the bill (S. No. 1025) to quiet the title to the lands of certain settlers on lands belonging to the West Wisconsin Railway Company, to report it without amendment; and I ask for its present consideration. It is a bill of but a few lines.

There being no objection, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill. The preamble recites that by the neglect of the Commissioner of the General Land Office to have the lands withdrawn from market embraced in the grant of lands from the town of Tomah to the city of Hudson, in the State of Wisconsin, as soon as the West Wisconsin Railway Company (to which company the grant belongs) had finally located its road and filed the map of such location, a large amount of lands-about twenty thousand acres-were taken up under the homestead laws and otherwise entered. The bill therefore provides that if the West Wisconsin Railway Company shall waive and release all claims to any lands taken up under the homestead laws, or otherwise entered after the final location of their road, it shall be lawful for them to make up any deficiency in their grant from the vacant odd-numbered sections from the southeastern part or portion of the indemnity limits of the grant for the branch roads from the city of Hudson to Lake Superior.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

ATCHISON, TOPEKA, AND SANTA FÉ ROAD.

Mr. POMEROY. I now move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 676, to extend the time for the completion of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé railroad. It will be remembered that this bill was up during the morning hour, and we amended it in accordance with the suggestions of the Senator from Ohio, [Mr. THURMAN,] and the question was on its passage when the morning hour expired.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, resumed the consideration of the bill (S. No. 676) to extend the time for the completion of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé railroad.

The VICE PRESIDENT. The bill will be reported as amended.

Mr. POMEROY. The amendments have all been agreed to. They were introduced at the suggestion of the Senator from Ohio, [Mr. THURMAN.]

The CHIEF CLERK. The second section, which appears not to have been agreed to, is in the following words:

SEC. 2. That the lands granted by the act of March 3, 1863, and lying west of the point at which said road and telegraph shall be constructed subsequent to March 3, 1873, (excepting only such as are necessary to reserve for the use of the company,) shall be sold to actual settlers only, and in quantities not more than one hundred and sixty acres to any one person, under such restrictions and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, at such prices as will secure to said company, its successors, or assigns, an average price of not more than $2.50 per acre for the land actually certified for each completed section of twenty miles of said railroad, subject to the foregoing conditions and limitations. Said company, as fast as each section of its road shall be completed, shall receive patents, as provided in said act of March 3, 1863, for such odd Bections of land as may be necessary to make up deficiencies in said section, or on any other completed sections of said road, and which may be situated within the indemnity limits prescribed in said act of March 3, 1863.

Mr. HARLAN. I desire to amend this bill by offering as an amendment to it the bill reported from the Pacific Railroad Committee extending the time for the completion of the Atlantic and Pacific railroad through the Indian country. I do not remember the number of the bill, but it is on file here.

Mr. POMEROY. I shall call up that bill in a moment.

Mr. CONKLING. Before it is called up let me inquire, is that the bill which came up As an amendment, offered by the Senator from 42D CONG. 2D SESS.-No. 223.

Mr. CONKLING. Whenever that bill comes up I desire to discuss it, whether it comes up now or at another time. Mr. POMEROY. Then I hope it will not be put on this bill. I hope the Senator will withdraw it.

Mr. HARLAN. I withdrew it once before because some Senator wanted to discuss it. Mr. CONKLING. It was not because I wanted to discuss it.

Mr. HARLAN. I think now I will listen to the discussion.

Mr. CONKLING. I was quite ready to discuss it then.

Mr. HARLAN. I must insist on having it considered and the judgment of the Senate taken upon it.

Mr. POMEROY. Then I withdraw the bill. The VICE PRESIDENT. The bill is withdrawn.

S. B. MITCHELL AND OTHERS.

Mr. VICKERS. I desire the Senate to take up House bill No. 1551. It is a small bill reported from the Committee on Claims.

By unanimous consent, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (H. R. No. 1551) for the relief of S. B. Mitchell, George W. Mitchell, John W. Mitchell. It proposes to appropriate to S. B. Mitchell, George W. Mitchell, and John W. Mitchell, the owners of the schooner Thomas J. Frazier, sunk while in the service of the United States by a shot from the United States frigate Congress, during the engagement between the Congress and the rebel vessel Merrimac, the sum of $3,059 37, that being the amount paid by the owners for raising and repairing the schooner.

The Committee on Claims reported the bill with an amendment, to strike out, in lines nine and ten, 66 $3,059 37," and to insert *$2,592 87;” and in line twelve to strike out the words "raising and ;" and at the end of the bill to insert "and the sum of $466 50 to William Webster for raising the same." The amendment was agreed to.

The bill was reported to the Senate as amend ed, and the amendment was concurred in. It was ordered that the amendment be engrossed, and the bill read the third time. The bill was read the third time, and passed.

Mr. HOWE. The title of the bill should be amended by inserting the name of William Webster as one of the parties to be relieved. The VICE PRESIDENT. That amendment will be made.

LAND DISTRICT IN FLORIDA.

Mr. OSBORN. I move to take up Senate bill No. 218, to create an additional land district in Florida.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill. It proposes to constitute

that portion of Florida lying east of the line between ranges fourteen and fifteen east, an additional land district, to be known as the East Florida district, the office for which is to be located at Jacksonville. It also authorizes the appointment of a register and a re ceiver for the land district, who are to be entitled to the same compensation as is or may hereafter be prescribed by law for like officers of other districts.

