The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-10-15

added at centers which require the
telegraph and where civil service rules
obtain. The telephones and telegraphs
would be put in the postofhce buildings
already owned or rented by the gov
eminent, thus saving the rent of all
the buildings now used by the private
companies. This, and the saving of
the salaries Of the officials of the pres
ent corporations and the dividends on
their largely watered stock, would en-
able the government to reduce its tolls
to the uniform rate of ten cents per
message Independently of the large in
crease in business.
In Great Britain 10y the Of
fetal report made TO this gov
eminent in the United States Consular
Reports for April, 1880 the increase
since the government has taken over
the telegraph and telephone has been
tenfold in private messages, and thirty
fold in press messages; and the i'm
provement in promptness of delivery
has been from an average of two to
three hours under private ownership,
to an average of nine minutes under
government. This wonderful increase
in business has been due to the three
fold cause Of cheap rates, extension of
the lines to all postofices, and greater
prOmptness in delivery. With wire
costing less than $40 per mile, there is
no reason why the government should
not own a line to every postcfice in
the Union.
There should be no dicker
with private companies about leasing
or purchasing. 10 1866 they only asked
for five years to close up, but when the
five years were out they had formed
the present great trust and have ever
since defed the public. They have had
thirty years notice to abandon their
use of a branch of the governmental
functions. In that time they have re
ceived hundreds of millions of profits
illegally extorted from the toiling
masses. They have no claim to extract
another dollar by lease Or sale of their
Anticipated or worn-out instruments.
Let the government give the actual
value of such wire and material
as it may wish to use and
take complete and exclusive
possession of the duties of a postcm ,e
Certainly these corporations are
entitled to no compensation for
/ Rmo-0LS1nr l1CN ~ 1-1nOAnA
profits, since under the act of
1865 every telegraph line has been built
under a contract that it should be
turned over to the government upon
payment OF the assessed value of the
material. The franchise has, always
been the property of the government
and was only temporarily permitted to
be used by the private corporations.
Every postmaster who can talk can
use the telephone; and where a tele
graph Office is required, the govern
ment a employ an assistant as opera
tor, as easily as any other clerk. Other
countries, without exception, are doing
this good work of furnishing electric
mail facilities at cheap rates to all its
people, in the country as we'll as in the
town. Why should this government,
alone of all the world, which claims,
par excellence, to be a government of
the people and for the people, fail in
this constitutional duty of furnishing
proper postal facilities and to all it's
peoples The only proper postal facili-
ties for the Americanpeople are
those which shall extend to every
nook and corner of the republic,
which shall be the best which the late st
advances in science can offer, and
which are furnished as near the exact
cost of the service, as is possible and
without profit. Such postal facilities
the American people are entitled to de-
mand as a right. They should rest con-
tented with nothing short of this.
WALTER CLARK.
Raleigh, N. @.