People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 May 1895 — ENGLAND AHEAD OF US. [ARTICLE]

ENGLAND AHEAD OF US.

Why Can't Our Government Own th* Telegraph Lines? In 1869 the telegraph system of England passed Into the hands of the postoffice department, and since that time it has been a government monopoly. The average cost of a private telegram (20 words) in 1869 was 52 cents, now the average is only 15 cents. Under the old companies the highest number of messages sent in one year was 6,500,000. It leaped in the first year of government administration to 9,850,177, and has steadily grown, until now it has exceeded 70,000,000,in one year. The number of offices taken by the government was under 3,000; now there are over 9,000. The old companies possessed 60,000 miles of wire; the postoffice now has 200,000 miles, of which 12,000 miles are laid underground. Press messages sent by the old companies amounted to a very small total in a year, because of the high tariff, but now they have reached over 5,500,000 per annum, representing 600,000,000 words telegraphed. There is no power on earth that could force the English people to put the telegraph back into the hands of a private monopoly. Yet in this country the man who advocates a government telegraph system, is popularly supposed to be a fool, visionary crank, to be wild of eye and-long-of hair, fitter for an insane' asylum than a public office.—Farm, Stock and Home.