St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-06
POSTAL TELEGRAPHY.
Wanamaker Discusses the Matter
at Some Length.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5.-Postmaster
General Wanamaker made public to-
night letter recently addressed to
Representative Bingham, chairman cf
the house committee on postofices,
favor of his limited plan of postal teleg-
raphy. Appended to the letter, which
has been printed at the government
printing Office, is mass of matter, in
cluding opinions of the press for and
against postal telegraphy; opinions of
former postmasters general and promi-
nent public men on the constitutional
ity of postal telegraphy; explana-
tions of various automatic and multiplex
telegraph systems; resolutions OF Or
ganiZed bodies of labor and capital in
behalf of postal telegraphy. and copy
of the final defeat Of the postal tele-
graph bill submitted by the postmaster
general to the house committee on post
Offices at the last session of congress.
Altogether the document embraces 223
pages of closely printed literature bear
ing on this important subject. The
postmaster general, in his letter, says
in part: Your subcommittee on postal
telegraph informs me that all the parties
that have Signifed desire to be heard
mitted their testimony, and that it is in
order for me to add anything
upon the subject. After standing for
year past in the midst of the
controversy over postal telegraphy that
for over forty years has gone on with
sharper tones and widening range. am
more than ever convinced of the wis
dom and practicability of restoring the
telegraph to the postal service, and make
it what it was originally intended to be,
part of the postal system. | say this
after closely studying the arguments
against the bill, made so vigorously by
the great telegraph company, which is
now its only visible opponent. l do not
believe it is possible to argue the ques-
ton down. There is a deep and far
reaching conviction among the people
that the telegraph service is by right
part of the postal service. To carry the
postal system from pony riders to
stage coach, and Oh to railroad
service, and stop all further
progress because 5000 owners of tele-
graph stock oppose is not in accord with
the genius of our people or the spirit of
the times. The will of the people in
this respect has manifested itself un-
mistakably before congress in public
speech and statement during the last
twenty yearf. Resistance to that great
popular demand 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 to ex-
listing corporations. We stand confront
ing public measure of no mean i'm
portanee or magnitude. Lit is TO give
the country vast enlargement of its
postal system, and to bring home 70 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:
sit has been argued by learned law
yers for score of years that govern
ment telegraph is unconstitutional.
| The motives of these gentlemen have
been one of two in all cases. They
| haue been the paid attorneys of these
| corporations, whose special interests
| have demanded 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 con-
| stitntion would be exposed to every sort
OF outrage if they were to fall sick for a
day. The courts of highest appeal
| have settled this question. Congress
settled it, in advance of judicial action.
| by making the United States the owner.
and the postofice department the man.
ager of the first line of wire constructed
| for commercial and public uses. The
! old government telegraph schemes
were constitutional. What shall be