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Telegrams For 10 Cents ; Telephone Calls 1 Cent Each .
First Steps Already Taken
By RENE BACHE.
T
HE light for government own
ership of our telegraph and
telephone lines is to be
started in Congress very shortly. It.
will probably hare the backing of the
Administration.
What is understood to be the first
step in this new departure has al
ready been taken by making arrange
ments for the transfer to the Post
Office Department of the government-
owned telegraph and cable system
covering Alaska, and connecting
that Arctic province with the United
States, which hitherto lias been un
der the management and control of
the army. This system has been
conducted with an efficiency so ad
mirable as to afford the best Imag
inable Illustration of what Uncle
Sam is able to do as a manager of
telegraph business.
An Act of Congress will be re
quired to accomplish the transfer in
question, but beyond a doubt it will
be passed. The Washington-Alaska
system, as it is called, will then
become a part of the regular postal
service. And, after a while, when
the government shall have taken over
all the telegraphs in this country,
it will become as much a matter of
course to transmit messages by wire
through the post offices as to send
letters.
The resulting advantage to the
people will be enormous. For one
thing, it will mean cheap messages.
Telegraph service will cost half, or
less than half, what it now does. In
addition, it will be much more reli
able.
Every civilized country In the
world, except the United States,
owns and controls its own tele
graphs—the first government to ac
quire such ownership having been
that of Belgium In 1862. All over
Europe the cost of telegraphing is
less than half what it Is here, and
the service in some Instances Is In
comparably better. In any instance
where it may happen to be unsatis
factory, somebody can be called to
account for the fault. In our own
country it Is commonly unreliable,
and the person who suffers has no
redress. He may complain, but lie
gets no satisfaction.
Take England, for example. In
London the wire service Is so cheap
that if a person is to be asked to
dinner the invitation is as likely as
not to be sent by telegraph. The
cost of the message is only sixpence
for twelve words. In England near
ly 60 per cent of all the messages v.
dispatched by wire are social—to
use the term In its broad sense, mean
ing non-commercial. But in the
United States people cannot afford
to use the telegraph much in such
ways; it is too expensive. Less than
1 per cent of the messages in this
country arc social, and more than
60 per cent relate to the stock mar
ket and racing.
It should be explained, however,
that this small rate does not apply
merely to the elty of London. One
may send a telegram for sixpence
(twelve cents) to any part of Eng
land, Scotland or Wales—a message,
that is to say, of twelve words.
If the government takes over our
own telegraphs, we shall soon have
ten-cent messages in all likelihood
for such distances as are covered
to-day by the twenty-flve-cent rate.
This will make the wire service an
every day convenience to the people
generally, instead of a luxury to be
used only once In a while or when
necessity compels. Quite possibly
telegraph operators may be picked
out for appointment as postmasters
in small places.
The Washington-Alaska system
was built by the United States gov
ernment a few years ago for the pur
pose of establishing and maintain
ing communication between military
posts. It has 2,621 miles of sub
marine cable, 1,064 miles of land
telegraphs, and 10 “radio” stations.
The cable, which connects Seattle
with Sitka and Valdez, cost over
$1,000,000. A branch runs from
Sitka to principal points in south
east Alaska. At Cordova the cable
connects with the navy chain of
“radio” stations.
In order to provide against possi
ble breaks in the overland telegraph
across Alaska, a chain of "radio”
stations is maintained from Cape
Nome, on the shore of Behring Sea,
to Fort Egbert, on the Canadian
boundary, where the wire service
for the Post-Office to Run the
Telegraph and Telephone
Business and Reduce
the Cost as
Parcels Post
the Cheap
Has Done
telegraphs compares favorably with
any in the United States. All of Its
lines are well built and erected on
right of way owned by the govern
ment. Its total receipts for commer
cial and private messages are about
$180,000 a year, and, in addition,
$200,000 worth of official mes
sages pass over its lines in a
twelvemonth. The system trans
mits money and performs all
other functions of a fully equip
ped telegraph service, The mes
sages it handles are not cheaper
than in the United States, but
Ibis is because the expense of
maintaining the service in that
remote and relatively inaccessi
ble region is so much greater.
trol their telephone business. Swit
zerland likewise, and in that country
all telephone messages are paid for
by the call. It is a measured serv
ice, like gas or electricity, and the
cost Is one cent per call.
People in the United States pay
from two to three times as much for
telephone service as is charged in
Germany. This statement applies,
however, only to local calls. For
iong-distance calls we
pay eight times as
much. This inberur-
ban service is the
“big graft" in our
country, yielding a
preposterously large
profit to the com-
A Nation's Telegraph System Can Be of the Greatest Service to Its Armies
in Time of War. This Photograph Shows British Soldiers
Attaching a Wireless Apparatus to a Telegraph Pole.
connects with the telegraph system
of the Canadian government. Thus
practically the whole of the Arctic
province is in electric touch with
the rest of the world.
The Washington-Alaska system of
It may be presumed that the ac
quisition of telephone lines by our
government will soon follow the ab
sorption of the telegraphs. The two
things naturally go together. France,
Germany and England own and con-
panies. Here it costs six-tenths o!
a cent per measured mile for tele
phoning over long distances. In
Germany one may have three min
utes’ conversation over a distance of
700 miles for 48 cents. In the United
States this would cost $4.20. The
rates in England for local telephone
service are about half of ours.
One reason why telephoning costs
so much more in this country than
abroad is that we use almost exclu
sively the so-called “manual” sys
tem, which refuses the help of me
chanical devices. Such devices,
which make connections, etc., auto
matically, effect a great saving in
labor and expense. They are now be
ginning to be used in the State of
Ohio.
