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13. Letter of Hon. C. P. Huntington to Commissioner Armstrong, dated February 25, 1885.

14. Letter of Commissioner Armstrong to Hon. Charles F. Adams, jr., president of the Union Pacific Railway Company, dated February 25, 1885.

15. Letter from Hon. Charles F. Adams, jr., to Commissioner Armstrong, dated February 25, 1885.

16. Letter from Mr. Norvin Green, president of the Western Union Telegraph Company, to Hon. Charles F. Adams, jr., president of the Union Pacific Railway Company, dated February 24, 1885, and referred to the Commissioner of Railroads February 27, 1885, by Hon. J. M. Wilson, attorney for the Union Pacific Railway Company.

17. Report of hearing before the Commissioner of Railroads February 27, 1885, of the president and counsel of the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company, and the counsel for the Union Pacific Railway Company.

18. Correspondence between the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company and the Union Pacific Railway Company, and affidavit of Mr. Sidney Dillon, filed in the office of the Commissioner of Railroads by Mr. D. H. Bates, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company, February 27, 1885.

19. Letter of Mr. D. H. Bates to Commissioner Armstrong, dated March 9, 1885.

20. Letter of Commissioner Armstrong to Mr. D. H. Bates, dated March 11, 1885.

21. Letter of Hon. D. H. Bates to Commissioner Armstrong, dated March 16, 1885.

22. Letter of Commissioner Armstrong to Hon. D. H. Bates, dated March 24, 1885.

23. Letter of Hon. Charles F. Adams, jr., to Commissioner Armstrong, dated March 21, 1885.

The resolution is herewith returned.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully,

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W. H. ARMSTRONG,

Commissioner.

[Senate Ex. Doc. No. 105, Forty-eighth Congress, second session.]

Letter from the Secretary of the Interior, transmitting, in answer to the Senate resolution of February 20, 1885, report of the Commissioner of Railroads on the transmission of telegraph messages by corporations affected by the act of March 1, 1862.

[MARCH 3, 1885.-Referred to the Committee on Railroads and ordered to be printed.]

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, March 3, 1885.

SIR: In answer to the Senate resolution of February 20, 1885, directing me to "in" form the Senate whether the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the other railroad companies affected by the act approved July 1, 1862, granting subsidies in bonds and lands, have constructed and are maintaining and operating their own lines of telegraph, and whether telegraphic messages are accepted and transmitted for all persons and corporations without discrimination as to prices and other conditions, as provided in section 15 of the act above referred to," I have the honor to inclose here with copy of the report of the Commissioner of Railroads on the subject, under date of the 2d instant.

Very respectfully,

The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE PRO TEMPORE.

H. M. TELLER,
Secretary.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
OFFICE COMMISSIONER OF RAILROADS,
Washington, March 2, 1885.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, by reference from you February 24, 1885, of the following resolution of the Senate, passed February 20, 1885: "Resolved, That the Secretary of the Interior be directed to inform the Senate whether the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the other railroad companies affected by the act approved July 1, 1862, granting subsidies in bonds and lands, have constructed and are maintaining and operating their own lines of telegraph, and whether telegraphic messages are accepted and transmitted for all persons and corporations without discrimination as to price and other conditions, as provided in section 15 of the act above referred to."

In order that this office might be fully advised in the premises, communications were the same day addressed to all the presidents of the several companies embraced in the resolution, in which they were respectively requested to state whether their companies had constructed and were operating the telegraph franchise, or whether such franchise had been in whole or in part transferred to any other company or eorporation, but more particularly, "whether telegraphic messages are accepted and transmitted for all persons and corporations without discrimination as to price and other conditions."

Replies have been received from the Union Pacific Railway Company, and the Central Pacific Railroad Company, copies of which are hereto attached. By reason of the short time which has elapsed, replies have not been received from the Sioux City and Pacific nor from the Central Branch Union Pacific.

