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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL I A Stirring Example from Vermont.
- ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
* Entered at- the Atlanta Fostoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
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The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday
end Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for
early delivery.
It contains news from all over the world, brought
• bv special leased wires into our office. It has a staff
of distinguished contributors, with strong departments
of special value to '-he home aud the farm.
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mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRAD
LEY. Circulation Manager.
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partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL,
Atlanta Ga.
Now for the resolutions.
Wanted: One regional reserve bank.
Huerta, having spent his Christmas money, can
think about new year resolutions.
You can expect your business to run itself—after
perpetual motion has been discovered.
We have had the usual Christmas contraction.of
the currency; now for a little expansion.
The South as a Source
Of National Beef Supply.
Evidences of the South’s opportunities in cattle
raising continue to, multiply. Time and again in the
past few years, students of agricultural and economic
problems have predicted that from this section will
come a large part of the country’s future supply of
beef. Especially, notable is the recent statement by
Mr. Georgb M. Rommel, chief of the animal hus
bandry division of the department of agriculture.
Nowhere in the North or the West, he declares in
a report submitted to the House committee on agri
culture, can beef he raised at less than five cents a
pound; but in Alabama it is actually being raised
at a lower cost. “If the northern feeder is raising
beef on the farm,” he adds, “he must get more than
five cents a pound. If he is fattening it, it is an
open question as to how much it is going to cost.
These and related facts convince this official that
“for a long period to come, the South is to he the
nation’s principal source of cheap beef.”
What is being done in Alabama can he done in
Georgia and neighboring States. Resources of soil
and climate alike combine to make the South Ideal
territory for the economic production of all live
stock, particularly cattle. Not only is this section,
free from the long, hard winters that add sp much
to the cost of feeding and housing cattle in northern
latitudes, it is also endowed with hundreds of thou
sands of acres of soil that is peculiarly well suited to
nutritious grasses and other forage crops. Every
natural circumstance confirms the testimony of ex
perts that cattle can be produced most easily and
cheaply in the South.
It only remains that the farmers in our section
avail themselves of this rich opportunity. When
they do, they will Immeasurably advance their own
interests and at the same time simplify the nation’s
food problem.
Already the thoughts of young America are on the
eternity between now and another Christmas.
Would suggest to winter that if it wants to do
any stunts in the mantle of snow line, it had better
hurry up.
The South’s Wondrous Storehouse.
In the Atlantic and Gulf States of the South, ac
cording to the Yearbook of the federal Department
of Agriculture, “there is land enough and climate
sufficiently favorable to produce the vegetable and
fruit supplies required by many times the present
population of the country.” The problem of suitable
soil, we are assured, is eliminated for generations to
come, and further development waits upon the solu
tion of economic problems rather than upon the dis
covery of natural resources.
This testimony should be cheering to the entire
nation and, to the South, it is peculiarly significant.
It means a vast deal that in one corner of the conti
nent thre is an unlocked storehouse of food sufficient
to meet the needs of the American people for decades
and still stand undiminished in its possiblities. It
means a vast deal that the South, by turning Its en
ergy and brain to the development of this latent
wealth, can become the country’s productive center.
But the forces of development are as yet only be
ginning to stir. In recent years, to be sure, truck
farming enterprises have sprung up and thriven in
various parts of the South; and wherever they have
seen undertaken they have been substantially re
warded. Yet, of some twenty-five million acres, Ideal
ly suited so far as soil elements to the growing of
vegetables and fruits, only a slender fraction has
been devoted to truck-farming or to any other agri-
iultural purpose.
The field of endeavor presents immeasureable op
portunities. It is pleasing to note that in Georgia
they are being more and more widely realized. To
the extent that they are realized this and all other
Southern States will wax in prosperity.
Even Huerta passed a quiet Christmas.
Atlanta is on the news map more and more these
days.
The toy cannon fatality was conspicuous by being
r.lmost absent.
