“In Great Britain, as in the United States, the telegraph was left
to private enterprise and competition. Only a few weeks since, after
a twenty years’ trial of the system in the hands of private
companies, the people of the British islands, with singular
unanimity, demanded to have the telegraphic system placed under the
control of the postal authorities, and a bill was introduced by the
present government for that purpose.”
It is complained of Great Britain, which provides one quarter of all the
telegraph offices in Europe, that the telegraph companies there have
left eighty-eight places in England and Wales having a population of two
thousand and upwards, and even whole districts, without an office.
Whatever may be true of the meagreness of the provision of telegraphic
facilities by English companies, and which these companies vigorously
deny, no such complaint can, with justice, be made in the United States,
notwithstanding the vast ranges of territory which must be traversed to
meet the communities which need and ask for them.
Without intending any disrespect to the postal authorities of the United
States, it may be said that the post-office system of Great Britain,
because of the superior character of the control which long and careful
study has enabled it to secure, is far in advance of our own. In fact,
there is nothing more apparent to an English visitor than the low
_status_ of our postal arrangements, as compared with that of his own
country. It is natural, therefore, seeing the postal system so admirably
managed, that English merchants, whose tendencies are all toward
governmental direction in matters of this character,[5] should desire to
see the experiment of a similar control of the telegraph. In fact, it is
only this class of citizens who have asked for the change, the memorial
having gone solely from the different Chambers of Commerce throughout
the kingdom, no appeal on the subject having ever been made to or by the
people of Great Britain, and therefore the assertion that the people
with singular unanimity demanded it is not sustained by the facts.
Footnote 5:
Witness the proposition recently so much discussed in England, that
the government should assume control of the railways also.
THE TELEGRAPH SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES UNPARALLELED FOR ITS EXTENT
AND EFFICIENCY.
Mr. Washburne says, “There is abundant reason to believe that the
telegraphic system of Great Britain, which is declared a failure on such
high authority, is, in all respects, greatly superior to our own”; but
he fails to give any of his reasons for this belief, and we are
compelled to assert that it has no intelligent explanation except in a
strangely morbid hostility to this company, which exhibits itself on
every offered occasion. In all respects the telegraph lines of this
country are equal to those of any other, and in some important ones
superior. They extend from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of
Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, connecting in one
unbroken chain more than four thousand cities and villages, forming a
system by which every event of importance happening in any section of
our vast territorial limits is published within a few hours in every
other; through which verbatim reports of the speeches in Congress are
transmitted from the capital to the metropolis, and full abstracts of
them to every considerable town in the nation, on the day of their
delivery; which supplies the metropolitan journals with more telegraphic
news every day than is contained in the combined press despatches of
Europe. Such a system, in its vastness, skilful manipulation, and the
rapidity of its unceasing development, we believe merits the public
approbation, and is not unworthy of the American name.
Our system of telegraphy is unique. Nowhere else can there be found such
an extent of lines under one control. The lines of the Western Union
Telegraph Company, extending throughout the United States and portions
of the Dominion of Canada, enables it to transmit messages between every
section of the country, without undergoing the delay of checking or
booking at intermediate points; and between most of the large cities
without retransmission. This work, over a territory so vast, although
only two years have elapsed since the confederation of lines was
effected which made it possible, is fast assuming, under increased care
and enlarged experience, the certainty and uniformity of mechanism. In
all its effective features, the world may safely be challenged to
produce anything to compare with it. The extent of lines and wire
belonging to the Western Union Telegraph Company is more than twice that
of France, three times greater than that of Prussia, and equals the
aggregated systems of Austria, Prussia, and the lesser German States,
Italy, Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland, and it is increasing in larger
ratio than any European system. The Western Union Telegraph Company
alone has added to its lines, during the year 1868, more than five
thousand miles of wire, or as much as the entire system of Belgium,
leaving unsatisfied demands for an equal extension in the year to come.