* 
INSTRUCTIONS. 
The telegraph must he used 'Sparingly. ~In a -message from one official or employee to another official or employee titles should not he used , 
and in a great many cases the names of the parties in both address and signature may be limited to single words. Messages sent from or to 
the Department at Washington should not be paid for by the persons sending or receiving the same, except in cases where payment is demanded 
as a condition to the transmission or delivery of the messages, and the agent, operator, or messenger should be directed to havenhe same charged 
in the company’s monthly bill at Washington. * 
The rates for the transmission of official messages (except those for the Weather Bureau) over |the principal telegraph Ihies jn the JJnited 
States, including those of the Western Union Telegrapn Company, are fixed annually by the Postmaster General, and all foments in excess 
of those rates will be at the expense of the persons making the payments. * .. .. 
Pavment for Government messages sent over telegraph lines owned or operated by bond-aided railroad companies is forbidden by law. 
Write numbers out when fewer words result than there are figures in the number, except in cablegrams, when figures should be used instead 
of the corresponding words. * • \ 
Do not abbreviate ordinal numbers, such as 16th (three words), 3rd (two woods) , 22nd (three words); but write them sixteenth, third, 
and twenty-second. • • # 
Telegrams, or any part thereof, relating to leave of absence are not official. Telegrams relating to salary or expense checks are only official 
when the funds are actually necessary to carry out official instructions; and such messages must be clearly explained. 
Telegrams between the several Departments of the Government and their officers and agents, in their transmission oyer the lines of any 
telegraph company to which has been given the right of way, timber, or station lands from the public domain shall have priority over all other 
business, at such rates as the Postmaster General shall annually fix. And no part of any appropriation for the several Departments of the 
Government shall be paid to any company which neglects or refuses to transmit such telegrams in accordance with the provisions of this 
section. — Rev. Slat ., see. 5266. 8— l 
