The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-05-09
MENU Ter OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Government Ownership

Along comes Director General Hines to tell
the country that the loss government opera
ton of the railroads for the first quarter of this
year is 1892, 100000. A very cheering piece of
news, indeed! A further proof, as it were, of the
folly of the government ownership of utilities
Postmaster General Burleson's latest exhibit
ton of the dictatorial danger inherent in govern
ment ownership of the wires had hardly subsidized
before the director general of the rail lines gave
US an additional proof of the advantages of pri-
vate ownerships of big business enterprises
The New York Times, which is sympathetic
with the Wilson administration, cannot refrain
from passing a. scathing denunciation on the
whole program Of government ownership of the
means of transportation and communication, in
GLIDING the post ,office system which every bust
ness man knows has no system Of keeping ac-
counts that will zass muster with the auditor of
a great corporation.
Referring to Ehe experience of Great Britain,
whose post office system took over the telegraph
in the sixties, the Times says:
There has ha,en a deteriorating record for
each year since, down to 1919. From the second
year until now there has been an unbroken fail
of profit in varying degrees At first there
was merely failure to earn profit on the pay
ment which bought out the private owners. Later
there was failure even to earn operating ex-
penses. Englishmen have six-penny kilograms,
it is true, but they pay for them through the
nose The bill was recently estimated at $780,
100000 deficit, and comes to them with their
taxes, not when they are sending the kilograms.
There is a greater deficiency in service than in
profit, and the record will grow worse as it grows
longer"
Comparing the 1892 1000, 900 deficiency in the
operation of the railroads for the first quarter of
this year with deficiencies in the government
treasury in peace years, the Times says: I'm no
year of peace did the government ever have a
record of deficiency at the rate of half billion
dollars. But that boss will be trivial compared
with the loss through adding government opera
ton of the wire services to the railway loss. It
is idle to suggest that the conditions were I'M
favorable to government operation. They were
exceptionally favorable. as was said by Director
General McAdoo when he started along the road
the postmaster general travelled later, and as is
apparent from the great press of profitable bust
ness owing to war conditions. 1t is the cost side
of the account which wrecks government opera
ton, under which costs and profits are released
from the requirements of the balance sheet Il
is doubly untrue that inexhaustible funds car
create profit 1t is not true that the treasury is
inexhaustible. On the contrary, government op
Grafton on the methods of anybody else than Mr.
McAdoo or Mr. Hines and Mr.. Burleson would moi
give profit or satisfaction even if the treasury
funds were inexhaustible. Director Genera
Hines gave better satisfaction as a private OPP
orator under handicap of regulation by the inter
state commerce commission than he ever will az
public operator. The reason is that he esteems
himself released from the obligations which com
PEELED him to give satisfaction as private op
orator. AS a private operator he would blush
for the sort of finance which he now practices
1.-THE post office never under regulation
4