Show OOFEtN1tENT AND THE TELK GRAPH Mr N rvin Green president of the Western Union Telegraph Company made his talk to the Congressional 1 onraiittee on Friday against the gov rnmea control or ownership of telegraph tele-graph His objection to such ownership owner-ship seems from the report of hn Argument as brought by the wires to be based largely on the claim that his company is truly good and extravagantly extrava-gantly generous that it does work cheaper than any other company is honestly capitalized proposes to reduce rates this year and so on Dr Green might have saved himself and spared the committee and the country this talk Nobody will believe him nd if everybody did believe he told the absolute abso-lute truth it would make no difference The question la not one as to whether or not the Western Union is a monopoly monop-oly or whether or not its capital stock I is largely water or whether or not its tariff is ridiculously and ruinously ruin-ously low or whether or not it Will reduce rates improve its service ser-vice etc None of these things are involved nor should any of them be considered There are just two things which should be taken into account in determining action on the proposition The first of these is the legal and The equitable right of the general government govern-ment to engage in the business of telegraphy tel-egraphy and the second is if the first shall be decided in the affirmative the propriety of engaging in the business The great majority of the intelligent thoughtful people of the country aje fiwnlyol the opinion tkatr the United States hpve no legal right to go into the business of telegraphy and these people peo-ple and more also thidkjtbatif the right is in the government it would be inequitable in-equitable improper and corrupting to take advantage or it The arguments which would sustain the governmen in assuming control of the telegraphs would warrant it m taking possession J of the railroads installing charge ofwtlre express companies s Jn running the sleeping cr business and in t a c I engaging in any commercial or fActUIinJlnt1ustry = arid cornpei iiP gj other ito retire from such industry Iris aid by n some thatbecaUiiEUie Western Union is practically a monopoly the government should saughter it The Standard 01 Company is a thorough uj through and through monopoly and ther fore these pain people would have government taker charge or < the petroleum bnSihess f There are monopolies mo-nopolies pretty nearlylevery i business Ii ncwaiiays hence the federal government govern-ment must step in and take control of i the internal trade and commerce of the I republic while individuals stand aside I andlook on There are evils in the telegraph business busi-ness The service is notat all times what it should be and the charges are at f all Jinics greater than they should be competition has been crushed and destroyed and thepeople are left at the mercy of agreedycompany But it is not well to attempt the curing of one evil by inflicting another and graver evil as it is suggested in this government govern-ment telegraph proposition p pq < 1 > k I L |