Mr. Hubbard’s assertion that, “where a message is repeated, the expense
is increased about seventy-five per cent, but on well-constructed lines,
in ordinary weather, messages between any two stations east of a line
from St. Paul to New Orleans require but one repetition,” hardly needs
refutation. East of the line named there are more than four thousand
telegraph offices, and at least 1,300 separate and distinct circuits.
How, then, can separate wires be maintained between every two stations
over this vast territory? Even confining the statement to one office at
the East,—say Boston, for example,—how is it possible to maintain
separate circuits that will enable that office to work direct with each
one of four thousand offices? It would be more practicable to travel
from every town in the United States to every other town, without change
of cars, than it would to establish _direct_ telegraphic connection
between each.
The Western Union Telegraph Company maintains independent circuits, and
works direct between New York and Philadelphia, Washington, Boston,
Buffalo, Montreal, Chicago, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Portland, Plaister
Cove, and many other points; but to work with every office in the United
States without repetition would require more wires upon each pole than
the mythical Briareus had hands.