It will be perceived that both these companies claim that they have constructed and are maintaining and operating their own lines of telegraph, and that they do accept and transmit messages for all persons and corporations without discrimination as to price and other conditions. Whilst this is, perhaps, a sufficient answer to the specific inquiries of the resolution, it is proper to say that the underlying question is a controversy between rival telegraph companies. I do not deem it to be within the purpose of the resolution to detail the several contracts between the Pacific railroad companies and the Western Union Telegraph Company, which operates a general telegraph line along all their roads. The railroad companies, in granting these privileges, have not alienated their control of their own telegraph lines, nor have they refused to receive and transmit all telegraphic messages for all persons and corporations, without discrimination as to price or other conditions. This, as to any particular message, whether from individuals or from rival telegraph companies, is not controverted, but it is claimed by telegraph companies which compete with the Western Union that they are respectively entitled to insist upon the right, not for particular messages, but for an arrangement under which they shall be enabled to transact a rival and competing telegraph business under equal or equivalent facilities as those accorded under existing contracts to the Western Union.

At an informal interview at this office on the 27th ultimo, at which were present the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company, with counsel, and the counsel for the Union Pacific Railway Company, the conflicting claims of the respective parties were at my request, formulated as follows. On behalf of the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company it was claimed:

"Our demand is that the Union Pacific Railway Company and all the land-grant railroads shall accept from the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company a general telegraph business upon the same terms as to rates and conditions and the keeping of accounts as the Union Pacific and the other land-grant roads accept like business from the Western Union Telegraph Company, and that the Union Pacific Company shall accept at its stations messages which may be tendered to its operators destined for points on the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company's lines, as such destination is indicated in the message, and transfer at the connecting points such messages to the Baltimore and Ohio Company, and, further, that in the conduct of such general exchange of telegraph business the same facilities shall be given us, namely, wire or mechanical connection, the keeping of accounts, &c., as are furnished to the Western Union Telegraph Company. In other words, we ask to be treated as any other telegraph company is treated, or may be treated, and that we may be treated by the Union Pacific Railway Company, with respect to general interchange of telegraph business in the same manner as that road treats connecting railway companies in the exchange of railway business.”

On behalf of the Union Pacific Railway Company it was said:

"The view we entertain is that the Union Pacific Railway Company is limited to dealing with the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company precisely as if it were an individual offering a message or a succession of messages; that such duty does not extend to the keeping of a system of mutual accounts, the extension of credit, the affording of mechanical connection, or to anything beyond the receipt at the telegraph

offices of the Union Pacific Railway Company, or any of them, of any and all messages brought to it by the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company, upon precisely the same terms as if brought to it by an individual, the transmission and delivery of such messages, if intended for points upon the lines of the Union Pacific Railway Company where it has offices, precisely as it would be the duty of the Union Pacific Railway Company to do if such messages were transmitted by it for an individual; and secondly, the receipt by the Union Pacific Railway Company, at any of its telegraph offices, of any and all messages which would bear upon their face that they are to be transmitted and delivered to the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company at any other point where the Union Pacific Railway Company may have a telegraph office, and the delivery of such messages to the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company at such points, precisely as if the Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company were an individual then present at such point, and on the same condition."

It will be observed that the real controversy-being the claim of distinct affirmative rights upon the one side, as distinctly denied upon the other, and both arising under variant construction of the same law-is, as it stands at present, a question clearly within judicial adjudication. I have deemed it to be within the spirit of the resolution to embody in my reply the respective views of the rival interests which are involved. Whether the question thus presented is one for legislative action must rest exclusively in the discretion of Congress. The resolution is herewith returned.

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SIR: I acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 24th instant. In compliance with your request, I transmit to you a copy of the only contract to which the inquiry contained therein can in any way apply, viz., that with the Western Union Telegraph Company, dated July 1, 1881.

It will be perceived that the contract provides for giving complete effect to the charter of the company so far as regards the transmission of messages both for the public and for the Government. If this arrangement or channel of transmission shall in any instance prove not acceptable, the contract provides for the specific performance of all its telegraph duties by the company itself.

The contract is in substance a traffic or working arrangement, such as is made by this and all other railroad companies for the transportation of freight and passengers, and this with a view to increase for the benefit of the Government and itself the earnings of the telegraph lines.

