The consolidation of these lines was a step in the right direction, as
it increased the receipts and lessened the expenses of the companies,
while it enabled them to do the business better, by possessing greater
facilities. Still, the great number of separate organizations remaining
throughout the country prevented that unity and despatch in the conduct
of the business so essential to its success. Under these circumstances,
the public failed to realize the brilliant thought of instant
communication between distant points.
A Boston house, doing business with Chicago, was obliged to be content
with responses received on the second or third day. On Boston despatches
for Chicago four tariffs were charged; and a message had to be copied
off and handed over to other companies for transmission at New York,
Buffalo, and Detroit, before it reached its destination.
All this process required time, and yet the loss of time was the least
of the evils connected with such a state of things. The message, as it
left the writer’s hands in Boston, was not unfrequently a very different
document when it reached the Western parties, owing to errors caused by
its numerous retransmissions, and thus the necessity became urgent to
unite these separate companies into one living, vigorous organization,
by which not only repetition and error might be avoided, but the
messages followed to their destination under a single direction, and
undivided responsibility.