The following table exhibits the telegraph rates from Washington to the residence of each of the members of the Senate and the House Committees on Post Offices and Post-Roads under the Western Union and the proposed postal telegraph systems:

All the public reasons which justify and require and have secured the adoption of a uniform rate of letter postage, without regard either to distances or to the varying amount of postal business between different places, apply with full and undiminished force to telegrams. We may be sure that the country will regard it as a great merit in the pending bill that it secures, at the end of five years, uniform charges for telegrams, wherever sent, and, in the mean time, keeps the variations from uniformity within narrow limits.

The evidence submitted to the committee shows the effect of the high aud unequal telegraphic charges in this country in reducing the proportion of family and social telegrams to a mere nominal figure in comparison with the proportion of such telegrams in Europe, where the rates are lower and more uniform. Of the proportion of telegraphic messages sent by the Western Union relating to family and social matters, the president of that company stated to the committee (January 31) that "he did not think it was more than 5 or 6 per cent. of the whole," and he added that "about 80 per cent. of our business is strictly commercial, and does not care so much about rates as it does about quick work."

He also stated in his testimony that not more than 500,000 persons, or less than 1 per cent. of the people of the United States, ever use the telegraph. About 12 per cent. of the messages sent by that company consist of press dispatches. In contrast with this condition of the busi ness of the Western Union, the classification of the telegrams sent in Belgium in 1880 shows that the private dispatches upon family and social matters amounted to 55.10 per cent. of the whole, and in Switzerland to 61 per cent. In 1881 the proportions were substantially the

same.

With low and uniform rates, we shall hear no more of the use of the telegraph being enjoyed by only 1 per cent. of our population. The proportion of family and social telegrams, instead of being 5 or 6 per cent. of the whole, as it is now, will exceed the 55 per cent. shown in Belgium, and the 61 per cent. in Switzerland, inasmuch as neither there, nor in any country in the world, is the number relatively so great as it is in this country of persons who have something to spend beyond obtaining the bare necessities of life. And moreover there is no country in which families are separated by such long distances. By what gauge or standard shall we undertake to measure the benefit of cheap teleg raphy in keeping alive and warm the relations of blood and friendship, and in relieving the anxieties of families, by bringing within the reach of the many that prompt intelligence as to the health and movements of their far-removed members which is now the luxury of the few?

Third. The plan provided in this bill secures from the commencement of its operation a uniformity of charges, irrespective of distance and also irrespective of the amount of business in different places, for telegrams to newspapers and to commercial news associations; that is to say, for all telegrams which convey the current news for publication by the press and intelligence to the public of the daily and hourly changes in the foreign and domestic markets. This uniformity does not now exist, and never will exist under the exclusive control by private companies of the business of telegraphing. It is a weighty recommendation of this bill that it secures it. The procurement of the intelligence which the newspapers ought to give and do give to the country will thus be made as cheap in one place as in another, saving only the unavoidable inequality which arises from the fact that the number of newspapers which may combine to purchase the intelligence is greater in some places than in others. So, too, telegraphic advices to commercial news associations of the course of the markets, so important to be known by all classes, by producers, by manufacturers, merchants, bankers, and indeed everyb dy who is obliged to sell or to buy anything, will be subject to the same charges in all places, near and remote and great or sinall, provided only that they are large enough to maintain such an association. In these ways telegraphic communication of intelligence of a public nature and for the general information of the people will be made equally facile and of equal cost in every part of this broad country from ocean to ocean. That it will be made so will be one of the beneficial results of making telegraphy a matter of public administration, looking to public ob jects and controlled by public considerations, instead of leaving it exclusively in the hands of private companies which are necessarily gov erned solely by their own interests.

Fourth. The bill, while it may not wholly remove, does t› an impor tant degree lessen the danger that the purveying and preparation of the intelligence sent to newspapers and to commercial news associa tions will be subjected to a concealed censorship, whereby it may be

colored and distorted so as to subserve political purposes, to mislead public opinion as to the merits or demerits of men and measures, to pervert legislation, and to favor schemes of private gain.