The Committee on Public Lands reported the bill with an amendment, to insert in section two, line four, after the words "officers of," the word "the ;" and at the end of the bill to add the words "in said State."

The amendment was agreed to.

Mr. OSBORN. I move to amend the bill in section one, line six, by striking out "Jacksonville" and inserting Gainesville." The amendment was agreed to.

แ

The bill was reported to the Senate as amend ed, and the amendments were concurred in. The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Chair will again remind the Senate that when the recess takes place at ten minutes to five o'clock, the bill of the Senator from Pennsylvania will be the unfinished business.

WILSON BOWLBY.

Mr. CORBETT. I ask the Senate to take up Senate bill No. 1107, reported from the Committee on Finance.

By unanimous consent, the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. No. 1107) for the relief of Wilson Bowlby, collector of internal revenue for Oregon. It directs the Secretary of the Treasury to credit Wilson Bowlby, collector of internal revenue for Oregon, with $1,104, the value of internal revenue stamps alleged to have been sent by mail on the 26th of April, 1871, to him, and which never reached him.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

The PRESIDING OFFICER, (Mr. HARLAN in the chair.) The time having arrived for a recess, the Senate will now take a recess until a quarter before eight o'clock this evening.

EVENING SESSION. The Senate reassembled at seven o'clock and forty-five minutes p. m.

D. B. ALLEN AND COMPANY. Mr. RAMSEY. I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 349.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. No. 349) to provide for the payment of D. B. Allen & Co. for services in carrying the United States mail. It provides for paying $21,543 for the payment of D. B. Allen & Co. for carrying the United States mails between New York and San Francisco in 1864-65, during the suspension of the overland mail service on the overland route. Mr. RAMSEY. There is a report in that

case.

Mr. HAMLIN. I think I can state the facts much quicker than the report can be read. I know the bill passed the Senate twice, I think three times. It proposes to pay for a service by the way of Panama which belonged to the overland route when that was disturbed by Indian depredations. The papers on file from the Post Office Department state that they would have paid the sum if they had had the money there with which to pay it.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

BRIDGE AT RED WING.

Mr. RAMSEY. I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 842.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. No. 842) to authorize the construction of a bridge across the Mississippi river at or near the city of Red Wing, in the State of Minnesota, and to establish it as a post road.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE.

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. CLINTON LLOYD, its chief clerk, announced that the House had passed the following resolution; in which it requested the concurrence of the Senate:

Resolved by the House of Representatives, (the Senate concurring.) That each House of Congress shall

be adjourned sine die, by the Presiding Officers thereof, on Monday, the 3d day of June, 1872, at twelve o'clock meridian."

The message also announced that the House had passed a bill (H. R. No. 2564) to relieve certain persons therein named from the legal and political disabilities imposed by the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States; in which it requested the concurrence of the Senate.

MILITARY ROAD IN INDIAN TERRITORY. Mr. RAMSEY. I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 443.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. No. 443) to provide for the opening of a military and post road from the mouth of Walnut river, in Kansas, to the mouth of the Main Cache river, in Texas.

Mr. HARLAN. I rather think that bill ought to go to the Committee on Indian Affairs. I submit that motion.

Mr. HAMILTON, of Texas. I hope it will be referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs. Mr. POMEROY. There are several amendments.

Mr. HARLAN. Let the amendments be printed and go with the bill.

Mr. POMEROY. I want the appropriation stricken out first.

Mr. HARLAN. I have no objection to the amendments being acted on.

Mr. POMEROY. The object of the bill is to have a highway, if we can, to drive cattle from Texas to Kansas without being taxed by the Indians.

Mr. HAMILTON, of Texas. That is very important if it can be done. My understanding is that this road runs all through the Indian country.

Mr. POMEROY. West of the ninety-sixth meridian, where they have ceded their jurisdiction. Let me suggest that the amendments of the committee be agreed to.

The PRESIDING OFFICER, (Mr. MORRILL, of Maine, in the chair.) The amendments will be acted on.

Mr. POMEROY. I move first to strike out the appropriation.

Mr. HAMILTON, of Texas. The drovers will have to go a long way out of their road by this route.

Mr. POMEROY. If it comes much further east there is a railroad company that will build a railroad. Let the amendments be concurred in.

The CHIEF CLERK. The first amendment reported by the Committee on Post Othces and Post Roads is to strike out "A. D. Keith" and insert G. G. Capron" as a commissioner, and in the same line to strike out Perrin Fay" and insert "B. D. Dawson;" in line nine, after "Main Cache," to insert "via Fort Cobb, Fort Sill, and the Wichita agency."

The amendment was agreed to.

Mr. POMEROY. There is one amendment in the first part of the section that should be corrected. The name of "L. W. Shepherd" should be stricken out and "R. B. Wright" inserted.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. That amendment will be made if there be no objection.

The next amendment reported by the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads was at the end of section three, to insert the words "that will interfere with the objects of this act."

The amendment was agreed to.

