The telegraph system would no longer be subject to such disasters as that so well described by the Hon. Wm. Roche in the Ohio legislature Jan. 29th, 1885: "A convulsion of the trade and commerce of the entire country resulted, when, on the 19th of July, 1883, 12,000 operators left their posts after the flat refusal of the magnates to give audience to their representatives to state their case." 12. _The press will be relieved of an ever present tyranny_ likely at any moment to transfer itself from the potential to the real.[8] Sen. Report 242, 43-1, p. 5, says: [8] We have seen in Part VI (ARENA, June, 1896) how rates were raised on papers that criticised the Western Union's president or advocated a postal telegraph too vigorously, how papers were ordered not to criticise news reports under penalty of loss of news facilities, etc. It is interesting to note that even the largest and most influential papers do not always escape persecution. In his speech in the House, Mar. 1, 1884, the Hon. John A. Anderson, of Kansas, tells us that "the Chicago _Inter-Ocean_ had the lease of a private wire from Washington to Chicago, and published Washington news every day. A few weeks since, Senator Hill spoke for the postal telegraph. The _Inter-Ocean_ published the speech verbatim. That evening word was sent to the _Inter-Ocean_ that the lease was terminated. The manager of the _Inter-Ocean_ said afterwards that their relations with the Western Union were still friendly, but he had to be, of course, in order to keep the general despatches." The operation of the postal-telegraph system would result in a speedy termination of this alliance [between the telegraph and news association, and groups of favored papers], and will be a very important step toward the freedom of the press. Sen. Rep. 577, 48-1, p. 16, says: The bill [for a postal telegraph] will lessen the danger of a concealed censorship of news whereby it may be colored and distorted so as to subserve political purposes, to mislead public opinion as to the merits or demerits of men and measures, to pervert legislation, and to favor schemes of private gain. The press of the nation will not be forbidden to criticise the news, nor will any paper be excluded from equal participation in the benefits of the telegraph service--equal rates to all, special privileges to none. Moreover, the rates will be greatly reduced for all press despatches, and papers will be able to buy the world's history every day for a fraction of what they pay now for imperfect and garbled reports.