The New York herald., 1868-05-25
Government and the Telegraph.

graph line by and under the control of govern
ment between Washington and New York. has
greatly disturbed portion of the press and those
interested In private telegraph companies.
| The proposition is denounced as impraoticable,
inconsistent with the proper functions of gov
ernment, waste of money and an invasion of
the sphere of legitimate private business.
These hostile newspapers go so far even as to
say the governmental postal system Is failure
and would be better managed by private COM
panies. Now, we impugn the motives of no
one, but must say the opposition to gov
ernment telegraphs from such a quarter
is surprising. For the telegraph companies,
which have become enormously wealthy and
which derive vast incomes from their business,
to oppose the scheme is reasonable enough, but
we are astonshed at the opposition of the
press.
1t is not true that the postal business in the
hands Of government is an evil or has failed to
meet the wants and expectations of the COM
munitys Nor has the power and patronage
arising from 1t, in this country or any other,
been dangerous to the liberties of the people
or source of corruption. Does any one
imagine we should ever have had three cent
postage if the business Of carrying letters had
been left to private companies? Would there
have been the same despatch, regularity and
safety2 Or would mails be carried to every
remote village and hamlet, as now? No; If
carrying letters were a private monopoly as it
would become in the hands of individuals or
companies, we should be charged three or four
times over the present rates Of postage, and
the monopoly would be far more dangerous
The same argument applies to telegraphing
AS with the postal system, government would
have no other object than the convenience and
welfare of the public. 1t would not want to
make money out Of the business; it would
have no dividends to make upon stock enor-
mously infated and it could afford to send
messages at a third of the rates now charged. 1t
could for ten millions of dollars establish more
lines than those represented by forty millions of
capital stock. The saving to the public for
telegraphing in the course of year would be
immense. The number of messages sent would
be vastly increased and the greatest advan-
would naturally follow Nor need there be
any fear Of government prying into the secrets
of messages for political purposes; the inviola-
bilty and secrecy Of messages would be as well
guarded by proper laws and regulations as they
are now, and perhaps better. But there need
be no monopoly at ALL Government can estab-
lsh this line from Washington to New York,
and lines all over the country for its own use
and for the benefit of people who choose to use
them, without monopolizng the business. If
private companies can send messages as
cheaply and wish to carry on the business, let
them do so. All we claim is that the public at
large shall not be deprived Of cheap telegraphic
communication for the sake of private monopo-
lies.
The transmission of intelligence by the mag
netc telegraph has become so important to the
whole community and is 80 connected With all
the affairs of life that il should no longer be
confined to private companies. It's only about
twenty-five years since this wonderful agent of
our modern civilization was first applied to the
transmission Of intelligence, and now there is q
network of telegraph wires covering the civil
ized countries of America and Europe. 1t is
impossible that this new and mighty agent of
civilization should be long inseparable from
government. The British government sees the
necessity of controlling it, both for the use
of government and the good of the commu-
nifty, and has taken steps to manage the tele-
graphs in the United Kingdom Other govern
ments in Europe have their own lines Of
telegraph and control more or less the whole
system over their separate territories. We
hope Mr. washburnc's bill will be passed and
that this will be followed by general system
of government telegraphs {; but should the pro-
ject be defeated now il will not be long before
government will be compelled to take the
management of telegraphing, as it now has of
carrying letters
But apart from the convenience TO the people
the telegraph should be in the hands of govern
ment, because It has become necessary and
very important in the administration of public
affairs. This was seen during the war, when
the government was under the necessity of
seizing and controlling the telegraphs, though
they were private property. By its means the
largest empire can be governed as easy as a
small province could without it in former
times. No matter where the seat of govern
ment may be, the governing power, having its
hand on the telegraph wires, can command
thousands of miles away and over every part
Of vast continent just as easy as the affairs of
the smallest State can be managed The great
empires Of former times fell to pieces because
one part was isolated from another by distance,
and because il took long time to communicate
from the centre to the extremitics The re
publican empire of Rome would not have been
broken up, probably. had the magnetic tele-