Show POSTAL FAL telegraphy dr green of hie the western union be fore the he house committee THE PRO proposed rOSED bill SOI A I FUSIBLE ONE he D sai sas that the hi auction la in rates donld baue fanc a company to lose loe money at tte ou D C may 20 to all aca tationa end and papers it norvin green president of the western union telegraph company 8 appeared to jay before the house committee on post offices and post roads and wai was questioned quest wed respecting the prop propped oed gov government t telegraph ele graph bill advocated by postmaster general wanamaker the inquiry proceeded as follows fol loNs sir mr bingham dr green I 1 would like to ask you au this question for my own information can you yon rive give me in e in any form the difference in your you r rates and the rate specified la in the it e bill which I 1 hande hands I 1 you this m morning or n ig n which I 1 recalled received yesterday yet erday fro from in the h e department sir mr green choso rates would be about CO per cent of for t r the fist fi st et three hundred miles for the next rate the diff irece ce would be from 20 percent to 50 60 per cent moat of it would go 60 50 pr per cent for transcontinental trans continental dif distances a part a 0 ol 01 them would be he 66 per cent as ert or i instance n bance our rate from chicago and ht st louis ad every place n est to the pacific coast is 76 75 centa cents and find thia this would be 60 50 cents but for a great part of it it would be 60 cents a against g at 13 a dollar for instance our ra rates n tea t from new york to ban san francisco Fran cicco are a dollar dilar an aal 1 the maximum rate in that bill is la 50 cents so that the rate would be 60 per cent of 0 our rate for a short di distance tance and CO 60 to 60 per cent for ate te distances and 66 to 60 50 for lone lonz distances but the greater pirt ol 01 it is at 50 per cent in making that statement I 1 take into consideration the fact that upon each n u es e s ge the government is to take 2 centa cents for delivery sir mr biggham then the rates aa as pet set forth in thia this bill from your our knowledge and your experience are rates upon their face which will mill entail an absolute loss 31 oreen an absolute loss and find tb that at statement would be sustained by any practical telegraph man in tile coci country the business would only be done at a loss which would ha hae el to be he paid in some dav w av sir mr bindham could your company pa nv bid under the conditions of this bill sir mr green we could n not ot accept the rates we would be doing bus 1 ness nees at a less if 11 we 0 accepted those abo a rates there is is no bu busi in the united states that I 1 know of that could stand such a reduction of rate rates sir mr bigham what other telegraph companies are there other than the western union sir mr green the postal telegraph company is quite a large concern they are pushing on to nw now orleans and te texas x as and they will be there very soon they are already at chart charleston eston a and nd f havannah they are already at minneapolis bt st paul and duluth they will ill soon be at denver and omalia omaha in addition to that mackay baa has a separate system which lovyrs overs the pacific coast states pre pretty tty gaii generally brally sir mr bingham Is that another c company om mr green it is another company bat but it belongs to the same man sir mr breham how do their raes rales compare with your rates sir mr green they have agreed wilh with us u 8 to maintain rates there is however nothing extreme in tuat that the railroads rail roada have to do that to k ep from bankruptcy every manufacturing 1 9 cot company in the country consuls consults 0 their i e ir com competitors peti tors about maintaining rates and nd agrees apses upon them all the tile rolling in g mills have agreed to maintain rates and BO so have the carpet and other manufacturers it is an absolute ab necessity cees i tty to prevent destruction from wasteful competition sir mr bingham what other compa I 1 is are there sir mr green there are a great duany many more companies sly my friend mr painter hai hag got a little telegraph line up here in pennsylvania there is an I 1 in independent d erm company up in the adirondacks r the tile great northern of canada runs over into the united states a considerable distance down to at ol 01 L like ake champlain and through that country the canadian have kot got a line from montreal through new E england agla d right up into the maritime provinces of canad Ci nadi a there are several independent companies romp anies out in the west and two or three dawn south all local concerns con cerna but together they eke out our opposition as we go everywhere they connect with the postal and help them out and they cover the whole country with a competing telegraph mr bingham this thiis bul bill provides that the charges for all words in excess of the first twenty words shall be at the rate of one cent per word how dies d ies that compare with your rates rated mr green for most abort short distances it is only fifty per cent of our rate for long distances it is only on one fifth or t twenty enty per cent of our rates in reply to questions by mr bingham mr green stated that the postal telegraph sch eme proposed 0 p aoel by david II 11 kates bates henry wise is e garrett and anti others wae was the same scheme which hae has been before congress for the past twenty four years and hag been repeatedly peat edly riveted rejected that these men could not build it without help 1 I was in hopes eaid said mr green that the tile committee would have accepted in my invitation to come to new york anT and examine our books they would learn more mores with ith regard to what i it takes to constitute a telegraph raph company in one day by an inspection of the tilt practical operation of it of the tie battery rooer of the dynamos to manufacture roana facture tile the current 0 of tho the receiving room of the bok bookkeeping keeping and delivery departments than they con could id ever learn here hero in tho tile committee r rwan am ry by tho the way we hav i re paced the boak bookkeeping keeping to about oae fifth of what it used to be 11 |