Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-08-17

Willingly swinded And in this connection
we can not help admirlng the acuteness and
self-respect of the Albany journal and some
other papers, which boldly announced that,
although they were obliged to pay for the
Associated Press dispatches in question, they
were not obliged to publish them, and would
not and also the keen wit Of the Washing
ton critic, which published the dispatches
but waggishly supplemented them with the
significant Authorization, "Advt." - While
aware, we say, of some dclinqucncies and
some willful blindness on thc.part of the press
of the country, still the (editoraD utterances
of the great majority of our influential jour
mails have been unfavorabe to the monopol-
lists and on the side of the people and the
operators some just criticisms of the meth
DDS of the latter aside.
| We find so much unanimity in the express
sions of our contemporaries on the subject of
Government telegraphy, and the rights of
the people as opposed to the rights of the
monopolsts, that we are tempted to present
few of them in brief.
The New. York Herald says:
This consideration leads d-
rccty to the means by which the Govern
mcnt can protect the public against telegraph
monopolies. Congress may, If it sees fit,
authorize the construction OF complete net
work OF postal telegraph lines, to be used in
connection with the letter mail and as part
of the postal system of the country. Such a
Government line could be properly used for
| expediting private correspondence. Letters
mailed would be sent for two cents as the
new law provides. Letters tclegraphed
would pay heavier charge, but still light
compared with Jay Gould's charges. They
would be tclcgraphcd to the office of dcsina-
ton, and there delivered by carriers IN the
ordinary course of mail delivery.
The New York Star says:
To-day the pressing issue is whether the
telegraph service, which has become the
most important part of the postal service,
shall be performed by the people, through
their admirable postoilice mechanism, or by
private mcnopolcs. To that question, when
fairly understood, there will be but one an
swer from citizens who are not interested in
telegraph corporations.
| Even the conservative Erening Post,
which has all along opposed government
telegraphy, now hesitates and admits that,
with general reform of our civil service,
postal telegraphy might be good thing.
In the same general vein, the st. Paul
| Pioneer Press says:
On the other hand, the objection which
has always been most unanswerable is In n
fair way to disappear. The lion in the path
has been the matter of patronage. The fear
that the telegraphic service would be used to
entrench political party in power has
fought more powerfully against it than any
other consideration This argument loses its
force in the presence of system of civil SER
vice reform already in operation.
The San Francisco journal Of Commerce.
scizes the aspect of the situation well, when
il says
Postal telcgraphy will, from this out, re-
cevc strong and persistent advocacy, and
eventually it will triumph
The Memphis :ARpcM is not sparing in
plain words:
The telegraph business in this country is
already in the hands OF a huge and uuscru-
pulous monopoly, and the tendency is TO-
ward further monopoly. Whatever objec-
ton there may be to aid to the number OF
from ibot dficuitv 10 he arosnod hv iei tho
other acknowledgements MONOPOLY.
The Montreal Witness. from its vantage
ground of unprejudiced censorship, speaks
thus favorably of government biography
We trust that the Government will come
10 decision at once in favor of the pro-
posal, which they have had so long under
consideration, to establish telegraph sys-
tenn in connection with the postal system. 1t
is to be hoped that the people will urge upon
. luz uovernment 'ne immediate necessity OF
structons which stand in tbe w aS Of If any cbo an
undertaking of the work.
The Nashville Banner chimes in with its
Northern contcmnorsr;es and sors;b,y sors
yo.o ,o,a,,'.
Al, ".io tGlos' apns unuei inc supervision Oh
lnc Poslolnce department, orr separate one
VI uo ms own, such troubles as INC present
s %uuu ~, ne w., lesult; an opportunity Is OF,
,,n I'LL ~, .uI aSlta,lon Oh lh's question: ana
oIrpa apuis " tIie country should take every
surr Iu y h Ua y. use lne National treasury
surplus III buying or erecting telegraph lines
ducted ne q nnbiic Sor,oa ''' tnr a., ""u oon,
good. " ~ 0'"
AS to the governments right to establish
system of postal telegraphy, the Indlanap-
oils Times says:
II is said by some that the government
ought not to come in competition with pri-
ha, , t I.'Iuns. suilcient answer 70 mat is
to carry Inc mall. ,Thc same arnnnen, ,Sas
used when it was proposed to carry small
packages through the mails and to Introduce
the money order system, yet the government
did not sec fit to buy out either The exnress
And nc 10 ,ho a. .-.