Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-19
ETHERizINC PUBLIC SERVICE
The Telegraph and Telephone Lines Seem
Destined for Vivisection by Mr.. Burleson

Burleson--and for the sake of the
| argument we will admit the Postmaster
| General himself into this restricted group
! cannot imagine him plotting and build
ing the Pennsylvania Terminal in New
| York or tunneling the East River or
spending millions in uncertain expert
tnents to improve mail. telegraph or tele-
| phone service. Some such reflection as
this inunircs the doubts and rnisgivings
| and the repressed gloom with which the
| country has observed plans for the trans
fer of telegraph lines to Federal control.
and Mr.. Burieson's avid glances at the
| telephone systems which may follow be
| fore long. The press is filled with muted
lamentations. The people sigh end ac-
! cept The new arrangement as penalty
! Of war.
| Il would be idle t. blame M. Burleson
! alcnc for ali the limitations with which
he is destined to afflitt the wire service Of
| the country. He. too, is az a diSadvan-
tage. 4 is the hGbi OF mass opinion, ard
Of all men who mUst Interpret mass op'R-
ion. to be conscrrct re, cnrctn', slo'c NOR
ing. II is for this reason that exceptional
men Of courage rfd bo'd iuogirdti tion ere
necessary al The front Of crcry greet en-
,crprise.
driven along. by the force of their own
dominating ideas toward goals which
they alone can see clearly. Animating
impulses such as theirs are seldom OBJ
servable in tho procedure Of Government
agencies.
FaJvrGm damned the torpedoes. Cor
gress wouId hare appointed committee
to iurcetigate them
A. j. Cassatt ignored the expense and
gave his stockholders chill after chill
when he built the greatest of his ter
rninals. But he exalted railroadng to an
art. dignified it with structure as noble
as a cathedral and showed the way up
ward to all other men in his calling.
President Mcleod, of the Reading. might
have saved millions for his company had
h. been content to build the Philadel-
phia terminal at Arch street But he
overrode the stockholders, who couldn't
understand him, poured out the money
and finally ran his trains to the very
heart of the city.
The Bell Telephone system is indubit-
ably one of the most efficient and sensi-
lively organized things rpon this various
earth. 1t is generations ahead of any,
Ia, 80 la. -,
nett said the telephone system was the
most wonderful thing in America. Even
if Mr.. Burlesen, or any other Cabinet
officer. were qualified to organize such
system of communication he would be
hobbled and restrained by his unescap-
able environment.
What help could q man, mored by
uision and q passion for piling one per-
| lection upon another, erpect from the log
rollers in Congress?
What a Congressman cannot see and
understand he calls visionary 1t is in
teresting at this time to recall that only
five years ago Congress was shrilly re-
fusing the army the funds it requested
for research in aviation. There are men,
bers still in the House who used to make
humorous speeches about airplanes and
speak of them jovially as useless jim
cracks.
"What9 Flying soldiers? Ho. ho"
It is not easy in the light of such
occasions, to imagine Congress granting
millions to a director of wires for ex-
periments in wireless telephony. That,
however, is what the privately directed
corporations have done. 1t was the en-
gineers of the Bell company who per-
fected the system of wireless telephony
now used by American aviators at the
battlefront. Some day or other that
system will pay, and pay we'll in mere
money.
The Western Union cannot claim
celestial perfection of aim or of method.
| 1t is a corporation administered with
| great efficiency. 1t sent night letters in
| suitcases. But it has ina agination greater
than that which was required in playing
on the imagination of its patrons. In
recent years the Western Union actually
has shown signs of forward view and
constructive reasoning. 1t warred upon
organized labor. But it did no more, in
| the long run, than many other corpora
tons which have tried to meet all the
requirements of trades union working
standards while avoiding the danger of
strikes. The Western Union went in for
the human approach to it's workers. 1t
raised salaries voluntarily and granted
water, paint and varnsh and plate glass
and new furniture and sanitary equip
ment to maintain the health and lift the