The sun., 1918-12-18
. BurleSon and His Wires.

BurlcsOn and His Wires.
Hell Is paved with good resolutions
no more profusely than the business
fields are strewn with the wrecks of
high finance. buying properties on a
shoestring and dreaming to pay for
them out Of their profits.
Postmaster General BuRLEsoS thinks
he could take over permanently the
telegraph and telephone systems with.
out costing the Government n penny.
He thinks Government ownership
could operate and extend the wire
service so much more cheaply than pri-
vate ownership has operated and Ak
tended the wire service that the DIFF.
ference between the two costs would
pay. in something more than n gencr-
alton. for all the properties acquired.
He thinks the Government could Dor
row money at AZ per cent, the loan
to be extlnguished by earnings of z
and 8 per cent. He thinks the Gov
eminent could do all this and still
give the public both n better and a
cheaper service. So he wants this
Congress, in the brief span of life left
1t, to take over the companies, right
away, this minute.
But Mr.. BUMEsoN doesn't know,
nobody knows-and knowing Is a DIFF.
ferent thing from Neutrality-suspicious.
the Government will operate the wires
Mt a profit or at loss. He doesn't
know whether the Government will
give better service or q poorer SER
Vice. He doesn't know whether ne
will have a surplus or whether. even
with higher rates, like the railroads
under Government control, he will
have deficit. He doesn't even know
whether the Government can borrow
money at Az per cent.
Many persons who have forgotten
more about finance, industry and bust.
ness than Mr.. BURLEsoN ever knew.
would be quite willing to stake their
regulations on the prediction that II
the Government should go on borrow
ing money right and left, should go
on squanderlng 1t like sailor on shore
leave on every kind and description
OF hare-bralned venture, Il couldn't
borrow money at AZ per cent. or
81 per cent. or 6i5 per cent.
II the Government should Lose
money on its wire service as heavily
as It loses on its railway service in
spite IF enormously Increased charges
TO the public, the Government couldn't
borrow ar all to go on with Its disas-
trouS business experiments.
But waive all these latter consider.
ations, and there remains the fact. ap-
peallng with 100 per cent. of power
to the horse sense of the American
people, that before Postmaster-Gen-
eral BURLEsoE or anybody in behalf
of the Government takes over perma-
nently the wire system, everybody.
Democrat or Republican. for or
against the principle of public owner
ship, wants TO see what sort of fist
the Post Office Department can snake
of the job now on its hands. Nobody
knows anything at nil about 1t yet
Everybody will know something about
II six months from now. II we don't
know enough about 1t then to decide
wp can takp another Dprlod for stulv-
ing the question.
There remains another important
fact, under our form of Government
supremacy important 1t Is that
whether the Government Is going to
stay in the wire business or Is going
to get out, II Is not for this Congress
to decide. 1t cannot decently be de-
cided by this Congress.
This Congress has been not merely
rebuked at the national polls by the
American people; It has been ex-
PEELED by them from the Government
The authority which It carried to arr
for the American people has been
cancelled. They don't want this re-
pudlated Congress to decide for them
the railroad question, the wire queS-
ton, or any other question that can
be settled after this rejected Congress
has quit doing things for the Amerl.
can people-has quit doing them by
their command.