The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1919-05-01
A Remarkable Revelation.

| A Remarkable Revelation.
The Worlds Washington correspon-
| dent writes that many congressman
think they have arrived at the true
explanation of the vagaries of the
federal control of the wire communica-
lions which have puzzled everybody
who has tried to reconcile them with
any theory"
The explanation" arrived at by the
congressman referred to is that the
wire communications were seized with
the idea of forcing permanent govern
ment ownership upon the country
| whether the people Of the country
want it or not. Surely the Worlds
'many congressman" must be so many
Daniels come to Judgment. They have
: apparently discovered what has been
notorious from the time the present
administration came into power. The
politicalmaster general has advocated
government ownership in every re-
port he has issued since that unhappy
day, so disastrous to the mail service,
when the president, with the advice
and consent of the assistant president,
Colonel House, placed Mr.. Burleson at
the head of the postoffice department.
Government ownership has ever
been an obsession with the political
master general. It opened up to him
visions Of political manipulation as
limitless as they are alluring. He,
in common with all others who have
given any serious attention to that
form OF socialism, as applied to our
American mechanism of elections and
government, saw ahead an ironclad
political organization with it's millions
of government employees loaded on the
backs of the taxpayers and dependent
upon the party in power for their jobs.
this Prussianized army, ever mobilized
for political campaigns, local, state
or national
He saw, furthrmore, that there was
not the remotest chance of his getting
this coveted grip upon the political
domination of the country through act
of congress. The war gave him his
opportunity. He sought and obtained
congressional authority to seize the
wires, and he did this largely under
the false pretense that that authority
would be exercised only in case of
exigent war emergency. There had
not been single complaint of ineffi-
cheney or lack of secrecy on the part
of either the telegraphic or telephone
service. Even the political-master
general had the the effrontery to ad-
vance so preposterous charge as
that. Nominally he asked only an
authority to be held in reserve and to
be exercised only in case of acute war
crisis.
And the moment ne got the author
ity he seized the wires. And the mo-
ment he seized the wires he proceeded
to reduce all competitive systems to
state Of intermingled chaos. He
changed the best telegraph and tele.
phone service in the world to about
as bad one as the world has ever
known. Running the telephone ser
vice at loss of millions of dollars ev-
cry month, inflicted upon the taxpay-
ers, he loaded telephone users with
heavily increased rates with promise
of still further increase in the near
future. And all this in return for a
steadily decreasing efficiency of SER
vice. Then, after the president had
formally announced to congress that
the war was over, he seized all cables
to Europe, to south and central Ameri-
ca, to Asia and to the islands of tho
Pacific ocean, in order, it was ex
planned, that there might be free wire
communication between Paris and
Washington during the time of the
presidents sojourn abroad!
Now, according to the Worlds
Washington correspondent, many con-
gressmen have discovered that there
has been conspiracy afoot to force
government ownership upon us!
We venture to think that this is only
the World correspondents way of put
ting it. We venture to believe that
not merely many but that all congress-
men know, and have known for year
or more, that this socialistic scheme
on the part of the administration has
been in full swing from the time of
Mr.. McAdoo's speech-making cam
paign for government owned mer-
chant marine to the time of Mr.. Burle-
sons wholly illegal seizure of the
cables. We venture furthermore the
prediction that among the first acts of
congress, which the president cannot
much longer avoid calling, in session,
will be to knock this whole Burleson
socialistic scheme into worse looking
cooked hat than anybody ever dreamed
Of pressing down upon the brow of
William Jennings,-Harvev's Weekly.