LETTER-TELEGRAMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 321, 7 June 1911, Page 3

LETTER-TELEGRAMS.

HOW AMERICAN BUSINESS MEN SAVE TIME. London, April 20, Letter-telegrams are one of the features of the United States telegraph service, and Mr. Theodore Vail, President of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, in an interview with an Express representative on' Saturday, spoke of the usefulness of such a system. ''Letter-telegrams," he said, "are'used extensively, and business men find thfem a great asset. They are delivered almost as quickly as the ordinary gram, and at times they run to a great length. Of course, this would not be so if it were not for the fact that the rates for letterHelegrams are moderate. "In a letter-telegram fifty words can be sent at the same cost as an 'ordinary, short wire, after certain hours." . ' Mr. Vail explained that the companies do not lose on this. i "The telegraph and the telephone," he said, "pay in America, and they arc a good example of what private enterprise can do. ' ' , i

"At the same time, I can find|no fault | in your telegraph system over hetfe.asi far as service is concerned. It compares very favorably with that of the United States, though the distances in America are phenomenal compared with tho distances in England. , 1- To illustrate this, I might rjoik out that in the United States we hnve over 13,000,000 miles of telegraph wires, ami that a telegram can be sent 3500 miles as quickly as you can send a wire to Brighton. ''Our telephone service I consider better than yours. In the first place, Americans understand better the art of telephoning, and there is rarely any delay in obtaining a number. "I was speaking the other day on the longest-distance telephone in the United States. It was the new line between New York and Denver, a distance, of, roughly, 2000 miles. I could hear every' word plainly; in fact, as plainly as'if I were calling up the next street in London. The cost of telephoning 2000 miles —roughly, five- times the length of England—is £2.