The Portland daily press., 1872-12-06
Postal TelegraphS.

he country and running them in connection
With the postal department. The President
N his message recommends the appointment
The best method of acquiring the title to all
telegraph lines in the country and connect
ing the service with the postal service of the
nation. This is the plan advocated by Post
master General Creswel. Another plan is
that embraced in bill framed by the Com
mittee on Appropriations at the last session
of Congress which provides for the creation
of joint stock postal telegraph company,
closely connected with the post office depart
ment and at the same time distinct-the Gov
eminent to receive a small amount for each
m .ssage and tie remaining profits to be d.
yided among the stockholders who are to
furnish the money for building the lines, the
Government to regulate the rates ofmessages
and to have the privilege, at any time, Ct
buying the lines.
" 10 not our present purpose to discuss the
merits OF either of these propositions though
there is ground tor serious objection TO
some of the features of the bill last named !;
but as the use of the telegraph is becoming
more general and with fair rates of tariff,
would come to be as universally used by bust
ness men az the mail service, it is the impera-
tive duty Of Congress, representing the inter-
ests OF the people, to take such measures as
will protect them from exorbitant rates,
which CAN only be accomplished by the lines
being placed under the entire direction of the
Government.
The first argument of those hostile to the
scheme was that it would not pay and that
yearly Congress would have to support the
system by large deficiency bills. But this OF
lection has been rendered invalid by the fact
that the larger part of the lines in the coun-
try pay large dividends on the money actu-
ally invested az well as by the official reports
of England, France and other governments
that have assumed the control of the tele-
graph, all of which show that with rates aver
aging more than fifty per cent less than those
fixed by American companies, the COVER
ments have realized handsome profits.
The next objection to the postal telegra
project is that it will be vast monopolyA
the government. The few hundred sto k
holders aud their attorneys, in view of the
history of telegraph lines in this country, are
about the last to invoke the hideous phan-
tom of monopoly to prejudice the people
against the project. Every argument that
can be urged on this ground against the as
sumption of the telegraph lines is equally ap-
plcable to the present postl system. No
sane man would for moment pretend to
urge that the present postal system is gov
eminent monopoly in the popular accept
ance of that term, or that this important ser
vice could be done as acceptably and at so
little cost by private corporations as it is now
done. Does any one imagine that letter
would be carried from Portland to San Fran
cisco or Boston even, for three cents and de-
livercd to any address? Our various express
companies can answer that question; and it
is no long bow shot to say that if the trans
portation and delivery of mails was left to
ing the old rates of twenty-five cents a letter
for ordinary distances while the charges to
more remote places would be correspondingly
increased. The present mail system may be
a monopoly but it is of that character that
has been the most potent auxiliary in the ex-
tension of general intelligence and the pro-
motion of thousands of great interests. Let
the Government assume the direction of the
telegraph lines and bring to the development
of the system the same intelligence and en-
terprise that has ever characterized the man.
;gement of the post-office department, and its
results to people will be no less important
and beneficent than those that have been
reaped from the latter.
Another bug-a-boo raised by the advocates
of the present monopoly is that the system
win be vast piece of enginery in the hands
of an administration to perpetuate its power.
In short, the employment of the forty or
fifty thousand employees necessary to run
the lines is so momentous consideration as
to be appalling. This, indeed, might be a
serious objection ifthe appointments could be
made as those of political character are too
often made. Butthis method, even without the
present civil service rules would be impossible
essary for the running Of this department and
and promotions must of neces-
sity, be made exclusively on the ground of
merit
1t has been urged that the scheme is i'm
practicable and impossible. 1t is quite prob
able that the same objections were raised
against the prese, postal system in its in
fancy. Certainly this objection was urged
against the proposition of the Signal bureau
Of the army to predict changes of weather,
yet it has, without any previous experience,
seen successfully accomplished.
We have now noticed the more prominent
of the objections to the establishment of pos
tai telegraphs. The reasons for it are many.
The new methods in business; the increas-
ing necessity for immediate communication
between distant parts of the country growing
out of these changed relations-more impor-
tant in this country than any other; the
present high rates of tariff between places re-
mote; the wonderful results that the full de-
velopment of the Signal Service promises in
saving life and property, and an hundred
other reasons no less important than those
already named, demand, in order to secure
their fullest success, that telegraph commune
cation be made correspondingly as cheap and
easy to the people as the mail service.
No personal consideration has led us to take
this ground. We have no resentment against
the present arrangement to crafty in the ad-
5ocacy of the government telegraph project.
Mr. Bedlow and his employees have been
courteous and obliging to us and
we take pleasure in bearing witness to their
efficiency. Their valuable services would be
,equired by the Post Office Department
should the Government purchase the tele-
raph lines. We fully believe that the time
1as come when the people have right to
greatly reduced rates for telegraph service
md greatly extended advantages for the
same. The presentpostal system has been so
successful in securing extended and cheap
mail communication that we have the best
cause to believe that it can accomplish the
same results in the other and no less impor-
tant means of communication, and for this
cause alone, we advocate the postal tele-
graph.
THE Boston Advertiser deprecates the ION
to St. Domingo policy which some of it's con-
temporaries advocate. 1t takes the Phila-