Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-28
America Now Has Its Opportunity to
Take a Hand in the Traffic
Beneath the Seas.
WASHING OUT WEAK STOMACHS.
ShOrtsightednesS Not an Indication Of In
tellectual Activity, but Rather
of Bad Schooling.
A TWENTY-FOUR-HOUR CLOCK DIAL.
rPREPARED FOR THE DISPATCH. ]


1t is a somewhat singular fact that the
manufacture of submarine cables has from
the first to the present day remained in
English hands on English soil. With but
one or two trivial exceptions, the cables of
the world, which stretch length of 120,00O
nautical miles, have cost $500, ,00O, 600, and
are watched over BY fine laying and re-
pairing fleet Of 40 for steamers are of Brit
ish construction and of like ownership. The
French manufacturers have lately become
so jealous that they now propose to impose
a heavy duty on cables imported into the
country, but it would also appear that this
duty is directed against cables of American
manufacture for land use, as an order has
recently been secured by one of our leading
companies for no fewer than so cables of
weIl-known type for telegraphic use in
Paris.
In this class of work American skill and
invention are pre-eminent and it is there
fore considered the more remarkable that in
making long submarine cables this country
has no status at all, even the Government
buying its short sea cables from abroad. A
large trade is now being done in American
land cables in Europe, and large sums OF
English money have just been invested in
one of the most extensive insulated wire and
cable factories on this continent.
What makes this matter of more than Or
dinarv interest at this moment is the fact
that the first great cable across the Pacific
Ocean to Japan, China, Australasia and
LANDS of Ind" must soon be laid. A Brit
ish man-of-war reported a series of Pacific
soundiugs last month, and the project is be-
ing thoroughly and tavorably discussed in
cable circles in London. President Harri-
son has called upon Congress to do some
thing to prevent the Pacific mail steamers
from forsaking San Francisco for Vancou-
yer, and a like appeal will soon be in order
as to tn Pacific cable, the western landing
of which within her territory will be of the
utmost strategic Importance to Great
Britain.
But with our immense and growing trade
in the Pacific, where already we exercise a
protectorate over the Sandwich Islands and
are acquiring new responsibilities or oppor-
tunities daily, it is of no less Importance
that the cable should land under the Stars
and Stripes. This question is agitating
American electrical engineers, who are pa
triotic enough to believe that the cable
should be made in America, be owned by
American capital. and be operated by
Americans. They say that since we have
done practically nothing in ali the great
cable work in South America, and PLAYED
but subordinate part in the work that
created the North Atlantic cable system,
it is high time to pre-empt that which
still awaits in the deep waterJ first gazed
upon by the doughty old Bi.boan, Vasco
Nunez. 1t has been suggested by one
electrician that this cable laying would be
the most creditaDle and useful perform
ance that could distinguish the Columbian
quadri. centennial.