The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1901-01-17


Teleposes and Postal savisgs Baahs.
Special to The New Orleans Times
Democrat.
Washington, Dec. 27.-The reso-
luton offered by Senator Butler of
North Carolina at the last session of
Congress calling upon the State De
partment to secure from the repre-
of the United States gov
ernment over the world all data
available bearing upon the subject
of government control Of the tele-
graph Is beginning to bear fruit.
The Senator has already received
much Of interest on this subject,
which he is now having prepared
for presentation in q few days TO
Congress. Senator Butler Is not at
all hopeful Of getting action on his
bill at this session, if, indeed he can
prevail upon the committee having
the matter in charge to take up the
bill and consider 1t. The telegraph
octopus seems TO have its tentacles
fastened 40 securely upon the legis-
lative mill at the head of the ave-
nue. that nothing can dislodge it. He
has sought In vain 10 have the COM
mittee give even q hearing to those
who are interested in inaugurating
40 era Of cheap telegraph tolls, so As
TO place the service within the reach
of everybody, as obtains today in
every civilized nation on the globe.
His request, for one reason or anoth-
er, is always denied, and the bill In
consequence sleeps undisturbed in
the pigeonholes Of the committee.
The opposition that he has met in
committee to the bill seems to be al
so shared by the State Department,
for from this quarter some most
vexatious and unlocked for annoy
ances have arisen.
When Senator Butler introduced
his resolution directing our repre-
sentatives abroad to furnish him,
through the State Department., with
the history and workings of foreign
telegraph systems, he neglected to
stipulate that these reports were to
be in English, little dreaming that
they would be framed in any other
language. His discontinue may
} therefore be better imagined than
described when the reports reached
him. They were written in every
known tongue under the sun, from
the primitive lingo of the Patagon.
ian to the mysterious hieroglyphics
of the Egyptians. In this dilemms
he appealed to the State Department
today for help, but was told tha1
they were short of tranalators and
could not be ofany assistance to him
Senator Butler has therefore had t.
bear the expense Of having thes
documents put into English wher
he has been fortunate enough to flnc
individuals who understand the Ian
guage in which they were written.
The reports, 1t seems, consisted
chiefly of official documents, gotteI
up by those in charge Of the tele
graph systems Of the countries hear,
from, the United States represents
tive accredited to these countrie
having simply acted as the forward
ing agents of these unintelligibl
official reports. One of the mos
interesting reports was that receive
from Norway. In that country tn
government not only controls tn
telegraph but the telephone syster
j as well. Every first-class hotel
supplied with telephones, 80 that tn
! usual innkeeper's inquiry in the Ian
of the Midnight Sun, instead Of b
ing "with or without bath" 10 "wit
or without telephone"
The reports show that from yoI
room In q Norwegian hotel you ma
3 speak to q person living in any cit
!. Of the kingdom, 30 widespread IN
comprehensive has the telephor
a system of that country become III
). der government control. Englan'
/, Senator Butler said, had awakene
to the necessity Of acquiring ii
4 telephone systems Of the Britt:
! Isles, as only few days ago the te
egrapbic reports from there annou
= eed that the government had bee
= directed to take steps to purchase
, q fair valuation or by condemnati'
4 if necessary all the telephone lin
+ Of the kingdom with the view
d making them part and parcel Of {
2 postal system.