FOREIGN RELATIONS.


and could have been introduced only for the purpose of withdrawing
  attention from the real issue.
    So much for the plain, simple, substantive complaint embodied in my
  letter to you. It was a complaint first brought to my knowledge by
  respectable banking and commercial houses here, who had discovered
  that they were thus imposed on, in being compelled to pay, in addition
  to the heavy cost for the transmission of their telegrams across the
  ocean, a rate of charges for their passing over the wires in the United
  States so greatly in excess of the charges regularly made in America.
  I was asked if I could give an explanation. I could not. But I thought,
  as others concerned did, that anything thus injuriously and unfairly
  affecting easy, cheap, and-rapid correspondence between countries hav-
  ing such necessary, intimate, and constant relations as Great Britain
  and the United States, was well worthy of investigation, and exposure
  if need be, with a view to correction of the wrong.
    I am glad to find that my movement in this direction has been suc-
  cessful.
    In replying to and denying not the essential charge, but matters en-
  tirely collateral to the main fact, the president of the Western Union
  Company has made admissions and furnished information showing most
  clearly the existence of the unfair and extortionate practice complained
  of.
    Before proceeding to verify this, I furnish and refer to, and request
to
  have appended and made a part of this Communication, the tariffs of
  charges of the Anglo-American Company and of the Western Union
  Company, respectively, as officially published by them in this country
  and in the United States. I believe no change, or no material change,
  has been made in the rates set forth in these tables; and I have assumed
  them therefore as the basis of my computations. With these tariffs be-
  fore you, you will be better able to follow and comprehend my comments
  and figures.
    First, then, let us see what is actually exacted and collected in Eng-
 land for transmission of messages over the wires of the Western Union
 lines to points beyond New York. If the tariff of the Anglo-American
 Company be analyzed, it will be found that the whole of that service be-
 yond New York is divided (not into three, as Mr. Orton says, but) into
 five rates or classes of charges. Theserates are for every word, includ-
 ing the date, address, and names of the sender and receiver.
    1. Threepence (being equal to 6.951 cents)for each word for all sta-
 tions within the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey,
 Ptennsylvania, and all places in New York outside of the city.
    2. Ninepeftce (equal to 20.87 cents) for each word for all stations in
  Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michig-n,
  Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia,
  Wisconsin, Saint Louis in Missouri, and Lake City, Saint Mark's, and
  Tallahassee, in Florida.
    3. One shilling (equal to 27.83 cents) for each word for Pensacola, in
  Florida.
    4. Fifteen pence (equal to 34.785 cents) for each word for all stations
  in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Dakota, Idaho, Iowa, Kan-
  sas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah,
  Wyoming, and all places in Missouri except Saint Louis.
    5. Two shillings (equal to 55.66 cents) for each word for all stations
  in Oregon, Washington Territory, and all places in Florida except Lake
  City, Saint Mark's, Tallahassee, and Pensacola.
    Now, comparing these charges with those which are given in the tariff


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