A POSTAL TELEGRAPH.
One more quotation from the President’s message and this chapter may end. This quotation is anent the proposition of having the telegraph service of the country operated by the government—in connection with the postal service. Mr. Hitchcock’s recommendation in the matter of a postal telegraph “is the only one,” says the President, “in which I cannot concur.” I shall first quote President Taft and then quote Mr. Hitchcock as he expressed himself in his 1911 report:
This presents a question of government ownership of public utilities which are now being conducted by private enterprise under franchises from the government I believe that the true principle is that private enterprise should be permitted to carry on such public utilities under due regulation as to rates by proper authority rather than that the government should itself conduct them. This principle I favor because I do not think it in accordance with the best public policy thus greatly to increase the body of public servants. Of course, if it could be shown that telegraph service could be furnished to the public at a less price than it is now furnished to the public by telegraph companies, and with equal efficiency, the argument might be a strong one in favor of the adoption of the proposition. But I am not satisfied from any evidence that if these properties were taken over by the government they could be managed any more economically or any more efficiently or that this would enable the government to furnish service at any smaller rate than the public are now required to pay by private companies.
More than this, it seems to me that the consideration of the question ought to be postponed until after the postal savings banks have come into complete and smooth operation and after a parcels post has been established not only upon the rural routes and the city deliveries, but also throughout the department. It will take some time to perfect these additions to the activities of the Postoffice Department and we may well await their complete and successful adoption before we take on a new burden in this very extended department.
As an exhibition of rhetorical aviation, that is both going and soaring some. How beautifully it “banks” on the curves! How smooth its motor runs! And its transmission! Words fail me.
Some paragraphing wit has said, “Foolishness is as plentiful as wisdom isn’t.” Our President appears to know that we fools can take in a lot of foolishness without our tanks sloshing over as we stumble along the old, well-worn way—the way that leadeth the earned dollar into somebody’s unearned bank account. But I do not intend to comment. The italics I have taken the liberty to mix into the President’s verbal flight is all the comment needed. Mr. Taft makes it quite clear that all we fools need to do is wait—make haste slowly, take time for due deliberation. Of course, some of us fools think we know, or presume to think we know, that the telegraph companies are charging us two or three prices for the service they render—frequently, do not render for twenty-four or more hours after it ceases to be a service. But think of the good other folks derive from the pocket change they extract from us! The Western Union is, or was, a “Gould property.” It paid interest or dividends on eighty or more millions of quasi and aqua pura in stocks and bonds. But think of the fun sons George and Howard had! Think of the former maintaining the beautiful Lakewood place, leasing English hunting preserves, playing polo and “busting” into, through and around Knickerbocker society circles! How could Howard have built a replica of Kilkenny Castle on Long Island Sound, where he and “Wild West Katie,” it is said, spent millions and had a realistic Kilkenny-Cat time of it? Or how could Frank, the fourth and last son of Jay Gould, have given to the world such a lurid, if not illuminating, picture of the “Married Rue” as was exhibited at his divorce hearings? And there is “Sister Anna”—Well, it is sufficient to say that Anna Gould could not have blown away ten millions in settling “Powder-Puff” Boni’s debts and turning him loose in the straight and broad way which leadeth unto the life that is somewhat too “fast” for even unearned money.
Well, none of the before-mentioned “life lessons” could have been set for the world’s enlightenment—likewise, disgust—had the people of this country not waited, not made haste slowly, in “due deliberation,” while the Western Union and other “Gould properties,” were used to separate them from many millions of dollars which no Gould or Gould property ever earned.
But this is digressing. The President advises us to wait, to delay action a little longer—until the “postal savings banks have come into complete and smooth operation,” until “after a parcels post has been established … throughout the department.” Just wait and keep on paying twenty-five cents for a ten-word wire to your mother or friend ten miles out, even though the veriest fool knows that a postal telegraph service would carry a twenty-five word message to any postoffice in the United States for ten cents. Just keep on waiting—until the big telegraph interests have sheared a few millions more fleece.
But, says President Taft, “If it could be shown that telegraph service could be furnished to the public at a less price,” etc., etc.
Well, maybe there is a sort of visual aphasia which makes a quarter look like ten cents to some men. If not, I am at a loss to understand how it yet remains for anyone to be “shown” that telegraph service could be furnished to “the public at a less price than it is now furnished by the telegraph companies.” Postmaster General Hitchcock furnished sufficient information, it seems to me, to show the President, or anyone else for that matter, that telegraph service “could be furnished the public” at rates much below those the telegraph companies collect. Mr. Hitchcock speaks in part, as follows—page 14, 1911 report:
The telegraph lines in the United States should be made a part of the postal system and operated in conjunction with the mail service. Such a consolidation would unquestionably result in important economies and permit the adoption of lower telegraph rates. Postoffices are maintained in numerous places not reached by the telegraph systems and the proposed consolidation would therefore afford a favorable opportunity for the wide extension of telegraph facilities. In many small towns where the telegraph companies have offices, the telegraph and mail business could be readily handled by the same employees. The separate maintenance of the two services under present conditions results in a needless expense. In practically all the European countries, including Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Austria, and Italy, the telegraph is being operated under government control as a part of the postal system. As a matter of fact, the first telegraph in the United States was also operated for several years, from 1844 to 1847, by the government under authority from Congress, and there seems to be good ground why the government control should be resumed.
While much more could be said in support of Mr. Hitchcock’s position, he has said sufficient in the above, I think, to “show” even a President.
As evidence that the “estimates,” upon which the Hughes Commission so largely base their findings are not entirely dependable, I desire to make two brief quotations from other pages of Mr. Hitchcock’s 1911 report. On page 17, as the first of thirty “Improvements in Organization and Methods,” the Postmasters General sets forth as having been accomplished in the service during the fiscal year 1911, will be found this:
The successful completion of an inquiry into the cost to railway companies of carrying the mails and the submission of a report to Congress making recommendations for revising the manner of fixing rates of pay for railway mail transportation.
On pages 9 and 10 of the report, in discussing a readjustment of railway mail pay, Mr. Hitchcock uses the following language:
The statistics obtained during the course of the investigation, disclosed for the first time the cost of carrying the mails in comparison with the revenues derived by the railways from this service.… The new plan (paying railways on the basis of car space occupied by the mails), if authorized by Congress, will require the railway companies each year to report what it costs them to carry the mails and such other information as will enable the department to determine the cost of mail transportation.
From the above it would seem that Congress was to be asked to adopt at its present session a “new plan” which “will enable the department to determine the cost of mail transportation;” to determine an important service fact which, according to the preceding quotation and also to the first sentence of the one just made, was determined sometime prior to June 30, 1911.
Has the Postoffice Department already determined the facts as the report twice claims, or has it merely collected some data upon which to base an “estimate?” Which enables it to make a more or less reasonable guess at the cost of mail transportation?