The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-07-27
The French Atlantic Cable.

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The success OF the French Atlantic cable will oc-
cason great regret to the propretorsof the English
line, but II their interests are much injured they
have no one but themselves to blame. they had no
confidence IN what was really the strongest part OF
their enterprise its capacity to serve the
general public and not merely one particular class
Messages to and from America ought TO be az COM
mon as similar messages are between England and
France, for constant stream OF travellers Is
passing between the two countries, aud large
graph graph '' their safe arrival to friends Then.
Europe would often be glad to ask by telegraph
after relatives who happen to DO Ill or to send news
Of their daughters marriages or OF equally interest
ing incidents In domestic life. But this kind OF bust
ness has been deliberately discouraged by the mana
gers of the English line A Minister may send an
the amount OF his bill ia likely to starte his govern
ment, rs we may see In the case OF Mr.. Seward.
He sent message 70 tne american lea representative
charged. The government has not yet been able to
make up its mind to pay for that costly despatch.
lions are obliged to the cable. II the tariff were
much higher even than it is they would still have
no choice but to pay the money and send their mes
sages the firm which first learns the price of cot
ton of iron, OF shares and bonds, has an immense
advantage over competitors who are acting without
this Information. Such traffic. therefore, necessari
y develops itself. But 1t is not large enough to pay
for the expenses OF laying cable beneath the Az
iantic. Tie immense advantage which might have
been gained by Inviting the general body of the pub
lie to use the cable has been thrown away The d.
rectors acted in tmld spirit, as their line would
inevitably break down next weeksand 1t was neces-
for them to scrape together all the money they
could in the interval.
their ideas. In the first place, they will find their
French customers going to the other SHOP unless
they reduce their prices in the next the French com
business by adopting reasonable scale. At the
recent meeting OF the English company one Of the
officials dep0red The fact that they had not enjoyed
longer lease Of the monopoly before rivals entered
the field. That all very well from their point OF
view, but the public cannot be expected to synpa-
w n
reference to Atlantic cable schemes, 1t ls the
shareholder or director in the original COM
mis- money. They were the people who paid
for the experiment which made future successes
from the second Cable It Is plain matter Of bust.
ness with the present proprtetors and as they have
acted in narrow and nisgsrdy spirit towards the
theirs. A great fuss was recently made about re-
duciOn in the ar Messages were to be sent for two
%ssss he that he wa
every word or figure In the dates or addresses,
whereas i've ne words sSss,, mad o%
fer, liz rwsnty.sl1th street, New York" Here
message for two pounds. Of course, the rate Is
almost prohibitory % regards the ordinary run Of
word to his vile in America that their child at school
In England is very ILL., Messages OF that description
would be despatched by hundreds every day II the
scale of charges invited them At present there Is
scarcely work enough to employ one out OF the
two English cables now In existence. Would 1t
not be far better to charge ten shillings for cable
messages, ana multiply the customers hundred
fold tllan to let the wires lie comparatively idles
Remonstrances, however, having failed, we are
very glad that the sharp gOad OF competition has
been applied to the directors The French prOpre-
tors may easily do the greater part OF the business If
they will come down to che public needs. On that
account we may well wish the new line success.
We may not hear SO much about its binding the Old
World and the New together in perpetual friendships
for we have found out that misunderstanding are
possible, even with telegraph wire lying comfort
40 ly beneath the Atlantic But the cable will be u
distinct advantage to the world, and everybody but
the shareholders In the "Anglo-American" will be
glad to hear that the difficulties which surrounded
the promoters have been successfully overcome.