The next amendment was to strike out in section five, commencing in line five, the following words:

And for the erection of causeways, culverts, and bridges, and the expense of surveying and grading said road, the sum of $50,000 is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to be expended under the direction of the Interior Department and upon the recommendation

of said commissioners. All completed work shall be personally inspected by the said commissioners, and payments shall be made upon their approval out of the funds hereby appropriated.

And to insert in lieu thereof the following:

A plat of the said road shall be filed with the Secretary of the Interior, and, if found to be located according to the provisions of this act, shall be approved by him, whereupon he shall declare the same a public highway.

So that the section will read :

That the said commissioners shall each receive in full of all compensation and all allowances six dollars per day for performing the services above. described: Provided, That the whole number of days of each commissioner shall not exceed ninety. A plat of said road shall be filed with the Secretary of the Interior, &c.

The amendment was agreed to.

Mr. HARLAN. I now move that the bill be printed, with the amendments, and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs. The motion was agreed to.

POSTAL TELEGRAPH.

Mr. RAMSEY. I move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 341. There is an amendment in the nature of a substitute, and I suggest that the original bill need not be read.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to the consideration of the bill (S. No. 341) to reduce the rates of correspondence by telegraph, and to connect the telegraph with the postal service.

The substitute reported by the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads was read.

Mr. NYE. There is so much legislation in this bill that it makes me giddy to read it. I see nothing left to be done on the face of God's earth that the Postmaster General is not competent to take in hand, according to this bill. Here is authority to connect everywhere with the living and the dead, that which

is in being and that which is to be hereafter, and the grant here made is perpetual, forever. I hope no such bill will pass. It ought to receive that full consideration at the bands of the Senate which a measure proposing so radical a change demands, and it should be well examined. I can see an outlay of millions in it. I hope before the Senate act upon the bill it will be considered carefully.

Mr. RAMSEY. An outlay of millions by

Mr. NYE. I understand it very well. Mr. RAMSEY. The corporators are the parties who invest money.

Mr. NYE. There is a provision that the Government shall step in and take it if it is necessary. I understand that perfectly well. It means a great scheme without anything under it. It establishes a system of stamps that will ingulf us all in stamps. At every ten miles the Postmaster General is to have a telegraphic office. I hope the bill will not pass. It ought to receive that consideration entitled to. which a proposition to make such a change is Experience, in my judgment, will show that mixing the Post Office Department, which is very well managed now, with a vast irrelevant appurtenance will ingulf both. It ought not to be done without consideration, certainly.

Mr. HAMLIN. Mr. President, it was my fortune to have been a member of the other branch of the National Legislature at the time when a small appropriation was made to the late Professor Morse to establish a line of telegraph between Baltimore city and Washington. I am happy to say that I gave to that measure my earnest support. It was a new measure; and all new measures take time, take consideration and investigation to present them acceptably to the public mind. What has grown out of that beginning we all know. The benefits which have resulted

from it over the whole world can hardly be estimated.

Now, sir, the simple question, in my judg ment, arises whether it is not wise at this day and this time for our Government to do what almost every other Government has done, take this system of telegraphing operations into its own charge, control it and regulate it, and reduce the expense which those who have occasion to use it shall be obliged to pay. I think it all embraced in that one single thing, Sir, when you turn to the European Governments where this system has been taken charge of by Government, I think we are able to state in every case successfully, they have reduced rates vastly below anything we have had in this country. I think the same rule may be made to apply here. In Belgium, for the transmission of ten words ten cents are charged; in France, from ten to twenty cents; in Great Britain, twenty-five cents: in Canada twenty five cents. Now, in my judgment, the time is fast approaching, if it has not already come, when there is a necessity for our Government to take charge of the telegraphic system. It has many feature similar to those of our postal arrangements, and comes, it not directly, yet very much in opposuion to the transmission of written and printed matter through the mails. The telegraph system oper ates to diminish the revenues of the Govern ment. It is, therefore, in my judgment, wise that the Government should take it into its own control, for the purpose of harmonizing the two systems together. Indeed, if nothing of that kind be done, competition, perhaps to a greater extent than we have it-although competition has been very much avoided by combinations of great lines-will yet affect more injuriously the postal system than it does now. It is therefore wise, in my judgment, that the Government take this system into its own control.

As the chairman of the committee has sa'd the bill proposes the expenditure of no money by the Government, but it does propose to give to a responsible company the power of establishing telegraphic offices in connection with the Government, and to forward messages at stipulated rates, which dimin sh first the cost of transmission of messages at the pre-ent time all the way from forty to fifty per cent. But Senators will bear in mind that that is not all the diminution. The diminution when put at that percentage is computed on the basis of a message of teu words, while the bill as bere presented gives you twenty-five words as the message, which is an increase of eighty per cent. upon the amount of matter sent. The rates bere include date and address, and, assum. ing what I understand to be about the ordinary rule, those dates and addresses will take about seven words, giving, therefore, eighteen words in place of ten, which is an increase of the amount of matter sent of eighty per cent., and the rates reduced from those that we now pay varying from forty to filty per cent. It does seem to me that that feature alone in the bill is one that should commend itself to our better judgment.

