New-York tribune., 1918-12-16
o'"eeping Cut in Telephone
Rates Ordered by Burleson


of the Commercial Gable Company.
few days ago he removed Edward
Reynolds as general manager of the
Postal Telegraph lines. More startling
still, Mr.. Burleson has turned over our
entire cable system. including five
cables across the Atlantic, and the 10-
000-milc cable from San Francisco to
China, Japan and the Philippines, a
cable from New York to Cuba, and a
cable from New York to Hayti to our
competitor the Western NnioN
graph Company, which owns no cable
lines what. over except u CIV ,n,.'o
cable lines from Florida to Cubn), but
merely leases some cable lines in the
Atlantic Ocean.
"Mr. Burleson has also called in as
his adviser Mr.. Vail, who caused the
Bell company in 1909 to acquire control
of the Western Union and then MO
cecded to wage unscrupulous warfare
on our land and ocean system uAtll
stopped by the Attorney General of the
United States, who forced those two
companies apart.
BELL Men in Saddle"
'I see now that Mr. Burleson has
appointed a new committee to control
graph and ephone-namely Mr..
Bethel, of the Bell company; Mr..
Stephenson, of the Bell company; Mr..
Yorke of the Western Union, and a
Mr.. Adams, Of the Kansas City Tele
phone Company.
an other words, the Western Union
and Bell Telephone interests are in the
saddle.
"Al this | consider part and parcel
of widely spread plot to bring about
government ownership of all wire COM
munications and incidentally enable
the Western Union and Bell Telephone
companies to sell out to the govern
ment at high price. My companies
have opposed government ownership
for years at all times and still oppose
it. Hence, we are marked for annihila-
tion with no delicate processes in the
way of bringing it about. We will see
about that.
"The course of events is significant
Last spring the Telegraphers' Union
suddenly developed activity. The diff
ferences between the union and the
companies were finally referred to the
President of the United States and in
a personal letter to both Mr.. Carlton
the president of the Western Union
and myself, he requested us to carry
out the mandate Of the labor board
The Postal company promptly complied
with the Presidents request. The
Western Union refused. The union
threatened a strike. The strike did not
( materaliZc.
"Then in vague way the PROPOSE
tion was presented to Congress to pass
a joint resolution authorizing the tax
ing over of the telegraph, telephone
and cabl elines. The Senate was as
sured that passage of the resolution
would not be followed by action un-
less circumstances changed. The reso-
luton was passed on that understand
ing, and Immediately the telegraph and
later five days after the armistice had
been signed, the cable lines were
seized
Objects to Compensation
"The compensation of the Western
Union and Bell Telephone for the use
of their telegraph and telephone lines
was fixed by the Postmaster General
at an extremely high figure. The com
pcnsation of the Postal Telegraph
Gable Company was fixed at about two
tifths of what that company actually
earned last year Then came the re-
moval of Mr.. Reynolds as manager of
its lines, and now comes the removal
of Mr.. Ward, Mr.. Cook and myself
from the management of our cable
lines, which have been turned over to
our competitor, the Western Union,
with which company we have been in
a competitive war for thirty-four years
ever since our existence. At the
same time a resolution is introduced
in Congress by the chairman of the
Postofficc Committee in the House for
government ownership of telegraphs
and telephones.
"These are facts, and I think they
show clearly the purpose of it all,
! namely, government ownership for po-
litical purposes. with incidental high
prices to the Western Union and Bell
Telephone companies for their proper
ties. And this in America | don't be-
lieve it will succeed.
Fears Too Much Power
"Only last night I was reading a
book just published by Max Farrand,
professor of history at Ya.e Nnvt.
entitled development of the United
States IN which he says that one of
the causes leading to the trouble with
President johnson was the stubborn
ness of Johnson in regard to the con-
tlnued exercise of excessive executive
lower. Professor Farrand says:
"It would seem as if the members
of Congress were instinctively right
in opposing the overweening power