The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-06-19

l.
United States and into four of the
British provinces. In all of these our
property is more or less subject to the
action of the national, State, and
municipal authorities, and the judi
cious use of complimentary franks
among them has been the means Of
saving to the company many times the
value of the free service performed. :"
ENORMOUS APPROPRIATIONS FOR GOV
ERNMENT TELEGRAMs.
Mr.. John A. Anderson, of Kansas, in
the House debate on the naval appro-
priations for telegraphic service,
mainly to be performed by the West
ern Union Company.
Each of the 13 general appropria-
tion bills" said he, will contain
similar provisions; and for a quarter
of century we have been appropriat-
ing indefinite sums to each one of the
many departments and bureaus of the
Government for telegraphing. Beyond
all question the srhole amount paid By the
government to telegraph companies has been.
Jar greater than the cost Of building all such
lines on the continent. h0re no doubt
that the amount received from the national
treasury By the Western. Union IN any fve
gears has been greater than the actual cash
paid up By its stockholders"
Mr.. Anderson's review and advocacy
Of Government postal system is one
of the strongest on record. He asks:
Whether, instead OF making heavy
and indefinite appropriations for tele-
graphic service rendered by private
corporations, year after year, and de-
cade after decade, it may not be
cheaper, wiser,> and better for the
Government to build and operate
lines of it's own?
CONGRESSMAN ANDERsON's CONCLU.
sIONs.
Postmasters-General Gresham and
Howe are quoted, and Mr.. Anderson
continues:
1.-THE proposition will strike the
average mind as indisputable, that
the Government may constitutions ally
possess and operate telegraph wire
in the same legal sense that it may
own and handle the sacks in which it
transports mail matter, or that it
may by it's own corps of carriers dis
tribute letters from post-off to
private residences, or that it may
transact banking business by issu-
ing and paying the drafts termed
mOney-Orders, or that it may conduct
the most extended express business
on the continent, and perform the
service OF common carrier OF general
merchandise, embracing articles from
garden seeds to whiffle-trees and dress
patterns to Florida alligators. 1t is
doing these things to-day and in &C
cordance with the constitution, and if
it may legally hold such property, en-
ploy men, and perform such service.
then most certainly may it legally
own and operate a telegraph wire.
A QUESTION OF CASH, NOT CosTITU-
TIONALITY.
"The insincerity of DR.. Green's al
legation to the contrary is yiyidly ex-
posed by his chief object. which he
states thus: "But il it be determined
a public telegraph service, then 1t has
CATION to take the existing telegraph
properties in the country at valua-
tion, as provided in the act of 1862
In other words, if the Government
builds lines of it's own and completes
with the Western Union, then postal
telegraph is unconstitutional; but if
it buys the Western Union property
at $50, ,00O, 900, then a postal telegraph
is or may be constitutional. So that,
after all the issue is not one of legal
power, but of $4,000, 900.
''This constitution dod &c has beer
so frequently played on 80 many diff
ferent measures, and so often exposed,
that turn from it with the remark
that the ardent solicitude for the in
tegrity of the constitution evinced by
the Western Union, the Standard Oil
Company, the land-grant railroad
burglars, and the whole host of cOrpo-
ration pirates would be amusing if it
we're not so nauseatingly disgusting,
and possibly warrants the hope that
this noble charter Of liberty, which
had a mighty hard time before they
were born, will yet now, and in some
feeble way, manage to Straggle dOwr
the cen turie S."
THE QUESTION OF ESPIONAGE.
In the face of DR.. Green's insinua-
tion that under a postal telegraph
system "sooner or later an espionage
of kilograms would be instituted" by
the Governmental the question is asked
whether the danger OF espionage by
men responsible to the people would
be any greater than by men respon-
sible to Mr.. Gould alone. From testi.
mony before the Senate committee il
was calculated by Mr.. Anderson that
the enormous increase in patronage
would really be not more than 13,OO(
all told, or one additional employe tt
each 1000 Americans. He proposed
to build and equip three trunk lines
issuing $6,00O,0OO United States bond:
at the lowest rate of iterest, ire
deemable for ten years, and, payable
at the rate of $500, 900 in each one ot
the subsequent 20 years, the interest
earnings OF the postal telegraph.
SENATORIAL INVESTIGATION.
Senator Hills committee on post
offices and post-r Dads was instructe,
to inquire whether the cost of tele
graph correspondence had been in
juriously affected by the large stool
dividends made by the Western
Union. by consolidation, by contracts
leases, etc.
WHY A PRIvHrE TELEGRAPH COME
HIGH.
The investigation covers the West
ern Union stock-jobbing operations il
detail, and the committee reported
that nearly the whole stock capital o1
$50, ,OO0, 600 had arisen from stool
dividends and from purchases of othel
lines, which we're paid for by issues o.
ste OK. ''If we assume that every mil,
of wire owned by the Western Uniol
is essential to it's business OF trans
mitting kilograms. viz. 431, ,728 miles
the value of the property at SO [fron
the testimony the committee puts thu
average cost for wire, poles, construc