Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-01-28
POSTAL TELEGRAPHY.
An Able Argument Against the System by
Rr Beck, Of Kentucky.
Defense of the Western UniOu Telegraph
Company by Mr. Dawes.

WASHINGTON, January H.-The
postaI-teIegraph bill Hubbard'sl was
token up In the house to-day.
Mr.. Beck, Of Kentucky, spoke
against the system. He said he had
been a member OF the select commit
tee of last congress on the subject; ne
then opposed both schemes reported.
When neither party ventured to lay
their proiect before the house, he had
Thought that both had been aban-
doned. Neither the President nor his
postmaster general had recommended
governmental control over the tele-
graph system when this congress met
March 4th; now it was urged as
necessity. The senate committee, booi
was urging the pet scheme known as
Hubbard's bill. The whole scheme
was an effort to still further centralize
and consolidate all power IN govern
ment officials at Washington. The
present postmaster general was an un-
fit depository for such enormous
power; his scheme would cost the
country at least $50, 600, 600 outlay to
begin with, and an annual tax OF
SIC, 1000, 600 to sustain it. 1t would add
at least twenty-five thousand dollars,
additional employees to the 65,OO0 or
20, 600 now drawing salaries directly
from the treasury. He charged that the
cost Of the service here and in other
countries had been mis- stated and
concealed by the postmaster general to
induce congress 10 confer this power,
coupled with the great banking sys.
tenn, upon him. He showed that al
ready, in England, a censorship had
been established over telegraphic
communication. He cOntended that
il would be done here whenever pO-
IiticaI or other purpose required It.
He claimed that, while the proposed
system might suit In personal gov
eminent in Europe, where railroads,
stage-cOaches and all machinery we're
owned by government, the reverse,
so long as we are q free peoples
must invariably be true here.
He contended that the government
might as well take control of railroad,
and express companies as OF the tele-
graph lines, as the abuses we're as great
and the mOnOpOlies as dan gerOus.
He reviewed the testimony of OrtOn,
Hubbard and others as to the working
and cost of the system Ia Europe, and
showed that when fully considered it
was very little cheaper than our pres
ent system. He instsnced Belgium as
the best managed and most economl-
cal of the European systems, and
showed that while the uniform charge
in Belgium was ten cents for an ordi-
nary message, the avel age cost Teach
message to the government for an sv-
ersge distance of fifty miles was
seventeen and a halt cents, yet the
Belgium telegraph was self-sustain-
ing, while the annual excess of eX-
penditures over receipts in the whole |
European system was only fOur mil |
lions. He contended that 1t was
ignorance or an attempt to deceive
which induced the postmaster gen.
eral to say that messages could be |
sent from New York to San Francisco |
for twenty cents, without enormous |
taxation on the people to sustain the |
telegraph for the benefit Of not over |
two hundred and fifty thousand out |
of thirty nine million, and these gen
orally speCulatOrs or men able to pay. /
There was no demand for & change by /
the people now using the telegraph.
The railroads were all run by tele- /
ersphic orders; their lines could not
be used if the secresy so much bOasted
of under the proposed system was to
be obtained, He eXaEninSd the Hub
bard or senate committee bill In de-
tail, and showed that it was scheme
to save from bankruptcy and to
grant a monopoly to q number OF
bankrupt Companies. Returning TO
Mr.. CressWell's report, he read COM
from Professor Prescott,
of the Western Union Tel
egraph company, showing that the
Ostmaster-general had not stated the
cost of the system in England truly.
While he regretted to see the growing
power of the great monopoly known
as the Western Union Telegraph nom-
Dany, he did not know any remedy
Ior it. He did not think that the
remedy proposed would do it. 1t was
ike jumping out of the frying pan
into the fire.
Mr.. Dawes replied to Mr.. Beck,
particularly the admission
that he had no remedy to propose tor
the great telegraphic monopoly He
admitted that up to the present time
there was no Just cause OF com plaint
against the manner in which the
Western Union Telegraph company
had administered its great functions
that perhaps as long as 1t remained
lnder It's present management there
would be no good cause Of complaint,
but be thought that remedy for pos
liOie mismanagement ought to be
Ound. He was sorry to hear
his learned friend -. kentucky
state that he knew no remedy.
He regarded Hubbard's proposition
IS cns tending at least to furnish
that he himself was in
iavOr of it. He had nc idea that he
should ever be drawn in to support
the scheme of the pOstmaster-general.
Mr.. Beck, replying to his remarks,
said he thought this country was go
ing to be the worst corporation ridden
country in the world; but he was
more afraid of the great corporation
known as the government Of the
United States than he was OF any
Jther.