The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-11
WAR OF THE GIANTS.
The Western Union and the Bell
Telephone People to
MEASURE SWORDS IN THE ARENA.
At Least so Runs the StOry-Jay Gould Sits upon
the Anxious Seat-Will he Reach the
MOurners Bench?

Especial to THE HERALD-Examiner Dispatch.1
New YORK, Dec. 10.-Jay Gould is said
to be on the anxious seat He fears that
his great monopoly, the telegraph, the
source of his greatest wealth and power,
has encountered rival. 1t is the telephone
which is supposed to be causing him this
anxiety. At least this is what the knowing
ones on Wall street allege and appear for
once in all conscience to believe. Certainly
the telephone of the country has made a
great advance over its first primitive en-
ployment, and it seems consisten with the
march of science that the speaking tele-
graph should take the place of it's prede-
cessor. The mere fact that the telephone
trust has an understanding with Gould not
to send Geographic messages, and notwith-
standing this fact, it is now beginning to
send them, and it is significant in this con-
nection. 1t is true the general public has
ceased to look upon the telephone as a com
petitor Of the telegraph, but the public in
this respect is not so well posted as Jay
Gould. In the telephone Mr.. Gould real
ICES that he has to deal with an enemy.
Indeed, so much does he realize it that it is
said he is ready to turn over his plant to
Uncle Sam, for consideration, of course.
And thus is Bellamy's Look Backward
being realized.
Not only has Mr. Gould to face an OPP
ponent so strong as the Bell Telephone
company, but his cable interests are not in
such a condition as to give him perfect
satisfaction. The Anglo American COM
pany is confessedly dissatisfied with the
way their business has been handled and
the share of profits they have received
from the Western Union. The French
Cable company, another member of the
old pool, is now in the courts of France
seeking to be released from its agreement
with Mr.. Gould and his cable pool. To add
to Mr.. Gould's embarrassment and the
general middle of his telegraph affairs
comes news of the incorporation of COM
pany in England to lay cable from Ireland
to. the straits.of Belle isle in the gulf of
gence that the English and Spanish govern
ments have granted large subsidy to a
company at the head of which stands Sir
William Armstrong to lay cable from
Spain via the Azores and Bermuda thence
touching various West India islands to
Charleston. s. G. The former cable is in
actual progress of construction too day and
the postal union is pushing their lines to-
wards Charleston with the utmost speed
in order to connect with the latter at
Charleston.
1t is the long distance service of the Bell
Telephone company which is now cutting
into Mr.. Gould's profits and which is the
principal thing that threatens his exclusive
control over both commercial and news
messages. a correspondent of one of the
leading electric journals in the country
states that the wires of the Bell company
between Buffalo and Chicago were
stretched and ready for operations or
would be in very few days. He also stated
that the telephone company was pushing
west and northwest of Chicago with all
possible speed and that there was and is
an agreement in existence between the
Bell company and the Western Union
whereby the former company agrees to do
no Geographic business. He further said
that the Bell company, which includes all
telephone companies in the United States,
no matter under what name, is already en-
gagged in the telegraph business and it is
only a matter of policy and fear of the
public that prevents Gould to-day from
suing the telephone company for breach of
contract. 1T is well known, - he continued,
''to all telegraph men that the coming op
ponent of the telegraph monopoly is the
equally great monopoly of the telephone
The telephone people have trump card
which they are holding back until the
proper moment. This is nothing less than
an improved telephone which will far ex-
coed the present instrument in range, and,
in fact, will astound the public when it is
placed upon the market"
do you think that the telephone COM
pany could from the start successfully com
pete with the telegraph companies?'
perhaps the best answer to your ques-
ton is to be had in the fact that the Wes-
tern Union telegraph company has today
5000 offices throughout the United States.
This number includes numerous offices to
be found in cities like New York, Boston
and Chicago AS soon as the telephone
people begin to receive and send Geographic
messages, as they will DO undoubtedly in
the near future, they can, with less
expense, easily have as many as 10000
offices in this country. There is no doubt
that the telephone people are keeping this
matter very quiet 1 do not doubt that
they will deny it, but it is nevertheless a
fact that Jay Gould will receive a serious
blow when the telephone people begin to
send messages However, whether Mr..
Gould interests suffer or do not, the gen
erai public is soon to view the telephone as
something more than office nuisances, as
so many are now prone to vote Converse
lions between New York and Chicago, and
perhaps between Chicago and San Fran
cisco, are possibilities very gltttering and
attractive, even in this age of marvels."