Los Angeles herald., 1890-10-06
POSTAL-TELEGRAPHY
ARGUMENT IN BE-
HALF OF HIS HOBBY,
He Says He Wants to Dovetail Two Great
Machines Together for the Benefit and
Convenience of the Dear People.


eral Wanamaker tonight made public a
letter recently addressed to the chairman
OF the house committee on postoffices,
embodying an elaborate argument in
favor of his limited plan for a postal tel
egraph service. Appended to the lie tier
is mass of matter pertaining to the sub
iect, making altogether 225 pages, closely
printed. The postmaster general in his
letter says in part:
"After standing for year past in the
midst of the controversy over postal tel
egraphy, that for over forty years has gone
on with a sharper tone and widening
range, I am more than ever convinced OF
the wisdom and practicability of restor-
ing the telegraph to the postal service,
and making it.what it was originally in
tended to be, part OF the postal system.
/ say this after closely studying the ar
guments against the bill, made so vigor-
ously by the great telegraph company
which is now its only visible opponent.
| do not believe it is possible to argue
this question down. There is deep
and far reaching conviction among the
people that the telegraph service is by
right part of the postal service. The
measure is to give the country vasi en-
largement of the postal systeY, and
bring home to the people the cheap use
OF one of the most powerful agencies of
modern commerce and civilization"
AS to the constitutionality of postal
telegraphy, the postmaster-general says
in part:
cit has been argued by learned law
yers for score of years that the gov
ernment is unconstitutional. The mo-
tives of these gentlemen have been un-
true. In all cases they have been paid
attorneys of those corporations whose
special interests have demanded that
their monopolies should be in no way
interfered with. Among other oppo-
nents were those who imagined the con-
stitution would be exposed to every sort
of outrage, were they to fall sick for a
day. The courts of highest appeal have
settled this question. Congress set
tied it in advance of judicial
action, by making the United States
the owner, and the postal department
the manager OF the first line of wire con-
structed for commercial and public use.
The old government telegraph schemes
were constitutional. What shall be
said then of the limited postal telegraph
plan which is being criticised for its
bringing forward? There is no. doubt
that it is constitutional. The attorney
general for my department has assured
me that the conclusion that the scheme
is constitutional, cannot be resisted"
In concluding the postmaster general
says he has alN>-, rs invited the most rigid
scrutiny and criticism of the measure.
'It is not" he says, "a proposition to
take money from the treasury or employ
additional civil servitors. 1t is not a
proposition to put any power whatever
in the hands of the government, which
is not at present greater and more dam
gerous where it is. 1t is proposition
simply to dovetail together two
great machines, go that the one shall do
business equitably, and by that means
make more money, which shall be will
ingly accorded to it by the people; the
other to utilize it's present skilled and
faithful energy to help supply the people
with still better means Of communica-
ton, furnished still more cheaply. 1t is
not proposition to buy the railroads or
coal mines, sawmills or bakeshops of the
country.
I" If others speak out for the telegraph
stockholders, some one must stand for
the people in the interest OF the cheaper
telegraphy that they want. Ibelieve
it belongs to this department to take.
this stand, and l propose intelligently
and persistently to keep this subject be-
fore you in the strong confidence that it
will not be long before your committee
will take steps to give the people the re-
lief prayed for" s..