Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1874 — Telegraphic Reform. [ARTICLE]

Telegraphic Reform.

There is no subject of greater import ance to the public,where a reform is more imperatively required or so easily effected, as in the telegraph. It is now a monopoly with rates so high as to prevent the public from using the telegraph, and reserves it as a luxury to ther ich or to the speculator, while only thel arge daily papers in the largest cities can aflord it, and these form an alliance offensive and defensive with the Telegraph Company in opposition to every plan of rfeform. ', Two systems have been proposed for remedying these evils—one by the Post-master-General, who desires to buy and operate all the lines of telegraph. This plan is opposed by many friends of a reform on account of the great outlay required for the purchase and extension of the lines, and of the great increase of power that it would confer on the Executive. The other plan was proposed by Gardiner G. Hubbard, and adopted by committees of the Senate and House of Representatives to which both plans were referred at the last Congress. By this system telegrams will be-received and delivered through the post-office as letters are everywhere, and as telegrams are abroad, transmitted to their place of destination Tiy telegrapft, by parties owning and operating lines of telegraph, at rates fixeu by Congress—as letters are now transmit* ted over the railroads. This plan requires no outlay by ti.e General Government, in. volves no liability for buying, building, or operating lines, and will not increase the powers of the Executive. The rates proposed are 25 cents for a telegram of 25 words each 500 miles, if it is transmitted by day, and each 1,000 milts by night—a reduction of over 50 per cent, on the present rates, and an increase of 80 per cent, in the length of the telegram. The press rates are equally reduced, and are so low as to permit every weekly paper to receive a telegraphic summary, bringing its news down to the hour of its issue. This plan proposes as great a reduction as the other can afford, and gives a cheap telegraph to the people without cost to the Government. Competition has been tried and abandoned, and, by the failure of the independent and competing companies, has resulted in placing all the important lines in the country under the control of a single interest, of which Mr. Vanderbilt is the representative. It remains for Congress to say whether the telegraph shall be made auxiliary to the post-office, freely used by the people, or the ally of the railroad monopoly, wielded only for its own interest.—Chicago Ledger. ■ The attention ot our readers is called to the attractive advertisement of J. N. Harris & Co., advertising their great, and valuable lung remedy, “ Allen’s Lung Balsam.” This Balsam lias been before the public for ten years. Notwithstanding this long period, it has never lost one whit of its popularity, or shown the least sign of becoming unpopular, but, on the contrary, the call for It lias been constantly increasing, and at no previous time has the demand been so great, or the quantity made been so large, as at tnis day. We earnestly recommend its trial by any one who may be afflicted with a cough or cold, and we warrant It to cure if directions are followed. It is sold by all our city druggists. A Nation of Dyspeptics. —We live fast—dissipate in everything except righteousness, and fill early graves. We drink all kinds of poisoned alcoholic spirits, and swallow, without mastication, pork, grease, and every conceivable carbonaceous, soul-dwarfing, life-destroying, sys-tem-clogging, indigestible food. Dr. Walker’s Vegetable Vinegar Bitters cannot stop this in a radical manner—but it will remove the evil effects, and the recovering patient T with fresh, pure, vitalized, electrical blood flowing through his arteries and veins, will have a clearer head and a cooler judgment, which, coupled with experience, will cause him to abstain in the future. Good, nutritious, digestible diet, which the most delicate stomachs may take, can be found in cracked wheat, corn bread, tomatoes, raw or soft-boiled eggs, baked apples, boiled rice, plain rice pudding, corn starch, rare beef, mutton and poultry. With Vinegar Bjtters and moderation in eating End drinking, there is no incurable case of dyspepsia. 21