No. 284.
Mr. Schenck to Mr. Fish.
London , August 22, 1873. (Received September 4.)
Sir: Referring to my three several dispatches Nos. 398, 442, and 460, in relation to the overcharges that have been exacted here for the transmission of cable telegrams by the land lines in the United States leading to points west and south of New York, I have now the satisfaction to inform you that I have ascertained that some reduction is about to be made in those rates of which complaint has been so justly made.
The Anglo-American Company is about to issue, to take effect on the 1st of September, 1873, a new tariff, of which I have obtained and send you herewith a printed copy. You will see by this table that the additions to the four shillings per word, which were put on for that portion [Page 484] of the service lying within the United States, are to be lowered, as follows:
That class of stations for which the additional charge has been three pence per word, is, after that date, to be two pence, being a reduction from 6.95, cents per word to 4.634 cents.
That class for which the additional charge has been nine pence per word is to be eight pence, being a reduction from 20.87 cents to 18.55 cents.
The additional charge of one shilling per word for Pensacola is to be ten pence, a reduction from 27.83 cents to 23.19 cents.
That class of stations for which the additional charge has been fifteen pence per word is to be ten pence, being a reduction from 34.785 cents to 23.19 cents.
And the two shillings additional per word for Oregon and Washington Territory is to be ten pence, a reduction from 55.66 cents to 23.19 cents 5 and the two shillings additional for all places in Florida (except Pensacola, Lake city, Saint Mark’s, and Tallahassee) is to be eighteen pence, a reduction from 55.66 cents to 41.745 cents.
I have not agitated this subject, therefore, without a good result.
Other and further reductions will pretty certainly be made hereafter if business men will keep awake to their interests.
And if the Western Union Telegraph Company, as Mr. Orton claims, has not been a sharer in the profits of the excessive rates, he will doubtless rejoice with us and with the general public in this approach to fairer charges for the service performed by his lines.
I have, &c.,