Through its “Improvement Association” organized
less than two years ago by a hundred public-minded
citizens, Bennington county, Vermont, is earning na
tion-wide fame. Its roads, farms and schools are
models for neighboring communities. Its industries
are thriving with unusual vigor. Its commerce is
rapidly expanding. Its people are prosperous and
content, and their reputation for efficient, co-opera
tive endeavor in behalf of common interests is be
coming known throughout the Union.
It was in March 1912 that representative business
men and farmers from every district of the county
met and formed the “Inprovement Association.”
They adopted in the outset a program of enterprise
which included these particular undertakings:
“A better and more profitable agriculture.
"Better roads, with a more efficient system of
road administration.
“A more adequate system of public schools,
which will lead the small isolated rural school
to a higher plane of efficiency.
“The development of home Industries.
“The promotion of adequate play and recrea
tion facilities.
“The fostering Of a more evenly distributed
social life.
“The furtherance of all plans for civic better
ment and county beautification.”
The people realized that if these purposes could
be carried into effect every interest of the county
would be incalculably benefited; lands would increase
In value, crops would be more easily produced and
more easily marketed, trade would brisken, the
health record would be raised, new citizens and new
capital would be attracted. Naturally, then, the mem
bership of the Association steadily increased until
today it has an enrollment of six hundred, each of
whom pays an annual fee of a dollar. Ten “sus
taining members,” we are told contributed a hundred
each and nine, a thousand each.
The results accomplished by the Association have
exceeded the brightest hopes of its founders. The
county’s roads have been made adequate and durable
and, what is especially to the point, they are kept
in prime condition. School buildings have been
enlarged and improved; school grounds have been
beautified; more pupils are enrolled, more teachers
are employed; the schools play a vital part in the
social as well as the educational life of the com
munity.
Through the efforts of the Association, civic clubs
have been organized in most of the villages and
these are giving earnest attention to the improve
ment of streets, sidewalks and sanitary needs.
Parks and playgrounds are being established and
other facilities for public entertainment and recrea
tion, such as libraries and lyceum courses, are be
ing developed.
In short, the Bennington County Improvement
Association is exerting a constructive, far-reaching
influence in every sphere of the people’s life and is
advertising the community as a place where it is
profitable to invest and eminently worth while to
live. Every man who has contributed to this work,
whether in money or in personal service, has been
repaid a thousand times over. His business is bet
ter, his farm is more productive, his opportunities
on thehuman side are richer and the advantages
offered his children are inestimably greater. The
Courier-Journal well observes that this organization
“is supplying an interesting example of what can
be done when the people of an entire community pull
together.”
/
The aims of the Vermont Association, it will be
noted, correspond almost identically with those of
the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. What the New
England county has undertaken and carried to suc
cess within a relatively small area, the State Cham
ber of Commerce purposes to dp for this entire com
monwealth. It expects to organize an improvement
association in every county of Georgia, so that its
work will be specific and adapted to local conditions
and needs. If results; magnificent have been ac
complished in Vermont, what limit can be fixed for
the usefulness of the State Chamber of Commerce in
Georgia, if it is duly supported by the people?
You can’t avoid duty by taking a by-path.
How a man does dislike to do business with a
know-it-all!
For years scientists have been telling us there are
microbes in kisses, but most girls are willing to do a
little investigating.
Good Work.
Any fool woman can catch a husband, but it takes
a clever one to hold him.
All the trusts seem to be taking a tumble.
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1913
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce has begun a
singularly well ordered campaign against the boll
weevil, that destructive parasite which has ruined
millions of dollars’ worth of cotton in other parts of
the South, and which is now appearing in some of
our own border counties.
Efficient work of this kind has already been done,
notably by the State departments of entomology
and agriculture, by the State Agricultural College
and its allied schools, by the Atlanta Chamber of
Commerce and other organizations; but the time has
evidently come for united exertion on the part of all
people and all interests that are concerned with the
welfare of the farm. The Georgia Chamber of Com
merce is taking the initiative in such a movement,
freely offering its service and earnestly seeking co
operation.
