The Home Journal

EDITORIAL

The day after that his loyal majority in the legislature attempted to pull a 'fast' one and 'adopt' the Virgin Islands Code, the Governor brought forth his proposal to sell the islands' telephone system to a private firm.

He expects the same cooperation and performance from his rubber-stamps.

The Governor contends that the telephone system is costing the government too much money to operate; that its operation is wasteful and inefficient, and that the money that the government is spending to subsidize the system may be used to better advantage on another project.

Orders to sell the system came straight from Washington. Businessmen who are close to Washington officials see a good thing in the telephone system. Naturally, they do not want to take over the telephone system for their health or out of any love for the people here. They simply want to make a handsome profit.

We made a terrible mistake some years ago when we yielded to pressure from Washington and sold the electric facilities owned by the local people to the Virgin Islands Corporation. Now that federal agency is realizing a tremendous profit from the operation of the electric system. Are we going to make the same mistake with the telephone system?

The telephone operations in St. Thomas is carrying its own weight, but there is need to heavily subsidize the operations in St. Croix. In the meantime, appropriations made for extending the system have been frozen by the Department of Interior as part of a squeeze play to force the islands to dispose of the facilities.

If the code that the Governor's majority tried to pass, is permitted to stand the Governor would have a powerful weapon to use in his efforts to force a sale of the telephone system. The code gives the Governor the power to fix the telephone rates, without approval by the Public Utilities Commission. He may set it so high that people may start clamoring for private enterprise.