The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-04-28
The Greed OF the Atlantic Cable Conn
pany - Public Rights Against the
Tyranny or MonOpOlies.


The history of the Atlantic Cable Company
is not history of enlightened views and lib
eral management. Pending their protracted
struggle for success the projectors of the
magnificent scheme of uniting the two Con-
tinents by the electric wire were regarded as
public benefactors, and the world gave them
credit for loftier object than that of securing
enormous profits out of the venture. 1t was
believed that the advancement of science, the
progress of civilization, the enlightenment
and happiness of the people, were the inoen-
tives to perseverance and devotion that
commanded general admiration. But as soon
as success was secured, that greedy policy began
to manifest itself which has ever since marked
the action Of the company and disfgured
its otherwise useful work 1t speedily became
evident that the views of the managers Of the
cable were limited to the commercial aspect of
the enterprise, and that the momentous
question with them was, not what would be
the advantages of the great triumph of science
to mankind, but how much money it would
bring into their own pockets There have
been laudable instances of unselfshness on the
part of men who have accomplished results of
| vast importance and benefit to the world, but
the constructors of the first Atlantic cable
were remarkably free from any such senti-
mentality. No project ever offered o more
promising field for the qualification of the
passion of avarice. The immediate connec-
ton between the leading markets and mon
eyed centres of the world was certain
to effect a revolution in commerce
and speculation, and the practical minds
of the directors of the company at once
suggested that by combining the benefits
of the cable to the wealthy, through the exac-
ton of an exorbitant tariff, they could make
larger profits than by placing it within the
reach of q greater number of customers at
reasonable rates. The first charges for mes
sages were almost prohibitory, and although
in this instance, as is frequently the case,
avarice overreached itself, and reductions in
the rates became a necessity, they were made
in niggardly manner and grudgingly yielded.
It was only when the near approach Of the
completion of the French cable threatened
destruction of the original monopoly that
anything like liberal policy was adopted by
the Anglo-American Board Fear then ex-
torted, from those who had made enormous
fortunes out Of the people, concessions which
sense of justice would never have prompted
and something approximaing fair tariff was
announced.
The press has never received liberal treat
ment from the cable company although the
leading American journals have been the best
and most steadfast customers the cable has
ever had, besides having been its most
valuable ally when it was struggling for sue
cess against apparently insurmountable OBJ
stacles. 1t is scarcely too much to say that
but for the aid of the press the Anglo-Ameri-
can Company would have been failure GER
tainly its work would have been delayed and
embarrassed for years longer than it was if
the leading journals had not supported the
enterprise with vigor, and encouraged capital,
proverbially timid, in the apparently despe-
rate investment. If the cable managers had
been capable of taking broad view of the
subject if their eyes had not been buried
in their money bags and blinded to every
thing but the vision Of big dividends,
they would have seen that their wisest policy
was to encourage the use of the cable by the
press and thus, by familiarizing the people with
its advantages to have made its constant use
public necessity. AS it was they stupidity
regarded the daily newspapers with jealousy,
believing that the publication of cable news
decreased the number of private messages.
When the Anglo-American Board was first
urged to make reductions in the press tariff,
the policy of enforcing full rates for press
messages was strenuously advocated by some
of the directors, with the avowed object of
preventing the newspapers from using the
cable OF all. Englishmen, unaccustomed to
the enterprise and liberality which mark the
management of American journals, believed
that the suppression of all cable news would
largely increase the receipts of the company
from its private customers, and they could
not understand that the press and the people
had any rights which cable directors were
bound to study or respect. Their policy was,
of course, as fatuous as it was illiberal, be-
cause the American newspaper would have
secured the news even at double the cost of
private rates; but the animus Of the PROPOSE
ton has been evident in the treatment of the
press by the company, with very few excep-
tons, from the completion Of the first cable
to the present time. When the French cable
approached success the Anglo-American line
was better disposed to appreciate the patron
age Of the American journals; but as we have
said, the apprehension of dissolving dividends
had great influence in inducing the tardy JUS
tice.
The eventual re-establishment Of the mo-
nopoly by the union OF the French and English
| cables under one management soon put to
i fight any hone of more inst and liberal