The State Chamber is well fitted for this task.
It stands as a strong link between rural and urban
communities. It has given substance and force to
the idea that the city and the country are interde
pendent, that industry and commerce are really based
upon agriculture and that the progress of the com
monwealth is determined largely by the progress of
the farm. Furthermore, the State Chamber is repre
sented by an active, organized membership in a ma
jority of Georgia counties. Its plans can thus be car
ried into detailed execution. It can reach thousands
of people and accomplish definite results.
It is encouraging, therefore, to know that this in
stitution has directed its systematic effort toward
averting the peril and counteracting the injury of the
boll , weevil. Especially commendable is its appeal to
farmers to raise a larger volume and variety of food
foodstuffs. That is an important thing to do at all
times, hut it is vitally important at a time when the
cotton crop in many counties is menaced by a de
structive pest.
Senator Smith’s Notable Part
In Banking and Currency Bill. |
It is agreed by competent students of the new |
Banking and Currency law that one of the wisest
and timeliest provisions of this great measure is an
amendment "introduced by Senator Hoke Smith as a
safeguard" against any financial stringency that
might develop in the period of transition from the
old to the new system. Several months must elapse
before the changes that have been ordered can be
carried fully into effect. The federal reserve board
must be appointed; the regional reserve banks must
be organized, their stock subscribed and their direc
tors elected; the money for their use must he printed
and many other matters of detail attended to, all of
which will require time and care. Thus, for five
or six months to come the country’s financial inter
ests will be a state of readjustment. It is vitally
important, therefore, that business should be fore
armed against any possible embarrassment during
this sbason of, changing methods and unusual de
mands.
To meet such needs, Senator Smith prepared an
amendment that will make available for immediate
use, should conditions require it, five hundred mil
lion dollars of currency which was created as an
emergency fund some six years ago under the Ald-
rich-Vreeland act. That act, it will be remembered,
wa^ passed shortly after the panic of 1907, and un
der the new law it will remain in force until July 1,
1915. It provides that national banks, by organizing
currency associations, could borrow from the Gov
ernment such an amount of money as might be neces
sary to tide them over a crisis. But the rate of in
terest fixed for such loans was so high that the banks
could scarcely afford to pay it; aud, as a matter of
fact, they have never sought loans from this fund,
although periods of financial strain have arisen. The
purpose and effect of Senator Smith’s amendment is
to make this five hundred million dollars of currency
actually as well as theoretically available from now
until the new banking system is fully estabished and
in working order.
This is accompished simply by reducing the rate
of interest on emergency currency to a point that
will be easily within reach of the average bank. The
rate is made three per cent per annum for the first
three months of a loan. Under the Aldrich-Vreeland
act the average rate of interest for that period was
six per cent. For the three succeeding months, the
rate is fixed at three-and-a-half, four, and four-and-
a-half per cent by Senator Smith’s amendment; under
the Aldrich-Vreeland law, it was eight, nine and ten
per cent, an average of seven-and-a-half per cent as
compared with an average of three-and-a-half per
rent under the new and more liberal plan.
Senator Smith’s amendment thus serves the im
portant purpose of enabling the banks to secure am
ple and timely loans from the Government at a rea
sonable rate of interest, while the machinery of the
new system is being set up; and at the same time
It prevents undue expansion. It is to be hoped, of
course, that no extraoruinary aid from the Govern
ment will te required. Present omens are that the
vast majority of financial influences the country over
will come willingly and promptly to the support of
the new plan. There was, nevertheless, a possibility
that special interests which wbre hostile to the Demo
cratic Administration would seek to cause trouble.
