Imperial Valley press. (El Centro, Calif.) 1907-current, 1913-12-24
5000, 100000 NAMED AS THE
COST OF u. S. Els

Washington, Dec. 24-Government
ownership of the nations telephone
lines would cost less than $900,000,000
and would present no greater Difficult
ties of financing than did the Panama
canal. Representative Lewis of Mary
land told the house in an exhaustive
analysis Of his proposal to have those
lines operated by the postoffice de-
partment.
"The perversion Of the laws of pub
lie and private financing" said Mr..
Lewis, "by which public governments
have been disinherited of their nor
NAL functions, has led to such corrup-
ton and decentralization that cities like
New York, with its street railways;
Philadelphia, with its gas works, and
San Francisco, with it's telephones,
have shamed the scions of Roman cor
ruption in their most dishOnorable
days.
Investigation discloses that our
Geographic rates are the highest
among twenty countries. The result
of these abnormal rates is that we
rank only ninth as telegraph users.
Against these conditions it appears
that our postal rates average lower
than other countries and that the num-
Der of letters here is the highest IN
the world.
"The telegraph companies seem to
be lacking in institutional economy or
efficiency. The operation of sending
a telegram is loaded down with "a in
cidental services and processes, not
less than so of which would be re-
placed by affxing the postage stamp.
The American inefficiency is further
exaggerated by the duplication OF tel
egraph Offices in all important towns
and cities and the denial of the serv-
ice at many thousand necessary points.
"a striking feature of the discovery
is that the telegraph service is rela-
lively declining institution and that it
would be unwise now to postalize 1t
alone and as single service. To take
over the telegraph lines alone and OPP
crate them merely as telegraph lines
might result in postal bankruptcy.
"But our tolls and long distance
rates compare with those of other
countries even less favorably than do
our telegraph rates. 1t is not unfair,
or inaccurate, to say that the Ameri-
can interurban telephone rates are the
scandal of public service rates the
world over. The American telephone
monopoly takes the thirteenth place
among seventeen countries with re-
gard to the lowness of these rates.
"The local rates of the Bell tele-
phone monopoly are just twice the av-
erage charge in other countries. While
our postal rates give US the firss rank
in lowness of charges, this company
ranks but fourteenth among sixteen
countries with it's local charges and
we are one of three countries where
I the charge for local call exceeds the
letter postal rates, the other thirteen
countries giving much lower similar
phone call than their letter rates.
"The subscribers rates in American
cities, compared with continental
cities, are about three times as high
For example, in New York 540O calls
cost about Is day under measured
service more than the four unlimited
yearly rates of London, Paris, Berlin
and Stockholm together. For like serv-
ices Baltimore pays more than the
rates for London and Paris combined
and Washington pays as much as the
five cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam
Auckland, Toxic and Copenhagen com
bined. In postal telephone countries
the local toll tariffs tend to run about
one-half the charge for letter, while
here it runs with the street car fare
and sometimes exceeds it, when it IS
three times the letter rate.
"While competition does not supply
a remedy because it divides the service
and necesstates the payment for two
phones, yet it throws an interesting
side light on the tendency OF private