New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-01-28
THE POSTAL-TKLEGRAPH SCHEME.

It is improbable that the effort to induce
this Government to engage In the telegraph
business will be any more successful IN TINS
Congrcss than it was in the last. There never
las been any popular desire for postal teie-
Graph. and the more closely one looks INTO
The subject the more improper and undesirable
il appcaIs. 1t is step toward ccntrallzation'
indeed. With much more force can the Gov
eminent be asked to mine coal and XIII peer
for the people. since every one requires lood
and fuel while it is highly doubtful II even
3 per cent Of the total population OF this coun-
try during the past year made use OF the tclc-
,,r-,ph service. 1t is essentially a commercial
tool, and the fact is proved that nearly IS per
cent of the messages transmitted year by year
relate directly to business matters. That the
whole country should be taxed to support q
service used by less than 3 per cent OF the
people is absurd and wrong.
The Senate Post Office Committee is now en-
gagged in accumulating great volume OF use
ful information concerning the telegraph bust
ness here and elsewhere. 1t has learned that
the experiment Of postal telegraph In Eng
land where the conditions are much more
favorable for such a scheme than they are here
has resulted in failure. With only one-siXth
as many miles of line as arc employed in Amer
lea. covering an area only One-twcnty-fifth as
great as the area Of the American system, with
only one-third as many offices and mc-iiith as
many cmplovcs earning salaries far lower than
the salaries paid here, and doing business
almost as large as the business done by the
American companies, there was yet deficit OF
about 50 100000 at the end Of the last fiscal
wear which the British taxpayers had to make
I'M. These figures tell with crushing force
against the adoption Of such a scheme in Amer
ica. They show that the agency of the Gov
crnmcnt is not cheap. 1t has not the same in
tcrest as private companies have to keep the
balance on the right side of the profit and loss
account. 1t docs not appear that rates arc
cheaper in England than here. On the con-
trarv. the average rate is higher and long
distance rates very much higher
There is no room to doubt that were the
telegraph system handed right over to the
Government just as it stands to-day, it would
he turned within year from a good paying
business. as managed by private persons, into
q losing concern loaded down with political
"bummers" and doing its work in hopelcssly
inefficient way. 1t could be decently obtained
onIy at an enormous expense Tor which there
exists neither justification nor excuse. 1t
wonld be easy to answer any arguments that
could he made in favor Of a postal telegraph
if only some one would make them But the
only things said by its advocates consist in
attacks on the Western Union Company In
a measure these attacks have our lively SYM
patty. for the Western Union, like every othcr
corporation, is often shOr-sighted, sciliSh anu
given to methods none too creditablc IN order
to shut off competition. If it can be shown
that those acts amount to an infractlon OF the
public rights. let Congress take measures 10
protect the public rights. But the sins Of the
Western Union, were they ten times as grave,
furnish no reason why the Government should
90 into commercial business, Mono of tho
facts which make il necessary that the Govern
mcnt should carry the peoples mails applies
TO the transmission Of telegraph messages.
The American people arc not Socialists. They
don't want patcrnal government to the extent