It was, therefore, prudent tc make ready in advance
for any such peril. Otherwise the new system would
have been exposed to its enemies at a peculiarly crit
ical hour. As it now is. however, all dangers of that
kind are forestalled. The Georgia Currency Associa
tion, which is already organized, could apply to the
Treasury at onre and secure ten million dollars of
new currency at an average rate of three and a half
per rent per annum for six months; so, too, with the
banks in other States. The very fact that this aid
is ready in case it should be needed has a sustaining
and fortifying effect that will make the transition
‘’rom the old to the nbw banking and currency sys
tem easy and secure.
The value of Senator Smith’s amendment was
recognized the moment it was proposed. It was ac
cepted unanimously by the Democratic caucus and
passed the Senate without a dissenting vote, Republi
cans as well as Democrats realizing the foresight and
practical wisdom it embodied. Georgia has good
reason at all times to be proud of the service and
the influence of her Senators in the nation’s govern-,
ment, but it is peculiarly pleasing to know that the
most important piece of legislation which has come
from Congress in many dbcades was made distinctly
safer and more useful by a Georgian's watchfulness
and his insight.
One of a boy’s first ambitions is to get all the pie
and cake he can.
Love is never so blind that it can’t see a rival
around the corner.
How the average woman does howl when she hears
of a wife who supports her husband.
Don’t expect to become the owner of a mansion in
the skies if you are an earthly tax dodger.
You can spank more sense into some children in a
minute than you can reason into them in half a day.
Sea Safety.
The annual report of the American Life-Saving
Service shows that out of a total of seventeen hun
dred and forty-three accidents at sea during the year
ended June the thirtieth last, only sixty-nine vessels
and seventy-three lives were lost.
This is a remarkable record both in the number
of accidents and the relative rarity of serious results.
The former is explained, however, by the fact that
sixty-eight per cent of the trouble noted happened to
small and unaccounted motor boats; and on such
craft, were more than two-thirds of the persons ex
posed to danger at sea.
Ocean travel is growing continually more secure.
The terrible lesson of the Titanic sank deep into the
world’s mind. The United States led the way in leg
islation to prevent another such sacrifice of life. An
international conference is now in progress, devising
still more adequate and rigid rules for the safety of
passengers at sea. Wireless telegraphy has played a
wonderful part in preventing shipwrecks and in sum
moning speedy aid to vessels in distress. It may be
expected- that sea tragedies will become fewer each
year.
Few people expose their ignorance by keeping
their faces closed.
An ounce of gray hair begets more respect than a
pound of bald head.
A rheumatic sufferer knows a sure cure for every
body hlse’s aches and pains.
A genius is a crank who gathers in a goodly sup
ply of coin.
The old-fashioned woman who used to cry for
what she wanted probably acquired as much happi
ness as the modern militant suffragette.
COLD LIGHT
BY DS. FRANK CRAIMiL
(Copyright. 1913, by Frank Crkne.)
My friend the scientist is something of a poet. Is
not every scientist a poet? Does it not take the same
sort of elevation and illumination of mind to see the
shy laws of Nature that it takes to see those visions
of truth and beauty that make the poet’s eye in a fine
frenzy roll?
I ^dropped in to see him the other night. He was
smoking his pipe in the study; he sat by the window,
the room was unlit he was looking out at the full
moon hanging in the dull east like a copper shield
He only grunted when I came in. I took a chair
and waited. I knew he would talk when he got ready.
If he did not talk by and by I would go away. We
were real friends and did not have to be polite.
Sure enough, after a while he laid down his pipe,
and said:
•‘Cold tonight! That is what we want, and can’t
get. To get all the energy converted into luminosity
and none of it into heat!
"We know it is possible. Nature has dgne it. Na
ture is doing it now, over yonder in the meadow. See
the lightning bugs!
"How long it takes us to do, by infinite arts, what
nature does so easily 1 Nature has had flying machines
for thousands of" years,, for instance. And the storage
battery, ours is crude; but tne sun is a storage bat
tery..',
"I have iiist been reading the remarks of M. Daniel
Berthelot, president Of the National Society of Elec
tricians, in Fran ce,.at) out lightning bugs.
