New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-06-11
PACIFIC CABLE BILL Cf.
MD cop11ss ADVOCATES GOVERNMENT
OWNERSHIP OF A LINE ~
THE PHILIPPINES.

,,rh;otor Tune 1O-The House to-day
adontAd q speciaI order for the consideration OF
tho Corliss Pacific Gable bill by a vote vi
Jos to 80, and listened to an argument oy 'ne
author of the measure in favor OF us pdss's
Mr. Dalzell. of Pennsylvania. who presehteu 'l'e
rule announced that he was opposed u 'ne
government building cable to the Fhihppiiie'
He favored the construction OF an American
ca bic by American capital and gave notice tiia'
at the proper time he would offer as SUBSTITUTE
a bill to authorize the President to make a con-
tract for the construction of cable unoer GER
tain conditions. The minority of the committee
on Commerce oppose the Corliss bill. on the
ground that the Commercial Pacific Company 10
now at work building a cable when IS 10 NC
laid by 1905
This measure" said Mr.. Corlss in his argu-
ment for his bill, provides for government
cable uniting our islands in the Pacific with tne
American continent. BY its terms the caoie
shall be American made. laid by American ships
and managed by the American Government
The right to lay. land and regulate cables ne
said was a franchise held by the people It's
control was an inherent right of the nation lie
argued that no one had a right to lay capie
without the permission of Congress He piaceu
the cost of construction at not exceeding Slo'-
600 600 and the cost of operation AT @too'oV" d
year "A government survey of the route nau
already been maze at an eApeAoC VI F-ON''O0'
He estimated that the revenue from commercial
business alone would be far in excess OF the cost
of operation.
Mr. Corlss presented statements ana hsures
intended to show the existence of a capie
monopoly and it's purposes. He presented the
grants obtained by the Eastern Extension Cable
Company from China, Japan and the spanish
islands in the Pacific, including Guam the
PhiIfppires and the Marshall Islands, 10 snO"
that this cable company had control OF COM
munication with the Far East, and controls over
seventy thousand miles of submarine caoles. II
had an exclusive monopoly in China. he sala'
until 1890 and its Spanish grant in the Philip-
pines ran until 1910. He contended tnat the
Commercial Pacific Gable Company. which pro-
noses TO lay a cable to Hawaii and thence 10 Ma
Mia was merely the American brancn OF any VI
the Eastern cable monopoly.
Mr. Corliss dWelt the effect on American
military control in the Pacific should foreign
corporation be permitted to own this caDie, anu
he argued that the only way TO break down
tho monopolv was for the government to own
construct and operate the cable
Mr.. Corliss denounced private cable monopo-
lies and read letters from Captain Squier. OF
the Signal Service, who had been in charge OF
the cable interests in the Philippines for three
wears and from Admiral Bradford. as TO the
necessity for government cable ana the exist
ence of cable monopoly in the Orient. here
we are at this very moment. he said IN conclu-
sion with eight millions of people in the
Philippines, our military and civil interests
without communication. severed from all the
world and the battleShipS of our navy being
used as dispatch boats to carry communica-
lions to people.