Again, it is known that the occasions which the Government itself has for the use of the telegraph are increasing annually. We are inaugurating a system which I believe will be reduced to a science; I do not doubt that we shall be, if we have not already been, abie to tell with very great accuracy the kind of weather we are to have all over the country. The system which the Government bas iaaugurated, and through which it has been obliged to use the Western Union Telegraph Company for the purpose of transmiting its messages daily to and from the signal office here, has already been productive of good. I think we have enough of it now to see that we shall be able in the progress of time to establish very satisfactorily the kind and description of weather that we shall have from day to day in every locality. The reasonable

rates with which the Government has been furnished with this accommodation by the Western Union Telegraph Company, I understand, have been abrogated, changed, and refused; and thus that system which should be continued for the great and good results which necessarily would flow from it might be much retarded, if not defeated. The Government can in no other way than through the telegraph receive such information as will enable it to carry out the system in which it is engaged.

I do not wish to make any statement which is not perfectly accurate; but I am told that the arrangement existing between the Governernment and the Western Union Telegraph Company, for which I believe about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars have been paid annually, has been broken up by the company, thus leaving the Government unable to perfect that grand system from which I think the whole world may reasonably hope to reap great and rich rewards.

These are the general considerations, Mr. President, very briefly stated, which induced me as a member of the committee to give my sanction to the bill, as I shall give to it my vote in the Senate; and I do not think we need apprehend any of the alarm which my friend from Nevada is now exercised over. I think in his cooler and calm moments he will get over that bravely, and that on a more thorough and a more careful examination he will find that there is really no occasion for any alarm.

I believe that this is to be a system full of beneficial results to the country, to almost every man, woman, and child in it; and the time will come, I think, when the Senator from Nevada will be proud to remember that he was associated with that body which inaug. urated the scheme into a law, and he will rejoice, I believe, much more if he shall find his name recorded as one of its friends, and not as one of its opponents.

Mr. NYE. Mr. President, I am perfectly cool, I can inform the Senator from Maine; I am under no excitement; and indeed the announcement he makes that he has helped to give birth to this thing is calculated to prevent all excitement. It has been a prolonged case; it has been talked of since before he and I came here the last time; it is an old measure, but I think it is quite inartificially put up. He is loading the Post Office Department and conferring powers upon its head which no other officer on the face of the earth || ever had before.

Mr. SUMNER. I should like to ask my friend if the Post Office Department objects? Mr. NYE. I suppose not. I understand they have been in consultation about it.

Mr. SUMNER. I understand the argument of my friend to be that this was a loading of of the Post Office Department.

Mr. NYE. I say so, and it will make it so cumbrous that nothing can be done there.

Mr. SUMNER. That the Post Office Department cannot administer it?

Mr. NYE. No, sir. Now, if the honorable Senator will keep quiet a moment I shall be through presently. I understand that he has had a hand in this, and is here claiming the paternity of it. I say that this bill, and I have read it carefully, imposes duties on the Post Office Department that no Department of this Government can possibly carry on.

What is

con

the use of creating this company, to begin with? Here are telegraphs everywhere that our Post Office goes. Why not authorize the Department to contract with the present companies? This bill authorizes them to tract with this new company which it makes, and to contract with them forever. Not only does it do that, but it raises a question on which I should like to have the opinion of my friend, the Senator from Maine. Has he not stood here to deny the power of Congress to pass a law that should perform its

functions in any other country than our own? This bill upon its face, and in terms, authorizes them to connect with telegraphs of other countries, and to make such arrangements as they may see fit under the direction of the Postmaster General.

It is a very easy thing to pass this bill. If I had the lungs of my friend from Maryland, [Mr. HAMILTON,] and could talk as loud and as much as he did last night I would talk it out; but I tell you there is a mouse under this meal just as sure as you live, and there is a cat there, too, and a big one.

You will find, Mr. President, that this bill will be so cumbrous that it never cau be worked, and it will bring a set of men into power, and to hold that power forever, which it is dangerous to give to any set of men. My friend from Vermont would not let a railroad come in here unless he bound them to pay more than twice the price of the ground, on the theory that you must bind corporations in chains that cannot be broken. Here is the largest incorporation ever made in the United States, and made without any scrutiny, I think, except of the committee. I say it is the largest, most influential, most potent, and most dangerous corporation I have ever seen attempted to be created here.

Mr. RAMSEY. I think I can relieve one difficulty of the honorable Senator from Nevada. He apprehends that this is a perpetual corporation.

Mr. NYE. The bill says so.

Mr. RAMSEY. It may be outside of any connection with the Post Office Department, but I call the Senator's attention to section seven:

That the Postmaster General is hereby authorized to contract with the Postal Telegraph Company for the transmission of correspondence by telegraph, as his agent for that purpose, for a term of ten years according to the provisions of this act.

That is the extent of it; but of course it may be renewed subsequently.

Mr. SAWYER. Mr. President, the Senator from Nevada is generally rather a courageous man, but he seems very easily frightened to-night, and frightened at what on a closer examination will be found not to be by any means an object of terror. The terror of great corporations seems to have come over bis usually undaunted soul with extraordinary power to-night.

Mr. NYE. I am not to be told that. I said that was the general sentiment of the Senate, in which my friend from South Carolina shares largely. I have no fear of them, especially when you get one so large as this that it will break itself down.

Mr. SAWYER. I cannot see the gre at power of the corporation which is provided for in this bill. It is simply a telegraphic company having the power to do precisely the kind of work which is done by several companies already in existence in the States, and created for the purpose not of increasing the burdens of the people, but of greatly diminishing them.

