Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-07-21
Public Obligations Of Telegraph
Companies.

Public Obligations Of Telegraph
Companies.
New York Herald. 10.
The company has its obligation,
and owes its duties TO the public. Ii
its ownership it is a private corpora
ton; in its business and its duties il i,
a public corporation. 1t came into
existence and exists only BY leave O.
the State. 1t derived from the people
its valuable franchises and privileges
the right to plant its poles and con-
struct its lines on public and private
property, to run its wires across
navigable waters and through the
streets Of cities. 1t was chartered Ia
serve the people and to do public
business. As the SupremeCourt of the
United States said in a recent case,
the telegraph has changed the habits
OF business and becomes one of the
necessities of commerce. Il is indis-
pensable as a means of intercommuni-
cation. Goods are sold and paid upon
Geographic orders. Contracts are
made by telegraphic correspondence;
cargoes secured and the movements of
ships directed. The telegraphic an
nouncement of the markets abroad
regulates prices at home, and pru-
dent merchant rarely enters upon an
important transaction without using
the telegraph freely to secure infor,
nation"
Railroad travel is governed by tele.
graph, and hence the very lives of the
people are dependent upon its opera
tion. In short, telegraph communi-
cation is interviewer with the entire
industrial, commercial aud social fab
ric of the country. 1t is necessity
to the people.
In view Of these considerations
there are imposed upon great tele
graph company obligations to the pub
lie which cannot be disregarded and
duties which cannot be neglected. It
is bound to give the people never fail
ing facilities for communication II
cannot close its Offices and stop its in.
struments for any cause which human
foresight and diligence can overcome.
A strike OF its employees is no excuse
In law for any unreasonable cessation
of its service. 1t may refuse the de-
mands of the strikers, but it must
procure other operators to take their
places without unreasonable delay. 1t
is not only bound to fulfil its para
mount obligations and discharge its
duties to the public by keeping up its
service, but it can be compelled to do
SO by the courts.
The law to this effect has been
clearly, explicitly and emphatically
declared by the Supreme Court in the
case of the railroad strike of last
summer. I'VE cannot bring our
minds to entertain doubt" said the
Court, that railroad corporation is
compellable by mandsmus to exercise
its duties as carrier of freight and
passengers, and that the power SO to
compel it rests equally firmly on the
ground that that duty is a public
trust, which, having been conferred
by the State and accepted by the cor
poration, may be enforced for the
public benefit" AS to the strike,
the Court held that so long as the
wOrkmen committed no unlawful act,
no violence, no riot and no unlawful
interference with other employees"
they had right to strike. Gan rail.
road corporations" it then asked,
refuse or neglect to perform their
public duties upon controversy with
their employees over the cost or exs
pense OF doing them2" We think
this question admits of but one an
swer. The excuse has in law no va
lidity. The duties imposed must be
discharged, at whatever cost. They
cannot be laid down or abandoned or
without the legally ex>
pressed consent of the State. The
trusts are active, potential and imper-
alive, and must be executed until
lawfully surrendered, otherwise pub
lie highway of great utility is closed or
INSTRUCTED without any process recog-
nized by law. This is something no |
public officer charged with the same
trusts and duties in regard to other
public highways can do without sub. |
Getting himself to mandamus or in
These principles and this law are as
applicable to telegraph as to rail.
road corporation. The obligations
md duties Of each to the public are |
like, In neither is strike of en-
oloyes any excuse for failure to per-
orm those duties. The public inter
'sts are paramount and must be res !
yarded.