the new organization a
dominating influence among the telegraph companies of America. The same
general policy has been pursued to the present time [1894], and has
resulted in the establishment of a prosperous corporation of magnificent
proportions, carrying on a useful and beneficent business under a
greater number of governmental jurisdictions, great and small, than any
other corporate organization in existence.

For the development of the telegraph enterprise in America no thanks are
due to the wealthy capitalists. As a rule they would not listen to
suggestions of investing their money in what was contemptuously termed
rotten poles and rusty wires. They wanted something more substantial and
conservative as the basis of their investments. An early pioneer and
builder of telegraph lines, whose name is now held in grateful memory
for deeds of philanthropic beneficence visited the city of Chicago in
1847 to solicit subscriptions to the capital stock of a company then
engaged in construction of the first line of telegraph between that
place and the city of Buffalo. He presented a carefully prepared
prospectus showing an estimated earning capacity of the projected line
of one hundred dollars per day. The merits of the contemplated
enterprise were freely canvassed at a meeting of bankers, at which one
of the most prominent declared that any man who ever expected to see one
hundred dollars per day paid for telegraphing west of Buffalo must be
crazy and unworthy of belief. This oracular declaration prevailed, and
the project was ignominiously rejected by the wise men of Chicago.
Fortunately, citizens of smaller towns, like Ypsilanti, Kalamazoo, South
Bend, Kenosha, and Racine, took a more sensible view of the proposed
enterprise, and the line was built despite the contempt of Chicago
capitalists. Now, however, the men of Chicago pay more than five
thousand dollars a day for telegraphing at rates far lower than would
have been thought possible in that early day.

The true spirit of enterprise, which has so grandly developed the
resources of our imperial domain, has generally been found to prevail
among people of modest means. Thus, nearly every dollar of capital
contributed toward the establishment of telegraph lines in this country
came from the offerings of people in very moderate circumstances. In
this connection, therefore, it is extremely gratifying to state that
very few enterprises of any kind have returned such genero