Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-02
FEDERAL WIRE CONTROL?

| FEDERAL WIRE CONTROL?
| CONGRESS probably will not refuse the
~ President the authority to operate the
| telegraph and telephone lines which was
| formally requested yesterday after all ef-
forts at mediation between the Western
| Union and its employees had failed But
| this end to the dispute, unavoidable as II
| may be under the circumstances, will be
| disquieting to any one who has closely
| considered the possible results Of Govern.
ment direction and Government ownership
in this particular field.
| Obviously the Federal Government could
not tolerate the suggestion of a strike
among telegraph operators. There were
| promises from both sides that strike
would not be permitted to interfere with
| Government business. But it must be re-
| membered that nine-tenths Of the business
! now transacted over the telegraph lines
of the country relates in one way or an
other to the conduct of the war The
labor board suggested logical means for
the amlable settlement of the dispute be.
| tween the directorate Of the Western
Union and the employees representing the
| workers organization. The President him.
self urged upon the Western Union off,
| cple. The corporation president refused to
| relinGuish a fixed position Of hostility to
trade unionism, and the workers officials
announced preparations for a strike next
Monday. Thus the disagreement within
the Western Union was permitted to drift
to a point where Federal interference was
imperative. The Western Union officials
in rejecting the repeated suggestions for
arbitration. rejected principle and method
upon which the whole world of civilization
is learning to depend in affairs which are
of vastly more Importance than the des-
TIMES of one telegraph company. When
victory has been won the nations will turn
to the peace conference-an arbitration
board of the larger dmensons-for the
final settlements But the logic Of the
situation is lost in the bitterness Of the
teegraphers' dispute The strike as 1t was
threatened, with the possibilities OF disrupt.
ing reactions throughout labor organiza-
tions allied with the wremen, might
easily have been perilous TO the nation as
a whole in this crisis. The Government
was driven into it's present mood, and the
President adopted the only means at his
disposal to avoid a breakdown in the
system of communication that binds the
industries Of the country together at their
common task.
And yet the general plan of Federal
wire control while it may cheer Mr..
Burleson and others of his type, will seem
to many more thoughtful men to be an
altogether discouraging and regrettabe
business.
The peculiar function and nature Of the
telegraph system are such that 1t should
be kept permanently free from all possible
danger Of political control political con-
| facts. II the telegraph lines of the future
| or the present were to be, like the post
office say, under the direction of favored
| politicians in given localities the possible
| consequences Of the arrangement would be
disastrous. 1t is inconCeivable that the
private affairs of business and professional
interests throughout all the country should,
! by any trick of circumstances, become an
| open book to men of the sort familiar in
the intermediate offices which are given
over habtually to the favored members of
| this or that party. And yet that is the
least of the suggested perils.
Men of Mr.. Burleson's type who now en-
press an eagerness to control the wire
comm unication OF the country are content
| to do the easiest part of the work.
The thing that Mr.. Burleson would take
over were he to be given direction Of
the Western Union or the Bell systems
is not a thing that he himself or any man
of his type could have created. The
talent and the initiative and the peculiar
genius that built up the amazingly eff
cient wire systems in this country-the
most remarkable telephone and telegraph
systems in the world--are not available to
the Federal Government in ordinary times.
| The great public service systems In
| America have been created in spite of the
politicians rather than with their help.
And great as the telephone and telegraph
systems are, they are yet In the process of
| refinement and development Government
ownership would be calamity, and 1t is to
| Government ownership that officials like
those in the Western Union are driving
the country.
The public service systems must uti-
mately have the inspiration of individual
| imagination, of Individual vision and
daring. This is the quality that has
given us the greatest railway and commu-
nication systems in the world. These
! systems cannot be entrusted to politicians
unless some revolutionary process In gen.
eral thinking sends the really able men of
the narion into the minor fields of pub lie
service.