What is a straight wire?

Or was.

People in old movies are always sending their telegrams straight wire. The term comes up, for instance, in the opening scene of Executive Suite (dir. Robert Wise, 1954), which must be the greatest telegram scene in film, with a clerk counting the words and making change. Neither Webster’s Second nor Third has a definition. Nor does Wikipedia’s article on telegrams. But look:

[Click for a larger explanation.]

This explanation appears in a handbook of questions and answers about third-class mail, created by Harry J. Maginnis, Executive Manager, Associated Third Class Mail Users. It formed part of Maginnis’s testimony before a Senate subcommittee (Postal Policy: Hearings Before a Senate Subcommittee of the Committee on the Post Office and Civil Service, 85th Congress, 1st session, 1957).

Once again, it’s Google Books FTW.

A related post
How to send telegrams

[$2.70 in 1957 = $26.36 in 2021. Mighty expensive words.]