The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1874-10-23
GOVERNMENTAL MANAGEMENT.


troll. The net profits of the Alsace- |
Lorraine railway lines, purchased by
the empire from the French, are esti- |
mated at 50, 545, 900, and those derived
from the postal service and telegraph
business, over and above all expenses,
are estimated at So, $50, 900 for the year
1874. The imperial government owns
and operates all the telegraph wires in
Germany, in connection with the Post
Office Department. The tariff of charges
is as follows For message of twenty
words anywhere within the ''first zone,"
of, say, $50 miles distance, groschen,
equal to 13 cents /; within the " second
zone" of 800 miles, 10 groschen, or
263 cents within the ''third zone,"
from one end of Germany to the other,
over 800 and under 900 miles, Is gro
schen or 40 cents additional words in
like proportion; AMI preferential mes
sages sent in advance of their turn, one
and half to twice the foregoing rates.
Mr.. MediIl says the people of Germany
would be afraid of trusting this impor-
tant business to ''the selfish rapacity of
company monopoly"
Facts like these explode the tradi-
tionary notion that the government can
not successfully manage such public
works as railroad and telegraph line.
For what Germany and Belgium have
done, and what England is doing, can
be done just as well here. There is no
more intrinsic difficulty in managing
the telegraphs than in controlling the
postal service of the country. Indeed,
the difficulty of the postal service is
much the greater of the two. The bust
ness of transmitting messages by tele-
graph is really public matter. It be-
longs to the postal service of the coun-
try. It interferes materially with the
postal service, and diminishes receipts
from that source. It is easy to see
what condition the business of the
country would be put in were the postal
service left entirely to private control.
Suppose monopoly were to have the
management of all the postofices and
routes of the nation, and could read
every letter sent through the mail, and
take its own time in sending it after the
reading, what safety would any one
have? Who would feel at liberty to
trust secrets of vital business impor-
tance to such surveillance How long
could the country stand such power,
operating in its own way for its own
ends, without the serious embarrass-
xnent, if not the utter prostration, of
business and social intercourse? But
Aa1o h4Tsi nh &C. 1Se
infancy, is as truly a public interest
and belongs as truly to the legitimate
provinceof the government as the postal
service of the country. We are begin
ming to see some of the results of pri-
vate monopoly in this public interest,
and every day Is teaching us more clear
1y that the only protection from serious
evils and great inconvenience is in
placing the telegraph system of the
country under governmental manage
ment, where, like the postal service, it
properly belongs.-Nea0 York Graphic.
COMPULSORY EDUCA TI0N IN GER
MANY.
Hon. Joseph Medill, in one of his
very interesting letters from Berlin, in
stitutes comparison between our sys-
tenn of voluntary schools and the COM
pulsory educational system in vogue in
that country. He says: There are
upward of 100, 900 teachers in the pub
lie schools of Germany, and the num-
ber of scholars enrolled, between the
ages of and IA, exceeds 5000, 900.
The number attending private primary
schools is about 500, 600, while those
who attend the higher schools, acad-
emies, gymnasia, technical schools, and
universities exceed 500, 900. Thus there
are seven millions of scholars attending
all the schools Of Germany. The United
States of America, with an equal popu-
4ation, can scarcely exhibit half that
number and yet Americans are much
given to boasting about the vastness
and superiority of their school system.
They had better adopt the German sys-
tenn of compulsory attendance, and
force 1900, 900 or 5000, 900 of youth
now roaming around the streets aud go
ing into loaferism before they institute
comparisons with the public schools of
Germany. Children in this country
attend school for ten months in the
year. How many months do American
children average? Does it exceed hall
that time? The youth of Germany are
being educated; the youth of Americs
Are-well, the less boasting about it tn,
better The Germans would regard ou
system of voluntary schools, kept onl.
three or four months in the year in the
country districts, with more than one
third of the children never in attend
ance, but growing up in vice, ignoranc
and depravity, as very little better thai
no system at all.
HOW TO GET ALONG.
Do not stop to tell stories in busine