The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-02-22
BURLESONISM.


1t took thirty hours. declares Har-
vey's Weekly, to get a rush" tele-
gram from Philadelphia to its address
in New York. 1t took twepty-four
hours to get telephone connection be-
tween Philadelphia and a telephone
subscriber in New York whose Man
haitian telephone address has been in
the local telephone book for ten years.
1t took twenty-four hours to get spe-
ciaI delivery mail package marked
urgent from New York to it's Phila-
delphia address, a distance of ninety
miles with an hourly train service
covering the ground in two hours. AL
together fifty-seven hours-two twen-
ty-four hour days and nine hours over
were consumed by the postmaster
generals combined telegraph. tele-
phone and mail service forces in do
ing an errand between Philadelphia
and New York which a messenger
could have done in six hours, with
time for a leisurely luncheon in New
York before starting back
I'VE are not calling attention. says
Colonel Harvey, ''to this speed record
Of the politicalmaster generals CO.
ordinated Geographic. telephone and
mail services because it is unusual.
The interest in the case lies solely in
the fact that it is an interlocking dem
onstration of Burlesonian efficiency IN
all of his three systems of service. To
be sure it involved the sacrifice of a
human life. But that is an irrelevant
detail.' Quoting from the weekly:
Awoman in Philadelphia was in i'm
minent danger of death. There was a
chance that her life might be saved
p. Beebe, All Park avenue, New York.
Her physician, at 10 O'Clock on
Thursday morning, sent a rush" mes
sage to Doctor Beebe. At the latest
the serum should have been delivered
early the next morning. 1t did not
come. Doctor Teller, the Philadelphia
physician, then tried the political
master generals telephone service.
The urgent nature of the case was eX-
planned at the Philadelphia telephone
office with an earnest plea for speed.
After a long interval the report came
back from the New York telephone
office that there was no such person
as Doctor Beebe among the New York
telephone subscribers. DR.. Silas P.
Beebe, the only Doctor Beebe in the
telephone book, has been a telephone
subscriber for ten years. His number
plainly printed in the last telephone
directory, is Plaza 1916. Doctor Teller
insisted that Doctor Beepe did have a
telephone. The telephone office in
sisted that he did not have one, and
informed Doctor Teller that he. Teller,
had the name wrong. This deadlock
continued from Friday morning until
along in the afternoon of Saturday,
when at last the telephone communi-
cation which should have taken fiji
teen or twenty minutes was established
after an interval of over twenty-four
hours.
In the meantime things had been
moving at breakneck speed in the
politicalmaster generals Geographic
service. The rush telegram which
Doctor Teller had sent at 10 o'clock on
Thursday morning reached Doctor
Beebe, at $50 on Friday afternoon.
Owing to the life-and-death nature of
the message, the politicalmaster gen.
eral undoubtedly had put on extra
speed. The telegram was rushed thru
to it's New York address in only a little
over thirty hours. AS quickly as he
could prepare the serum Doctor Beebe
personally directed the parcel con-
tanning it, marked it urgent"
paid the full postage rates, put on a
special delivery stamp, and with his
own hands mailed it at the Grand
| Il.
| That was at 9 o'clock on Friday
night Eighteen hours afterwards when
| telephone connection was at last estab-
| lished, DR.. Beebe was amazed to learn
| that his parcel had not been delivered
in Philadelphia. He at once prepared
more serum, and put it into the hands
of a messenger with instructions to get
| to Philadelphia with all speed. The
messenger reached the Philadelphia
address two hours ahead of the special
| delivery mail package, marked
urgent" which arrived about twenty
four hours after DIR. Beebe had him
self mailed it in a New York post
office.
But even the messenger was too
late. The woman died an hour before
he got there with the life-saving
serum.
! Now, all things considered. we are
disposed to regard this as the political
master generals supreme achieve
ment. He has been longer in deliver
ing mail matter. He has been far
longer in delivering night kilograms
by mail. We do not know that there
is anything surprising in a 24-hour
time allowance in establishing tele-
phone connection between New York
and Philadelphia. But here we have
in once instance, and that instance a
case of life and death, a demonstra-
ton of co-ordinated, interlocking in
| eptitude, of sheer helpless incapacity
of administration, which we venture
| to believe not even the Burlesonian
record can match. And if it beats
| Burleson it beats the world.
Q There was a time when we had the
best telephone and telegraph service
| in the world. Now we can challenge
the entire world on having unquali-
fiedly the worst service in either OF
both branches. We defiantly take ou1
stand on this one Burleson master
piece, and invite the whole telephone
and telegraph world to bring on Their
administrative imbeciles and down us
If they can.