Show againThe The Postal Telegraph Investigation WASHINGTON March 1 Dr Norvin Green president of the Western Union today to-day continued his statement respecting the pending postal telegraph bill before tho Houso committee on postofllces and post roads He said ho had seen it stated that the wires on the Pacific road lines belonged to the government He did not so under standit and as a matter of fact the government govern-ment bad no power to fix the rates over these lines Respecting rates generally Dr Green said that they were about ono half of those prevailing twentytwo years ao The rate between our rate and British Brit-ish rates was of 2 to 20 cents The post mastergeneral proposed to reduce these rates onehalf and this in face of the fact that the British system had been operated t a deficit of nearly twelve million dollars in the past eleven years and probably pro-bably 30000000 since its establishment I yet the British system has been instituted under t solemn pledge that it should be selfsupporting Tho salaries of British operators averaged from 20 to 29 per month while in Now York the average including male and female operators was o C145 more than deuble tho British average aver-age The government could not do business busi-ness as cheaply a the Western Union All of the small and new companies were under a much larger proportionate expense than the Western Union Dr Green presented figures to show that the actual cost to the Western Union of handling busines was 224 cents a message Taking up the details of the postmaster generals plan Dr Green said that at many of the postoffices there would not be sufficient suf-ficient telegraph business to pay tho expenses ex-penses I had been suggested that the postmasters at their offices might learn to work the wipss butthey would not do s > oas o-as they were usually business men and fully employed in caring for their slops Altogether the present postofttce buildings could not be made to accommodate tho present telegraph system Dr Green made a comparison between our domestic telegraph rates with those ofEurope shoos l ing that for fls distances aver 500 miles our rates were much lower yet said he the postmastergeneral would establish a uniform uni-form rate for 1500inlle distances a distance dis-tance over which no single wire had ever 1 been successfully worked As to low rates the Western Union had never fought opposition companies with low rates Opposition companies usually butted against the Western Union The last formidable competitor it had was tho Baltimore Ohio Telegraph company They started in to smash things and had done it That company ruined three competing com-peting companies ruined itself and so nearly ruined the Baltimore Ohio rail road that it had been obliged t sell its sleeping cars and construction shops tide over the financial stress The postmaster general in fixing the rates for government business made an order which e board of directors of the Western Union decided was practically an order for the confiscation confisca-tion of their business The doctor became somewhat excited at this point and looking hard at Postmaster General Wanamaker who steadfastly returned his gaze exclaimed ex-claimed And yet he says he is on first rat terms with the t telegraph companies Wo propose to controYer that order tXng rates for government messages in the courts and demonstrate that it 1 not half of the cost of tho service This proposed legislation has failed to receive tho Presidents Presi-dents recommendation although submitted in the postmastergenerals report before his annual message was sent t Congress I have never heard before that a cabinet minister may come before a committee to reach it and help his pet ischemes through when they have not been recommended by the President Grain of Texas said the postmastergen eral had not coached him in fact had never spoken to him about it Dr Greon Tho postmastergeneral has between eighty thousand and one hundred thousand civil appointments to make and every member has two or three in his district dis-trict trictMr Grain I am a Democrat and get none from him brain asked if Dr Greens objection was not based on the assumption it provided for tho erection and maintenance of government govern-ment lines Dr Green replied that was what it amounted t Mr Crain asked why the Western Union opposed the the bill if it proposed an impracticable im-practicable plan Dr GreenBecause the fools are not all dead yet Agoodmany people would jump into building a telegraph Hue without assurance as-surance that they could make anything |