Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-13
WHO SHALL RUN THE TELEGRAPH

FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1888.
 WHO SHALL RUN THE TELEGRAPH?
 ..why not take the Telegraph system of the United States under government ownership and control, as in Great Britain and Ireland, and se- cure to the people uniform rate all over the country as in the matter of postage 2,
 This is one of many queries in a letter just received with the signature of "A Re cent Immigrant" In reference to the plot of imposing upon the people, through the agency of the Federal government, the bur- den and responsibility of the telegraph business of the country we have, af- ter due consideration, come to the conclu- sion that if the United States should once enter upon the business of accepting as government charges the control of core spondence and news facilities now operated by unofficial corporations for public use, it would be impracticable and illogical to draw the line short of the propositions enunciated by Henry George and the So cialists For example, the government in charge of our electrical communications, as we'll as our mail facilities, with the tele- graph and telephone wires as much under official guardianship as the mail bags and postal cars how forcible would be the ar guments that the electric light must also be part of the government system.
 In thickly settled communities the use of the electric light is fast becoming uni versal The danger from wires used for lighting is greater than from any other electrical conductors In cities electric light wires must go into the same subways, under the same management as the tele- graph wires and those connected with tel ephones; and in small communities they must stretch over the same poles and is the argument that all three kinds of electric conductors should be under the same direction in the interest of good ser vice and public safety? Like reasoning would apply to the working of electric wires for the transmission of power which will, undoubtedly, come into general use within 8 few years. And so if we once admit the control of the government, through the post office or other branches of the public service, over the telegraph, we would necessarily open vast field of official monopoly to the exclusion of pri- vate enterprise in the use of electricity alone
 As for the Express business it already borders closely on the functions of the Post Office, and the argument in favor of an extension of the parce]-post system ex- isting in Great Britain and Ireland, to which our correspondent refers in anothe r part of his letter, is far stronger than that for government telegraph.
 As we proceed with the consideration of the postal telegraph scheme we find the field of government monopoly widening before us until, if we adopt the theories put forward, we must come fully up to the extinction of individuals in the all-per- vading absolutism of the state, advocated by doctrinaires and demagogues of the school of Henry George. We are against all this. The Democratic party is against it. The genius of our institutions, the characteristics of our people, and the ne- cessities and interests of liberty are against it. We are governed enough already We do not want general official oversight of affairs which would check invention, dis courage improvement, and reduce us all to dead level of creatures of great central power that could not long exist except as an empire.
 The suggestion or scheme for govern ment telegraph is imperialistic. It is part and parcel of the policy of imperialism that has grown out of Republican party rule. The great monopolists of the lines of quick intelligence desire it, for it would enable them to sell their wires at 8 great price or to recover from the govern ment immense sums as compensation for their dead plant, and damage for being driven out of business. Profigate poli- ticians desire it, for it would open to them places richer than have been enjoyed by their like in modern days in any other country of the world. The proposition is in the interest of monopoly. If it is to be made an issue in the Presidential cam paign, in the desperate effort to cement an alliance between the imperialists and the communists, the nation should be ready to deal with the ''little game;" and we be- lieve that the incorruptible and independ- ent majority of American voters will make short work of it. Our correspondent has in this opinion reply to one part of his in quiry-that of general control of tele- graphs; in respect of the other relating to uniformity of rates, that in country of the extent of ours, would be unreas enable no matter for the controlling power-pri- vate or governmental.
 LOOK ON THIS PICTURE AND ON
 THIS.
 The portrait of Pope Leo XIII, by the same artist, but at different periods. One,