San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-06-02
NOT CRANKY.

rior wisdom of their critics such con-
duct of telegraph business is assumed
to be impracticable. 1t is affirmed
that the government cannot success
fully conduct such business, that to
attempt it will lead to ineXtricable
confusion, and that the service will
not only be demoralized but conduc-
ted at loss to the public. Those
who do rot take quite so lugubrious
view of the situation assert that
while postal telegraphy may be sue
cessfully established in thickly
populated country and one of restric-
ted area, like England, that
to attempt to establish tel
egraph or railway lines in
the United States under government
control would only end in disaster.
1t may not be known to these critics
that in the Australian province of
Victoria all its irrigation works, tele-
graphs and railways are under gov
eminent direction and owned by the
government. The rates of telegraph
service in Victoria are much lower
than in the mother country, and the
service itself is said to be the most
efficient in the world. The railways
are self-supporting and pay the gov
eminent four and a half per cent. on
the capital invested. This sum could
be readily increased were it not that
the government is constantly lower
ing the price of freights and
fares SO as to give the people
the benefit of the reductions.
This reduction of fares is carried
SO far in New South Wales, an
adjoining province, that school child
rem are carried free of charge, while
in Victoria only certain classes Of
students are so favored. While
railway fares are thus reduced, and
railway property pays govern
ment an interest of four and |
a half per cent per annum, wages |
are nearly if not quite double the |
scale paid inEngland. In Victoria, also,
the street railways are municipal
property. For thirty-five years |
the eight hour law has obtained in |
Victoria and since 1886 all places |
of business close at p. IN. and |
clerks are relieved from duty ex-
Cept on Saturday night, when the |
closing hour is 10 o'clock. America |
prides herself on her humane legisla-
ton and ON the favorable labor condi- |
ditiOns of her working people, but she |
can go to the antipodes and learn |
new lesson in political and industrial
economy. Good wages, short hours,
and cheap transportation with leisure
for culture are enjoyed in the Austria
liam provinces of Victoria and New
South Wales as no where else. That |
far away bush land, once penal
province, mas set mark so advanced |
that free America is toiling a full |
quarter of a century in the rear of it, |
"
THE air Of mystery which pervades
the Office of the Port Arkansas COM
pany does not dispel at the bidding
of the interviewer. All attempts to
secure data and official information |
concerning movements In Corpus bay
are futile. There is that peculiar
you-keep-still-nOw hush don 't-say-a |
wOrd-there' s-a-hen-On kind of a feel. |
ing that prevails with the small boy |
in the presence of the incu batting
biddy, and you are left to guess at the
number ana quality of the eggs.
From the present appearance of
things, drawn from personal observa-
ton it looks very much to the LIGHT
as though the company down below
with headquarters in 1.-The city that
sits by the sea" are on a still hunt
for the original Corpus Christi pass
through which, tradition says, some
centuries since there flowed an I'M
checked current to the sea with no
bar to Obstruct the free ingress and
egress of ships to the waters of the
bay. Time alone, however, will de-
velop what is attempted, or. if sue
cessful, for the Port Arkansas company
are as mum as the oysters which
cover square miles of that beautiful
bay. Dumb as oysters, that is, about
their plans and voluble as real estate
men always are over the bluff site
upon which they propose to build the
city of the future.