Well, none of the before-mentioned “life lessons” could have been set for the world’s enlightenment--likewise, disgust--had the people of this country not waited, not made haste slowly, in “due deliberation,” while the Western Union and other “Gould properties,” were used to separate them from many millions of dollars which no Gould or Gould property ever earned. But this is digressing. The President advises us to wait, to delay action a little longer--until the “postal savings banks have come into complete and smooth operation,” until “after a parcels post has been established … throughout the department.” Just wait and keep on paying twenty-five cents for a ten-word wire to your mother or friend ten miles out, even though the veriest fool knows that a postal telegraph service would carry a twenty-five word message to any postoffice in the United States for ten cents. Just keep on waiting--_until the big telegraph interests have sheared a few millions more fleece_. But, says President Taft, “If it could be shown that telegraph service could be furnished to the public at a less price,” etc., etc. Well, maybe there is a sort of visual aphasia which makes a quarter look like ten cents to some men. If not, I am at a loss to understand how it yet remains for anyone to be “shown” that telegraph service could be furnished to “the public at a less price than it is now furnished by the telegraph companies.” Postmaster General Hitchcock furnished sufficient information, it seems to me, to show the President, or anyone else for that matter, that telegraph service “could be furnished the public” at rates much below those the telegraph companies collect. Mr. Hitchcock speaks in part, as follows--page 14, 1911 report: The telegraph lines in the United States should be made a part of the postal system and operated in conjunction with the mail service. Such a consolidation would unquestionably result in important economies and permit the adoption of lower telegraph rates. Postoffices are maintained in numerous places not reached by the telegraph systems and the proposed consolidation would therefore afford a favorable opportunity for the wide extension of telegraph facilities. In many small towns where the telegraph companies have offices, the telegraph and mail business could be readily handled by the same employees. The separate maintenance of the two services under present conditions results in a needless expense. In practically all the European countries, including Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Austria, and Italy, the telegraph is being operated under government control as a part of the postal system. As a matter of fact, the first telegraph in the United States was also operated for several years, from 1844 to 1847, by the government under authority from Congress, and there seems to be good ground why the government control should be resumed.