The Washington herald., 1907-02-26
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

The telegraph is now sixty years old.
The first successful message was sent over
an experimental line between Washington
and Baltimore in 1S44. and from that time
until to-day there Is hardly any other in
vention which has contributed so much TO
the advancement Of our civilization. Pros
ress and development have always de-
pended upon the communication OF ideas,
and the telegraph annihilated both time
and space.
When the first message, the famous
What hath God wrought" flashed over
the wire from Washington TO Baltimore,
the key was operated by Miss Ellsworth
daughter of the United States Commits
sioner of Patents at that time. The Dem
Ocratic national convention was then in
session in Baltimore, and when the an
nOuncement came that James X. Polk had
been nominated for President, the idea
that the news should become known SO
quickly caused a veritable sensation.
The question of who invented the tele-
graph Is one which has always caused
heated controversy, and probably always
viii; but it is certain that the idea had
no practical application until Congress,
by a majority vote of eight. voted the
necessary $50. 600 to build the experimental
line to Baltimore. This line was built by
Morse and Vail in May, 1874. It was in
1887 that Samuel f. s. Morse and Alfred
Vail entered into a contract by which
Prof Morse was assured of financial
backing
From that time until the experiment
was a success the genius of Morse and
Vail and Joseph Henry was devoted to
the perfection of the idea In the eight
years preceding the final success of Cyrus
W. Fields experiments with the ocean
cable in 1866. So. 900 900 were expended in
the effort TO send the telegraph across the
Atlantic This fact In itself shows the
difficulty which attended the earlier ef-
forts 10 introduce the invention. Morse
and Vail could set but little capital, and
it was with the greatest difficulty that
Congress was persuaded TO appropriate
the $4,000 spent on the first line to Balti-
more.
The method of taking Geographic mes
sages by ear, now in universal use. was
not readily adopted. Sound reading was
much feared by telegraphers at first, and
all instruments were recording. In the
early telegraph Offices it was the rule
to fine operators 50 for each Offense if
found reading messages by the dot-and-
dash signs by sound. instead of waiting
for the record to be made in ink on the
paper ribbon.
In most countries of the world, as soon
as the telegraph was adopted it became
part of the postal service, under the
direction of the government. In the
United States the first line was built with
national funds, and for four years was
maintained by the government II was
placed under the control of the Post
master General and operated by him, The
patents held by Morse and Vail controlled
il, and these were offered TO the Federal
government for 100000
Congress laughed al the proposition to
pay that much Tor "a toy, and would have
nothing 10 do with it, Later, In those
years between 1853 and 1876 when the
government was subsidy-mad, Congress
voted an annual subsidy of $4,000 for ten
years to one private telegraph concern
in the West. "a total of four times what
it would have cost to control the inven-
ton. An investigation looking to the
conversion OF the telegraph lines into the
department of the post-office in 1872
showed that all the lines TN the United
States at that time, connecting 1G,000 Of
fees, might be duplicated for $l60o0,0C0
In the early days of the Associated
Press there was close relation between
the telegraph companies and the news
papers which formed that organization
such as to give rise TO decided opposi-
ton The statement or Prof. David
Brooks. in 1919, is an interesting bit Of
contemporary comment. He said. The
establishment Of the Associated Press has
as its chief object so far as the tele-
graph is concerned, to silence the criti-
cism and secure the influence of those
journals enjoying it's advantages, in the
matter Of preventing governmental inter
ference" Of course. the Associated Press
was formed for the purpose of facilitate
ing the dissemination of news, which pur-
pose it served. The modern newspaper
is the product of the telegraph, plus the
press associations and news-gathering
agencies.
Now the telegraph lines in this country
represent a capitalization Of Sl25, 00O, 600.
There are 15o00OJ miles of wire. about
$1,000 commercial Offices, and 5000 rail-
road telegraph offices. The business of
the country requires over 100000 tele-
grams a year, and the railroad opera
tons require over 20o009,000 messages a
year.
While the commercial telegraph bust
ness has been growing steadily from the
first, there is no doubt but that the in
vention Of the telephone has retarded It's
progress The statistics show that each
year there are sent 30,OOO 600 more long
distance. or toll-line, telephone messages
than commercial kilograms Most of the
telephone business came into life with
that invention, but there is no question
about the telegraph suffering by. reason
Of the newer means of instantaneous
communication.
Capt. William Henry Young. who is in
charge of the Western Union office in
the Capitol at Washington. is the odd
timer among veteran telegraph oper-