Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-02-06
GOVERNMENTAL CONTROL.

| Petitions Circulated by Nationalists Com
cerning Telegraph and Telephone Lines.
| A short time ago the Nationalists Of
Massachusetts, began in earnest the agi-
tation of government ownership of tele-
graphs and telephones. The movement
is rapidly spreading all over the coun-
try, especially where there are clubs of
Nationalists to take hold of the matter
promptly. The method is to petition the
state legislatures to instruct and request
United States senators and members of
the house of representatives, respective
ly, to secure the adoption of government
telegraph and telephone service by prop
er congressional legislation. The form
of petition used in Massachusetts is as
follows:
To the Honorable Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives in General Court Assembled:
Your petitioners, the undersigned citizens
of Massachusetts,, respectfully represent that
the telegraph service of this country has be-
come burdensome monopoly in the hands of
a company extorting In charges more than
twice as much as the people OF other countries,
favored with government lines, are obliged to
pay-a company that uses to the utmost it's
and exerts q baneful control over the press,
upon which the citizens are forced to rely for
information.
We also represent that on the expiring of
the telephone patents now soon to occur a
similar monopoly In that method Of transmit
ting intelligence Is likely to DO established, as
grievous to the people as that of the telegraph.
We therefore respectfully petition your hon.
orable bodies to instruct the senators and re-
quest the representatives Of this common
wealth in congress to use all proper means to
secure government telegraph and telephone
service.
1t is claimed by the projectors of this
movement that petition containing
500, 900 names can be presented to con-
gress in December, 1893. There Is no
reason why there should not be four or
five times that many signers, for it is
pretty generally agreed by those who
have watched the tendency of the peo-
pie upon this subject that more than
half Of the voters in the United States
today favor government or postal teleg-
raphy.
AS Mr.. Mason A. Green, editor of The
New Nation, says: "There is an ever in
creasing feeling that the telegraph serv-
ice has become such monopoly that it
is no longer operated in the interests of
the people, and as it properly is an ad-
junct of the postoffice system it should
be operated by and for the people
through their government.
"Its present method Of operation al
lows the establishment of the Associ-
ated Press and United Press, by which,
on account of the necessary dependence
of the press upon telegraph service for
news, telegraph monopoly is able to dis
tort or suppress news of the day, and
by refusal of its service to destroy or
disable journals opposed to its interests
or to those of kindred monopolies.
Il think that the press of this country
would be great deal better off if the
telegraph system were operated by the
government. This exclusive control Of
the avenues of information by which
public opinion is formed and directed
has been and is being exercised in a
manner imperiling the existence of a
free press, without which popular gov
ernment Is impossible"
Many who are asked to sign this petit
tion will want to know why the rail
roads are not included, but it is just as
we'll to make haste slowly. Telegraphs
and telephones will do to try the SINGER
ity of the party which has secured such
a solid seat in the governmental saddle
by protesting its friendship for the peo-
pie and declaring its desire to conform
to the wishes of the great majority.