THE POSTAL TELEGRAPH CABLE COMPANY.
This Company was organized in 1881. Its original promoters expected by the use of compound steel and copper wire of large size and the use of the Leggo-automatic and Gray-harmonic apparatus to transmit a large volume of business by the use of so few wires and at such a speed that a uniform and low rate would produce a revenue sufficient to justify a capitalization largely in excess of the cost of the plant.
The name postal was chosen upon the theory that the new plan of construction and method of transmission would bring the property into extensive use in competition with or perhaps as an auxiliary of the Post-Office department.
How far the purpose of the founders was speculative need not now be considered. Probably some of them were sincere in their beliefs, but they were ignorant of the telegraph business, and the fallacy of their plan was soon demonstrated.
In order to help a friend, who had become largely involved in the bonds of the Company, Mr. John W. Mackay found himself in control of the property in 1884. He had in the meantime been induced to interest himself in the organization of a new cable service between Great Britain, France and the United States, of which, through the failure of some of those who were to join in the enterprise, he also came into control. Having “put his hand to the plow,” so to speak, although the business was wholly new to him, he was not the man to turn back, and the more he examined the merit of the business itself, the better satisfied he became that, if it could be properly conducted in its details and the complicated and chaotic condition of the numerous comparatively small, but ruinously competing land line companies could be brought into right form and order, a successful and in every way creditable business worthy of the employment of his ample resources could be built up.
When the Western Union Company, early in 1881, under the leadership of Mr. Jay Gould, acquired control of the Atlantic & Pacific, the American Union and the combined Canadian telegraphs, and formed an alliance with the cable companies, it then seemed as if competition in the telegraph business had come to an end, and many of its ablest men were of that opinion, but by the end of 1884 more extensive and more injurious competition had been built up in the United States than had ever existed before, and the possibility of bringing order out of such chaos seemed remote, but Mr. Mackay was not discouraged.
Early in 1884 he secured the services of Mr. George G. Ward, who had been brought up in the business of the telegraph in England, and had been in the service of the cable companies almost from their inception, and was Superintendent of the Direct United States Cable Company from 1875 to 1883. Under his direction the first of the Commercial Cable Company’s cables was completed in December, 1884.
Early in that month Mr. Albert B. Chandler entered Mr. Mackay’s personal service, having been assured of his purpose to permanently establish a telegraph system upon sound and just principles respecting which they were in full accord.
Mr. Chandler had served in almost every capacity known to the telegraph business, from operator in 1858 to President in 1879, and had won the confidence of proprietors of telegraph property, of their officials and employees, and the public as a practical, energetic and conservative manager. Under his guidance as receiver, the mortgage which had been placed upon the property of the Postal Telegraph Company under complete misapprehension of its earning power, was foreclosed.
The Postal Telegraph Cable Company, of which he became President and General Manager early in 1886, was organized. Extremely complicated and vexatious litigation, chiefly a legacy from the smaller companies, was gradually removed, and when, near the close of 1887, the various fragmentary companies had been acquired by either the Western Union or the Postal Companies, competition, based upon the cutting of rates, rebates and other wasteful practices which could only end in destruction, was promptly terminated by the competing companies.
Since then the telegraph business has been carried on in the United States in a more business-like and progressive manner than ever before.
There is so little friction between the two companies apparent to the public, that it is sometimes charged, or at least suspected, they are in actual alliance, but such is not the case. Competition for patronage was never so sharp as now, but it is based upon excellence of facilities and service and treatment of patrons, and not upon any form of buying patronage with money, which has proven the ruin of so many companies whose chief purpose seemed to be to do the most harm in the shortest time, in order to sell or lease their property for more than it was fairly worth.
Probably no two men ever had more complete control of large interests not their own during their formative period than has been the case of Mr. Chandler and Mr. Ward in their respective positions, and to Mr. Mackay’s implicit confidence in them may be attributed much of the success that has been attained by the Commercial Cable and Postal Telegraph Companies, which are now practically one property.
Most of the principal officers of these companies have been brought to their present positions by these gentlemen, and the business is conducted with singular harmony and efficiency.
Mr. Mackay, who was from its inception President of the Commercial Cable Company, assumed also the Presidency of the Postal Company early in 1901 at the earnest request of Mr. Chandler, who desired to be relieved, partly by reason of somewhat impaired health, and partly because of his preference to spend much of his time in his Vermont home. Upon his retirement from active charge, he was made Chairman of the Board of Directors, and in this capacity renders a variety of services and exercises as a useful influence. He is still, as he has been for many years, a Vice-President of the Commercial Cable Company, of which Mr. Ward continues as first Vice-President and General Manager.
Mr. Clarence H. Mackay has succeeded his father as President of the Commercial Cable and Postal Telegraph Companies, and entered with great pride and energy into the project of laying a cable to Hawaii and the Philippine Islands as projected by his father.
These very important links in the circuit round the globe adds further power and opportunity to the Postal Company, whose activity seems now to have fairly begun, and being laid upon sound foundations of finance, construction and methods of business is evidently destined to continue an increasing success.
