The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1914-02-02
Correct Eco,iolniically


Correct Economically.
Practically an s5of tile economists
WHO have treated the subject set teles
graphs aud telepho according is
the committee. are agreed as TO the
monopolisticE tendency o. this busi-
|Eess andirare % tile opinion that ii
Should be controlled by the govern.
ment. g,s
Tie committee calls attention to
the fact that Theodore N. Vail; pres
ident Of the American Telephone and
Telegraph company; by; his statement
that the telephone business must DO
ssunders common control and esuffi.
GENTLY strong to constitute practi4
cally one system, intercommanicats
ing, inter=dependent universal has
himself pointed out that the, most
efficient telephone service can be at,
tanned only under a condition Of mo-
nopoly. a
d 4 il . )
( There Is q radical difference be-
tween tlies politics Of a public and
private monopoly, both as regaros
the extension Of service and the fix
ing Of rates. the report says .'1n
the extension of service tile deter
mining factor with the government
is the needs Of the. people; with the
private monopoly tile consideration
OF profit ,aThei effect of the applica-
;tiont Of these Itwot policies to similar
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. by COMPARE
son between tile present universal exe
tension ofitlie mail facilities and tile
limited extension of the telegraph
and telephone facilities. iSSJsS
The priyate monopoly has no int
.eentiye to extend It's facilities; to un-,
profitable territory, but tile govern
ment must serve all the people. This
universal service is accomplish ed by;
the equalization Of rates. In fixing
rates the policy ofsthis government
lis to superimpose no charge for taxa
ton, but only TO SEQ to it that the
service as a whole is self-supporting.
The private monopoly, on the other
hand, must make profit and in pros
yiding for this tends to lnusa,se iis
rates to the highest point thai will
not, by so greatly restricting the:yolS
ume Of business, impair the aggre-
gate profit"
In considering the engineering fea-
lures OF wire communication the COM
mittee finds no insurmountable Job
,staeles in the way: of merging the.
telegraph and telephone facilities
with the postal service. Tho report
that the postal service main-
tains about $4,000 offices and sta
tions and.employs about 200, 900 per-
sons
The telephone service maintains
about $4,000 offices and employees;
about 100000 persons. We're these
two services merged and operated I'M
der government control 1t would be,
feasible to transfer a large number
of the telephone offices to postofficei
buildings and thus greatly reduce,
the aggregate expense for quarters.
Furthermore as the majority OF thelI
telephone employees are operators;
who require no special technical
training, the merging Of the two,i
forces would result in a material re=.l
duction in the total number of em-
rloyes required.
The committee does not believe
that any serious difficulty would be,
encountered in ficancing the propo=
sition as the extinction OF the Sc.
curities ofSthe superseded companies,
by government acquisition would bel
create a demand fofs d 81
equal amount Of other securities and
,iteWould be but natural that a large
amount aAof4thes bonds issued from
time 10 time by the government
would 4 bS purshased blythe former
ofStelephone securities
Miss Elya Wilt! of iE,airyiew. spent