Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1883-07-31


IMPOLICY AND DANGER.
The strike Of the telegraph operators
orces business men to see and feel the
and impolicy Of having the tele-
graph lines Of the country in the control
If speculative capitalists. Suppose the
mails were st the mercy of q man like
Jay Gould, with such creatures as he
naturally draws around him Every in
of the country would be in mo-
mentary peril; there would be no GER.
Of communication, no safety I'M.
der q seal. The man who organized the
Black Friday panic and consummated
the Erie villainies knows no law but
force and respects no right of property
or person which is not backed by power
of some sort. Put the mail service Of
the United States where such q man
could seize and control it, and every
business, every private fortune, every
home would be as his mercy and that
of his associates and underlings. But
through the rapid development of a mar.
velous invention the telegraph has be-.
come scarcely second in importance to
the mail service Of the country. It is .
necessity Of trade. Without it COM
merce would collapse, speculation would
be paralyzed. the press would be stiied,
the whole machinery Of modern traffic
and life would stop. The Western Union
alone handles 100000 messages every
dag in the year. The development Of
this means of communication is one OF
the most wonderful chapters in modern
history. Yet while England had the
forecast and sagacity to absorb the tele-
graph system years ago, and to assimilate
it with the postal system, Of which it is
essentially an integral part, in this coun-
try, which is far more dependent upon it
than England, owing to it's vast extent,
the telegraph system is owned and con-
trolled by speculative capitalists. Every
interest Of the country and the most
sacred private concerns are placed within
their reach. They can exact what rates
they please, doubling their stock by hcti-
tious additions repeatedly until it repre-
sents little else than water, and requir-
ing the people to pay an enormous divi-
dend upon it, as though it represented
cash. They can grind their employees to
the dust like slaves, and provoke a re-
volt like the present one, which dam
ages business, deranges traffic and puts
all classes to inconvenience. They COM
bine to crush competition and create a
monopoly to control an agency OF com
munication which every year becomes in
creasingly indispensable to civilization.
The damage and inconvenience wrought
by the present strike brings out the i'm
policy and danger of the private tele-
graph system. 1t points to the only
remedy there is. The telegraph is sim
ply another, a swifter way of carrying
the mail. It is the newest agency for
the communication of intelligence. 1t
belongs to and is a part of the work OF
the postal system of the country. 1t
should be owned by the country and in
corporated in the postal system, where it
belongs. This would insure cheap mes
sages, An honest service, freedom from
strikes, and all other arrangements, and
uniformity Of terms and management.
And this would break down n of the
most insolent and dangerous Of monopo-
lies that now threatens the order and
welfare of the country.