The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-09-13


Now York-The Hersld's Telegraph
Limos. Hes tItse
Among the greatest necessities Of advancing
civilization is tho rapid communication Of
ideas over greater or lesser distances. We
need not consider the time whom, If man
wanted to tell his friends anything, ne had TO
carry the news himself. or even the stop for
ward wherein tho postboy's mail bag was the
best means at hand. We have now the e1ec-
trio telegraph, and where instant TRANSMISSION
of intelligence is needed everybody looks
to the invention of Morse for its accom-
plishment The sweeping success OF SUD-
marine cables, bridging seas and ooeans,
is considered the great step forward, an1 80
IL undoubtedly is; but, as progress can have
no resting place, We find innumerable faults
Of detail in the management OF the tele-
graph here, which binders its wider applica-
ton to everyday life. The efforts at present
being made to spread thu utility OF the teie-
graph are nearly all directed TO taking In DIS
TAM points all over the country, Wien is very
la,idable and reaps its own reward; t... IN
straining after this, other great objects ore Oom-
paratively neglected namely. rapidity OF
transmission, punctuality of delivery and the
development of local telegraph lines.
We do not wish to blame unnecessarily the
Western Union Telegraph Company; but,
with all its enterprise in tying all quarters OF
tho Continent together its local lines in New
York are sadly neglected. If this corporation
does not feel sufficient interest in attending to
the business in this city it should not stand
in the way of others by what is, in effect,
shallow pretence of furnishing telegraph lines
between the various points of the city. That
it is defective may easily be found by sim
pie experiment, which is probably in the
experience of every person in the city who has
attempted to steal march on time through
the local telegraph. If message be deposited
at any of the downtown stations, say Wall
street, for transmission up town. and messen-
ger started at the same time by the ordinary
routes of street-car travel, with the same
intelligence, the messenger will infalli-
bly, arrive before the despatch. This
is, unfortunately not applicable only
to districts set down as ''out of the way but
is equally true of any portion of the city. 1t
is not for us to say whether the insufficiency
lies in the number of wires, the ineficiency of
the operators, the scarcity of messengers or
general want of organization; for when per-
son pays for a despatch at rates immensely in
excess of postage, or what it would cost to
send private messenger, he will blame the
telegraph company as whole instead Of in
curing into the particulars of delay often
fatal to his interests, be they those of business,
of the family or merely social.
1t is question Of importance to every
branch Of the community. Its relation to the
press cannot better be indicated than by
reference to the case Of the HERALD. A news
paper in the actual sense Of the term must, to
win its way, never lose its character as
pioneer. To this end, one of its most vital
objects of unceasing vigilance is the
quickening Of means of communication.
What is sufficiently rapid for the aver
age citizen would be vastly too slow
for the journal. Men read the papers
for information otherwise out of their per-
sonal reach, and expect that they should
be always ahead The organization which
insures the collection Of news everywhere
would be nine-tenths wasted effort if the
facility for reaching the newspaper were met
fective. The delay Of half an hour at a ceft-
tain period Of the journalistic day would often
leave all the foresight and cost Of obtaining
information valueless This is known to every
editor of daily paper in the world Hence
the HERALD, in directions where the public
channels of post and telegraph were chroni-
cally inadequate to do the HERALDs business in
HERALD time, established post routes, steam
boat routes, messenger routes and telegraph
lines of its own, and always found
the venture satisfactory and profitable
to its patrons and itself. Before the days
of railroads and telegraphs it led the way
along the highways by the HERALD's express
service When the iron horse and Morse s
invention superseded these it adopted the
| improved means with will. The growing
commerce of New York needed an earlier
notice Of ships arrivals Before the days
of the Atlantic cable the European steamers
brought the freshest European news, and with
the view of securing this maritime infor-
nation and looked-for news budget the
HERALD set its feet of steam yachts aAoat.
To further facilitate the transmission Of late
arrivals a telegraph line was laid between
the HERALD Ship News Office at pier East
River and the headquarters of the journal
The necessity for private telegraph com
mupication Oily began there To &C
! commodate our uptown advertisers il was
necessary y to open i Branch Office al ], 26o
Broadway. This answered very well TO,
awhile; but just cause of complaint was made
that the Branch Office closed it's advertising lis,
for the day some minutes earlier than the down.
town Office A special telegraph line was
| 4La.aGoro laid nonnactirn 4ha Rra,,oh Oasas