The evening herald. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1906-1942, 1919-01-11
SATURDAY, JANUARY II. 1919
"A HIGH-HANDED OUTRAGE"

Having taken under his control ali
means of communication in the Unit
ed States except by private messen-
ger, thru seizure of telegraph and
telephone lines, Postmaster General
Burleson reached out for control Of
communication with foreign coun-
tries by inducing President Wilson to
seize the submarine cables. Wire
less stations being already in the
hands of the navy department. no
communication can now pass between
the United States and any overseas
country or between the United
States and any other country that is
contiguous by land, or between any
two persons in this country, without
passing under the, eye Of some gov
may seize. suppress or delay it.
II this had been necessary to win
the war there would have been som
excuse for this latest expansion of
government functions when the gov
ernment was already burdened with
functions which 1t performed badly.
But the cables were seized when he
war was already won, when Germany.
the last OF the enemy powers. had
ceased to fight and had signed an
armistice which made her powerless
to fight again. All that remained
for the United States and the allies
to do was to declare and reap the
fruits of victory. But at the elev.
enth hour Mr.. Burleson persuaded
President Wilson to take technical
advantage of authority which had
been given by Congress to meet the
dire emergencies of war for the pur-
pose of bringing the cables under gov
ernment operation. His persistence
in advocating government ownership
of wire communication warrants the
conclusion that his Interior motive
was to PREJUDICE that question as 10
the cables by making government op-
Grafton an accomplished fact.
The action of Mr.. Burleson indi-
Gates that he was conscious Of being
open to criticism for asking the
President to exercise this extraordi-
nary power in order to grab thecables
when the war had actually ended,
for there was some juggling of dates
in the Presidents order. The seizure
was characterized by Senator Hitch
cock, democrat, on December 23d.
in this strong language:
/ think the seizure of the cables
was an utterly unjustified proceed
ling. ! go SO far as to say that 1t
smacks of bad faith. When
after the war had closed in fact, II
not in law, the postmaster general
took possession of the cables, not
only those crossing the Atlantic
Ocean to countries with which we
were associated in the war, but also
no possible relation to the case. !
think 1t was high-handed outrage,
and am frank to say so.
That speech drew from Mr.. Burle-
son letter dated December cath, de-
nying that II have of m y own will
ruthlessly seized and taken posses
sion of these cables; that ] have TAX
en- possession of them just to crafty
my personal convictions, personal
opinions and personal wishes; that !
have reached out to control business
activities the congress did not intend
to put into my hands" In support Of
his statement he quoted the brief In
the suit now pending to the effect
that the executive order was signed
by the President and attested by the
secretary of state on November I'd,
and that the allegation of the com
plant that 1t was not signed till No
vember llth--the day when the arm
istice was signed-is untrue.
This letter was read to the senate
ON December 30th, and called forth
the remark from Mr. Hitchcock that
the alleged fact that the order was
signed on November I'd was no tusti-
fication for taking over the cables.
senator Kellogg then interjected this
remark:
l am informed that. while the Or
der may have been signed by the
President ON November I'd. II was en-
tireIy incomplete. II was not coun-
tersigned by the secretary OF state IL
was never published or exhibited to
nvone until after the war had closed
~~s~ ..s-. IA haan al9nad