The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1915-04-16
Postalization of Telephone and Tele.
graph is Aim of Congressman
Lewis-Successful Abroad.
RANK FIRST IN USE OF LETTER
But Thirteenth in Use of Wire--Rates
in Foreign Countries Compared
With Those in America.
By BURTON X. STANDISH,


any member of the House of Repre-
sentatives wishes to know about pos
tai affairs, wishes to bolster up an
impending speech with few facts, and
hasn't time to get in touch with the
Post Office Department, he has al
ways the alternative of asking Repre-
sentative David J. Lewis, of Mary
land. Lewis is simple and sure
remedy for ignorance concerning the
post office, if taken in time and in
sufficient doses. He is as full of in
formation regarding the mails as
Rep. James R. Mann is regarding
parliamentary proceedings or Sena-
tor Lafollette regarding the rail-
roads.
Right off the bat he could tell you,
if you wanted to know, how much it
would cost to send dozen China
eggs from your home in Bluefield to
your aunt in Billings, Mont, and if
you asked further, he'd tell you just
how much profit the government
made on the shipment and how much
the railroad made.
Congressman Lewis is a great be-
lever in the possibilities of the post
office and his pet idea is the postali-
cation of the telephone and telegraph.
Commenting on the advocacy of this
move by Postmaster BurlesOn, he said
the other day
Means Reduction.
"Mr. Burleson;s predecessors for SO
years have given like counsel The
principal countries of the world, the
United States alone excepted, have
already postalized these agencies.
Why? Briefly, because the postoffice
alone has the motive and the faci-
lities to make rates low enough to
render service to all the people. Be-
fore the parce lis post we had the high
est parcel rates. They are now
among the lowest in the world We
still have the highest telegraph rates.
They run from rs cents to 81. Where
the post conducts the telegraph they
run from 10 cents to "a cents for
the longest distances.
1.-The result of our high rates is
that we use the telegraph little.
New Zealand with a IL cent rate
shows 9 telegraph per capita, the
United States only l. But with the
lowest letter rates we show the high
est use, 101 letters per capita, as
against SO for New Zealand. While
our telegraph rates run from two to
over four times as high as countries
like Austria, with distances as long
and wages as high as our own, our
toll or long distance rates are even
more immoderate. They run from
three to seven times as high as the
postal telephone rates Of other coun-
tries
THE average rate for 100 miles
in nine countries Of Europe is 20
cents, as against 60 cents here; for
800 miles, 81 cents, as against $3.50
here; for 400 miles, 80 cents as
against $2.4O; for 500 miles, 46 cents,
as against SO; for 700 miles, So cents,
as against $4.2O.
Pay More Than Europe.
THAT is to say, for 100 miles we
pay three times as much as they in
Europe and for 700 miles, we pay
eight times as much.
1T costs the American as much to
ship his long-distance conversation
over the wires as it costs him to ship
his freight over the railroads. The
railroads get on an average mills
a mile for moving a ton of freight.
The charge for carrying three-minute
conversation mile is mills. Con-
versatiOns weigh about a ton on the
long distance wires.
''The effect of the rates is to re.
duce the traffic to a point as abnorm-
ally low as the rates are abnOrmally
high. Combining kilograms and
telephone messages we find that othe,
countries use the wires from two tc
four times as much as we do. Den.
mark shows II such messages pei
capita-we show only three. We rank
first in the use of the letter, but thir.
tenth in the use of the wire. More
over, our companies maintain but one
telegraph office to every seven post
offices. The postal institutions main
tain an average Of two telegraph Of
fees to every three pOstOffices. Thi:
is the penalty our country pays fol
permitting private monopoly to con
duct this part of the postal service
the highest rates and the poorest ser
vice among the nations.
Second only to the letter in i'm
portance is the local telephone call
Perhaps it would be first If it's cos
permitted it's use by all the people
In countries having postal telephones
the rate averages about cent call
or half the letter rates, while in oul
Continued on last pager.