Under the present telegraphic system the possibility of such a species of censorship, which is one of the most alarming dangers which menace the country, arises in two distinct ways, each of which requires a separate consideration. The first is the power which the telegraph companies themselves have of manipulating news for sinister purposes, and the second is the same power possessed by the Associated Press and other similar associations, not themselves owning telegraph lines, but making special compacts for the transmission of telegrams over lines owned and managed by others. It will appear that the power of the telegraph company in this respect will be entirely taken away by the pending bill, and that the power of the Associated Press and similar associations will be greatly reduced.

The president of the Western Union furnished to the committee copies of two contracts of that company, one au old contract dated January 11, 1867, with the Western Associated Press, and the other a later contract dated December 22, 1882, with both the New York Associated Press and the Western Associated Press. It is the general effect, summarily stated, of these contracts to divide the furnishing of news into two divisions. The one set apart to the Press Association is described as follows:

The business of collecting and selling to newspapers, for publication, commercial news, and other reports of a general character.

The other, set apart for the Western Union, is described as follows:

The business of reporting, supplying, and selling financial and commercial news, market and other reports, and quotations of a miscellaneous character, to individuals, clubs, boards of trade, exchanges, and other organizations, for their own use and the use of their members, but not for newspaper publication.

These contracts entitle the Western Union to buy news collected by press associations, but to be used, not for publication, but only for such sales of news as the Western Union has the right, under the arrangement, to make. And, on the other hand, the contracts entitle the Associated Press to buy news collected by the Western Union, to be used, not for resale, but only for publication in the newspapers.

The subsisting contract, which is that of December 22, 1882, is for ten years, unless it is sooner terminated by either party, by giving six months' notice.

The situation gives to the Western Union a practical monopoly control of commercial and financial news. It collects daily and hourly the market and commercial news to be distributed in every town in this country, and with the power of changing the complexion of it, whether it exercises that power or not. It admits no partnership in the business of furnishing commercial and financial news to individuals or associations of individuals. It is true that the Press Associations may supply that class of news to the press, but they receive a good deal of it from the Western Union, and, of course, only after such censorship as that company may see fit to exercise over it.

The relations between the Western Union and the Associated Press restrain them from interfering with each other's interests and purposes, and make them practically, as against the general public, a single corporation. This is particularly the case so far as it relates to the market news. Having nothing to fear from the competition of the Associated S. Rep. 577--2

Press in selling financial and commercial news, the Western Union can put down individual competition in innumerable ways. As an illus tration, take the following case from the testimony of Gardiner G. Hubbard:

A few years ago a man in Cincinnati had a little news burean. His correspondent in New York collected the news of the market every morning, forwarded it through the Western Union office, and it was sent over the through line. The Western Union afterward monopolized that business, as they monopolize everything they can put their hands on. Asked him to sell out. He said, "No, I am making a very good thing of this business, and I prefer to keep it." The Western Union stopped sending his messages on the through line, and transmitted them on a way line. There was no priority for their messages. Oh, no; they only sent them on the through line. Those that went by the way line were longer in getting through, and when received the customers of the Western Union had received the prices and acted on them. No priority, only the man was ruined. He was obliged to give up his business to the Western Union, and they now monopolize it.

For the purpose of giving fabulous fortunes to its inside managers and their friends, the Western Union need not send untrue market quotations. It has only to give the true quotations a single hour, or less than that, in advance to those whom it means to favor, and the work is effectually accomplished.

No such power should be allowed to exist in this country, even if no past abuses of it can be shown to have occurred, or even if it be believed that, in fact, it has not been abused. The temptation to abuse it is enormous, and will sooner or later prove to be irresistible. The bill will effectually take the power away from the Western Union, or any other private telegraph company, by the low rates and equality which it secures to everybody, and by the still lower rates which it secures to commercial news associations. Competition in furnishing commercial and financial news to all points and places is not to be expected under this bill, but it will be sufficient if it insures, as it is certain to do, competition in furnishing such news to the more important places, whereby the field for profitably tampering with public intelligence will be so narrowed that the temptation will no longer constitute a sensible danger.

