The record-union., 1892-03-09

Government is given the monopoly of the
postal service. 1t is, therefore, it's duty
TO adopt all good means science
and discovery make valuable and eco
nonic, to facilitate communication
through postal agency. Congress is not
restricted to any particular method OF
carrying and delivering communications
intrusted TO the postal service for deliv-
cry. Ifit were, it would be still be en-
ploying the old-fashioned stage coach or
horseback carriers. and refuse to use
mail cars and steamboats,.
Excepting only electricity, Congress
has availed of all modern swift and safe
means for expediting the work of the
postal department. For more than
half century the practical value of this
mysterious agent has been known, and
commerce and all business, except mail
carrying, have availed of it. Why, then,
should the postal service decline to make
use of this new and wonderful agency?
We cannot understand why it should, or,
indeed, why it has so long neglected it,
A large proportion of the business of the
world to-day is transacted through the
message-carrying agency of electricity in
the hands of private enterprise, precisely
as are those other agents. the steamboat
and the railroad car. OF these latter the
Government avails to carry written mes
sages of the people. Why should it not
hire the former also to transport such
messages.
A citizen in San Francisco who needs
money from New York, however dire
his distress, must wait from six to ten
days for the mail service to bring it to
him through its money department; but
by employing private means he can re-
ceive it by electrical dispatch through the
money order agency in an hours time.
1t is a remarkable fact that has escaped
later notice, that the first telegraph in the
United States was operated under the
postal system Of the Government
We agree with the Postmaster eneral
that it was grand mistake to have aban-
doned telegraphy as postal means. But
the Government did so, and since 1914
United States postal service has been
effected by actual carriage of the package
of the sender. Mr.. WanamaIler would
have telegraphy reunited to The postal
system and in so expressing himself he
voices the wish of the vast majority Of
the people of the Union.
1t has been done in many other coun-
tries. In England there is a uniform
rate, like postage, of sixpence for twelve
words by wire for any distance. Austria
has even lower rate; Germany about
tie same; France and Belgium rate
under ten cents for ten words between
any two points. Under these rates the
telegraph is in those nations a profitable
adjunct of the postal service.
The telegraph in private service only
is limited to the uses of, comparatively.
the few. 1t has differential rates; it is
operated solely to make money for cor
porations. The Government would not
wish to so use it; its aim would be to
secure to the people quick, economic
transportation Of messages intrusted to
the postal service Mr.. Wanamaker's
plan is TO contract with the telegraph
lines, just as the Government now con-
lines, and he would include telephone
lines in the proposed system. In March
1898, the telephone patent expires and, as
he says, unless Congress acts promptly
to authorize its adoption for commune
cation among the people, it requires no
stretch of Imagination to believe that in
the next two years one immense syndi-
cate viii unite and control all the hun
dreds of telephone plants of the country.
as the telegraph is now controlled, or the
two viii be united, and then for the next
twenty years the most astute attorneys
will be legitimately earning large sal
aries in Indignantly opposing the So
Gd4lCtl dttttGhS VI IubllIG OSbiiidSIeI-NJeO-
erals upon defenseless vested rights"
His idea is to have one-cent letter post
age. three-cent telephone messages and
ten-cent telegraph messages, under
compact postal system. The great adj
vantages 10 the rural dwellers of telephone
connection with rail stations, weather
s.~,.--;..,, 20 Z, t;<>,,e, ,,,,J -, -
He would abolish account keeping for
the new service and have stamped cards.
collection boxes and frequent collections.
thus largely doing away with the ex-
pensiye messenger boy service. In New
York already, in some sections, there are
collections from mail boxes every ten or
fifteen minutes, and over the whole city
thirty-three collections a day. The postal
collectors would be more reliable and
greatly more rapid than the messenger
boys, vino are never in a hurry except in
pictures.
he does not advise that the Govern
ment make a monopoly use of the elec-
trical lines; private wires would exist
as now, and telephone exchange system
continue, but messages would be sent by
phone to telegraph stations and then
telegraphed to distant points for a uni
form rate for a given number of words,
and the messages be delivered as are let
ters now.
The subject is treated so freely and ex-
tendedly by the Postmaster General that