Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-06
EAST OF TIE ROCKIES.
Postmaster General Wanamakef'S Views
On Postal TeleSraphy.
BRUTAL PRIZE FIGHT ININDIANA.
Four Members of One Family Suf-
focated by Smoke in an
Iowa Town.
EAST OF TEE ROCKIES.
BRUTAL PRIZE FIGHTININDIANA.
lrraA1 DnrArrHs TO rHs RscoRD-unos.l
POSTAL rELEGRaPHY.
Postma ster- General wapamaker in Fa-
xnr of Goyarnment Ownership.

Postmaster General wapamakcr in Fa-
vor of Government Ownership.
WASHINGTON, October 9TH h-Postmaster-
General Wanamaker tonight made public
a letter recently addressed TO the Chairman
OF the House Committee on Postoffoes,
embodving an elaborate argument in favor
of his limited plan of postal telegraphy.
Appended 10 the letter is mass of matter
pertainipgto 10 the subject. making altogether
223 pages closely printed.
The Postmaster-G eral, in letter says
in part: AFTER standing for year past in
the midst of a controversy over postal
telegraphy, that fer over forty years has
gone on with sharper tone and widening
range, am more than ever convinced Of
the wisdom and practicability of restoring
the telegraph to the postal service, and
make it what it was originally intended to
be, a part of the postal system.
II say this after closely studying the
arguments against the bill made so yigor-
ously by the great telegraph company,
which is now its only visible opponent. l
don't believe it is possible to argue this
question. There is deep and far-reach
ing conviction among the people that the
telegraph service is by right a part of the
postal service. The measure is to give the
country a vast enlargement of the postal
system and bring home to the people
cheap use of one of the most powerful
agencies of modern commerce and ciYiliza-
tion."
AS to the constitutionality Of postal teleg-
raphy, the Postmaster General says in
part: at has been argued by learned law
yers for score of years that Government
telegraph is unconstitutional. The mo.
tives of these gentlemen have been
one of two in all cases. They
have been paid attorneys of these
companies, whose special interests have
demanded their monopolies should in no
way be interfered with. The other op-
ponents were those who imagined that the
Constitution would be exposed to every
sort of outrage were they to fall sick for
day. Courts of the highest appeal have
settled this question. Congress settled it in
advance of the judicial action, by making
the United States the owner and the Post
Office Department the manager of the first
line of wire constructed for commercial
and public use. If the old Government
telegraph schemes were constitutional,
what shall be said then of the limited
postal telegraph plan which l am being
criticized for bringing forward? There is no
doubt it is constitutional. The Attorney
General for the department has assured me
that the scheme is constitutional, and can
not be resisted"
In concluding the Postmaster General
says be has always invited the most rigid
scrutiny and criticism of the measure. 1t
is not, ne says, proposition to take money
from the treasury or employ additional
civil servants. It is not a proposition to
put any power whatever in the hands of
the Government which is not at present
greater and more dangerous where il is. 1t
is proposition simply to dovetail together
two great machines, so that one shall do
business equitably, and by that means
make more money, (which shall willingly
be accorded to 1t by the people" The
other is to utilize its present skilled and
faithful energy to help supply the people
with still better means of communication,
furnished still more cheaply. 1t is not a
proposition to buy the railroads or coal
mines, sawmills or bakeshops of the
country.
IF others speak out for the telegraph
stockholders someone must stand for the
people in the interest of the cheaper
telegraphy that they want. l believe that
it belongs to this department to take this
stand, and propose intelligently and per-
sistently to keep this subject before you in
the strong confidence that that it will not
be long before your committee will take
steps to give the people the relief prayed
for"