Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-11-27
A Postal Telegraph.

In view Of the power shown by Jay
Gould over the Western Union Tele-
graph Company and the Associated
Press, and the manifest disposition on
his part to use it in behalf of bis favor
lite Presidential candidate, the following
.utterance of Senator Window, of Min
nesota, just before his appointment to
be Secretary of the Treasury, is exceed
ingly apropos:
'"The channels of thought and the
channels of commerce thus owned and
controlled by one man, or by few
men, what is to restrain corporate pow
er, or TO fix q limit to its exactions upon
the people? What is then to hinder
these men from depressing or initiating
the value of all kinds of property to suit
their caprice or avarice, and thereby
gathering into their own Golfers the
wealth of the nation? Where is the
limit to such power as this? What shall
be said of the spirit of free people who
will submit without a protest to be thus
bound hand and foot?'
With postal telegraph on the plan
proposed to the last Congress by Con-
gresham SRmner, of California, and
Senator Edmunds, of Vermont, such a
danger as that above noted would be
obviated. Referring to the existing
situation, the ~ Y. Times says: -
tEnr hn scsbt r.
Jay Gould has been using the Western
Union Telegraph TO spread abroad
through the United States false ilfor-
nation as to the result of the election
in the State of New York. The proof
of this is well known to every intell'-
gent journalist in New York. Mr..
Gould did the same thing in October
with reference to the election in Ohio,
when not one specific statement cana
BILE of verificasi0n or exposure was al
lowed to pass over the Western UOion
wires for more than thirty hours, and
when the statements that were sent
were shown withjn two days to be con-
spicuously and intentjally false. As to
the vote of New York the plot bas been
nearly identical and has been carried
out with moe Pers sterce. The returns
have been sent out in Jumps of election
DISTRICTS which are not named and
cannot be identified, and the publica-
tiOn of these has been made in amounts
and at times to suit the schemers. Oc-
Blaine Committee have shown that re-
turns from comparatively remote po; nts
have been used promptly, while those
from points within an hours ride OF
the Western Union Building have been
held back. #
"Mr. Jay Gould's performances for
the past forty-eight hours have made a
Government Postal Telegraph q neces-
sity in this country"
Electricity is the quickest, and there
fore the most valuable, means of con-
veying intelligence. The people ofthe
United States paid for constructing the
first line of telegraph for Prof. Morse
between Baltimore and Washington,
thereby demonstrating the feasibility OF
using electricity to convey intelligence.
Instead of adding it to our postal sys-
tenn it was allowed to pass into the
hands of corporations, which have used
it as means of taxing the people rath-
er to give them its service at the lowest
practicable cost. If it had developed
with our postal system, experts estimate
that we would now be sending MESA
ges at a cent a word throughout the
length and breadth of the. United States.
Does any one suppose that flour pres
ent postal system had been run for cor
porate profit rather than for public ben
eft that postage would have been re-
duced from shilling per letter to two
cents? AS regards the integrity of
management, it must be placed some
where, and does any one suppose that
it would not be safer in the hands of the
Post Office Department., directly res
ponsible to the people, than in the
hands ofa corporation responsible to no
one? Republicans like Senator Ed
munds and Democrats like Congress-
man Sumner, of California, think that
it would be safer in the hands of the
people, as it is in all other countries of
the world. AVERAGE CITIZEN.
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