The Senator says we have telegraphs running everywhere now. That is true; and at the same time we have everywhere the imposition of great prices upon the transmission of telegraphic intelligence. If this bill should pass, it will be within the power of the people of the United States to get their telegraphic business done at a decrease of over fifty per cent. from present rates.

That the power of this corporation would be dangerous is disproved by the fact that the profit which they are allowed to make upon their capital, which must be exactly the extent of their property, is limited to ten per cent., and that whenever it is found that their profits exceed ten per cent. the Postmaster General is authorized to make such reductions in the rates which the Government pays and which the public pay for the transmission of messages as will reduce their profits to that figure.

The experience of other Governments in the union of the postal system with the telegraph

system has been eminently successful, not only successful in decreasing the cost of telegraphing to the public, but successful in increasing the amount of business; and let me say to my honorable friend from Nevada that there is no new principle in this bill. It is simply a new application of a principle now operating in our postal system.

There is no abstract reason why the Government should undertake to convey messages by letter through the mails, that does not equally apply to the conveyance of messages by the quicker and improved method of the telegraph.

The conduct by the Government of the business of conveying letters and newspapers to and fro through the country is entirely a matter of convenience. It is not at all a necessary function of a Government that it should convey mails.

It is a convenience to the public, and is so used. It is for that reason that it is used, and it is approved by the public because experience has proved its great convenience and its civilizing tendency. There is just as much reason for the Government to undertake this business of conveying intelligence over the telegraphic wires as over railroad lines and by stage-coaches. The principle is the same. European Governments have recognized the similarity of the principle, and have applied it, and applied it, not at enormous expense to the Government, but, on the contrary, with profit to the Government. Indeed, it is one of the most profitable parts of the postal system of Great Britain to-day.

Mr. NYE. As my friend from South Carolina seems to be entirely familiar with this matter, will he answer me a question? Where do you find the authority for enabling the Postmaster General to raise the rates in particular States? The ninth section provides that if any tax or assessment shall be levied on the receipts or franchises of this company, or any license be required in any State or Territory, "the Postmaster General may add one or more cents to the rate on each telegram between offices in such State or Territory."

Mr. SAWYER. Let me tell the Senator that the power is the power to contract for the postal business; and if the contractor finds that by reason of local taxation it costs him more to do business in the State of Maryland or the State of New Jersey than it does in the State of New York, the Postmaster General has the power, if this bill becomes a law, to increase the price paid for the transmission of the message.

Mr. NYE. Then he has power to increase the price upon the postage of letters.

Mr. SAWYER. If the United States choose to make a law that when the mail contractor is taxed for carrying on his business in the State of New York, there shall be an increase in the postage to compensate for the increased expense incurred on account of such tax, undoubtedly the right to enact such law is complete.

Mr. NYE. I understand the object of this bill is to put the Government, in regard to the mass of the commanding business of the telegraph, in the same position that it now occupies toward the mail, and the pretense is that it can be done cheaper. Now, in order to protect this company, you confer on the Postmaster General the power of saying in advance, before they stick a pole or stretch a wire, "If you tax this company in any State, we will tax you in return by an increase of the telegraph rate by one or more cents." Now, the point I want to ask is, where does Congress get this power?

Mr. SAWYER. In the same way, then, we get the power to give a larger price for a contract where it is executed under difficulties than where it is executed not under difficulties. Does not the honorable Senator know that we gave a larger price to carry the mail across the continent by a pony express than we gave to carry it across the State of New

Jersey where there were ample facilities to carry it? If the State of Maryland chooses to impose a tax upon telegraphic wires across that State, it is therefore more expensive to carry the message across that State, and the proposition in this bill is to allow the Postmaster General to impose an additional rate for the transmission of a message across that State to meet that tax; but does the Senator suppose that the people of Maryland would be so far blind to their own interest as to tax their own telegraph communication?

Mr. NYE. Then why provide for it?

Mr. SAWYER. Because we do not know but that some opponent of this system, some person who desires to perpetuate the monop oly which at present exists in the telegraphic system of this country, may interpose some such obstacles; they will not last long, but they may for a time.

Mr. NYE. After all, suppose you are going to carry the mail through Maryland or South Carolina, does that increase or decrease the rate of postage?

Mr. SAWYER. It would if Congress should say so. Congress has not seen fit to say so.

Mr. President, this union of the postal system with the telegraphic system is not a new proposition. It was before the last Congress. It has been reported favorably upon several times by committees of the other House, and once certainly before the Senate by a committee of this body.

Mr. RAMSEY. Three times.

Mr. SAWYER. Three times by the committee of the Senate. It has been recom mended by two successive Postmasters General after the most careful consideration. It has been tried in European countries with absolute success. As I remarked a few minutes ago, it has been tried in Great Britain, not only with wonderful success as to the increase of the business of telegraphing, but as a question merely of profit. Great Britain invested some six or seven million pounds in purchasing telegraphic lines, borrowing the money at three and a quarter per cent., and notwithstanding all the difficulties of a new enter prise, notwithstanding all the large expenses of inaugurating the system, nevertheless the first year rendered a net return of over four per cent., making a clear profit on the system in the first year, and therefore the year presenting the most difficulty, of nearly or quite one per cent. on the capital invested.

