Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-05-26
PROMISES OLD RATE
IF GIVEN CONTROL
Postal Company Head Asks
Congress to Restore Wire
Service to Owners.

Proposal that if Congress will take
the wire service from control and OPP
Grafton by the Post Office Department
and restore it to private ownership
and operation. the Postal Telegraph
Cable Company will at once reduce
ing the old rates. is made in cir
cular letter to all members OF Con-
gress. = 49,. ss5.s ...., 80. ....-s..s.z
This proposal. 10 signed by Clarence
H. Mackay. president OF the Postal
company, who says that the American
sb6SHS would thus bAsontSo,$ f th16t
q million dollars a month that 10 now
going into excessive charges. He ac-
cuses Postmaster General Burleson
and Theodore N. Vail president Of
the American Telegraph and Tele-
out the competition by the Postal
company.
Mr.. Mackay's Letter.
The letter. which was read with
much interest by members OF Con-
gress. is as follows:
ITO the Members of Congress-:
I'VE beg to urge on you the i'm.
portance Of the prompt passage of
the Joint resolution introduced by
Congressman Steenerson In the House
Of Representatives on May 10, 1919,
conditional return to the owners Of
the telegraph and telephone systems
taken over by the government under
the joint resolution of July 16, 1913.
Immediately upon the return of
the telegraph lines to US We shall
cent. thus restoring those rates to
what they were before the Postmaster
General announced the increase Of
20 per cent which took effect April
1. 1919, and thus saving the American
public over 100000 a month. We
shall not ask the government to pay
to the Postal Telegraph Gable Com
pany 81 for the use of it's lines dur
ing the period Of government con-
troll. but. shall merely ask to be al
lowed to keep what our lines have
actually earned from the transaction
Of the telegraph business during the
period Of government control.
Quotes Mr.. Burleson.
POSTMASTER General Burleson, in a
letter to Representative Moon. dated
mendations Of Mr.. Burleson's wire con-
troll board as to what 1T considers
necessary legislation to accompany the
return of the wires to the owners, an
nounces program which, If enacted
into legislation. will mean the legaliz-
ing of countrywide monopoly of wire
communications and will mean in
creasd rates, just as was advocated for
many years by Mr.. Theodore N. Vail,
the president of the American Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company, who is
Mr.. Burleson's personal adviser. Mr..
or telephone company may purchase
any other telegraph or telephone COM
pany, or consolidate, or pool their
traffic.
hours for the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company and the Western
Union Telegraph Company to get to-
gether under any such act Of Congress.
The voice Is the voice Of Mr.. .Burleson,
but the hand is the hand of Mr.. Vail.
Six wears ago the present administra-
ton broke up just such an attempted
monopoly by forcing the Western Union
and the American Telephone and Tele-
graph Companies to separate.
Restores Monopoly, He Says.
"Mr. Burleson now proposes to re-
establish that monopoly. What he and
Mr.. Vail are aiming at is to wipe out the
competition of the Postal Telegraph and
Commercial Cables. and to prevent the
Postal Telegraph Gable Company from
making the 20 per cent reduction in the
telegraph rates. This country knows
what a monopoly is in the telegraph
business, because 1t had such a monop-
DIV by the Western Union prior to 1884.
when the Postal Telegraph Commercial
Gable System came into. existence. It
formerly took twenty-four hours to send
a telegram to California and get reply.
1.-THE deteriorating service and the
increasing rates during the past ten
months of control of the wires by Mr..
Burleson and Mr.. Vail is just a sam
pie of what the country would have to
endure If the wire communications
were allowed to pass into the control
Of one man or set of men. The Ameri-
can people are opposed to monopoly
in the wire service-they want COM
petition restored with it's superior
service and it's reasonable rates, and
such competition can only be restored
by returning the wires to the owners
Immediately and Internationally and
without any qualifying legislation.
Tells What Has Been Done.
"Mr Burleson has done four things:
% He has deadened the telegraph
service. ca He has increased the
telegraph rates by 20 per cent. 90
He has given the Postal Telegraph
Cable Company only &1,es0,o0o. al