The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-02-10
On Government Control of
the Telegraph.
STRONG ARGUMENT AGAINST 1T
age Into the Hands of the
Party in Power.
Government. relexraphyE

Jones speech before the American
Government Control of TIE Tele-
graph" was The topic assigned to
Colonel @. d. Jones of the Jackson
Vile Florida, Times Union, and he DIS
cussed 1t in a carefully prepared
paper. He began by saying that he
proposed 10 4, cal with the subject in a
practical way, Tor the reason that be
regarded IL as very practical. The
agovernmenU til sI phi system, and the
one that is mos. relied upon, is that it
would be cheaper, + nd most advocates
of government cont oil seem to think
the argument is close when this asser-
ton is mdds. The speaker, however,
felt constrained to say that the expert
ence OF this and Otber countries with
government work, furnishes no reason
| for believing that exec ptional cheapness
would be q t.st1e Of it. The charac-
teristic feature Of all work done by
government, is cumbrousness and cost
illness. Whenev.r government wants
worh done at reas enable price, that
work is let out by contract. The gov
eminent might make lower rates for
telegraphing than would be made by
auv corporations. because the latter
must make expenses, and pay for better
mel and imp. oN emenIs, or their place
in the business world would soon DC
vacant. The government, if it SO chooses.
can tx rste less than cost. and make
10 the deficit nv taxation, and
this is precisely what would
be done by tile United States govern
mem, If the experience of other coun-
| tres having Il government telegraph
| system is any criterion. Col. Jones
theI gave statistics, showing that in
| Great BtIlian the ue ticit in operating
the government telegraph had increased
from $562, o25 IN 1881, to 50 349, 200 in
1886. This deficit mast be made good
by taxation, and such taxation is justi-
fed on the ground that it is pu bic
benefit. IL 1887, over 100000 mes
sages were handled by the Western Un-
ion Telegraph Company. and these were
sent by less than 1000, 900, the whole OF
the telegTaphing in the United States is
done by less than per cent of the
population. These figures make it
reducing the rates below cost anu
making up the deficit by taxation,
means to tax 50 per cent. of
the people who never use
the telegraph for the beredt of stock
brokers, spectators, gamblers, pool
men, bucket shop proprictors, and
sporting men generally, who send e.
per cent of the messages. Not only is
this unjustifable on tie grounds of
public policy, but it is uniustifiable on
purely business grounds. The men
who send these messages make no COM
plant ur the cost because it comes in
as part OF the legitimate and ueces-
sary expenses of their business. The
only considerable body of men asking
| reducuon OF tel. graph tolls are the
Knights of Labor. Not one in hun
dred OF them use the telegraph. These
misguided people are simply asking
| the government to tax them for the
benefit of class OF people toward
whom they are so irreconcllahle and
hostile that membership in their or
ganiza ton is prohibited them. These
are considerations which determine us
against the scheme Of government
! telegraph on grounds connected with
the pu blic welfare.
The speaker then considered the SUBJ
ject from the point of view of prac-
Llcal newspaper man. The newspapers
of the United States, he said. are now
enjoying the cheapest and most efficient
telegraph service of any newspapers in
the world. The British telegraph press
rate is 25 cents for seventy-five words
during the day, and % cents for l0U
words at night, to each place where but,
one paper is served, and cents tor
seventy-five words during the day, and
cents for every lC0 words aC night,
for each additional paper served. Other
flor tyIu nm hn Ee.r
which showed that viewed in anv WAY
possible. the American press rate is now
cheaper than the same service in Eng
land, by from oue-ffth to one-half.
These figures apply to the service of the
press associations, the cost of special
telegraph service in the United States
being ope-half ceat per word, and
in Great Britain Is cent per word. In
the nited States. however. the dis
lance is Ill average of four times greater
than il Eusland. The bill introduced
by Senator Cull1m provides that the
night rate for newspaper dispatches,
when the dispe tches go to more than
one Office. shall be % cents PEI 100
words. This is more than twice the
rate charged by the Western Union for
transmitting Associated Press reports,
and ten times the rate charged By the
same company when the reports are de-
Iivered by leased wires to four or FIVE
papers in the same city. The truth is
that the substitution of government
telegraph service for that of the West
ern Union on the basis of the Cullom
bill, would eediIy result in one of two
things. Either the bankruptcy of q
large portion of the newspapers
away from the great centres, or
in depriving the public of very large
portion of the news of the world, which |
it now enjoys through the daily news |
papers. Nothing SO far-reaching in it's |
effect upon the press of the country has |
ever been proposed in Congress. It |
would be about the same as if Congress |
should enact law legislatipg out of |
existence half of the daily papers of |
the country, and putting the remainder
on short ratiOns, as regards Geographic |
news service. But even this is not the
most seri us objection, from a news
paper mans point of view. The mere
suspicion that news had been subjected |
to government inspection or censorship |
would reduce by at least one-half the
value of that news to neWSDaDer Dub-