office. Instruments are much less costly now than when that report was made. Colin Fox testified that it cost about $25 to fit up an office with a new set of instruments. Idaho reports them now as valued at $3.60 a set. North Carolina reports the batteries, instruments, furniture, etc., the whole outfit of 286 offices, as worth $7,206 or $30 an office. Any one who will examine the little offices in stores, hotels, etc., will see that $30 to $50 would be ample to cover the contents of most of them. In a large city office, perhaps $1,000 may be needed, sometimes more. If we put the average throughout the country at $100 an office, to be on the safe side, the office investment of the Western Union will amount to about $500,000. The company claims $4,979,533 real estate. As we cannot prove the incorrectness of this item we will allow it, and assume that it is all used as a part of the telegraph plant.

Adding all the items together we have about 20 millions as the real value of the Western Union plant.26 Subtracting the 15 millions of bonds, we have 5 millions left as the basis of 95 millions of stock-18 water to 1 of solid present value not covered by the bond mortgage.

The bondholders own 15 millions of the plant, and 5 millions is all the physical value that is left for the stockholders. After paying 6% on the bonds the public should not be asked to pay the stockholders more than 6% on 5 millions, for that is substantially what they own of the plant above the mortgage, and they have no moral right to ask the public to pay interest on the franchise which was created by the public and is kept alive by its patronage. The expenses of the business including depreciation, plus a fair interest on the value of their investment, is all they have a right to ask. The public contributed the franchise on which a value has been placed of about 90 millions out

26 And this includes all the land lines of which the Western Union is the lessee, and which are not a part of the property of the company. The New York Mutual lines are put down at 60,000 miles of wire, the Northwestern Telegraph Co., and the Gold and Stock Telegraph Co., etc., are supposed to bring the wire leased to the W. U. up to about 100,000 miles. A considerable part of the stock of these companies is owned by the Western Union, but the portion of the property still outside of Western Union ownership is quite large, as is shown by the fact that the company still pays over of a million a year in rentals for the land lines that are leased to it. If the value of these lines still outside of Western Union ownership were taken into account, it would be seen that the basis of Western Union stock is even smaller than appears in the text. It is not possible, however, to ascertain the said value with any accuracy, because we do not know how much of these particular lines remain standing nor their condition; and the rental is no guide, for a big rent on property owned by Western Union directors and leased to the Western Union is simply one way of hiding profits.

of a total 110 millions, so that on the principles of partnership the public ought to get "/11 of the profits.

This brings us to the fifth great evil of our telegraphic system-the unjust profits of the owners. Justice gives fair remuneration to labor, and a reasonable profit to the capital actually entering as a factor into present production. The ordinary corporation, however, cares nothing for justice." It takes all it can get. For 1895 the Western Union reports $6,141,389 profit, and $1,578,584 paid in rentals for leased lines, part of it for ocean lines, leaving about 7 millions of profit for the land plant. Interest on bonds was $893,821, wherefore more than 6 millions remain as profit on less than 5 millions of property-the portion of the plant not covered by the bonds. One hundred and twenty per cent is a pretty good profit, but it is nothing for the Western Union. In 1874 the dividends amounted to 414 per cent-the investors got their money back four times in one year. During the war when patriotic citizens were giving their lives and their money for the service of the public, the Western Union was squeezing the public with all its power and paying 100 per cent dividends a year,2 not merely on actual investment but on the total stock, water and all. Since 1866 the receipts have been 440 millions, profits reported as such 137 millions, which rises to 160 millions with the profits put down under the head of rentals, and to more than 200 millions with the profits expended in buying rival lines that wouldn't take Western Union stock,—at least, President Green tells us that the com

28

29

27 Now and then there is a corporation with some lingering rudimentary ideas of justice; for example, the Chicago and Milwaukee telegraph company referred to in part II of this discussion, which ran two years on a 10-cent rate, paying back 90% of their investment to the stockholders, then made a 5-cent rate or half a cent a word, and after deducting expenses and 7 % on the capitalization, gave back the remainder of the earnings to the patrons of the company, - said remainder amounting sometimes to 40% of the gross receipts, and running continuously from 25 to 40 % of the entire business. It was wonderful for a corporation to give back to the patrons all above expenses and 7 % on the capitalization, and it would have approached complete cooperative justice if the capitalization had been true. But it was left at the original cost during the first two years of the surplus profit distribution, and afterward it was doubled, although the original cost had been almost wholly repaid to the stockholders before the profit-sharing began. Let us be thankful, however, for the record of a business corporation capable of manifesting so much of the mutualistic spirit, and hope that others may imitate and improve upon it. (For this story of the Milwaukee Company see Bingham Hearings, statement of F. B. Thurber, p. 25.)

28 Statement of Hon. John Davis to the Committee on Postoffices and Postroads, 1894; I. T. U. Hearings, p. 59; see also p. 4, and Wanamaker's Argument, p. 5.

29 Wanamaker's Argument, p. 5.

31

pany has spent more than 61 millions in cash to buy opposition lines,30 and as the balance sheets show that these 61 millions did not come out of reported profits they must have come out of unreported profits except so far as provided for by the bonds. There are other additions to be made on account of new construction put down to operating expenses. It is impossible to ascertain precisely the sum total of Western Union profits; even if all the items were reported it would not do to be too sure they were correctly stated, for corporation bookkeeping is a very flexible affair. There seems, however, to be good reason to believe that at least half the receipts have been profit. And these millions have in large part been received by men who put almost nothing into the plant. It is probably that the stockholders of the Western Union proper never paid in a half million dollars from first to last.32 And John Wanamaker says that "An investment of $1,000 in 1858 in Western Union stock, would have received up to the present time, stock dividends of more than $50,000 and cash dividends equal to $100,000 or 300 per cent of dividends a year.' Think of it, getting your money back a hundred times in cash, and 50 times more in good interest-paying property!