“We have made great progress, he says, in the im
provement of lighting devices during the last quarter
of a century. But all our sourced of light are sources
of high temperature.
"The lightning oug\ on the contrary, gives an ab
solutely cold light. In the matter of . heat waste it Is
t*i-oretically perfect.
‘‘In gas light we get 1.2 per cent out of 100 units
of energy for light; the rest if* heat and so on. The
electric are gives 2.5. per cent, the sun 14 per cent.
The lightning bug gives us 100 per cent of light for
100 per cent of energy. Its total force is in the form
of light.
“Its lighting apparatus is an electro-capillary af
fair made up of thousands of ceils.
‘‘The light of the future will be found by following
nature’s example in this little crepuscular insect.
Doubtless we shall see the old wicks reappear, the
kind they had in od lamps; by capillary attraction they
will conduct certain liquids into contact with one an
other, and by their mixture we shall have that bril
liant emission of a cold light."
After a bit he added: “I suppose, if you make a
story of this for your paper, you will get it all wrong,
inaccurate, absurd."
"Doubtless," J replied.
Editorials in Brief
Appropriate to the season of peace on eartii,
good will to men, President Wilson presents his
“constitution of peace” to the business of the na
tion. It is his pledge of faith that business Is
best satisfied to stand on its own footing of free
opportunity and deserved success. It is his pledge
that, standing thus, business will have the encour
agement of law; that it will have protection from
every illegitimate conspiracy, “sandbagging” and
restraint.—Kansas City Star.
So a noble and merry season to you, my mas
ters; and may we meet, thick and threefold, many
a time and oft, in blithe, yet most thoughtful
pages! Fail not to call to mind, in the course of
the 25th of this month, that the divinest Heart
that ever walked the earth was born on that day;
and then smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest
of it; for mirth is also of heaven’s making and
wondrous was the wine drinking at Galilee.—Leigh
Hunt.
'No money is better spent than what is laid out
for domestic satisfaction. A man is pleased that
his wife is dressed as well as other people, and a
wife is pleased that she is dressed.—Dr. Samuel
Stinson.
The first postal system of the colonies was organ
ized by four, printers—Franklin, Holt, Goddard and
Huzzard—July, 1775. Congress appointed Franklin
the first postmaster general with a salary of $1,000.
His instructions were to "establish posts from Fal
mouth, Nfew England, to Savannah, Ga., with cross
posts and rates 20 per cent below the old parliamen
tary charges.” The secretary and comptroller re
ceived a salary of $340 each.—Birmingham Age-
Herald.
Electricity in the Home
Electricty is beginning to solve the servant prob
lem. New devices lor use in the home are going on
the market every day, and the cost will decrease as the
Increasing demand for current calls for a steady use or
what electricians call the “load.” In time the elec
tric range will be operated as cheaply, per killowat
hour, as a refrigerating plant.
Ranges, washing and wringing machines which han
dle rugs and curtains as easily as they do small lin
en, vacuum cleaners, etc., are no longer curiosities. A
little range, designed to work on the breakfast table,
will prepare the entire breakfast fHArtT' imi^h to pan
cakes. The electric chafing dish will do everything ex
cept boil the coffee. The electric milk warmer will
heat baby’s milk in four minutes, and a combination
iron and milk warmer irons clothes one minute and
heats liquids the next.
The electric curling iron and shaving mug minister
to mamma and papa in the morning, and the electric
warming pad removes the sting from their arctic feet
at night. The warming pad never leaks, can be adjusted
to any part of the body, and the better makes furnish
three degrees of heat. Electric utility cabinets grind
the coffee, turn the handle of the ice cream freezer and
perform any number of other , services.
Quips and Quiddities
Dr. Evans, a well known American dentist in Paris,
once showed ail his curios to John S. Sargent, the
painter.
“Among the curios,’’ said Mr. Sargent, ‘‘there was
a letter that amused me greatly. It was written to Dr.