It should be added, in relation to the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company, that its duties and rights are somewhat peculiar, and they are explained and acted upon by Mr. Justice Miller in his opinion in the case of- - v . — 1st McCrary Reports' p. 581. In reply to the specific inquiry on that point contained in your letter, I am advised that all telegraphic messages offered to the Union Pacific Railway Company are accepted and transmitted for all persons and corporations without discrimination as to price or other conditions.

I remain, very truly, yours,

Hon. WILLIAM H. ARMSTRONG,

Commissioner of Railroads, Washington, D. C.

CHARLES F. ADAMS, JR.,

President.

[Office Central Pacific Railroad Company, No. 28 Broad street. C. P. Huntington, vice-president.]

NEW YORK, February 25, 1885.

DEAR SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of 24th instant, advis ing me that there had been passed by the Senate and referred to your office for report the following resolution, viz: "Resolved, That the Secretary of the Interior be directed to inform the Senate whether the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the other railroad companies affected by the act approved July 1, 1862, granting subsidies in bonds and lands, have constructed and are maintaining and operating their own

lines of telegraph, and whether telegraphic messages are accepted and transmitted for all persons and corporations without discrimination as to price and other conditions as provided in section 15 of the act above referred to," and requesting me to furnish immediately such information as may be requisite to enable you to answer this resolution so far as it relates to the Central Pacific Railroad Company before the adjournment of the present session of Congress.

Your request for an immediate answer in respect to this matter does not give me the opportunity of communicating with the persons more directly charged with the executive administration of the affairs of the Central Pacific Railroad Company; but as I understand it the Central Pacific Railroad Company has constructed and is maintaining and operating its own line of telegraph, and telegraphic messages are accepted and transmitted for all persons and corporations without discrimination as to price and other conditions as provided in section 15 of the act referred to.

In reply to your inquiry as to whether the Central Pacific Railroad Company has transferred its telegraph franchise to any other company or corporation, or has made any contract authorizing any other corporation to transact its telegraph business since the agreement with the Western Union Telegraph Company, dated December 14, 1877, I have to say that, so far as I have any knowledge upon the subject, and as I understand it, the Central Pacific Railroad Company has not transferred its telegraph franchise to any other company or corporation; nor has it made auy contract with any other corporation in respect to the transaction of telegraphic business upon its lines since the agreement with the Western Union Telegraph Company, dated December 14, 1877, a copy whereof has been heretofore furnished you at your request.

If the rights and duties in respect to telegraph lines of the several Pacific railroad companies under the acts of Congress relating thereto are to be made a subject of inquiry in your office, I would respectfully call your attention to the opinion upon that subject of Judge Miller, of the United States Supreme Court (concurred in by Judge McCrary), which is reported in the first volume of McCrary's Reports.

I remain yours, very truly,

Hon. W. H. ARMSTRONG,

Commissioner of Railroads, Washington, D. C.

C. P. HUNTINGTON,

Vice-President,

(No. 1.)

AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SIOUX CITY AND PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY AND THE

WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.

This agreement, made and entered into by and between the Western Union Telegraph Company and the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Company, hereafter respectively designated as "the telegraph company" and "the railroad company,"

witnesseth:

That for and in consideration of the covenants and agreements herein contained, the parties hereto have mutually agreed as follows:

First. In consideration of the sum of $6,420, which said telegraph company hereby agrees to pay said railroad company, the said railroad company hereby transfers to said telegraph company all its right, title, and claim to and in the telegraph line now built along the line of said railroad, and to the appurtenances thereto belonging, for the term hereinafter mentioned, and it is mutually agreed that during the time that railroad and commercial business is done upon one wire the railroad business of an important character shall have the preference over any other, and when one or more additional wires shall have been put up for commercial telegraph business, the first wire shall be for the exclusive use of said railroad company's business; it being understood and agreed that whenever said railroad company shall require the exclusive use of the first wire upon any part of said railroad where but one wire has been strung, the telegraph company shall furnish without extra charge the material and machinery for one additional wire for commercial business, the said railroad company, to furnish the labor for putting up said wire. In case any wire is broken or interrupted the business of either party may be done over the working wire, it being understood and agreed that the business of the party whose wires are working shall have preference, except in case of important railroad messages concerning the movement of trains, which shall have preference. If the business of the said railroad company shall at any time hereafter require the use of more than one wire, it shall have the right to appropriate any other wire on said poles, upon first giving sixty days' previous notice to the telegraph company, and upon paying to the telegraph company the value of such wire on the poles, including insulators.