9933

It is probable that the total amount ever paid by stock

30 Bingham Com., p. 65.

31"We have built from 10,000 to 20,000 miles a year of new line out of our earnings all the time" (Sen. Report 577, part 2, p. 218). Yes, out of the earnings, not out of the profits. The reports say that the new construction has been provided for out of the surplus, but when you turn to the balance sheet you find that it is not true; the construction is included in expenses, and the surplus reported each year goes undiminished to the next.

32 Sen. Rep. 577, part 2, p. 58. And see Bingham Com., testimony of Gardiner G. Hubbard, p. 5, where Mr. Hubbard says: "In 1858 the capital of the Western Union was $385,000. So far as my knowledge goes, and I believe I am conversant with the affairs of the Western Union" (the witness said he had every report the W. U. had ever issued, and he had evidently studied them carefully) - "so far as my knowledge goes, not one dollar of cash has been paid into the treasury of the company since that time."

23 Wan. Argument, p. 5. Mr. Charles M. Stebbins, speaking of this subject, says: "At this time (about 1858) I think their expenditure had been about $250,000 to $300,000, but they soon after declared a dividend of more than enough to pay off their original investment in cash and quadrupled their stock. After that I think all their investments were paid out of their earnings after paying dividends, averaging 8%. They bought new lines, sometimes paying cash, but generally giving their own stock, making new issues as needed. . . . They bought many lines very cheaply by first ruining the value of the line by competition or other means. They got many lines for nothing by inducing railroad companies to pay all the expenses of construction and maintenance while the telegraph company received the benefits. They built other lines with the aid of subscriptions to be paid back in telegraphing at high rates, after the completion of the line. They absorbed many lines by giving their own stockstock which, as I have said, has had 11 parts of water added to it" (H. Rep. 114, p. 82.)

...

34

holders into the treasuries of all the companies composing the Western Union system does not exceed 16 millions." Of course there has been more money than that put into the plant, but it has come from the profits and the bonds. The system has been built up in four ways: First and least, with money paid in by the original stockholders; second, with capital put into competing companies which have failed and been absorbed by the Western Union; third, with profits, after payment of dividends which have been used to construct new lines and extend the system; and fourth, with money borrowed on mortgage of the plant.35 A reasonable merchant, manufacturer, or landlord is satisfied to pay for his property himself, and get 10% profit on his capital, out of which profit or other capital of his own, he expects to make any improvements his business may require. The Western Union man, however, expects the public to pay for his plant and all improvements upon it, and give him 300% a year besides. How long are you going to stand that sort of business, my brothers? And even this is not quite all: the Western Union man likes to get a bonus out of the government when he can without awaking the people, and he has sometimes succeeded in getting a bonus that all by itself would pay 5 times the cost of the line for which it was given.36

(To be continued.)

34 Referring to this subject Gardiner Hubbard said to the Hill Committee: "I think there has been of actual cash put in either by the Western Union or by other companies about 5 millions" (Sen. Rep. 577, part 2, p. 58). The highest estimate I have seen of the total amount paid in by all stockholders is that given in the Report of the National Board of Trade for 1882, which says: "It is estimated by good judges that there has never been paid in by stockholders 16 millions of dollars since the beginning of the Western Union system, and that its present property represents simply water and the amounts extorted from the public to extend the lines besides paying dividends" (N. B. T., p. 11).

35 I. T. U. Hearings, p. 16.

36 H. Rep. 114, p. 82; Bingham Com., Hubbard, p. 10; Sen. Rep. 577, pp. 4, 5, etc.; see notes 2 and 3 above. They also got a subsidy from the state of California. They gave some service in return for the subsidies, but of insignificant value; even if charged up at the high rates demanded of private patrons the said service would not amount to a quarter of the subsidies received (Bingham Committee supra).

THE DESIRABILITY OF DISPOSING OF INFECTED BODIES BY CREMATION.

BY J. HEBER SMITH, M. D.

The supreme simplifier of infection, as read from the experience of the ages, is fire. There is no noxa known to man that can withstand its fervor. Its heat gives back to the ground the elements proper to it, and restores to the fruitful atmosphere her own.

The belief in the efficiency of incineration of the dead for the safety of the living has been so general and so enduring that it would seem to have been developed in an age of experimental knowledge. Homer, in narrating an epidemic that struck Troy's foes like the shafts of an archer, killing "first the mules and swift hounds, and then the Greeks themselves," says that for nine days "the fires of death went never out." There is no more vivid picture of human interest. in all the language of necrology, though after the lapse of three thousand years, than this poet's recital of the burning of the body of Patroclus by his friend Achilles. Their ashes were mingled in one golden vase, and the promontory of Sigæum was said to have marked the place of their repose.

Fire from a funeral pile was one of the sacred sixteen commingled on the ancient Median altars. The corpse was pollution to a Mede or Persian, and running through all the minute directions for the treatment of a dead body, in their Venidad, Fargard, v-viii, is the idea of its utter impurity. Yet the fire in which a dead body had been burned was the most indispensable of all to the symbolical flame on their altars, for it was thought to have absorbed the fire in the human tabernacle, a spark of the divine Spirit. Though misrepresented as sun-worshippers, it is a fact that even the sun's rays were not allowed to fall on these sacred fires in their Atish-kundars. Such reverence, easily mistaken for idolatry, doubtless often became idolatrous. The media and symbols of the Omnipresent, in every age, are confounded with the Supreme Being himself.

A paper read before the Boston Homeopathic Medical Society, by J. Heber Smith, M. D., chairman of the section on Sanitary Science and Public Health, Jan. 2, 1896.