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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. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months 75c Six months • •• 40c Three months 25c 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. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRAD LEY. Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are J. A. Bryan, B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim brough, W. W. Blackburn and J. W. Brooks. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling representatives. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The label used for addressing your paper shows the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention your old, as '.veil as your new address. If on a route please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with ba6k numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mail. Address all orders and notices for this de 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. N 1 \