Now, Mr. President, it is not proposed that the Government shall pay out one dollar for this. It is simply proposed to give the Postmaster General power to contract with a company which is incorporated here with a capital of $1,000,000 to begin with, and thereafter to be increased as the company increase the property in their possession, in accordance with the terms of the law. It proposes to give the Postmaster General power to contract with such company to carry telegraphic messages at certain rates, which rates are something like an average of thirty-five per cent. less than the rates now charged by the Western Union Telegraph Company. And this price is further reduced by the fact that the message proposed by this bill is not the message of ten words, but a message averaging about eighty per cent. more. The average rates, therefore, will be considerably more than fifty per cent. diminution on the present rates.

This company, though the Senator from Nevada seems to be so much afraid of its vast privileges and its vast powers, will have simply the powers which any other telegraphic company has, except that it cannot impose upon the public exorbitant rates, because, as I have remarked, whenever its profits rise above ten per cent. it will be the duty of the Postmaster General, under the bill as reported by the committee, to reduce the rates so that it shall bring the profits of the company down to ten per cent. If thereafter it should prove that the profits of the company were less than

ten per cent., he would have the same right to raise the rates (not, however, beyond the limits fixed) that he had to lower them.

Mr. CONKLING. I should like to know from my friend from South Carolina, with his permission, whether he is in the domain of history or not in what I understood him to say as I entered the Chamber just now about the diminution of rates proposed by this bill. Does he intend the Senate at this time, when nobody, as far as I can learn, except a few in the secret, expected this extraordinary measure to come up, to understand that by the proposed amendment of the committee the diminution which he has been. describing in telegraphic rates is to be established? And if he does, I wish he would be kind enough to repeat, if it be necessary to repeat for my benefit, the data on which he bases the state

ment.

Mr. SAWYER. If the Senator had been careful enough to look into the report of the committee, which has been on the table for some weeks, he would have seen the data there, and could have verified the data by reference to the telegraphic rates between Washington and New York and various other points to which he has occasion to frequently send dispatches. On the eighth and ninth pages of the report of the committee are given tables exhibiting the present rates from Washington to various points, and showing a diminution of sixty per cent. upon day rates and eighty per cent. upon night rates as between the rates proposed in this bill and those at present charged by the Western Union Telegraph Company, and these lower rates proposed are not for the same length of message but for a message eight tenths longer. other words, for eighteen words the tariff proposed by this bill will be sixty per cent. for day rates less than the charge now made by tha Western Union Telegraph Company for ten words. Below that there are several tables given where the reduction varies from thirtythree to thirty-eight per cent., and in one case sixty-eight per cent. all the time, this being based on the assumption that the messages are of the same length, ten-word messages, whereas in fact the messages proposed by this bill are of twenty-five words, including the address, which makes the body of the message average about eighteen words. Now the Senator is answered about that. If he will show that these figures are not correct, of course I am wrong.

In

Mr. CONKLING. I am answered very largely in one sense and in another not at all. I need not read beyond the third page of this bil to satisfy myself that all those who have not been imposed upon are trying to impose upon somebody else. Among the extraordinary provisions of the bill is that which I find in the words which I read now:

All other messages shall be transmitted in the order in which they are received

I find no ground for criticism there, but now I come to the words which I criticise: excepting registered telegrams, on which double rates shall be prepaid, which shall have priority of transmission, and excepting telegrams directed to be transmitted by night.

Everybody not purposely or strangely blind as to the intent of this contrivance must see that the corporation of which the Government is to become the agent or middle-man between the citizen and the person to perform the work is to be permitted to double the rates upon everything except that sent by night, for that is what it comes to, "excepting registered telegrams, on which double rates shall be prepaid, which shall have priority of transmission." Everybody will see that if the Senator from South Carolina or anybody else wants priority of transmission he is to be com. pelled by this corporation to have it through a registered telegram, just as certain railway companies put on a magnificent palace car or two, and then take care to leave off all other

cars, so that everybody is driven fas aut nefa to go into the palace cars. So everybody who wants a message transmitted under this cos. trivance submitted to us is to be compelled to send a registered message at double rate. And I say here, although speaking under favor of my friend in his time, that in addition to si. the other amazing requirements to which the American people are to be subjected under this bill if it should ever pass, (which I do not suppose it is to do,) as I understand, it wil work not only no diminution of rate in trang mitting the average telegraphic dispatch-s, but an unmistakable imposition of addious. rates over those charged now for doing it.

Mr. SAWYER. I am always happy to hear my friend from New York, because he speaks forcibly and eloquently and persuasively; but there is absolutely nothing in what he has said; and let me remind the Senator from New York that this registered telegram to which he a ludes has its exact parallel in the usage of the telegraph companies to-day, who charge double rates if you want to make your message sure. In the first place, the double rate provided by this bill is in many cases not over sixty-six and two thirds per cent. of the single rate charged by the Western Union telegraph and by other telegraphic companies in the country to-day. But, Mr. President, when you want to make certain that your message goes correctly and promptly in the telegraph office to day, there is a direction that you shall cause it to be repeated, and then they charge you doube rates for it; so that the Senator proves nothing against the proposition before us by bu criticism on this point.