Second. The said telegraph company will at all times during the continuance of this contract keep a depot in the city of Chicago of all material necessary, including poles, wires, insulators, office machinery, local batteries, and stationery for commercial business, for the repair, maintenance, and operating of the telegraph lines or wires along said road, and will deliver the same from time to time as they may be needed for such repairs, maintenance, or construction upon the demand of said railroad company, delivery to be made at some point on said road free of cost, through such officer or agent as may be designated by the parties hereto for that purpose.

Third. The said telegraph company will also furnish during the continuance hereof the use of its main batteries for the successful working of the lines described herein, excepting the time necessarily employed in cleaning the same.

Fourth. The said railroad company shall have the right to the free use of any telegraphic patent rights, or new discoveries or inventions that the said telegraph company now has, or may hereafter acquire, in any manner affecting the business of telegraphing, for the purposes provided for herein.

Fifth. All messages of the officers and agents of said railroad company pertaining strictly to its road or corporate business, incinding the business of the land and townlot companies soon to be organized to dispose of the land and lots belonging to said railroad company, shall be done free upon said line between all points on said road, and also between Cedar Rapids, where the principal office of said railroad company is located, and all points on said road; and the said telegraph company will further transmit the messages pertaining to said railroad business of the executive officers and agents of said railroad company who hold "franks" (and which will be issued by said telegraph company on application from proper authority) on any of its wires beyond the limits above named to an amount not exceeding $150 per month. Said telegraph company will keep full and accurate account of messages so transmitted, charging therefor the usual regular rates charged other persons for similar service, and at the end of each and every month, or as soon thereafter as prepared, it will render a correct account as aforesaid to said railroad company, and for any excess over said sum of $150 per month will charge, and the railroad company will pay in lawful money of the United States, one-half the usual commercial rates, in full settlement of such account. Sixth. The said railroad company agrees to give to said telegraph company the exclusive right of way on and along the line of said railroad for the construction and use of telegraph lines for commercial and public uses and business; and said railroad will not transport upon said road any material for the construction of a line of telegraph in opposition to the lines of the said telegraph company, except at and for the usual rates charged for similar transportation to other persons doing business with said railroad company, stop its trains, or distribute material for such parties or their employés, at other than regular stations.

Seventh. Said railroad company further agrees to maintain the telegraph poles along its line of road in good order (the poles necessary for repairs and maintenance to be furnished by the telegraph company) and to keep the wire or wires thereon in good repair, and also to transport free of charge over its road the employés of said telegraph company while traveling on that company's business, and all materials for the maintenance, repair, or reconstruction of said line. It shall be a condition of this agreement, and it is hereby agreed, that said railroad company is not to be responsible for any injury done to persons in the employ of said telegraph company while traveling upon a "free pass" from the railroad company.

Eighth. The said railroad company may establish telegraph stations at all such points on its line of road as it may require. It is understood and agreed that at all telegraph stations of said railroad company faithful attention shall be given by its employés to all public or commercial telegraph business which may be received for transmission or delivery. It is agreed further that of all commercial business done every month regular monthly statements or reports shall be made up at every such station, rendering just and full accounts of all receipts and paying such receipts to said telegraph company once in each month during the continuance hereof.

Whenever such commercial or public business shall exceed 3,000 paid or collect messages per year sent from any one office, then said telegraph company agrees to provide an operator for such office thereafter, doing all the business of the said railroad company at such station or office. It is further agreed that at such station no dispatches except those relating to the proper business of the railroad company as herein before designated shall be received or sent free, unless authorized by the telegraph company. It is further understood and agreed that all telegraph officers and agents employed by said railroad company shall form a part of the telegraph corps of said telegraph company, to be subject to all the rules and regulations prescribed for the government of said corps, especially as regards the confidence to be observed as to the character and contents of all telegraphic messages transmitted and received for delivery.

Ninth. It is further mutually covenanted and agreed by said parties that the telegraph company is not to be responsible to said railroad company for any damages re

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