The loss was very great to the enterprising company who had undertaken
the responsibility, but everything was paid up without a murmur. The
sum expended amounted to $3,170,292.
That the Western Union was enabled to defray this enormous expenditure
without in any way impairing its stock value or credit proved the
solidity of the Company even at that period of its history.
The friendly intercourse between the American and Russian authorities
in connection with their telegraph project was, no doubt, the direct
cause of the subsequent negotiations between the two Governments
for the sale and purchase of Alaska, the advantages of which the
astute Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, became cognizant, and finally
consummated the transfer of that territory from Russia to the great
Republic.
In the early days of telegraph enterprise the necessity soon became
evident that, in order to provide the requisite facilities for
public convenience and for the economical employment of capital, the
consolidation of the many struggling companies was self-evident. This
policy has been carried out effectually by the Western Union Telegraph
Company, which gradually absorbed by lease or purchase upwards of fifty
concerns from the date of its organization at Rochester, N.Y., to the
removal of its offices to New York. In 1866 this Company had virtually
absorbed all rival and opposing companies of any importance.
The commanding position reached by the Western Union in 1866, with its
growing ramifications covered by 75,000 miles of wire, has steadily
advanced until the present. It embraces in its great system over
1,000,000 miles of wire, over 23,500 separate offices, two atlantic
cables, a cable to Cuba with connections throughout the West Indies,
and close direct connections with all parts of South America. In Canada
the Great Northwestern Telegraph Company, which leased the Montreal
and Dominion Telegraph Companies, is controlled by the Western Union
Telegraph Company. So also is the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
Telegraph Companies.