In respect to the Associated Press, William Henry Smith, the general manager, described the working of it in his testimony (March 7) before the committee.

The Eastern news is collected by its local agents at various points and sent to a central officer in the city of New York, by whom, after be ing subjected to a process which is described as "editing," it is sent out to the newspapers which belong to the association. This "editing" consists of selecting such parts as the central officer thinks proper to send out, and in modifying the language, and in making the selection, he sends more matter to some sections and places than to others. All the Eastern news goes first to the central office in New York, except that portion of it which is sent directly from this city of Washington to the West and South, and to Baltimore and Philadelphia; and there is a central officer here who determines absolutely what shall be sent and what shall not be sent. It may be assumed, and is doubtless true, that the persons selected to do this species of editing will be those best fitted to do it skillfully and judiciously, but it must also be assumed that they will be in almost all cases persons who can be influenced, and especially by those to whom they are indebted for their appointment and for coutinued retention in their places, to edit the news so as to give it a par ticular coloring and to serve particular purposes. Of the nature and

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danger of such a power, the following description was given in the testimony of Gardiner G. Hubbard:

The man who rules the Associated Press has an instrument for shaping the opinions of the millions which, by the constancy, universality, and rapidity of its action, defies competition. The events which take place in all business, political, and religious centers, together with the actions of public men and their imputed motives, are all presented simultaneously to the public, from ocean to ocean, through this instrumentality. The agents who collect the news respond to the central authority at New York, and are subject to removal at its pleasure. Here is a power greater than any ever wielded by the French Directory, because, in an era when public opinion is omnipotent, it can give, withhold, or color the information which shapes that opinion. It may impart an irresistible power to the caprice of an individual, and the reputation of the ablest and purest public man may be fatally tainted in every town and village on the continent by a midnight dispatch. It is incompatible with public safety that such an exclusive power to speak to the whole public in the same moment, upon every subject, and thus to create public opinion, should be under the absolute control of a corporation.

The general manager, William Henry Smith. seemed to claim that the fact that no opposition news association was formed for twenty-five years to compete with the Associated Press, is proof that its management had been unobjectionable. On the contrary, it may appear to others to be one of the proofs that the Associated Press is so strongly intrenched in the intimacy of its relations with the Western Union, that competition with it has been made well nigh impossible.

It may be said that if under the operation of this bill several associations shall be formed to collect and distribute news, they will neces sarily have their news concentrated at central points before it is distributed, and that the same danger of a censorship at such central points will exist as now exist in the case of the Associated Press. But the temptation to exercise a censorship will be taken away, because there will be little or no advantage to anybody in manipulating the news sent out by one association, when other and independent associations are at the same time sending out the news unmanipulated. It is only the fact of a monopolized news distribution which makes a news censorship possible. This bill is for the press a proclamation of emancipation, and it will not be really a free press until it, or something like it, is enacted into a law. To-day no new paper can be placed on the list of recipients of Associated Press dispatches without the consent of all the papers in the same town already on the list, and all papers receiving the news by contract with the association are liable to be stricken from the list at the pleasure of the central management. The telegraphic news is the breath of life of the daily press, and to receive such news practically at the will of one company is an intolerable condition, degrading to the newspipers and a'arming to the country. This bill will put an end to it by the impartial and low rates which it fixes for telegraphing, and by the competition in the furnishing of news which it renders possible and encourages. And to whatever extent it may be shown by experience not to reach and remedy the whole of the present evils, Congress will always have the power to supply what is proved to be lacking by amendatory legislation.

Summarizing what has thus far been said, it has been shown that the bill secures the advantages of cheapening very largely the charges for telegraphing; of making those charges and the charges for the transmission of public intelligence for the press and for commercial news associations uniform; and of removing or greatly diminishing the dan ger that the selection of the public intelligence to be telegraphed will be controlled by large and centralized corporations, by whose managers it may be colored for political, personal, and selfish objects. The ad