Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-10-14
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP q
80 TELEPHONES,


City: 0umbel Bldg. Kansas City. MO
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF
TELEPHONES.
The administration has thoughts OF
acquiring the express business by ''fur-
nishing competition which the COM
panies will not be able to meet Tne
experiment seems In fair way TO
succeed. for the postmaster OF rev
York city estimates that the parcels
post collections for the year for the
United States will range between $2O,'
600, 900 and 100000, 900, the calculation
being based on the increase OF the CITY
so far. This easy money shows the
way TO further profits OF the same sort
the happy thought being to get con-
troll" OF long distance telephone COM
munications in some way not exactly
described, and use the telephones TO
get control Of the telegraph business
N the way that the postal parcels VIII,
It ia asserted, give control OF the ex.
press business. It is as easy to as
sumo success with the wire communi-
cations az with the express business
and thereafter it will be easy LOT the
government to acquire all sources OF
profit, and operate everything lot the
people at cost, perhaps even lot notn-
ing.
It won't be done because 1t cant
be done. The nearer the approach 70
apparent success the severer the re-
yulsion from proposals 50 immoral ana
uneconomic.
Easy ways to wealth have something
wrong about them.
II the proposals were to provide
economic competition, and by superior
eff1ciency to drive incompetent cor
porations out Of the express, telegraph,
telephone. railway, and other undertake
inps. not q word would be raised IN
their defense. They are commercial
enterprises. and must take the risks
OF their trades. But when the propo-
sal Ia to throw the taxing and law
making power into the scales agalnst
them in order to destroy the value OF
their property, 1t Is "unfair- use
= word which will be understood BY
those who have followed modern
economics. How grossly unfair II
would be appears from the methods
nv which the profits Of the postal par.
cells business are reached. OF the $2O,'
900 1000 estimated profits the railways
estimate that $17,000,0Q are due them
for unpaid services, " That is none the
less robbery because done under the
forms of law, and in the name OF gov.
eminent. Every receiver OF postal
parcel carried at the cost Of the rail-
wayer whose services are not paid Tor
is/al receiver Of stolen goods, and can
rA,ieve himself Of his personal COM
uficitv only by seeing that the cost
n what he receives Is paid to those
who serve him. So far from warrant
k1np further experiments in the same
directfon the postal parcels service IS
an object lesson Of the manner IN
which the government should not 40
things that multitude les would like to
see done If it were honest and possible
to do them.
The economic objection to govern
ment operation of telegraphs and tele-1
nhones are too numerous to recite. No
one who has knowledge Of foreign prec-
edents can cite them in favor OF im1-
tation. Government telephone service
is bad. and it Is costly. There Is no
telephone service in the world so good
as ours, and it is steadily being cheap
ened. What would be the effect upon
the increasing efficiency of tying up
its developments with national bud
get now showing deficit? This Is
the rock on which foreign services
split, They spend so much on armies
and navies that they have no SURPRISES
for services of peace.
In France there is one telephone or
each III Of the inhabitants. In the
United States there is one for each
IA. The French are envious Of our
telephone system, yet it is proposed
that we shall adopt the French way.
England took over the telegraph on
= promise Of per cent. on the esti-
mated cost. When the bargain was
COMPLETED the cost was quadrupled,
and since then the capital investment
has been doubled. Interest has never
been earned, and sometimes not opera
ting expenses. It has been calculated
that the commercial loss of the trans
action was $175, 1000, 900 some years ago
and that the current loss is $4,000 900.
annually. Nevertheless the telephones
have been taken over, and the expert
ence is being repeated. The cost is
rising above the estimates, and the
complaints OF deteriorating service are
rising faster than the costs. In a re-
cent budget Germany reduced the item
from 100000 marks to 25,000000
marks Fancy limiting our telegraph
or telephone facilities because there
was deficit, as there is at the mo-
ment. "A
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