The following figures show the pole and wire mileage, number of offices operated or reached, and number of messages handled in 1903 by the Postal Telegraph Cable Company, its subsidiary companies and direct connections in North America:
| Pole mileage | 48,801 |
| Wire ” | 276,244 |
| Points reached | 19,977[A] |
| Messages handled | 21,600,577 |
| Number of new offices added in 1903 | 3,729 |
[A] 1,782 of these are reached by no other company.
The properties in the United States owned and controlled by the Postal Company represent an investment in lines and equipment aggregating about $25,000,000.
In order to perpetuate the name of his father, the virtual founder of the Commercial Cable and Postal Telegraph Companies, Mr. Clarence H. Mackay, President of the United Companies, recently addressed a circular letter to the stockholders inviting the deposit of their stock for exchange for shares in a trusteeship created under the Massachusetts laws with the name of “The Mackay Companies.”
The capitalization of the Commercial Cable Company, which also owns the Postal Telegraph and Cable Company, is $15,000,000, upon which 8 per cent. dividends are paid.
“The Mackay Companies” has authorized for exchange for this stock $30,000,000 par value of its own 4 per cent. cumulative preferred shares and a like amount of common shares, so that each stockholder in the Cable Company will receive for his holdings 200 per cent. in the common shares of the new concern.
The Trustees are Clarence H. Mackay, John I. Waterbury, President of the Manhattan Trust Company of New York; T. Jefferson Coolidge, jun., President of the Old Colony Trust Company of Boston, both directors of the Commercial Cable Company, and Mr. W. Cook, Counsel to the Company.
The plan is practically consummated.
Mr. Mackay said in reply to an enquiry that this action on his part was the outcome of his desire to put on a permanent basis the properties created by his father, and to provide for all contingencies that might arise from death or changes in commercial conditions. He will continue to devote his entire time to the active management of the Company.
The Commercial Cable Company owns and operates four transatlantic cable lines and its connecting lines between Nova Scotia and New York, and Ireland and France, in all some fourteen thousand miles of cable, with also the cable from San Francisco to Honolulu and thence to the Philippines.
The Mackay system has an exclusive connection with the Canadian Pacific telegraphs and with the all red cable line to Australia and New Zealand.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS OF AMERICA.
(London Daily Express.)
With the evolution of the United States into a world power there has grown up across the Atlantic the greatest news-gathering agency ever imagined or created, whose despatches are momentarily being read by nearly half a hundred million people, and upon which Europe itself is sometimes dependent for the first word or whisper of what has happened within her own gates. The name of the agency which supplies America with its news is the Associated Press.
Startling in its scope, romantic in its history, the Associated Press has now, probably, more influence upon daily international events than any other agent, except the will of the peoples, which it helps to form.
Sixty years ago, when America was in industrial and political childhood, its papers depended for news upon Associated Press post-boys, who, after meeting incoming schooners at New York, rode hot haste, or leisurely, according to the character of the rider and nature of the beast, to the various papers inland.
To-day the Associated Press sends over 31,000 miles of private telegraph lines, which form a network across the continent of America, thousands and thousands of columns, supplying about 3,000 American papers with news of what is happening from minute to minute in America and abroad.
NETWORK OF WIRES.
In addition, the Associated Press keeps Europe and the rest of the world informed of the news of the great Republic, gathered and distributed by over 2,000 employees, who are supported on an annual revenue of over half a million sterling.
The Associated Press was started about 1840, when seven of the New York daily papers combined to reduce the expense of news by post-boys.
The organization at present consists of over 700 of the leading American daily papers. Each paper has a vote whereby fifteen directors are elected. These in turn elect officers. Through contract relations 2,300 other papers are granted the Associated Press News service, making a total of 3,000 out of the 3,200 daily papers published in America.
These 3,000 papers have a daily issue of 15,000,000, and each paper is estimated by an impartial statistician to pass through the hands of three persons; hence it is estimated that every despatch sent by the Associated Press reaches 45,000 pairs of eyes.
The Associated Press is not in itself a profit-making concern, being purely co-operative, and has nothing whatever to do with any advertising. Its papers, which include those of all languages, creeds and politics, are assessed according to the expenditure involved in gathering and distributing the home and foreign news.
Over its own telegraph wires the Associated Press sends through its own telegraph operators, east, west, north and south, the news of the moment.
SOME QUICK WORK.
This is received in its branch offices in all the important towns throughout the United States, and transmitted to the papers. The result of last year’s Derby was in the New York office of the Associated Press, nearly 3,000 miles away, twenty-five seconds after “Rock Sand” had passed the winning post, and was published in San Francisco, about 7,000 miles from Epsom, two minutes afterwards.
Interesting as is this system whereby the news of America and the outside world is simultaneously distributed to the American papers—a system of mechanical ingenuity and organization that would require several columns to describe adequately—it must be almost of secondary importance to English readers compared with the influence wielded by this American news agency over matters British and European.
