The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-16
THE NEW CABLE LAID.
From the N. Y. World.

From the NJ Y. World.
Another mighty marvel is accomplished
and that, too, almost without observation
The Great Eastern, esteemed for time the
most useless has once more vindicated her
claim to be regarded as the most useful of
ships. AS easily and quietly as the ordinary
steam-packets of commerce transfer their
freight of human lives and human works from
wharf to wharf this gigantic vessel has once
more linked the thoughts, feelings, wishes,
fears, interests of the East with those of the
West. Another Atlantic cable has been laid;
another mystic submarine nerve stretching
from the heart of the Old World to the heart
of the New, abolishing the stormy interdict
of the unquiet sea, making Paris and London
and New York but wards, as it were, of one
grand cosmopolite capital.
At it was but natural to expect would be
the case, the French cable has been laid even
more rapidly and with less risk and difficulty
than its predecessors. Science deals now
with the bed of the Atlantic, unseen and for
ever to be unseen of human eyes, as calmly,
with as much assurance and as precise a fore
cast, as if it were the well-trodden highway of
countless generations. We accept the
achievement as the merest matter of course;
and few of us will pause from our daily en-
grossments, perplexities, and hopes long
enough to bestow even a second thought upon
a tale which is yet striking and wonderful
enough were it but fully appreciated and pom
dered on, to hold children from their sport
and old men from the chimney-corner.
But this is not all.
1t is melancholy truth that the chief diff
fculties with which the bold projectors who
are now the successful performers of this new
wonder have been called to contend, have
been not the abysses of the deep to be
sounded and spanned, nor its wild waves to
| be traversed, nor its tempests to be foiled,
| II. L L 1s,,1
smallness of men. From the inception of
this enterprise to the present moment which
sees it's greatest natural problems happily
solved it has been watched, aSsailed, under
mined by the jcalousy-the short-sighted, but
therefore only the more implacable, jealousy
of the proprietors and managers of the
cable previously laid from Europe to America.
With this enemy it has heretofore been forced
to contend in season and out of season. Had
| the success of the second cable involved the
destruction of the first, it could hardly have
been more vehemently, more persistently
fought against And the great public, which
can hear of such squabbles over such a sub
| ject only with indignation and contempt, must
not be surprised to learn that the actual con-
nection of this new cable with the telegraphic
| lines of our own continent is still threatened
by the same influences which have so fruit
lessly been brought to bear against its pro-
gress up to the present hour The first
| American terminus of the French cable is the
French island of st. Pierre, off the coast of
| Newfoundland There it was landed. Another
reach of easily submerged wires is now to be
made to bring it to our shores at Duxbury, III
Massachusetts. 1t is as plain as the sun in
heaven that this comsummation N the under
taking must inure directly and largely to the
advantage of the whole American people;
and we are quite sure that, only ten short
years ago, the idea of holding this consum.
nation in doubt even for moment-we will
not say upon any probable, but upon posi-
BILE hostile action of the American Govern
ment-would have seemed to every sane per
son in the Union the merest midsummel
madness But within these ten short yeart
both the theory and the practice of govern
ment in America have undergone many seri
Gus, and, for the most part, decidedly lament
able notifications. Not the least striking
proof Of the extent of these peryersions is The
fact that persons interested in the monopol..
heretofore enjoyed by the British cable com
pany have not hesitated, of late, to put abou
all manner of stories to the effect that "th
Government" would interfere, at the las
moment, to prevent the people of tn
United States from enjoying the benefit
of a new and enlarged telegraphic intercours
with the rest of mankind Such an interfer
ence, it is true, is as improbable as it i
obviously unjustifable. No law of the Unite'
States exists, laying an embargo on tele
graphic or any other intercourse between tn
American people and Europe. Doubtless
Congress, in the plenitude of its unwisdom
might pass such a law; but doubtless also
Congress has not passed such a4aw; and i
the absence of such a law, it is hard to see il
what way, otherwise than by shameless us
of sheer physical force, unwarranted and un
sustained by law, the Government either o
the United States or of any other State coul
possibly interfere to prevent people who hav
, brought us the good gift of new telegraph
, cable all the way from Europe from conferrin
that good gift upon us. 1t is hardly to be be
lieved that the administration even of Pres
dent Grant will care to saddle itself with tn
odium, at home and abroad, of pandering i
this way, by violence, to the schemes and IL
terests of private corporation in order
paralyze rival, or at least concurrent, enter
prise of infinite public moment.
3 The real scandal is that any considerabl
: number of people should have been brough
' to entertain the possibility of such thing
= 1t is another heavy count in the nation
gro wing indictment against its Radical mis-
g rulers that their habitual lawlessness an
: their open compatibility should have give
r color Of plausibility, even for time, to
s scandal so damaging to our good name as
}, free, enlightened, and civilized people.