The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-08-23

ticallv controlled by half dozen men demon
Istrates both that the government operate them
and that it not safely trust such vast power
to fe": hands.
ment ownership even to the extent of taking over
| the trunk lines, though government ownership Of
railroads prevails in all other great countries save
| England. Our people preferred government con
| troll of railroads and decreed ii by enacting an
| Interstate Commerce Commission and many
| State Railroad Commissions. After many years
| trial. government control of railroads has been
| a failure. Every attempt to tax them fairly, to
| regulate their rates and to require safe guards
| for employees or the public to assert any
| legal control whatever by the law has been re-
| sisted and often successfully. The railroads have
gone into politics and have their representatives
| in each of the great departments of government.
| We are much nearer railroad control of govern
| ment than government control of railroads. By
| their Determinations and favor, they are to-
| gether with the tariff, the two foundations upon
| which other trusts repose.
| The telegraph too originally belonged to our
Post Office Department both telegraph and
| telephone do i'll all other great countries Eng
| land included In them YOU send telegram
from any point to any other for 10 or u cents,
and in some countries the government charges
| So or 50 per annum for the of the telephone.
In this country the telegraph rates are such that
though Congressional investigation showed, the
stockholders of the Western Union have never
paid in but $5l5000 in cash that company is
| capitalized S120, 600, 900 besides having paid
dividends all these years. There is reason
| why people should have paid the enormous
sums accumulated by the telegraph and telephone
| companies when the government could have
saved the public these sums by operating them
| as part of the Post Office as all other civilized
| countries have done. Then in all other countries
| but ours the Post Office operates Parcel Post
| delivering packages, up to IL pounds in weight
| even by rural mail delivery for 6 cents up. The
| express company monopoly has defeated all pro-
| positions of the kind here. We know from Of
fetal reports that the railroads charge the gov
eminent for annual rental of postal double
the cost of building the cars, and that they
! charge for freight mail in addition, eight
| times what they charge the express companies
| for hauling the weights. -Four Presidents
| and several Postmaster Generals have recommend
| cd the return of the telegraph to the Post Office
| and the adoption of European Parcels Post and
| Postal Savings Banks but in vain. In short,
have the most Anticipated postal system among
| civilized States The Review of Reviews for
| this month says that postal system (which
ought to be the best in the world, is falling be-
hind that of almost all civilized countries
| because private interests which absorb half the
| postal revenues much influential at
| Washington than is the public demand for
| better service better basis" The sole
remedy Is government operation through the Post
Office of telegraph, telephone, and Parcels Post
| and OWNERSHIP? OF its own postal
The postal scandal which of late has attracted
| so much public attention did not take from the
public altogether much the public loses in
any one hour by the excess in trust charges in
| operating these functions and above what
| the charges would be if operated by our Post
| Office, as in other countries.
i The newspaper trust levics annually two and
| half million dollars on the press by excessive
| prices for blank paper. We're that amount levied
| by government to tighten other taxation indig-
| nation would know bounds. Ii is paid 10
| trust magnates and not a whimpcr is heard Are
we the same people who resisted a stamp tax
paper because not levied by consent?
We are told that the people opposed to
| government ownership. They would be if the
| former state of things could he restored, but
the Trusts and great corporations have demon
| strated that this not be done The only
resource is in matters of monopoly to replace the
| Trust which is exploiting the public to make
| millionares by bigger trust the government
| of which the people will be the benehciaries and
| not the victims. When the Coal Trust shut
| down, Pierpont Morgan said he had power
| to intervene, but when schools began to close
for want of coal ominous growl went up. A
| Democratic State Convention met and a Demo-
cratic candidate for President introduced a reso-
| luton for government ownership of coal mines
| Ii passed like a clap of thunder. The Trust
magnate promptly found he had power with the
coal barons He FASTENED to Washington The
! President found he had power, without any
| statute, to appoint a Board of Arbitration, and
| the chief demands of labor were granted. Gov
eminent ownership is probably closer at hand
than think.
The people are yet all-powerful. When aroused
relief from Trusts will be demanded and what
| the American people demand there is power
beneath the skies to refuse them. Bayonets and
| iDlunCtlOnS can move only by JneH permission
| and in enforcement of their will.
Justice Brown, in Scott V. Donald, los L. S.
at p. lG6, spoke of the dangerous inhexihihty
of the United States Constitution 1t is 125
years old and ill-suited in some respects to the
needs of today The people have long since
changed its President, elected at third hand by
electors chosen by State Legislatures, into
President elected by themselves. They will also
beyond question change plutocratic Senate and
life-tenure Judiciary into officials chosen by
themselves and representing their will. The peo-
pie are not the creatures of the Constitution.
| but the Constitution is the creature of their
hands They have changed it and viii change it
again at their sovereign ":ill.
1t was not by accident that Virginia gave to
the world George Washington and Thomas JEFF
| ferson-two of the worlds greatest A
great man is but the highest expression of the
will and intelligence of the people among whom
he lives. If your ancestors had not thought and
! felt as Washington and jefferson thought and
felt your ancestors had not put them forward
and they would not have been prepared and
ready at the critical moment to lead the greatest
movement of the ages.
Jesus Christ came from people by whom and
at time when, he not understood APP
preciated. This is zone of the strongest proofs
of his divinity fer in all history other great
prophet or leader has, like him. come forth out
of any Nazareth but has always been the con
! densed and highest expression of his day and
generation.
This people and this time are seeking true
| men and great leaders to express their views.
The breed of noble men is not yet exhausted in
our country. We yet look with hope 10 the
| salvation of Israel.
Would that power could roll back the
stone from the mouth of the sepulchre and call
forth the spirit of the mighty dead whose mortal
remains sleep Mt Vernon's slope, Would that
the angel of the resurrection could summon from
Monticello's side the peoples friend who led our
| nations untred feet along the paths of popular
| government. Among these valleys and noun
tains. in the Virginia they loved so we'll and
served so faithfully surely something of the
spirit that once was theirs loves still to dwell.