The Senator says there will be absolutely no reduction. I beg to call his attention to some figures. The day rate from Washington to St. Paul at present for ten-word messages is $2 50. By the proposed bill the day message will be one dollar, or forty per cent. But note this circumstance: that this one dollar is not for a ten-word message, but for a message consisting, with the address, of twenty five words, or amounting to eighteen words, inas much as the average addresses on telegrams are about seven words. Take ten thousand mes sages, and they will average about seven words for each address. Therefore it leaves the body of the telegram at about eighteen words. this bill becomes a law, for one dollar you send a message to St. Paul of eighteen words, whereas now you send a message to St. Paul of ten words for $2 50. The present rate is twenty-five cents per word; the proposed rate about five and a half cents per word, a reduc tion in this case of seventy-eight per cent. Does the Senator consider this reduction of LO value?

Again, the rate from Washington to Bangor at present for ten words is ninety cents; by the proposed bill, for eighteen words it will be seventy-five cents. From Washington to San Francisco the present rate is five dollars, or fifty cents a word; by the proposed rate it is $1 75 for eighteen words. These tables. it must be noted, are made up as though the messages by the present system and by this bill were the same, whereas in fact, as I have so often repeated, the allowance must be made in every case for the addition of eight words to the average messages.

I did not, however, intend to discuss this bill. I only rose after my friend from Nevada had shown, as I said, so much terror of the monstrous amount of legislation which there was in this bill. He seems to be frightened at what, if he had read the bill carefully, and if he has read the report, I do not think would have made his hair stand on end at the enormous assumption of Government power. The truth is to-day, Mr. President, the press of the United States is dependent upon the telegraph, and there is hardly a newspaper in this land that belongs to the Associated Press that dare say anything against the telegraph as at present managed, however much they may feel

its oppressive burdens. The telegraph has complete control over the press. The Western Union Telegraph Company can ruin any newspaper at any moment by just changing its rates for transmission of news. The Senator knows a newspaper on the Pacific coast which was absolutely ruined by the outrageous charges which were put upon the telegraphic news sent to it.

Mr. CONKLING. I do not know any such thing as that. I understand the art of bring ing in the dislike which naturally attaches to the Associated Press owing to the injustice to which we are subjected by that association. I understand the art of bringing in that prejudice as a make-weight against the interest which this bill is supposed to antagonize; but I deny entirely that striking at the telegraph company is striking at the Associated Press. I deny entirely that any shaft aimed at the telegraph is likely to injure or wound the Associated Press. I insist that on the contrary all men alike managing newspapers or requiring news are permitted to participate in transmitting at given rates such messages as they choose to send over the wires.

new.

The suggestion of the Senator is by no means I have heard it here before. I have heard it in other theaters where it was supposed resorting to those aris, very common in practice before juries, that somebody could be set on fire in favor of this scheme by declaiming against the Associated Press.

Mr. SAWYER. I beg the Senator's pardon. I have not declaimed against the Asso ciated Press.

Mr. CONKLING. No; the Senator has not declaimed against the Associated Press because perhaps he is restrained by a feeling which he applies in another direction. He says there is not a newspaper in the land that dare speak against the telegraph. Perhaps it is not every Senator who dares to speak against the Associated Press. Although I think my friend is not wanting in courage, he understands just as well as I do, we have heard it here and we have heard it elsewhere, that the Associated Press, by its extravagant misrepresentations of things-because I am not at all afraid to call attention to the fact that the agents of the Associated Press do misrepresent and distort things strangely, as I think in the interest of one political party and against the other

Mr. POMEROY. So I think.

Mr. CONKLING. Nobody can doubt it. Why, Mr. President, I have read-if my friend from South Carolina will pardon me, speaking as I am in his time-I have read, not only by way of omission here, dropping out of the proceedings of this body the great bulk and substance of them during the day, such strange perversions as would mislead the public as to the whole occupation of the Senate for the day, but I have seen put by the report of the Associated Press into the mouths of Senators what they never uttered; I have seen stated what never took place; and I understand perfectly the hazard at which I call attention to it now. I understand how entirely I am at the mercy of those who sit as the guests of the Senate, reporting (using a misapplied term) what they choose; and yet I call attention to the fact, and I know how deep down among the foundations of this bill that fact is, that men and a political party North and South are annoyed, misrepresented, injured grievously by this Associated Press.

I know in my own State particular individuals, speaking in a particular interest, may utter anything they please on any occasion, however partisan it may be, whatever feeling may actuale them, and no objection is found to it by the Associated Press; it finds full vent and statement in extenso in the newspapers; and I know that it another man, who champions the other side, expresses his sentiments upon kindred topics, that is "partisan," and it must not go into the Associated Press; and gentlemen whom I meet in the cars and meet

elsewhere will explain to me most amiably and most extensively the reason why such and such a thing cannot appear in the Associated Press, because it is partisan, although, if it is only uttered on the other side, it is stated in extenso and with embellishments.

Mr. NYE. Columns of it.

Mr. CONKLING. As my friend says, columns of it. Now, sir, a man must be a tyro in the art of politics, if that term is applicable to such a thing, who does not understand the ease with which prejudice may be raised either against the Associated Press or against the telegraph as the vehicle of the Associated Press, by calling attention to the bias, North and South, which is supposed to govern and to actuate it.

