Page images
PDF
EPUB

nearly perfect. It has never failed for an hour or a minute. Yet there have been delays in receiving messages from Europe, but these have all been on the land lines or in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and not on the sea cables. It was very painful to me when we landed at Heart's Content to find any interruption here, that a message which came in a flash across the Atlantic should be delayed twenty-four hours in crossing eighty miles of water. But it was not my fault. My associates in the Newfoundland company will bear me witness that I entreated them a year ago to repair the cable in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and put our land lines in perfect order. But they thought it more prudent to await the result of the late expedition before making further large outlays. We have therefore had to work hard to restore our lines. But in two weeks our cable across the Gulf of St. Lawrence was taken up and repaired. It was found to have been broken by an anchor in shallow water, and when spliced it proved as perfect as one laid down ten years ago. Since then a new one has been laid, so that we have there two excellent cables.

The land task was more slow. You must remember that Newfoundland is a large country; our line across it is four hundred miles long and runs through a wilderness. In Cape Breton we have another of one hundred and forty miles. These lines were built twelve years ago, and we have waited so long for an ocean telegraph that they have become old and rusty. On such long lines unless closely watched there must be sometimes a break. A few weeks ago a storm swept over the island, the most terrific that had been known for twenty years, which strewed the coast with shipwrecks. This blew down the line in many places and caused an interruption of several days. But it was quickly repaired and we are trying to guard against such accidents again. For three months we have had an army of men at work under our faithful and indefatigable superintendent, Mr. A. M. Mackay, rebuilding the line, and now they report it nearly complete. On this we must rely for the next few months. But all winter long these men will be making their axes hum in the forests of Newfoundland cutting thousands of poles, and as soon as the spring opens will build an entirely new line along the same route.

With

this double line complete, with frequent station-houses and faithful sentinels watching it, we feel pretty secure. At Port Hood in Nova Scotia we connect with the Western Union Telegraph Company, which has engaged to keep as many lines as may be necessary for European business. This we think will guard against failure hereafter. But to make assurance doubly sure, we shall in the spring build still another line by a separate route crossing over from Heart's Content to Placentia, which is only about one hundred miles along a good road where it can easily be kept in order. From Placentia a submarine cable will be laid across to the French island of St. Pierre and thence to Sydney in Cape Breton, where again we strike a coach road and can maintain our lines without difficulty. Thus we shall have three distinct lines with which it is hardly possible that there can be any delay. A message from London to New York passes over four lines-from London to Valentia; from Valentia to Heart's Content; from there to Port Hood, and from Port Hood to New York. It always takes a little time for an operator to read a message and prepare to send it. For this allow five minutes at each station-that is enough, and I shall not be content till we have messages regularly from London in twenty minutes. One hour is ample (allowing ten minutes each side for a boy to carry the despatch) for a message to go from Wall street to the Royal Exchange and get an answer back again. This is what we aim to do. If for a few months there should be occasional delays we ask only a little patience, remembering that our machinery is new and that it takes time to get it well oiled and running at full speed. But after that I trust we shall be able to satisfy all the demands of the public.

A word about the tariff. Complaint has been made that it is so high as to be very oppressive. I beg all to remember that it is only three months and a half since the cable was laid. It was laid at a great cost and a great risk. Different companies had sunk in their attempts twelve millions of dollars. It was still an experiment of which the result was doubtful. This too might prove another costly failure. Even if successful we did not know how long it would work. Evil prophets in both countries predicted that it would not last a month. If it did, we were

not sure of having more than one cable; nor how much work that one could do. Now these doubts are resolved. We have not only one cable but two, both in working order; and we find instead of five words a minute we can send fifteen. Now we are free to reduce the tariff. Accordingly it has been cut down one-half, and I hope in a few months we can bring it down to one-quarter. I am in favor of reducing it to the lowest point at which we can do the business, keeping the lines working day and night. And then-if the work grows upon us, so enormously that we cannot do it-why we must go to work and lay more cables. [Applause.]

Those who conduct a public enterprise should not object to any fair criticism of the public or of the press, but complaints are sometimes made without reflection, as when fault is found with the cable because the news from Europe may be scanty or unimportant, as if we had any more to do with what passes over the line than the Post-Office Department with the contents of letters that go through the mail. We are common carriers and send whatever comes; and if our brethren of the press keep capable men in the capitals of Europe who will furnish only news which is important we will see that it is delivered here every morning.

Of the results of this enterprise-commercially and politically-it is for others to speak. To one effect only do I refer as the wish of my heart that as it brings us into closer relations with England it may produce a better understanding between the two countries. Let who will speak against England-words of censure must come from other lips than mine. I have received too much kindness from Englishmen to join in this language. I have eaten of their bread and drank of their cup, and I have received from them in the darkest hours of this enterprise words of cheer which I shall never forget; and if any words of mine can tend to peace and good-will they shall not be wanting. I beg my countrymen to remember the ties of kindred. Blood is thicker than water. America with all her greatness has come out of the loins of England, and though there have been sometimes family quarrels-bitter as family quarrels are apt to be-still in our hearts there is a yearning for the old home, the land of

our fathers, and he is an enemy of his country and of the human race who would stir up strife between two nations that are one in race, in language and in religion. [Applause.]

I close with this sentiment, "England and America: Clasping hands across the sea-may this firm grasp be a pledge of friendship to all generations!" [Enthusiastic applause the audience rising and giving three cheers.]

8-7

JOHN FISKE

COLUMBUS THE NAVIGATOR

[Oration by John Fiske, author, historian, lecturer (born Edmund Fiske Greene, in Middletown, Conn., March 30, 1842; — -), delivered in the Boston Theatre, October 21, 1892, on the occasion of the celebration by the city government of Boston of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.] .

FRIENDS AND FELLOW CITIZENS:-We have met here this morning to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of one of the greatest events in the history of the world. The first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by Christopher Columbus was an achievement of which Americans are not likely to underrate the importance, and which no one with a due sense of the relations of cause and effect in human affairs can for a moment fail to recognize as supremely important. When we duly consider what America already means to the world while the development of European civilization upon this fresh soil is still in its earliest stages, when we take sober thought of what the future must have in store if this early promise is even partially fulfilled, we shall be inclined to pronounce the voyage that led the way to this New World as the most epoch-making event of all that have occurred since the birth of Christ.

But I do not propose to take up your time with glittering generalities. The best way to do homage to Columbus, or to show our appreciation of the real grandeur of his achievement, is to try to understand it in its relations to what went before it; and that is a kind of understanding which people surely do not commonly show in speaking or writing on the subject. In order to appreciate the

« PreviousContinue »