Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-10-07
POSTAL TELEGRAPHY.
Postmaster General Wanamaker Makes
Pubic a Letter Upon the Subject.

Postmaster General Wanamaker Makes
Pubic Letter Upon the Subject.
WASHINGTON, Oct 7.-Postmaster
General Wanamaker has made public u
letter recently addressed to Representa-
tive Bingham, chairman of the house
committee on postotfices EN- 5odying an
elaborate argument in favor of his linn
tied plan of postal telegraphy, APP
pended to the letter. which has been
printed ut the government printing
office, is a mass of matter, including
opinions of the press for and against
postal telegraphy; opinions of former
postmasters general and prominent
public men on the constitutionality of
postal telegraphy; explanations of vari-
GUS automatic and multiplex telegraph
systems: resolutions Of organized bodies
of labor and capital in behalf of postal
telegraphy, and copy of the final de-
feat of the postal telegraphy bill sub
mitted by the postmaster general to the
house committee on postoffioes at the
last session of congress. Altogether the
document embraces e93 pages of closely
printed literature bearing on this i'm
portant subject.
The postmaster general, in his letter,
says in part:
"Your subcommittee on postal tele-
graph informs me that all the parties
that have signitied q desire to be heard
on the postal telegraph bill have sub
mitted their testimony, and that it is in
order for me to add anything upon the
subject. After standing for a year
past in the midst of the controversy
over postal telegraphy that for over
forty years has gone on with sharper
tone and widening range, / am more
than ever convinced of the wisdom and
practicablility of restoring the telegraph
to the pos al service, and making it
what it was originally intended to be, a
part of the postal system. | say this
after closely studying the argum ents
against the bill made so vigorously by
great telegraph company which is now
its only visible opponent. | do not be-
lieve it is possible to argue this question
down. There is deep and fai reaching
conviction among the people that the
telegraph service is by right Il part of
the postal service.
"To carry the postal system from pony
riders to stage coach and on to railroad
service, and stop all further progress be-
cause 5000 owners of telegraph stock
oppose, is not in accord with the genius
OF our people OF the spirit of the times.
The will of the people i'll this respect
has manifested itself Enthusiastically be-
fore congress. in the last twenty years.
Resistance to that great popular de-
mand may not be the wisest thing, nor
is it fair to count those who urge the
adoption, in some form or other, of the
postal telegraph as hostile to existing
corporations. We stand confronting a
public measure of no mean importance
or magnitude. 1t is to give the country
vast enlargement of its postal system
and to bring home to the people the
cheap use of one of the most powerful
agencies of modern commerce and civil
| ization.'
AS TO the constitutionality of postal
telegraphy, the postmaster general
says:
lit has been argued by learned law
/ yers for a score Of years that n govern
| ment telegraph is unconstitutional. The
motives of these gentlemen have been
| one of two III all cases. They have
been the paid attorneys of those cor
/ porations whose special interests de-
/ manded that their monopolies should in
/ no way be interfered with. They have
! known their business, and have done it
/ well. The other opponents were those
who imagined that the constitution
would be exposed to every sort of out
rage were they to fall sick for a day.
4 The courts Of highest appeal have set
| tied this question. Congress settled it,
| in advance of judicial action, by making
/ the United States the owner, and the
! postoffice department. the manager of
/ the first line of wire constructed for
commercial and public uses.
The old government telegraph
schemes were constitutional; what shall