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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,