The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-05-19
A Government Telegraph.

the Courier for the past two or three
years will be familiar with the arguments
that have been made in favor of the
establishment of government telegraph.
And now-earlier, too, than we could
have hoped-there is tangible move
ment towards this end, which we have
reason to believe will be brought to a
successful accomplishment of the project
At last, after two or three months discus
sion OF the question, the house special
committee on the subject of a govern
ment system of telegraph has agreed to
report a bill which, in effect, provides
for the purchase of the existing lines.
and places them under government con-
troll, prohibiting, at the same time, any
other lines from being worked by private
parties or corporations. 1t proposes to
connect the lines with all postoffices, and
provides for a cheap rate for messages,
A similar bin is pending in the senate.
1t is not to be expected that these bills
will meet with the requisite favor to
secure their passage, or even an accepta-
bic compromise, at first Indeed, opposi-
ton is healthful and will be an adequate
protection against any abuses that might
creep into the immediate and absolute
assumption of the control of the tele-
graphic system on the part of the govern
ment. But the matter is now brought
before the consideration of congress in a
way that will almost certainly lead to
its adoption The success of the govern
ment postal system and the satisfaction
of the people with it; the growing ten
dency all the world over to put the tele-
graph to uses that have heretofore been
subserved mainly by mail the evidences
of popular favor and public good that
have been found in a similar movement
in other countries and finally the advo-
cacy of some of the best statesmen in the
United States will inevitably lead to the
governmental control of telegraphs,
which have been so long an expensive
and annoying monopoly in the hands of
stock operators.
The advocates Of the system have
found their cause greatly strengthened,
of late, by the admirable working of
similar systems in Europe Many of
these, such as that OF Prussia and that of
Great Britain, have already been made
familiar to our readers; and Mr.. Horace
Rublee, our minister to Switzerland sends
Mr.. Washburn an account of the results
i'll that country. Mr.. Rublee says 1.-THE
cost OF construction, as well as that of
maintaining the lines in order, is doubt
less less by considerable than in the
United States. Upon the latter point my
differs somewhat from the
statement made by the. Acting Consul
General OF Switzerland at Washington,
DR.. l. Wermuth, in the letter which you
publish in the appendix to your speech.
above referred to. Upon what l must
regard as the highest authority on the
subject | am assured that interference
with the working Of the lines by the
elements in Switzerland is rare, and that
the line over the St Gotherd, as exposed
to accident as any perhaps, has not been
once interrupted during the past unusual.
ly stormy and inclement winter. The
salaries paid to the operators and other
employees are also considerably less than
those paid for similar services in the
United States. Admitting these facts,
however, it still seems to me that the
results of the governmental adminIstra-
ton of the telegraph in Switzerland are
such as to afford very strong encourage.
ment to the proposition to adopt the sys
tenn in the United States. The cost of
message of twenty words-date, address
and signature are counted--from aI,y
station in Switzerland to another is some
thing less than ten GEMS. This might he
doubled or trebled in the United States
and still it would tall much below the
rates now eXacted there by the private
corporations. Again, the difference of
character, circumstances and business
relations between the people in the two
countries are elements that should not be
overlooked, and which, in my Judgment,
are Of favorable augury to the experiment
of the postal telegraph in America.
Making due allowance for the larea
influx Of strangers to Switzerland during
the summer, by which the receipts of the
telegraph offices here. are considerably
increased through four months of the
year, it is nevertheless entirely safe to
assume that cheap telegraph would be
far more generally patronized by the
Americans than it is by the people of
switzerland. While l have ALWAYS re-
garded the principle as a sound and
wholesome one, in its general application,
hat the government should abstain from
in matters that may be per
Getty regulated by private enterprise.
he results cf governmental administra
ion of the telegraph, as witnessed here,
n comparison with its operation under
he control of private corporations in the
United States, have strongly impressed
ne in favor of the former system. One f
ing, at least, is certain-it is i'm {
roper for the government to undertake {
ne delivery of letters and newspapers if a
is improper for it to undertake the ad- {
,inistration of the telegraph. The prin- a
lpie involved in the two cases is identi t
al and those who oppose the postal u
elegraph should demand the abolition /