Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-07-19
Beaten in the Pacific by England.

The New York Tribune comments
with much vigor on the recent an
nouncement of Mr.. Chamberlain in
Parliament regarding the British cable
across the Pacific. He says that the
cable is being manufactured. the sta
ton houses are being erected, the route
is being surveyed, and by the end of
next year the enterprise will be COM
pleted. There will then be direct tele-
graphic communicat ton, by way of
Canada, between England and Aus
tralia. and at every point where it is
not under the high seas the line will be
under the British flag. 1t is splen-
did work. 1t has been energetically
undertaken. 1t will doubtless be
promptly completed, and will prove to
be of great advantage to British COM
merce in time of peace, not to mention
its value to the British navy in time
of war.
The news, the Tribune truthfully de-
That is because it is a reminder of this
country's strange lack of enterprise.
The United States has really greater
need of such a cable than Great Brit
ain has. 1t Is in position to lay one
far more easily. since it owns a chain
of islands forming the best possible
of ba Do
cific. Yet it dilly dallies over the mat
ter, some saying. 1T cannot be done"
and others satuously favOring a round
about shore line which would put links
in the chain under three or four alien
flags. The result is that in the face Of
Mr.. Chamberlain's announcement this
country cannot even report progress.
The United States is sitting still wrile
the British Empire goes ahead. And
that is the case in the very quarter
where this country ought to lead. The
ocean OF the future is the Pacific. The
United States. with its vast frontage
upon it and its islands scattered all the
way across it. ought to be the foremost
commercial power upon it. But COM
merce and communication go together.
And if the direct cable communication
from the other side of the Pacific is
with Vancouver to Vancouver travel
Golden Gate.
1t is discreditable, and worse, that
this country should suffer itself thus
to be handicapped and outstripped
In other directions it is not only sur
passing Great Britain but beating the
world 1t sends Goals to Newcastle in
a dozen different ways-and sells them
too. But in this matter of paramount,
importance it lets itself be disastrously
beaten Disastrously, because the con-
struction of this British cable viii
make it far more difficult to construc
an American one on a business basis
1t has long been believed that while
one Pacific cable would pay there i:
business enough for only one and NJ
more. So the one which is laid frs
and gets a monopoly of business vii
be very serious obstacle to the laying
of another. There is no doubt tina
now the cry will be raised that sec
ond cable would not pay, and tina
therefore we would best depend upol
the British cable. All the same. i
would be the part of wisdom. from tn
commercial. diplomatic, naval AM
every other point of view for thl
country to make haste to lay an all
American cable across the Pacific.
Americans acted in this matter witt
the energy they have displayed IL
some other things. they might even We
beat the British in the race.