The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1914-03-19
CONTAINS
REPORT OF QUERY
Document Gotten Out by Postoffice
Department Contains Interesting
Items in Regard to Telegraph
URGED BY EVERY SECRETARY
More Than Seventy Bills Have Been
introduced in Congress to Accomp-
lish Desired Results

From Congressman G. H. Tavenner.
Washington, March 19.-One of
the most amazing government publ
cations issued within recent years
is Senate Document 800, which has
just come from the presses of the
Government Printing office. This
document is the report of the special
committee Of the Post Office Depart
ment which investigated the govern
ment telegraph and telephone sys-
TENS of the world.
The report is probably the most
comprehensive collection of statistics
on the. subject ever compiled. Ger
tainly tits the most complete study
of government ownership of cleo
trical communication in the En- lish
languages. 1t is a monument to the
ability of First Assistant Postmaster
General Raniel G. Roper, who was
chairman of the Investigating COM
mittee, and to the enthusiastic spirit
which now pervades the Post Office
Department.
While the report was submitted to
Congress some time ago, and the
newspapers published the fact that
the report favors the purchase of the
telephone lines of the country, the
text of the report was not made pub
lie until it came from the printers.
The document affords any investiga-
tor complete field in which to
study the question of government
telephones and telegraphs.
Part l. Of the report is the history
of the agitation for government
telegraphs from the day of Morse's
invention until the present time
This part of the report ends with the
following comment:
10 Bills Introduced
Government ownership of the
electrical means of transmitting in
telligence is brought to the attention
of the American people with the en-
dorsement Of nearly every Postmaster
General since the Civil War, and by
the example of practically every
other nation of the civilized world.
More than 70 bills have been intro
duced in Congress to accomplish it.
Meanwhile the private operation of
the Geographic and telephone fac
ilities has resulted in a virtual mon
opoly by which the people are an
nually taxed vast sums for which
they receive no adequate returns"
Part 2 deals with the efforts of
several States to control private own
ership of telegraphs and telephones.
The report says: 'FThe problem
dealt with in this legislation Gin the
states) would he finally solved by
government ownership" +.
Prices Higher
Then follow various parts contain
ing groups of statistics. It is shown
that the United States has more let
tiers received and more telephone
calls than any other country. In
number of, kilograms it stands
ninth. The American postage charge
is nearly the lowest and American
telephone and telegraph charges are
nearly the highest in the world. In
postal efficiency United States is
second only to Belgium, but in tele-
phone MISUNDERSTANDING the
Bell companies only-it stands tenth
The Bell company's long distance
rates are given as being much the
highest charged by any telephone
system, public or private, in the
world, and as vastly exceeding the
average rates in continental Europe
In Part there is table of figures
showing that in every country i1
which the government operates tele
phone and telegraph lines as an ad
ljunct to the postal service, the posta
service shows financial surplus.
The three final appendices Of thu
report present what is undoubtedl!
the most complete statistical surve!
of the telegraph, telephone and post
al services of the world ever publish
ed in the English languages. Thesl
are the figures on which the repor
is based.