Evans when he was practicing in America, years be
fore, by a young farmer in Vermont who wanted a set
of false teeth made and sent to him. lie wrote for the
teeth in some such way as this:
“ ‘My mouth is three inches acrost, five-eighths
inches threw the jaw. Some t ummocky on the cage.
Shaped like a boss shew, toe forward. If you want to
be more particular I shall have to come thar.’ ’’—Every
body’s Magazine. #
* * •
After spending a few weeks last year at a watering
place, wnere he took his daily swim in the open-air
pool of warm sulphur water, a little fellow was this :
year at the seaside. In his tiny bathing suit he gazed
out over the vast ocean in silence.
Then he protested: “I’m not goin’ in. u&t ain’t
water for boys; dat’s for boats.”
Once in about a, thousand years you’ll meet a man
who feels sorry for his creditors.
* • *
Figures may not lie, but some cashiers can make
them stand for the cash thtey. are short.
* * •
A girl should neVer marry a young man until
she knows all about him—then the chances are she'll
not care to.
- • ■ ■ - ■ -A
THE POSTAL SERVICE
IX.—A Postal Telegraph.
BY FREDERIC J. HA SKIN.
It is not improbable that before many years the
government will decide that tiie telegraph business is
as much a field for government activities as the busi
ness ol carrying letters and printed matter. As a mat
ter of fact, most of the postmasters general of the past
thirty years or more have come out decidedly in favor
of a postal telegraph, and those who favor it urge that
now more than ever beiore is it advisable for the gov
ernment to operate a telegraph system, asserting that
it will give new value to the parcel post system, be
sides bringing cheap rapid communication to all the
people. The advocates of a government telegraph see
the day when a man may telegraph a twenty-tive-word
message 100 miles for a 5-cent stamp, so that a city
man may order his market basket filled according tO’
specifications by his country correspondent 100 miles
away, and shipped in to the city in time for dinner, by
special delivery parcel post.
* *
The most novel feature of the whole situation is,
that if the government ever decides to establish ar pos
tal telegraph, it will have the telegraph companies in
a rather tight place, for they have not only agreed
that the government shall have the right of acquisi
tion, but have admitted the binding force of that agree
ment. It all comes about as a result of a law passed
in 1866 by congress, in which it was set forth that the
telegraph companies could have the privilege of extend
ing their lines over the public domain, along post and
military roads, and over navigable streams, with tne
right to pre-empt certain lands and building materials,
to the extent of forty acres for every fifteen miles of
line, under three conditions: first, that the postmaster
general should have the right to fix the government
rates for the use of these lines; second, that the gov
ernment should have the right of purchase after five
years; and, third, that no telegraph company should be
permitted to exerciso these rights until after it had
first signed a written acceptance of the obligations
and restrictions of the act.
• * •
Practically every company then doing business
signed the required agreement, and afterward David A.
Wells, on behalf of the Western Union Telegraph com
pany, declared to congress that the United States un
doubtedly is the possessor of the right, outside of the
right of eminent domain, to acquire the property of the
telegraph companies. Later, congress passed another
act reaffirming the right of the government to take
over control of the telegraph companies whenever it
should see fit.
• • •
The United States is about the only principal na
tion of the earth that does not own and operate its
telegraph system. Germany and France owned theirs
from the beginning. England tried private ownership
for about a quarter of a century, and then the agita
tion became so strong in favor of government owner
ship that Gladstone yielded to it and made it a part of
his country’s policy. When the government acquired
the telegraphs there was an immediate reduction of 40
per cent in the rate and an increase In the amount of
business handled amounting to 100 per cent.
• • •
Both the advocates and the opponents of a govern
ment-owned telegraph look to Europe for proof of their
position. Both sides concede that rates are apparently
lower in Europe, but the opponents of the government
telegraph assert that this cheaper service is more evi
dent in appearance than in reality, contending that dis
tance for distance, and service for service, the Euro
pean rate is not a whit more reasonable than the Amer
ican rate. In Belgium, according to a government in
vestigation, the rate is 10 cents for fifteen words, with
2 cents for each additional word; in^ Italy the rate Is
19 cents for fifteen words, with a cent for each addi
tional word. But in all European countries addresses
and signatures are charged for. The rate in England.
