The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-01


assuming control of the wires he claimed that
the system of government in Europe gave
privileges TO the people rather to keep them
quiet and in subjection than to extend any
benefit to them; and as ours is not
paternal government we should leave it to the
people not only to govern themselves, but to
promote in their own way everything re-
quisite for social intercourse or business inte-
rests. AS to the proposed consolidation of
competing lines he held it to be the true
policy of Congress to favor competition
and thereby encourage cheap rates, rather
than to control all the wires itself by the
proposed postal system
1t is merely begging the question to say
that reducing the price of food and clothing
for the many should be the object of Con-
gressional legislation rather than reducing
the taxes of the telegraphy for the few. Con-
gress can very easily attend to both matters
without rushing its business The one is
question merely of tariff, and is always
affected by prices in Europe and the duties
imposed on imports, in order either to pro-
tect our own manufacturers or to obtain
revenue for the Government. But the rates
OF internal telegraphing are not affected by
imports, and are not at present a source of
much Government revenue In the event of
Government taking control of the wires, how
ever, they will become a source of revenue
at such reduced rates as will make them
accessible, as they are already essential to
the many. AS to Mr. Orton's idea that we
should leave the people to promote their own
social and business intercourse, it is true
and good one, but it is his own monopoly
which prevents their carrying out the idea.
Our Government is Government of the peo-
pie, and while they could promote their own
business and social intercourse through the
Government telegraph, they are debarred from
doing so through his monopoly. The i'm
perial autocrat of France, to whom Mr.. Orton
refers as extending only the minor privileges
of cheap telegraphy to the people, while he is
held upon his throne by the bayonets of his
soldiery, is prototyped here not by our Gov
ernment, but by such monopolies as the
Western Union, except that the latter does
not extend even such privilege to the peo-
| pie. But Napoleon dnds this very privilege
of cheap telegraphy the deadliest weapon
against his soldiers bayonets, and the
Western Union seem to think it equally
deadly against their monopoly. AS to
the fostering of consolidation by the
| purchase of the wires for the use
of the Government, Mr.. Orton, as President
of the Western Union Company, can certainly
| enter no just protest. He cannot seriously
argue against it on the grounds of monopoly
in the same breath in which he says that his
company would be able to get control even of
| the governmental organization proposed in
| one of the postal telegraph bills His COM
pany has been regularly in the habit of buy
ing up smaller lines and weaker companies,
and now own three-fourths or more of all the
lines. They will admit of no heathful COM
petition. A monopoly of telegraphing by the
Government would be peoples monopoly,
if one at all, like the present postal system,
cheap and efficient, and not what it is under
| the Western Union, essential to the few and
inaccessible to the people at large.