It is beyond question that tele
phones are destined in the future
to develop much faster than tele
graphs. For purposes of communi
cation they are vastly more efficient
and they are more generally us'eful.
Anybody can use the telephone,
while a special education is demand
ed to enable one to use a telegraph
instrument. The telephone is in
stantaneous, and the user does not
have to wait for an answer. We
cannot look forward to the time
when there will be a telegraph in
strument in every man’s house,
whereas the telephone already is in
stalled in most residences, as well
as in practically
all business houses.
rhe Boat Which Carries a Crew of Men Up and Down
the Yukon River, Making Repairs to the Government
Owned Telegraph and Cable Lines in Alaska.
Mademoiselle Roshanara, Inhuman Dancer,
A NOTHER shivery, quivery
dance, the kind that makes
the chills and thrills run up
and down your spine like a mouse
at play, has come from the dis
tant Orient. Mile- Roshanara has
Introduced it in England. She
learned it in India, the home of so
many weird, snaky terpsichoreau
marvels.
In many respects Mile. Rosha-
nara’s dance does not differ from
other novelties in the dance line, but
she’s added one feature which im
presses the audience as being almost
uncanny—and that is a pair of arms
that squirm and weave about like
hissing, hungry serpents.
Her dance starts with rythmic, ser
pentine undulations of her body—
slow and slight at first, but gradu
ally increasing in vigor and variety
until it seems as thWugh a snake,
and not a barefooted woman, were
writhing about the stage. There's
where the thrill comes In.
Then, when It would seem that
the serpent himself had been out
done, there emerge, stealthily, and
with snake-like creepiness, a pair of
arms. First the hands—for all the
world like the heads of two snakes,
with two rings on each
for the glassy eyes,
the fingers cramped
Into the shape of hiss
ing heads. Then slow
ly the arms reach out
full length, as a ser
pent stretches lazily
in the sun, and—
there’s where the
There Is an Inhuman Charm About It All.
the telephone service
over very long dis
tances.
One rather curious
thing to be consider
ed is that the cost of
telephone service in
creases with the
number of persons to
be served. One might
say this was a mat
ter of course. But the point is that
the greater the number of persons
served the higher cost per subscrib
er. Where gas or electricity or
groceries or whatever else one
chooses to think of is concerned, the
cost of distribution goes down as the
number of users goes up. It Is ex
actly the opposite way with telephon
ing. And the reason why is easily
understood when it is realized that
each additional subscriber must be
placed in communication with all
the others. Any schoolboy can see
how it works by doing a sum on his
slate.
Nevertheless, when the govern
ment takes hold of the telephones
we shall have two-cent local calls
and eventually probably one-cent
calls. And it is likely that we shall
pay no more than 50 cents for a con
versation over a distance of 600
miles.
Where the mails are concerned the
Post Office Department affords a mag
nificent illustration of the pos
sibilities of a service for all
The U. S. Government Cable Office at Cordova, Alaska, Where Con
nection Is Made with the Navy’s Chain of “Radio” Stations.
the people at a very cheap rate. It is
even now affording a new object les
son In this line, through the recent
establishment of a parcel post which
is taking the express business of the
country out of the hands of the rob
ber express companies, whose profits,
described in a Congressional report
as “utterly egregious and out of all
proportion to investment,” have been
derived from charges averaging fif
teen times the regular freight rates
of the railroads employed to trans
port the goods.
There is no imaginable reason
why the government should not ac
complish for the telegraph and tele
phone services what it already does
for the mails, with a corresponding
reduction of cost to the people. A
few years from now when anybody
wants to send a telegram he will go
to the nearest post office or branch
ppst office for the purpose (just as
people do at the present time in Eng
land), or perhaps he will telephone
his message over the wire. The tele
phone exchanges will be moved Into
government buildings, so that there
will be no rent to pay. In place of
a post office superintendent, a tele
graph superintendent and a telephone
superintendent, there will be one
man to hold all three jobs. With
minor officials it will be the same
way—one job, one salary. There
will be no dividends to be paid out
on watered stock; no buying up of
little competing lines at small prices,
with a view to unloading them upon
the government (as now upon the
corporations) at big figures.
In short, these great public utili
ties, the telegraph and the telephone,
will be, a few years from now. prop
erly organized as such, and placed
under the control of the government,
so that, like the mails to-day, they
will be equally at the service of all
the people at a minimum cost. In
taking over the Washington-Alaska
telegraph system the Post Office De
partment will make its first step
toward one of the most important
reforms ever accomplished in the
management of the nation’s affairs.
and Her Stealthy, Snakelike Arms
chill comes in.
A great many people, while admit
ting that they dread and abhor
snakes, claim that they are fascin
ated by them, and Mile! Roshanara’s
dance has much that effect. There
is an inhuman charm about it. You
forget that the woman has arms.
All you can see are the two snakes
reaching out from the armholes of
her gown, reaching out hungrily
further and further, up and down,
and around and about, first high over
her head as a snake glides from the
hole of the tree trunk to crush the
unsuspecting bird singing on a near
by branch, then down toward the
ground, seeking what it may de
vour.
Then, just as the chills are chas
ing themselves up and down in good
shape, the Mademoiselle bursts forth
into a daring melody of motion for
a brief moment, and—it’s all over.
This dance promises to stay in
favor for the entire season, and Mile.
Roshanara will be the vogue for some
time to come. Her body dancing,
free and bold as it is, is eminently
artistic.
It Seems as Though a Snake Itself Were Writhing About.
Copyright, 1913, by the Star Company. Great Britain Rights Reserved,