The Associated Press has treaty relations with the three great European news agencies, viz., Reuter’s, which supplies Great Britain, Greater Britain, all the British possessions, Egypt and the Far East, except Tonquin, with their news. Havas, which covers the newsfield of France, and through its subsidiary agencies all the Latin countries, including South America; and Wolff’s, which from Berlin controls and distributes the news of Germany and all the Teutonic countries, and, through allies, the news of Russia, Austria-Hungary, the Slav countries, Scandinavia and Danish territory.
These three European agencies in turn rely upon tributary agencies such as the Telbureau, in St. Petersburg; the Stefani, in Rome; the Fabrin, in Madrid, and the Corresponz, in Vienna—all official voices of Government opinion.
NO SALES IN ENGLAND.
These European agencies and their tributaries constitute one great clearing-house of news. Havas gathers the news of France primarily into Paris; thence it radiates throughout the world: to Reuter for England, to the Associated Press for America, to Stefani for Italy, and so on. In this way a budget comprising the news of the world appears day by day.
Not content with receiving for its papers the news of Europe through the agencies already mentioned, the Associated Press has established in practically all the European capitals, bureaus of its own. In London the Associated Press keeps a large staff, though no attempt is made to sell a single item of news to English papers. All their work is to gather news and send it to America.
In London the staff of the Associated Press, as it is familiarly called, is under the direct supervision of Mr. Walter Neef, who is in charge of the entire European service.
The correspondents resident on the continent are in close touch with the Chancelleries, and are welcomed at their respective Foreign Offices with a kindness that speaks eloquently for the friendship these European nations are willing to offer to America.
The first news of the arbitration treaty that sealed the Anglo-French “entente” was cabled to New York by the Associated Press from Paris, and re-cabled to London, where it was promptly denied by no less an authority than the Times. The first news of the recent Anglo-Spanish treaty came to England from the Associated Press in New York, having been cabled from its London office.
When Martinique was devastated by a volcanic eruption, which included among its victims the correspondent of the Associated Press at St. Pierre, the Fort de France representative called on Mr. Melville E. Stone, the General Manager, then in New York, for assistance.
Mr. Stone promptly placed a steamer at his service, and the other correspondents of the Associated Press in places of danger were rescued, and lived to tell to the world the story of that hideous visitation.
This cost the Associated Press about £5,000, and that is the sum it usually expends on the international yacht races for the America Cup, which are reported for England and America by correspondents and half a dozen special boats equipped with wireless telegraphic instruments.
When Pope Leo died, London, Paris, Berlin and other European capitals got the first intimation of his death from New York. The Associated Press correspondent in Rome had telegraphed the news on which all the world waited, and it had arrived in America exactly nine minutes after having been sent out from the Vatican, which is nearly two miles from the central telegraphic office in Rome.
This gave the Associated Press time to re-cable the news to Europe before it had arrived from another source. On that day the Associated Press published in its American papers over one page of closely printed description of the events centering round the Vatican, all of which was cabled from Rome after 4 o’clock on the preceding afternoon.
When Cardinal Sarto was elected Pope, the news again came to Europe in the same way—from the Associated Press office in New York. The decision of the Alaska Boundary Commission was cabled by the Associated Press to New York and Canada on a Saturday, and re-cabled back to England for the Sunday papers, though it was not officially announced in London until the following Tuesday.
To come to still more recent events, the news of the transmission of Russia’s final note to Japan was received in London from the St. Petersburg correspondent of the Associated Press via New York, while despatches from the same agency announced in America the rupture of diplomatic relations and the practical outbreak of war as early as Saturday afternoon on February 6.
A MANAGERIAL GENIUS.
Mr. Melville E. Stone, the General Manager and presiding genius of the Associated Press, whose indomitable “grit”—as they say in America—was the chief factor in the victory won when the Associated Press fought for five years for supremacy in America, has recently paid a flying visit to England, after being received by the Czar in St. Petersburg and by the Kaiser in Berlin.
Several other crowned heads have been pleased to consult with Mr. Stone, who naturally is one of the most prominent of Americans. He has been decorated by the King of Italy, the President of the French Republic, and the Kaiser.
As a result of Mr. Stone’s personal suggestion, the Czar has removed the censorship on all news that leaves Russia for abroad.
In a few hours the head of the American news agency was able to convince the Ruler of All the Russias that the censorship was not only useless, but absolutely harmful to the Empire. The tradition of centuries has been swept away, and, on the word of the Czar, all the world will be free to have the individual opinions of correspondents who may care to come into Russian domain.
No country is likely to benefit more by this decision of the Czar than Russia itself; no public is likely to be more slow to realize the genuineness of the change than that of Europe. The extent of the revolution effected can scarcely be gauged except by those who know Russia well.
When asked the other day to what principles this American news agency owed its ascendancy in the world, Mr. Stone laconically replied: “Accuracy of statement and speed in transmission.”
Of such is the Associated Press of America.
S. F. B. MORSE.