MORE ERRONEOUS STATEMENTS.
Mr. Hubbard’s assertion that, “where a message is repeated, the expense is increased about seventy-five per cent, but on well-constructed lines, in ordinary weather, messages between any two stations east of a line from St. Paul to New Orleans require but one repetition,” hardly needs refutation. East of the line named there are more than four thousand telegraph offices, and at least 1,300 separate and distinct circuits. How, then, can separate wires be maintained between every two stations over this vast territory? Even confining the statement to one office at the East,—say Boston, for example,—how is it possible to maintain separate circuits that will enable that office to work direct with each one of four thousand offices? It would be more practicable to travel from every town in the United States to every other town, without change of cars, than it would to establish direct telegraphic connection between each.
The Western Union Telegraph Company maintains independent circuits, and works direct between New York and Philadelphia, Washington, Boston, Buffalo, Montreal, Chicago, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Portland, Plaister Cove, and many other points; but to work with every office in the United States without repetition would require more wires upon each pole than the mythical Briareus had hands.