Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 160, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1918 — GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP. [ARTICLE]

GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP.

Several saffron journals, with customary eloquence are contending that the taking over of the telegraph lines would be in the interest of “the people” and that opposition to such action comes from the interests.” The threat of the president of the telegraphers’ union, who has never been able to shqw that many telegraphers belonged to the union, to call a strike is described as creating a “great emergency, a case of absolute necessity. That, as everybody familiar with the situation knows, is directly contrary to the facts. Passing from question of fact to consideration of theory, one of the pleasantest panaceas held forth by the demagogic press and the wildeyed gentry of the soapbox for the cure of all the ills of the universe has been government ownership of public utilities and everything else. Moves Sn this direction have beenheralded as great advances for “the people.” The .issue in a discussion of public ownership is usually described as one between “the people” and “the interests.” Sensible people will reach their own conclusions as to this. What would “the people” gain, for instance, by public control of the telegraph at this time? What have the German people gained through government ownership of everything? Ts experience is a teacher the American public will pay higher telegraph rates and receive poorer service. Possibly the wages of the employes would be raised, but the public—“the people”—and not the companies would pay them. What would the companies, on the other hand, gain? If the government took them over on the same basis as the railroads were taken over, that is if it would guarantee their earnings on the present scale, they would gain a good deal. Many business men are there who would be pleased to have the government take over their business for the duration of the war and guarantee earnings on the present scale, leaving them without a worry in the world. The companies are not objecting strongly to government control. They stand to gain ifather than lose by it. The politicians, “the interests,” would not lose by it. The public would.—lndianapolis News.