Denver labor bulletin., 1917-12-08

United States Tariff Commission, who
came to Colorado for the purpose of
making a personal investigation of
the sugar beet industry, was rendered
banquet at the Shirley Hotel last
Saturday night by the progressive
wing of the Democratic party in Dem
yer. Judge Tulley Scott of the State
Supreme Court was the POSTMASTER,
and about one hundred guests, men
and women, were present. George E.
Hosmer, u. S. collector of customs,
was chairman of the arrangements
committee.
Prof. P. G. Wright, formerly of
Harvard University, who is Mr.. Lew
is expert assistant, also was a guest
of honor, and made a brief address,
outlining the work of the tariff COM
mission.
Several representatives of organ
lied labor were present by invitation,
including John R. Lawson, president
elect of the Colorado State Federation
of Labor, and Mrs. Lawson, who had
seats at the table with the guests of
honor. Lawson and Lewis are friends
of long standing. Lewis represented
the Cumberland or Western district in
congress for six years. and was an ac-
tive member of the Labor Group. hav-
ing formerly been a member of the
United Mine Workers of America.
During his time in congress, Mr..
Lewis made a special study of postal
affairs, and presented facts which re-
suited in the passage of the parcel
post law, of which he was the author.
He holds that the telegraph and tele-
phone service Of this country should
be owned by the government and
Ia "A ~ Of hF4 a "a
it is in other countries.
In his address following the ban
quet Saturday night, Mr.. Lewis advo-
Gated taking over all wire lines by tha
postoffice department.
Private and foreign functionaries
have possession Of our public agencies
Of electrical communication, the tele-
graph and the telephone. and are kill
ing more traffic than the express COM
panies ever did, by prohibitive rates
and restrictive service declared Mr..
Lewis
These investors and their great
captains of industrial finances should
withdraw from the postal field. They
should 90 into the true fields of pri-
vate finance. into the productive in
dus,ries. where their talents and their
capital might be rewarded with the
highest and not the lowest service to
mankind.
Parcel Post Saves S70.0O0.0 900.
"The parcel post law, Of which had
the honor of authorship in the house
of representatives. affords striking
illustration Of the efficiency of our
nostal system where il is allowed to
discharge its functions. The public is
saving some $40. .000. 900 this year on
its postal express parcels. as compared
with express charges. and a postal
surplus Of slO.O0O.OOO. The postoffice
has genius for doing little things
cheaply and well.
"An even greater evil exists today
in the field of public communication
sacred to the postoffice under the
"The American postmasters - IT
would be a misnomer to call him n
postmaster in other countries, for his
functions have been divided among
strangers. Looking from the postof-
flee window he shows YOU their rudi-
mentary fragments. You see on one
corner the office of Wells Fargo, on
another the Adams, farther down the
street the National and American eX-
press offices.
"And even in the field of communi-
cation. sacred to the postal system.
under the constitution, what do you
see? Well. all still in sight, YOU see
the separate offices of the Western
Union and the presumptuously named
Postal" telegraph companies, all Wy
ing with each other. and the express
companies in the prodigious waste of
the postal resources.
Europe Took Advantage.
when Alexander G. Bell found he
could talk over wire. the news was
cabled to Europe. and the postal tele-
graph engineers soon found out they
could use the telegraph wires for tele-
and telegraphing at the same
and so in Europe you see only
one line of poles for both. But on the
Maryland roads, the glory of the
Union. you see three lines of poles
the Western Union. the Postal Tele-
graph (neither rendering anv tele-
phone servicel. and the pole lines of
the Bell system. better telegraph
structure than either telegraph COM
pany. vet il is rendering no public SER
vice whatever Three pole lines! Yes.
even fourth. for sometimes the pole
line of competing telephone compa-
nies stalks into the phantasmagoria,
Waste, waste, perfect carnival
of waste of overhead, of men, of ma
terial. of capital, of managerial and
executive labor.
"Now. someone is paying this egreg 4
ious bill of waste. How is the bill col |
lccted. Let us first take the tele-
graph rates: