Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-04-22


ing at the rate of thousand per day.
Professor Peck Investigating the
Condition of COlOred TrOOps-.-
General Butler wants their Pay
Increased---TeIegraphic COnnec.
tiOn between Europe and Amer
ica.
WASHINGTON, April 21.-Professor Peck,
of Oberlin, has Just returned from Fortress
Monroe, where he has been investigating
the condition of colored troops. General
Butler urges that the pay of colored troops
shall be instantly raised, as they are becom-
ing rapidly butchered by the injustice of
this Government.
Prominent members Of the Ways and
Means committee express the opinion that
the tax bill will pass by next Thursday.
The effort of Mr.. Collins to enlist mem
bers of Congress and other prominent par
ties in his great enterprise of a telegraphic
connection between Europe and America,
is, we understand, meeting with encourage
ing success. This subject has previously
received the attention of Congress, in which
body, it will be recollected, two very fa-
vorable reports were made three years ago
One by Senator Latham, of California,
and the other by Mr.. John Cochrane, of
New York.
Since the date of these reports Mr.. Col
Inns has spent a large portion of the inter-
vening time in pushing his enterprise,
mainly in Europe, where he has succeeded
not only in interesting large portion of the
mercantile community in his project, but in
enlisting the patronage of the Governments
also. The fact of the valuable concessions
made to him by England and Russia, of the
right of way through their divisions in the
northwestern portion of this continent, has
already been made public.
These concessions are valuable, as indi-
eating the favor with which the enterprise
is looked upon in other countries. They
are valuable also in another point of view,
for they offer such inducements to capital
lists as WILL it is believed, insure the speedy
completion of the overland line to St. Pc
tersburg and London, with very moderate
degree of encouragement from the United
States Government.
The enterprise OF Mr.. Collins is thorough
ly American in conception, and it is to be
owned and controlled by American capital
lists. For these reasons alone, therefore, it
would seem to have peculiar claims upon
the attention of the American public as
well as upon the favor of the Government
at large. A portion of the Russian line
with which the wires of Mr.. Collins con-
meet, is already finished, and the work is
now being rapidly pushed on at both ends,
namely: from Irkoutch, Siberia, to which
point the wires are already working from
st. Petersburg, distance of four hundred
miles, and from the Amoor westwardly to
meet the Siberian wires.
The parties who have undertaken the con-
struction of Mr.. Collins portion of the line,
that is, the connecting link between Europe
and America via Behring's Straits,are ger
tlemen of experience in telegraph matters.
1t was their enterprise in taking hold of the
Pacific line at time when all other men
shrunk from it, and enlisting the sympa-
thies of the Government in its behalf that
carried it through to successful ending,
in spite of the warnings of friends as well
as capitalists to let it alone.
The fact that these eminently practical,
as we'll as energetic individuals, have put
their shoulders to the enterprise of Mr.. Col
lins is an assurance that the project will
eventually be accomplished; but as the
work is eminently national in its scope, and
as much time must necessarily be consumed
in its construction before any returns can
be made for the vast outlay its proprietors
must submit to- 1t would seem that the gov
eT0UeuU OuSnJ W lluu Ill Iic CubcrpIlSc IL
case eminently worthy Of its fostering pat
ronage.
The small subsidy allowed the line to the
Pacific has, we are told, been paid back over
and over again every year, through the ia
cilities of the line enjoyed by the Govern
ment In its correspondence with its Pacific
posts. Similar facilities, only quadrupled
in value, will be the result of the compile
ton of the Russo-American line. In all
of this nature, so vast in its
and SO full of promise to the
welfare and progress of the country, the
Government will but show aprudent regard
to the future, as well as agenerous spirit,
in extending helping hand.
Russia and Great Britain, In granting
the right of way through their territories,
beside according other valuable privileges
for the purpose of encouraging the enter
prise, have therein set an example which
our Government, it is to be hoped, will not