The Washington times., 1894-04-15
All the Labor Organizations of the
Country Are for 1t This Time.
100000 VOTERS DEMAND THIS
Democrats Who Have Favored the Reform in
the PASTA Resolution of the Tammany
society-Attitude Of Leading Men-Repub-
licans Favor the Bill.

ycdI9 pOStdA tcicSioPhy ioo
had numerous able and earnest advocates
among the leading representative men Of the
| Republican and Democratic parties, and it
has also been bitterly opposed by others with
out regard to party lines.
Nearly everybody is familiar with the con-
tention that for the government to assume con-
troll of the telegraph lines or build new ones
would be destructive to vested rights. The
national telegraph act of July "a, 1866, ex-
pressly reserves the right to at any time after
the expiration of five years from that date,
whenever Congress might adjudge proper,
vest in the government control Of the lines on
payment OF their appraised value. Nobody
interested in or in any way supporting the
present movement for government control
contemplates for a moment the purchase OF
existing lines, inflated nearly five times be-
yond their actual value.
The interested opponents OF government
telegraphy, and nearly all who are opposed
to 1t are in some way, directly or indirectly,
interested. profess great alarm at the alleged
"paternalsm" said to be embraced in the
measure. They do not attempt to show
wherein it is more "paternalistic" for the gov
ernment to transmit the peoples letters and
messages by electricity than by fast mail
trains and steamboats,, none of which were in
existence when the postal system was organ
lied, and consequently the authorities were
compelled to avail themselves of the slow,
tedious, and expensive means of transmission
then III vogue. We're the swifter and more
certain methods now at hand known to the
trainers of the Constitution they would,
no doubt, have been utilized to their full
extent. Great progress has been made in the
postal service during the past century, and
the speedy incorporation with it of the teie-
graph is, it is argued. all that IS now lacking
to perfect it.
Labored efforts have been made whenever
this subject has been under consideration to
prove that it is undemocratic, and, notwith-
standing their failure to convince any well
informed person. the same old arguments are
once more revived and are again doing duty.
The assertion is constantly reiterated, for ex-
ample, that the leaders OF the party now
dominant in national affairs are unalterably
opposed to the government assuming control
OF the telegraph. While many of the abiest
Democratic Senators and members are known
heretofore to have expressed themselves in
favor Of postal telegraphy, it is semi-officially
announced that the party, as such. will give
no countenance TO any measure OF this nature.
The opposition does not come from any par
ticuiar region, but it is stated to be more gen.
eral in the eastern. middle, and certain por-
tions of the southern states, and this opposi-
In the two first named sections, where the
influence of the telegraph monopoly is all
powerful, the vested rights theory Is put
forth as the principal objection.
The southerners express great dread OF tho
necessary increase in the civil service ex-
pected to result from governmental control of
the telegraph, although few OF these gentle
men have ever been known TO fail in alacrity
in reaching for everything within sight. They
appear to have forgotten entirely their oft-re-
peated accusations of the existence during the
reconstruction period of a gigantic conspiracy
between the press agents and the telegraph
people. when it was alleged that many of the
numerous flaming accounts OF acts of lawless-
ness. violence. and wholesale murder were
purely mythical and manufactured for politi-
cal effect
The southern states are. for the most part.
agricultural. and for that reason it is con-
tended that their people feel very little inter-
est in the question. As one Congressman
from that region, a member of the Post Office
Committee. representing an agricultural con-
stituency. puts il:
''The farmer has to pay for the whistle, and
never gets a chance to blow it,
BY the adoption of a genuine postal tele-
graph system-one taking in every post office
in the land and under which charges will be
only sufficient to cover cost of operation
residents of rural communities will be per-
mitted TO g blow the whistle on exactly the
same terms as the people of more populous
localities.
1t is hinted. although no definite authority
is given, that the Democratic Congressman
from New England and New York are dead
set against any Interference on the part of
Congress with the telegraph monopoly and
the Tammany representatives from the
metropolis are specially named as determined
in their opposition.
Among the California delegation in the
Forty-eighth Congress was Hon. Charles A.
sumner. who Il. the election of 1882 was
elected by the Democrats representative from
the state at large. Long prior to that event
he had been an ardent advocate OF a postal
telegraph. and his views on the subject remain
unchanged up to this time. In December,
1888, he introduced in the House IL postal tel
egraph bill. which in its most essential features
has formed the basis for the bill fathered by
Judge Mcguire. of the same state, and now
awaiting committee action. Mr.. Summers
bill was very favorably received by the country.
and Endorsements of it by state legislatures
commercial bodies. labor and reform organi-
zations. and the press were numerous ani
hearty. Among the great political organiza-
tons which put themselves on record IN sup
port of the Sumner bill was the famous Tam
many society OF New York, which has never
been notably In favor of measures of n .'pater-
nalistic' or .'centralizing" tendency.
On April ~. 1884, at meeting held at the
wigwam, the following resolution, offered by
Hon. Henry i. Gumbleton, was unanimously
adopted:
"Resolved That we favor the passage of the
Sumner bill. relating TO the postal telegraph sys
TEN, now pending in Congress, and believe that
sucn a system, honestly administered, will give
the people of this country a cheap and reliable
means of communication under the manage
ment Of able officers directly responsible to the
people, and thus take this adjunct of the post Of
fee out of the dangerous control of gigantic, cor
rupting monopolies
The above utterance of Tammany Hall has
been respectfully referred to the braves who
at present represent in Congress the orcapiZa-
ton and, in part. the Democracy Of the city |
and state OF New York. aud their attention has |
been specially called to the fact that ten years
after the passage of the resolution above
quoted the telegraph system of the country |
still remains in 1.-THE dangerous control of gi- |
gantic. corruptiug monopolies."
1t has been pointed out that Democrats |
who favor governmental control of the teie-
graph and there are many of them, have the |
Constitution, common sense, and the expert |
ence and practice OF nearly every civilized
nation in its conduct of the telegraph as |
public function on their side. Democrats OF
this way of thinking proudly point to the
fact that the first telegraph line ever con-
structed In this country or in the world was
made possible by means OF an appropriation |
made by "a Congress controlled by their party; |
that the act was approved by President |
(Tyler). who. though elected as Wing, was |
at the time of its passage (1S43) in full accord
with the leading tencts of the Democracy OF |
the period; that Postmaster General Cave |
johnson. OF their party. in 1885, 1916, and |
1847 strongly recommended the retention OF
the telegraph under governmental control. |
und in the latter year earnestly protested |
against its surrender to private parties; that |
nearly all of his successors of both parties, in
Guiding President Cleveland's last Post |