192 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (REDUCTION OF POSTAGE.) 



quick transmission to be in the hands of a sin- 

 gle corporation substantially in this country. 



"I said that the telegraph to-day was the 

 rich man's mail. The transmission of letters 

 and messages is a Government function, it 

 pertains to the Government, and it ought 

 never to have been suffered to go out of the 

 hands of Government. We ought just as much 

 to utilize the telegraph as to utilize the sending 

 of letters by the railway. Formerly letters, 

 were carried on foot or on horseback. I re- 

 member when the saddle-bags thrown across 

 the horse contained the letters which were 

 sent through the country. Then we adopted 

 the steamboat and then the railroad, and then 

 we insist that we shall have fast trains. Why ? 

 that we may get a letter to California in a 

 week and get an answer in a week, and the 

 Government proposes to do it for three cents. 

 The Government can send a letter of twenty 

 words to California and get an answer in a 

 single day at an expense, I verily believe, of 

 not more than 25 cents. Ought not the Gov- 

 ernment to doit? Can the Government ex- 

 cuse itself for not serving the people with this 

 new means of communicating messages ? 



; 'I said that the transmission of messages 

 by electricity was mainly in the hands of a 

 single corporation. I am not continually talk- 

 ing about monopolies, but I do say that this 

 business of carrying letters, of transmitting 

 messages, is a monopoly which belongs to the 

 Government of the United States and not to 

 corporations, and if those gentlemen who are 

 troubled with the power and the increasing 

 power of monopolies, and justly troubled, de- 

 sire to look about for the greatest monopoly 

 of the world in proportion to its capital, they 

 will find it in this same telegraph company. 

 Its receipts the last year were $17,000,000 and 

 its acknowledged profits were $7,000,000, more 

 than 40 per cent, of its receipts. I s;iy its ac- 

 knowledged profits ; what its real profits were 

 no one knows. 



"If the Government, as it ought to have 

 done under the statute of 1866 authorizing it 

 to do so, had taken control of the telegraph 

 system of this country it would have saved last 

 year $7,000,000 to the people of this country; 

 and that is a better saving than the saving 

 which they propose to effect upon postage, be- 

 cause with that saving would have come the 

 added convenience, as the telegraph would have 

 been brought within the reach of the humblest 

 individual. If an individual in common life 

 now receives a telegraphic dispatch he fears 

 that it means death or disaster. Jf the Gov- 

 ernment in 1866 had taken the telegraph, it 

 would be a common means of communication 

 between the common people of this country 

 to-day. 



'* The enormous profits which are lost to the 

 individuals of the country and are put in the 

 pockets of the stockholders of this corpora- 

 tion are nothing to what they are expected to 

 be. The president of the corporation in his 



last annual report estimates that the receipts 

 of the company in the year 1887 will be be- 

 tween $31,000,000 and $32,000,000, and the 

 profits $16,000,000. 



"I insist upon it that there should be no 

 diminution of the revenues of the Post-Office 

 Department until its surplus funds have been 

 used at least to make a fund for the purchase, 

 at an appraised value, of the telegraph lines of 

 the United States. Looking forward five years 

 to 1887, taking the report and estimate of the 

 president of that corporation in the year 1887, 

 it would save $16,000,000 to the people of the 

 United States and afford them vastly increased 

 facilities for corresponding with each other. 

 I have no time to elaborate this proposition to- 

 day. I believe that when the people come to 

 think of these matters they will vastly prefer 

 that the convenience of the present system 

 shall be extended; that new improvements 

 shall be adopted ; that the frequency of mails 

 shall be increased; that the speed of mails 

 shall be increased ; that free delivery shall be 

 extended almost indefinitely; and that Con- 

 gress shall take steps before the coming storm 

 to see to it that the control of the telegraph 

 system of this country passes into the hands of 

 the Government." 



Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, offered an amend- 

 ment proposing to strike out the whole clause 

 of the bill relating to the reduction of letter- 

 postage, on the ground that legislation of a 

 general nature in an appropriation bill was in 

 violation of rule 29, which is as follows : 



No amendment which proposes general legislation 

 shall be received to any general appropriation bill; 

 nor shall any amendment not germane or relevant 

 to the subject-matter contained in the bill be received ; 

 nor shall any amendment to any item or clause of such 

 bill be received which does not directly relate there- 

 to; and all questions of relevancy or amendments 

 under this rule, when raised, shall be submitted to 

 the Senate and be decided without debate ; and any 

 amendment to a general appropriation bill may be laid 

 on the table without prejudice to the bill. 



The amendment was rejected by the follow- 

 ing vote, which shows the attitude of the Sen- 

 ate on the question of postal reduction : 



YEAS Anthony, Blair, Cameron of Pennsylvania, 

 Cameron of Wisconsin, Davis of Illinois, Edmunds, 

 Hawley, Hoar, Jones of Florida, Lapham, Miller of 

 New Y ork, Morrill, Platt, Kollins, Sherman 15. 



NAYS Barrow, Beck, Brown, Call, Camden.Cock- 

 rell, Coke, Conger, Dawes, Frye, Garland, George, 

 Gorman, Groome, Hale, Hampton, Harris, Harrison, 

 Hill, Ingalls, Johnston, Jonas, Kellogg, Lamar, Mc- 

 Dill, McMillan, Mahone, Maxey, Morgan Pendleton, 

 Plumb, Pugh, Sewell, Slater, Vance, Van Wyck, 

 Vest, Voorhees, Walker, Williams 40. 



ABSENT Aldrich, Allison, Bayard, Butler, Chil- 

 cott, Davis of West Virginia, Fair Farley, Ferry, 

 Grover, Jackson, Jones of Nevada, Logan, McPher- 

 son, Miller of California, Mitchell, Eansom, Sauls- 

 bury, Saunders, Sawyer, Windom 21. 



January 20th. the bill passed the Senate with 

 several important amendments. One of them 

 changed the date of the proposed reduction in 

 the rate of letter-postage ; another added an 

 appropriation for fast mails ; another provided 



