The New York herald., 1870-05-17
Tho Pacific Submarine Telegraph Conn
pany-Asxing Too Much.

Tho Pacific Submarine Telegraph Co'"-
pany-As1ins Too Much.
We have before US the copy OF bill when
Congress is asked to pass ''to incorporate the
Pacific Submarine Telegraph C)mpany and 10
facilitate telesrsphic communication between
America and Asia" The object OF the bill Is
an ocean cable "from the shores Of the State
of California to Japan and the empire OF
China, either direct or by way Of the Ha-
waiian (Sandwich) Islands, or other island or
islands of the Pacific Ocean" &c. The bill
proposes that the capital stock of said COM
pany shall be ten millions of dollars in gold,
and that the government. in order to facilitate
the execution of the work, shall furnish one
or more vessels of the navy to make surveys,
&c., and shall contribute Eve hundred thou
sand dollars in gold per annum for term or
twenty years In other words, the govern
ment is asked to furnish the whole ten MIL
lions Of capital stock, and the equivalent 1t is
to receive is the privilege OF sending de-
spatches over the line to the extent of five
hundred thousand dollars year.
Now, 1t strikes us. first that II we had
cable in operation between San Francisco and
Shanghae and Yokoham, free to the govern
ment, it would hardly find any necessity for
dispatches beyond FIVE, eight or ten
thousand dollars a year. Secondly, that
II the government is to furnish the
whole capital stock Of this concern 1t
would be as well to make the cable govern
ment affair at once, to be run by the govern
ment for the benefit Of the people as cheaply
as possible. Why not? Why should the gov
ernment be called upon to turn over to pri-
vate corporation an ocean cable which is to be
laid at the expense OF the public treasury !
The proposition is preposterous, and ten mil
lions in gold for such bargain makes the
seven millions and quarter paid for the pro-
digous Arctic Territory of Alaska magnificent
stroke of good fortune. No. This cable pro-
ject will never do. We dare say that If Con-
gress, for the use of the wires, will agree to fur
nish million of dollars to aid In completing a
telegraph line from St. Petersburg eastward to
Behring Straits, with branch line to
| Shanghae, the Gear will undertake to build the
line, and this will bring it within forty miles Of
our own territory, and another million viii
bring it into connection with San Francisco
| This line, then, with its branch line from
Asiatic Russia southwark into China ani
Japan, would be equivalent to a cable directly
across the Pacific.
But against this scheme 1t will be urged tina
this line at all times would be under the contro
| of Russia, and we want line Of our own
| Very well. We can have it. There is th'
short sea route of the Aleutian islands, whicl
are ours, and which stretch pretty well acros
! the Northern Pacific, and from the extrem
point of those islands, going west from
Alaska, 1t is but a short distance to the Japar
islands, and thence from Jeddo another shor
bit of cable would connect with Shanghae
Here, however, the objection may be inter
posed that the chaing of the icebergs aroun'
the rocky shores Of the Aleutian islands rende
impracticable; but this remains to be proved
Assuming, however, that the cheapest cabl
route from America to China and japan !
directly across the Pacific, touching at som
| convenient islands en- ronte half million
year in gold from the government for twent,
years is simply out of the question. 1t il
pretty certain, too, that for say twenty year.
| to come the business of Pacific cable woult
be limited to few brief dispatches from
Shanghae and Japan on the prices Of tea ant
the reports of the ships leaving and coming tt
those places. No private company, then, cal
undertake to risk even the tenth part of tin
cost of laying a cable between San Francisco
and Shanghae; hence the company in ques
ton ask Congress to foot the whole bill Blu
if Congress must do this why not hold th
line in possession Of the government? But
even in this view, will Congress at this tim
be apt to try this cable experiment? II not
we may as well dismiss the proposition at ono
az TO say anything more about it.
What Is the Use of Presbyterys