“‘Such a line built by government, carefully, and with reference to permanence, with six wires, would cost $250,000.
“‘If, however, it is seriously contemplated by the government to construct lines along the great commercial routes, and if it be the design in so doing to remove from the system, by every attainable appliance or improvement, all its ascertained defects, a structure of larger poles, and wires of superior conducting qualities, will be built. Such a line should be constructed of the most solid and durable wood, such as the black locust, so that masses of sleet or moist snow, so destructive to present lines, would leave it uninjured. Heavier wires also, which, by their increased conducting capacity, would give greater facility and certainty to transmission, should be used.
“‘These improvements, with greater care taken in the execution of the work than in that of ordinary structures, will, of course, increase its cost in proportion to the care bestowed. And should the government determine to provide facilities equal to those now proffered by private companies, it would be necessary to erect at least five lines of poles bearing six wires each, that being the number (thirty in all) now in use between New York and Washington by all the companies.
“‘A common wire line, intended to bear one, and not more than two wires, can be built for $150 to $180 per mile, the wire being number nine, galvanized, the poles of limited size, and costing not over $1.25 each.’
“It nowhere appears that such lines as all these writers insist shall be built by the government have ever been built in this or any other country. They seem to have taken it as matter of course that the government, if the experiment proposed should be tried, will depart from the usual method of construction and build the novel and costly structures for which their estimates are made. One looks in vain in the communication sent to Congress by the Postmaster-General for any reliable information as to the cost of a telegraphic line, constructed as such lines are in this and other countries, and such a line as the government, if it should be determined to build an experimental line, would probably build.”
COST OF AMERICAN TELEGRAPHS ESTIMATED BY EUROPEAN DATA.
In reply to Mr. Washburne’s statement that no such lines as all these writers insist shall be built by the government have ever been built in this or any other country, we respectfully, but firmly, assert that he is mistaken. This company possesses thousands of miles of telegraph lines constructed after the specifications given above, and costing as much as the estimates which he so emphatically distrusts. In order, however, to set this matter of cost at rest, we will endeavor to establish it by comparison with those of all other countries of which we have been able to procure official data.
Mr. Frank Ives Scudamore, one of the assistant secretaries of the British Post-Office, and the gentleman who furnished the reports and data by which the British government were induced to monopolize the telegraph in that country, and who shows no disposition to overvalue the property or services of private telegraph companies, testified before the select committee of the House of Commons, July 9, 1868, that the total number of miles of telegraph in operation in Great Britain in 1866 was 16,000, and that the companies expended in constructing the same about £2,300,000.[[12]]
[12]. Special Report, Electric Telegraph Bill, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 16 July, 1868. See testimony on pages 149 and 150.
The capital stock of the various companies represented a larger sum than this, and Mr. Scudamore himself acknowledges that he has got the amount under the mark rather than over it; therefore we presume that Mr. Washburne will allow this to be a fair estimate. Now £2,300,000 sterling is equal to $11,132,000 in gold, or $16,475,360 in United States legal money. This sum, divided by 16,000 miles of line, gives us $1,029.71 as the cost per mile.