office committee called his committee to order at U oclock this morning and lr Norven Green president of the Western Union addroSsed the commit tee in opposition to the government tel graph bills He devoted himself firstthough briefly to the constitutional constitu-tional questions to which the measure gave rise He quoted a decision of the Suprame Court in effect that telegraph business Is itself commerce He touched upon this constitutional pbint he said merely because he did not wish the committee to uudurstaucl the company waivedit He claimed that no people on tbj arth enjoyed asp as-p ricct a system of telegraph as Americans Amer-icans Green then compared the telegraph tele-graph systems of England and the United tatesi and asserted that long distance rates of the Western Union were cheaper than any long distanc rate in the world JELeaaid the festrn Union en joyed nonexclusive franchises or legislative E grants and that t the field was open to anyone who mightchoose to enter it He said fates would bo reduced re-duced during TinT p f esUnf year He said the Western Union had 10 pay from 100000 to 200000 a year for mutakes If the government did ran the fele graph system it must tate the enatinR lines No private eriterprlse coufd run against the treasury of the ITuitati States setting out to do business for nothing He wished to say concerningthe Western Union that its value as stated by thepresst would not bny the wire at the factory and the companysOtherequipments arncrantsd to three or four times the valye ci the wire He stated that the property of the Western Union could not possibly be duplicated today for its eapitaliza tion 41 am told the Doctor continued contin-ued that a petition bearmg 500000 signatures is to be sent to the committee commit-tee in favor of a government System They will come by command originating originat-ing in spite against one man witkwhom Powderly had a quarrel and not 1000 men wno will sign have ever seen a telegraph message If the government did run a telegraph tele-graph system it must buy up the existing ex-isting lines No private enterprise could run in competition against the United States treasury Would Jhe government govern-ment be responsible fbr delays and errors er-rors he asked No It was tile popular popu-lar belief that the companys system was owned by one man The companys directorate was composed of thirty men The millionaires of the country have less than threeeighths of the stock Over 20000 peopls in all were interested in this property I am told he continued that a petition bearing 500000 signatures is to be sent to this committee in favor of a government system They will come by a command originated in spite against one man with whom Mr Powderly had qnarrel Not one in a hundred of the signers ever used the telegraph yet they were asking to be taxed for the benefit of rich br hrs bankers merchants commercial com-mercial operators and speculators Dr Green said he had prepared a petition peti-tion ofremonstrance to Congress which it was intended by courtesy the members mem-bers to eet before the House and he would no longer detain the committee Gardner G Hubbard addressed the committee in favor Of the postal telegraph tele-graph system proposed in the bill introduced by Senator Dawes He gave it as his opinion that of the 86000000 capital stock of the Western Union Company about 8000000 or 10000000 had been pard in cash by stockholders and probably as much more by stockholders of other telegraph tele-graph companies which had become bankrupt and had been bought up by the Western Union and that the est of it had been taken from the public in the shape of telegraph tolls It was true that the present value of the property was very large He did not believe possible to duplicate its COO 000 miles of wire for less than f 60000 000 Over and above this value of property were other large values He had always regarded its right of way over the railroads of the country as baing nearly as valuable as other franchises of the company Tnore was then this great monopoly with a capital ofr 86000000 nearly hner eighths of which was held by thedi rectors of the company They therefore I there-fore I virtually y a monopoly sinice it wuld be utterly impossibleatiany stockholders meeting 3 io1 otyain a controlling vote of the took held by the directors themselves > Dr Green orjcected thisstutement and said at tntf stockholders1 meeting three fourths of the stock > vjs fregqentiy represented Hubbari said inthis country there was practically no competition com-petition in the telegraph business and tbere could be none for 4t was a bufclTj ness which could be > manageoVindfe i easily and cheaply by one company taan by a number But the question7 arose governmentcouldnotr manage it more cheaply than the Western West-ern Union and whbther the Western JJnion itself could not manage it much I mere cheaply than itdces This question I ques-tion should be answered in the alive a-live flnbbkrd then gayjB1 iis twell known views on the subject of the p ostal telegraph at great length Df Green i was followed kby Gainer Gai-ner G Hubtrd y1ospo1e 9vir anhourin favor bf thie estab1sh noaatuTa government SysteJDrpt1t lei graph The committee adjourned in aefinitelyTBt the con lusioniT f Hub1 bards remarks j r jj i j err r |