Mr. SAWYER. If the Senator will allow me, I must protest, not against his oocupying the time, because I would rather hear him speak than speak myself, but against his making this sermon on any text that I have enuncia ed.

Mr. CONKLING. I beg pardon of my friend. One thing we agree upon, that it is a great deal easier to listen to somebody else than taik yourself. He affirms that proposition, and I agree with him. I did not mean to speak in his time. I only rose to take exception to what I thought was not an inexcusable attempt of my friend to becloud, innocently and parliamentarily speaking, the Senate by bringing in the information that some paper on the Pacific coast, if it was that, which he presented to the Senator from Nevada, and some other newspaper somewhere else, were deprived of news or required to take certain news because of the telegraph. I rose upon that suggestion to exonerate the telegraph as truth would permit me from that charge. I do not believe it. On the contrary if my friend (and here I will stop my encroachments upon his time) will organize, and nobody can do it better than he, if he would turn the Carnot of the Associated Press and organize differently an associated press, an associated press bent upon telling the truth or bent upon giving a Republican, not a Democratic bias to the truth, he would find the telegraph just as open as it is now and at rates just as reasonable.It was to impress upon him that fact in answer to his suggestion that I rose. I am aware that I have trespassed too far upon his good nature, and I beg the Senator's pardon.

Mr. SAWYER. The Senator cannot trespass on my good nature for him, but I take my authority from the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads. The committee say in their report:

"The press depends upon the telegraph for the transmission of news, and the telegraph company upon the press to aid it against attacks. The company regulate the rates and has the power to raise them for one paper and reduce them for another. In 1869 it raised the rates of the San Francisco Herald one hundred and twenty-two per cent., or from 6.92 certs per word to 15.38 cents. This rate the Herald was unable to pay; it lost the news and soon failed." There is the authoritative statement made by the chairman of the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads in this public docuI believe it. I have no doubt of it

ment. whatever.

Mr. PATTERSON. I should like to ask my friend from South Carolina a question. I observe in the fifth section of the bill it says, "special contracts may be made with railroad companies relating to the telegraphic business on the line of such railroads; also with associations and with the press for the transmission of commercial and press news." Now, shall we not be liable to the same abuse under this bill that we are at present?

Mr. SAWYER. Not at all; because it is open to any association to make a contract. Mr. PATTERSON. Why is it not open now in the same way? You can make a contract with any association you please.

Mr. SAWYER. It so happens that now the Associated Press has got the field, and the

New York Associated Press and the telegraph are coworkers in this matter. I do not know that it is not competent to go to the Western Union Telegraph or to any other association and make contracts; I suppose it is; but it is the rates at which the Western Union make the contract that makes the oppression. It is the fact that the Western Union is entirely a private corporation, uncontrolled except by its own self interests and occupying a position of monopoly. It has watered its stock until what was originally a very small amount, I believe less than three millions, and I do not know but less than one million, has come to be now over forty millions, and nearly all of that has been by making stock dividends. The total of stock and cash dividends and net earnings of the Western Union Telegraph Company up to the present time is given by the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads as $41,292,973. Of that amount stock dividends were made to the amount of $26,154,800; cash dividends between 1858 and 1866, $4,157,242, and their net earnings from January 7, 1866, to July, 1870, $10,980,931; making a total from 1858 to 1866 of $41,292,973. It is perfectly safe to assert that had the original capital invested in those telegraph companies paid twenty-five per cent. per annum, they would not have made forty-one million dividends or ten, probably not five million dividends. On one occasion they made a stock dividend of four hundred and fourteen per cent.; and out of whom did this come? It came out of the public.

The Postmaster General and the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads believe that telegraphing can be done for the American people at a lower rate. They propose to unite the postal system with the telegraphic system, following in the path of other and older nations who have tried the experiment and have suc ceeded in it. They have not rushed into this scheme blindly. They have examined the experience of other nations carefully. This bill has been carefully considered.

I differ with my honorable friend from New York in the opinion as to whether it will pass or not. It may not pass to-night; it may not pass at this session; but that the American people will adopt this system, in substance, within the next two years is as certain as anything of which we have no absolute demonstrable proof. The people want this system. It is demonstrable that it will save the people millions of money every year, at the same time that it does not give to the executive department of the Government any powers which it is not perfectly safe for that department to possess. It does not fill the country with a legion of officeholders. There is no officer appointed by the Government under this system, except a Fourth Assistant Postmaster General.

There was a system presented at the last Congress by which, I believe, it was proposed to purchase the Western Union Telegraph Company's lines, and all the telegraphic lines in the country, and let the Government appoint telegraphic operators and monopolize_telegraphic business all over the country. There were grave objections to that. The number of officeholders would have been immense. Something like ten thousand people are employed in manipulating and carrying on the telegraphic operations of this country. The placing in the bands of the executive department of the appointment of ten thousand new officeholders would meet with objections which, in the present temper of the public mind, would be insuperable. But this bill proposes to do no such thing. It simply gives power to the Government to examine into and watch the proceedings of this company, to see that their business is carried on fairly and properly, to see that they violate no public or private trust, and to see that the profits which they reap from the capital invested are not exorbitant. It protects the public; it protects the Govern.