The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1872-01-29
CONGRESS-.
A Days Debate in the House.

Beck Speaks Against the Telegraph
IL .B-J Postal Scheme. ii.ll
WASHINGTON, Jan. 81, 1879.
HOUSE. II.
The House sat only for general debate.
MIR. BECK spoke'against the postal tele.
graph scheme. He said he had been a
member Of the Select Committee Of the
last Congress on the subject. He then
opposed both schemes as reported, when
/ neither sparty ventured their project be.
fore the House. lie had thought that
both had been abandoned. Neither the
President nor his Postmaster General had
recommended the governmental control
OF the telegraph system. When this Con.
gress met March 4th, Il was urged rs d
necessity. The Senate Committee, too,
was urging the pet scheme known as the
Hubbard bill. He contended that the
whole scheme was an effort to still further
centralize and consolidate all power in
the government officials at Washing;
ton; that the present Postmaster Gen.
eral was an unfit depository for such
enormous power; that his scheme
would cost the country at least
800, 100000 outlay to begin with, and
an annual tax.of $l0,O00,000 to sustain it.
That 1t would add at least 20 600 addition.
al employees to the United States, Us 70,.
goo are now drawing salaries directly
from the treasury. He charged that the
cost Of the service here and in other coun-
tries had been misstated and concealed by
the Postmaster General to induce Con.
gress 10 confer this power, which is
coupled with tho great banking system,
upon him. He showed that already in
England censorship had been establish.
cd over telegraphic communication, and
contended that 1t would be done here
whenever q political or other purpose re-
quired It He claimed that while the pro.
posed system might suit in the personal
government OF Europe, where the rail-
roads, stage coaches, and all machinery
were own by the government, it was the
reverse here. So long as we are q free peo.
pie this always must be true. He contend
ed that the government might as well take
the control Of the railroad and express
companies as ol the telegraph lines, as the
abuses were rs great monopoles as they
were dangerous He reviewed the testi-
mony OF Messrs. OrtOn, Hubbard
and others as TO the working
cost of the system in Europe, and
showed that when fully considered it was
very little cheaper than our present sys.
tcm. He instanced Belgium as the best
managed and most economical OF the Euro.
pean system, and showed that while the
uniform price in Belgium was ten cents for
an ordinary message, the average cost Of
each message to the Government, for an
average distance Of fifty miles was seven
teen and half cents. Yet the Belgium
telegraph was selEsustaining, while the
annual excess Of expenditures over the re-
ceipts in the whole European system, was
only s., 100000. He contended that it was
Ignorance or an attempt to deceive which
induced the POstmaster.Gen TO say
that messages could be sent from New
York to San Francisco for twenty cents
without the enormous taxation on the
people to sustain the telegraph for their
benefit oI not over 25OOOO out OF 30,-
100000, and these generally specula.
tors, or men able to pay. There was no
demand for change by the people now
using the telegraph. That railroads were
all run by telegraphic orders; their lines
could not be used if the secrecy so much
boasted of under the proposed system was
to be obtained. HCcxamined the Hubbard
and the Senate Committee bill, showing
that It was u scheme from the bankruptcy
grant monopoly to let bankrupt com.
panies ont. Returning to Cresswcll's re.
port, he read communication from Mr..
Prescott Electrician of the Western
Union Company, showing that the Post.
master General had not stated tile cost of
the system in England truly. While he
regretted TO see the growing power OF q
great monopoly known as the Western
Union Telegraph Company, he did not
know any remedy for 1t, and he did not
think that the remedy proposed would
do. 1t was like jumping out Of the frying
pan into the fire.
Mr.. DAWES replied 10 Mr.. BECK, criti-
cising particularly the admission that he
had no remedy TO propose for the great
telegraph monopoly. He said that up to
the present time there was no Just cause
Of complaint against the manner in which
the Western Union Telegraph Company
administered lis great functions, that per-
haps rs long as it remained under its pres.
ent management there would be no good
cause Of complaint, but he thought that
remedy for u possible mismanagement
ought to be found. lie was sorry to hear
his friend from Kentucky state that he
knows no remedy. He regarded the
Hubbard proposition as one tending at
least to furnish a remedy-not that he
himself was in favor it. He had no idea
that he should ever be drawn to the sup.
port Of the scheme Of the Postmaster
General. 4
Mr.. BECK, in replying TO the remarks
of Mr.. DAWES, said that he thought this
country was going to be the worst corpo.
ration ridden country in the world, but
he was more afraid OF the great corpora
tion known as the Government Of the
United States than he was of any other.
Speeches were made by Mr.. WELLS,
of No., in favor Of the organization Of tho
Indian territory of 0klahama; by Mr..
TOWNSEND, OF Pa, on the protection Of
home industry; by Mr.. CoGHLAN, in sup
port Of the policy Of rcserving the public
lands for the toiling poor; by Mr.. DUELL,
on the system OF bounty land warrants to
the soldiers and sailors in the late war.
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