402 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



but when the lightning is invoked that is left to the monopoly of a 

 single private corporation, contrary to the true intent of the Consti- 

 tution. 



Let us now# see what success has attended the postal telegraphs 

 of other countries, which have been quick to shed the blessings of an 

 American invention upon their citizens, under the protection afforded 

 by Government control. Among the first to adopt this system was 

 the Government of Belgium, where, March 15, 1851, it was established 

 with a tariff of two and one half francs for twenty words within a 

 radius of seventy-five kilometres, or fifty cents for a distance of forty- 

 six and one half miles, and five francs for a distance above seventy- 

 five kilometres. The " registered system " was adopted here by which 

 the sender, upon payment of a double fee, was provided with an exact 

 copy of the message delivered to his correspondent, together with the 

 exact time of the delivery. In 1878 the tariff had been reduced to a 

 fraction over eight cents for each twenty words, and the receipts from 

 this source amounted to 1426,258.84. The next year, December 5, 

 1852, Switzerland adopted the system with the following tariff : for 

 a message of twenty words, one franc ; over twenty and under fifty, 

 two francs ; above fifty, three francs. In this country, almost from the 

 very first, the receipts showed a large surplus over expenditures, and 

 this was augmented in 1868, when the tariff was reduced to one half 

 a franc for twenty words a uniform rate. In 1879 the receipts 

 amounted to $400,763.04 ; expenses, 8314,893.39. About the same 

 time the system was introduced in France, where it proved a complete 

 success from the first. In 1877 the French tariff was a fraction over 

 sixteen cents for twenty words, and the receipts from this source were 

 $3,203,800. Then followed Russia, Germany, Sweden, Italy, New 

 Zealand, and other countries, with the most gratifying results in each 

 case. Great Britain, usually so quick to adopt reforms in the postal 

 service, and to which Government we are indebted for various im- 

 provements in our service the postage-stamp, money-order, postal- 

 car, carrier-system, postal-card, etc. was the last of the European 

 countries to establish the system. Previous to its introduction there, 

 the Chambers of Commerce memorialized Parliament in favor of the 

 measure, alleging that they " had reason to complain not only of the 

 high rates charged by existing companies for the transmission of mes- 

 sages, of frequent and vexatious delays in the delivery, and of the 

 inaccurate rendering, but that many important towns, and even whole 

 districts, are unsupplied with the means of telegraph communication." 

 In moving leave to introduce the postal telegraph bill, the Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer said : " We were in the habit in this country of 

 leaving to private enterprise the administration of internal affairs, the 

 exception to the rule being that of postal communication. With the 

 consent and approbation of the country, this was a monopoly in the 

 hands of the Government ; and he submitted that telegraphic com- 



