Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-09-05
FOREIGN.
POSTAL TELEGRAPH.
How if will be Injurious to Press and
People.

W. L. Telegraph Company, Memphis;
When in days of "auld lang syne
YOU were engaged, with others, IL
erecting telegraph lines, with YOU
own hands, did il ever occur to you
that Government, grown powerfu
and defiant, by long course of wal
discipline, would coolly moot the
proposition to take possession Of the
work of your hands, or else render II
valueless to its proprietOrs by building
separate lines which would virtually
be a complete monopoly L lind
many intelligent persons who believe
the Government ought to own and
work the telegraph, because they have
been absurdly enough stuffed with the
idea that the tariff would be lower
under Government regulation. |
shall come to that point after while
and shall show how unsupported Is
that opinion by facts. At present /
Wish.tO deal with the more important
question arising from the effort to ere
ate a postal telegraph, whether Opin-
ion can be free and uncOrrupted :
whether the press can enjoy its con-
stitutional immunity, whether the
State can be free Republic under
the telegraph-pOstal system, proposed
by Mr.. Mashburne.
Give the Government a complete
system OF telegraph lines permeating
all the States and Territories, and
there cannot be doubt that it will
Danish all competition.
A Government of vast resources
and unlimited powers of taxation can
afford to lose, in order to drive COM
petition from the field. 1t can enact
laws, too, which will restrict and
hamper opposing lines. Its policy
will be adverse to competition; because
competition, as all such enterprises
are managed by Governments with
! large sWarms of worthless partisans to
/ reward, viii entail the necessity of
/ drawing largely from the public treas
ury, to support the monopoly. We
assume, under the state of facts, there
fote, that, it being the policy of the
/ Government to create monopoly and
! having the power to do 50, 1t will
sooner or later bring about that re-
suit, whenever it shall own its indie
pendent lines.
Looking out from this standpoint,
what must we necessarily behold?
/ The vast and ramitled interests OF
telegraphing, including dispatches tor
| the press, managed 6y q party, and
| that party the one which has posses
/ sion OF the Central Government! a
/ few wears ago such a prospect would
have startled and alarmed the boldest
among US. And there axe those hare
ready to vindicate such usurpatiOn
and prostitution of power upon the
plea that Government gould give us
| cheaper dispatches. They would be
the first to cry out against such an
| idea, if Government were to undertake
to run cotton plantations, on the pre-
text that it could grow cheaper cotton,
or TO do the carrying trade, Because 1t
| ecGld furnish cheaper freight. The
plea Is insufficient, even if true.
The party that manages the Govern
ment would act with disintereSted-
ness which no party has ever been
known tG exhibit, if it did not use its
newly acquired and all powerful pat
rOnage to advance its interests and
psrpetuate its existence. Let US con-
Slider what this patronage would
amount to, and how it might be and
would be abused. From Washington
CITY, the center of political manage
ment, TO any part of the Union fact
or falsehoOd, advantageous to the
incumbents, a threat, command, an
opinion an innuendO could be flashed,
in an instant, on the eve of an impor-
tant election, which might turn back
the tide of popular rising and hold in
bondage a nation. 1t may be said
that their opponents would be allowed
the same use Of the Telegraph as them
selves. Did ever an interested party
deal thus fairly with opponents?
Take the pOst-Oftice, When has been
not hurry forward the dispatches, doe
uments and letters of the reigning
party, in advance OF those sent by the
6pp0sition2 And yet, the pOst-ofice
is an imbecile in c0ng6yirg iptelli-
gence, compared to the telegraph! IT
NAV further be alleged, in support OF
| Mr.. Washburne's proposition, that the
laws can restrain the officers and em-
ployes from excluding their opponents
from participation in the benefits oi
the telegraph. But the objectOr fails
| to consider that those who make
the laws will manage and manipulate
the telegraph, and that they will do il
! TO suit themselves. Nobody ever
l dreamed, ten years ago, that any party
| would ever mold and fashion the
/ franchise laws, SO as 10 exclude QppO-
nents and secure its own continuance
vet il has been openly and unbiush-
/ ingly done, and the act proclaimed as
one of the fruits of Republicanism.
Now give a party the absolute mold
| ing of its own cOnstituents-Of its
| franchise laws and its suffrage
1t would seem it might proudly ex-
| claim, "eSt0 perpetual" But | do
maintain, and L believe, with sound
reason, that if YOU endoW the same
party with the absolute control of the
telegraph lines throughout the Union,
its lease Of power VIII be firmer and
more fixed; and that it may boast
that it has erected foundation for its
existence more durable than
brass. A constituency thinks, has a
conscience and, though warped tenn
porarily by prejudice and passion,
may be brought finally TO right reason.
However ingeniOusly it may be
created, il will abandon its patrons
when interest lies in the opposite
direction, or when awakened to the
| fact that the great Interests OF the
country, in which each individual is
| interested, are being sacrificed.
Now his awakening may and
does occur through the power
full instrumentality of q free press
reinforced by a free telegraph. But let
this free press be emasculated by sub
sidizing its chief strength, the tele-
graph, and let free telegraph Ge sur
rendered into the hands of the govern
ing party, and you have lost the arm
of defense against corruption and tyr
amy and the instrumentality by
which the people are to be aroused to
a sense of public abuses, wrongs and
eorruptions, and are to be brought to
vindieate and right themselves. A
telegraph, in the hands of able plotter
like Fouche or Stanton, would prove
to be spy into every ones actions,
and would spread throughout the
country terrorism which would sub
due the masses to its viii. The events
of the last few years have proven that
it Is not 80 difficult tocow and humble
q people born to the Inheritance OF