Germany and France is around a cent a word, with 12
or 15 cents as the minimum.
# • •
.Many oppose the entrance of the government into
the telegraph business, not becauseTtifey thmfc
ter policy for the nation’s telegraphs to be privately
operated, but because they believe that the day of
transmission of telegrams by wire is passing, and
that if the government should acquire the telegraph
lines now privately owned it would stand a good chance
of finding itself in possession of a system of communi
cation destined to become as obsolete as the stage
coach. They urge that the thing to do is to wait until
wireless telegraphy reaches that state of perfection
that will enable it to be used as the present wire tele
graph is used, and then to declare « government mo
nopoly on the wireless business just as it declares a
monopoly on the handling of the mails.
It is asserted by those who advocate the acquisition
of the telegraph companies that they are vastly over
capitalized. They point to the Western Union as a
case in point. In 1858 its capital stock was less than
$500,000; eight years later it had gone up to $22,000,-
000, and the executive committee of the national board
of trade, in 1882, reported that $18,000,000 of this rep
resented water, in the shape of stock dividends. The
Western Union makes answer that the proof of the
pudding lies in the eating, and that any fair appraisal
will show that there is a dollar of actual value behind
every dollar of capital the company has.
• • •
The govemmvnt has no one but itself to blame
that it does not enjoy a monopoly on the telegraph
business today. It built the first line between Wash
ington and Baltimore, and turned it over to the post*
fice department for operation. But in # 1846 Postmaster
General Cave Johnson reported that it was a financial
failure, and that the government ought to get rid of
it. Suiting actions to words, he offered to give the
income of the line to Alfred Vail and Henry Rogers
if they would operate it. They accepted the proposi
tion, and from that day forward the telegraph be
came a private institution.
That it does not profit legislators to attempt fa
cetiousness with inventors is shown by the experience
of a member of congress in the ease of the telegraph.
When it was proposed to build the line between Wash
ington and Baltimore, appropriating $30,000 therefor,
one wise legislator offered an amendment providing
that half of the amount should be devoted to experi
ments in mesmerism, thinking thus to laugh the whole
proposition out of court. But his name now is forgot
ten while that of Morse will live forever.
Numerous objections have been urged' from time to
time to the establishment of a postal telegraph. It
has been pointed out that the express and telegraph
companies continued to operate in the south long aft
er the postal service closed down after the outbreak
of the Civil war; that in exciting political times tne
wires could be manipulated to prevent the news of a
political campaign reaching the people, with trees
conveniently falling on the lines and interrupting com
munications; that it would increase political patron
age; that there might be a tremendous abuse of the
free message business; that the government could thus
institute a system of espionage; that the government
could not transmit messages as efficiently or as
promptly as private enterprises, etc.
Eight times committees of the senate have investi
gated the question of telegraph ownership and re
ported in favor of a government telegraph. Seven
times house committees have done likewise. President
Grant strongly favored it, and another ^proposition wa?
brought forward by Gardiner Green Hubbard, in the
nature of a substitute, providing that the governmenl
should have charge of tic handling of messages, pay
jng the telegraph companies for the use of their lines,
just as the railroads are paid for carrying te mails
Still later Postmaster General Wanamaker advocated ;*
modification of the Hubbard idea. When William I*
Wilson became postmaster general he op;>o$ed the plan
Frank H. Hitchcock Was the last postmaster. general
to advocate it.
Whether there over will be n postal elcgraph i:
the United States remains to !>. seeT. but. whnt!i r »
there shall be or riot it is gene: ally agreed, that if the
United states wants to take o}. kr t 1 e ieletrVaph I !;u:*
they occupy an entirely different plane.from any ot.ic?
class of public service corporations that the sever-
ment could .seek to acquire and operate.
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