Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-24
A MONUMENT, QUICK, FOR
AN ACCIDENTAL PATRIOT!
Mr. 5urIeson Continues to Shock the
Country Into Sense Of the Perils
Of Government Ownership

| hoods, who are preparing 10 lobby for
/ government ownership at the coming
session Of Congress- and bcseech them to
give momentary attention to the uproar
, III the mail and wire service and tn" re-
! cent incredible experience Of the New
! York World.
or the first time in history IA gag has
! been applied ON tn" telegraph lines to
I stop newspaper criticism Of public Off
! uiaI.
The public official was Mr.. Burlcson.
Mr.. Burcson controls the wires. To the
World was denied the right to telegraph
the text nf an article which expressed its
lipened opinions of the postmaster gen
eral. It is but fair to say that no formal
orders from Washington were RESPONSE
bic for the wire gag in New York. 1t APP
, pears, rather, that the officials in a serv-
ice already terror ridden were unwilling
to take chances. The atmosphere pre-
valing in the mail system and in the
telegraph service makes it appear that
they used good judgment and merely re-
! acted to an instinct of self-preservation.
Lately, in the postal service. those who
, criticize the Presence or assume to lead
the rank and file in efforts for self-bct-
terment are promptly fired. The news
paper of the Postal Telegraph Company's
employees has been suppressed under
orders from above. 1t dared 10 criticize
some of the conditions of the service and
Was not always laudatory in its COM
ments on Mr.. Burleson.
Conservative representatives of the
men in the Postofiice Department are
telling the world that their service is
packed with spies. Under the present
administration the mail system has been
burdened by efficiency systems espionage
and schedules brutaly devised to pare
! down the wages of men who are already
underpaid and overdriven. The vast
postal system of the country is operated
by disillusioned and disheartened men.
| The wire systems seethe with discon-
| tent.
But Mr. Bureson is not a failure
He is a magnificent success.
! He does not deserve abuse. He de-
! serves. instead. tall monument-a beau
! tifu white shaft in a green place-writ
| ten over with the fondest expressions Of
gratitude that his countrymen can devise.
! For he has done more in his short period
to make the perilous theory of govern
ment ownership ridiculous and detested
than an ordinary man could accomplish
!, in lifetime of ardent effort.
Scribblers might scribbe for a genera
ton, theorists might declaim until they
were hoarse and yet they would do less
than Mr.. Burleson has done to reveal the
accumulation of assorted disasters that
NAV follow one-man control of essential
public utilities in a country that depends
upon free speech, free communication
and the party system of politics as es-
sentials of its life.
For Mr.. Burleson is nothing more or
less than a politician with a politicians
| limitations of mind accidentally in con-
| troll of agencies whose pOtentlalitles he
| does not even comprehend. There is no
reason why his mistakes might not be
! repeated upon a more disastrous scale
bv others as limited as he if, in the future,
we are to adventure further i'll govern
ment ownership of utilities. 1t happens
that the postmaster general has applied
to the affairs Of his office the prejudices
of a seety toryism and a temperamental
dislike and distrust of wOrkingmen,
| Were he of another type, if he had
special interests to serve or friends to
protect; if he were a convinced partisan
of such brgand groups as used to rule
American industry, his power now would
be terrible to contemplate The fact Of
the matter is that the utilities of the
country are too vast and too complicated
ever to be left under the control of one
man. whether he be merely a narrow
minded egotist with a genius for making
/ trouble or an adroit politician ready tC
use the essential resources of the country
to terrorize his enemies and protect his
friends.
1t is worth wondering what would
bappen if the railway brotherhoods al
some future time should find themselves
under the control of a man like Mr.. Bur
Lesson. What would the brotherhoods do
for example, if each of their infuentia
leaders was unceremoniously discharged
from the service whenever he undertook
TO act as the representative of his union
In the mail service the ablest leaders Of
the different associations have beer
, | dropped from the service one by one
t | Are the brotherhoods aching to hav,
t similar rules applied to them when SOM
, future Bureson comes along to be di
, rector of railroads?
What weapon of terrorism the rail
t roads and the telegraph lines would b
l in the hands of an INSCRIPTIONS politi
clan playing big, and perhaps a des
t perate, game if he happened to be pos
, sessed of the energy that is Mr.. Burle
{ sons most conspicuous virtue!
The subtler implications of the wire
, gag incident are altogether sinister. MI
+ Burleson hadn't issued any orders to sto
{ newspaper matter on the wires. Th
! worst Of the whole situation is that b