The Case for a National Telegraph Service
A scathing editorial argues that the Western Union monopoly overcharges the public and mistreats employees, calling for government intervention.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The report of the Western Union Telegraph Company shows that the net profits of the company during the past year were $7,660,649, or over 9 percent on its $80,000,000 capital. To any man not a stockholder in Western Union, it is apparent that the public is being grossly imposed upon in being compelled to pay such rates as will produce so large a net revenue. To achieve these enormous net earnings, the company overworks and underpays its employees, indulges in a petty parsimony with respect to its plant and service, and generally squeezes the public in every possible manner. There will be no relief until the government itself takes hold of the matter and builds and operates telegraph lines in connection with its postal service. When a corporation has drawn to itself all other lines, destroying competition, it is not merely the right in equity, but the bounden duty of the government to interfere. Let a bill be passed authorizing the purchase of its property at a fair appraisement, or providing an appropriation sufficient to duplicate its lines.
“Governments are instituted for the protection and benefit of the people, not to create and protect corporations in plundering them.”
This 1883 critique of a communication monopoly mirrors modern arguments regarding net neutrality, public broadband, and the concentration of power in tech giants. The belief that infrastructure essential to daily life should be a public utility remains a central tension in the American civic debate.
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