No. 150.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. West.
Department of State,
Washington, September 28,
1883.
Sir: Referring to your note of the 29th of June
last, transmitting a copy of a report of the privy council of Canada,
which report states—
That it is proposed to lay a cable for the purpose of connecting
the Canadian Government telegraph system, Victoria, Vancouver
Island, and Point Angelos, Washington Territory, thereto connect
with the Puget Sound Telegraph Company’s line to Seattle and
with the United States Government line to Cape Flattery—
and requesting the permission of this Government to land
the proposed cable in Washington Territory, I have now the honor to
state that the subject having received the consideration of the
President, he perceives no objection to granting the privilege asked by
the minister of public works of Canada and recommended by the privy
council, on similar terms and conditions to those which have been
required from all other foreign telegraph-cable companies to whom
concessions of alike nature have been granted by this Government since
1875. In December of that year the President, in his annual message to
Congress, after the subject had received mature executive consideration,
submitted these conditions as the terms upon which he would consent to
grant to foreign companies the privilege of landing cables on the shores
of the United States until Congress should enact general laws in regard
to such privilege, or the President should be otherwise directed by that
body.
For your own information and that of the Canadian Government, I inclose a
memorandum of the conditions referred to. I inclose also
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a copy of a letter of the 10th of June
last, addressed to the President, by Mr. Thomas T. Minor, president of
the Puget Sound Telegraph Company, in which that gentleman states that
his company has “repeatedly requested permission from the authorities
both of British Columbia and the Dominion of Canada to lay a cable to
Vancouver Island and open a telegraph office in Victoria, British
Columbia,” but that in every such case the requests have remained
entirely unheeded or the permission has been refused.
Before granting the request of the privy council to land the cable now in
question, the President feels it his duty to require assurances from the
Canadian Government that the privilege asked by the Puget Sound Company
to land a cable on Vancouver Island and open a telegraph office in
Victoria, British Columbia, will, on proper application, and subject, if
deemed essential by the Dominion Government, to similar conditions to
those imposed by this Government, be given to the company which Mr.
Minor represents.
Upon receiving such assurances, together with the formal acceptance by
the minister of public works of Canada of the conditions presented in
the inclosed memorandum, the request embodied in your note will be
promptly complied with by this Government.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 1.—Extract from President’s
annual message of December, 1875.]
The electric telegraph has become an essential and indispensable
agent in the transmission of business and social messages. Its
operation on land, and within the limit of particular States, is
necessarily under the control of the jurisdiction within which it
operates. These lines on the high seas, however, are not subject to
the particular control of any one Government.
In 1869 a concession was granted by the French Government to a
company which proposed to lay a cable from the shores of France to
the United States. At that time there was a telegraphic connection
between the United States and the continent of Europe (through the
possessions of Great Britain at either end of the line), under the
control of an association which had, at large outlay of capital and
at great risk, demonstrated the practicability of maintaining such
means of communication. The cost of correspondence by this agency
was great, possibly not too large at the time for a proper
remuneration for so hazardous and so costly an enterprise. It was,
however, a heavy charge upon a means of communication which the
progress in the social and commercial intercourse of the world found
to be a necessity, and the obtaining of this French concession
showed that other capital than that already invested was ready to
enter into competition, with assurance of adequate return for their
outlay. Impressed with the conviction that the interests, not only
of the United States, but of the world at large, demanded, or would
demand, the multiplication of such means of communication between
separated continents, I was desirous that the proposed connection
should be made; but certain provisions of this concession were
deemed by me to be objectionable, particularly one which gave for a
long term of years the exclusive right of telegraphic communication
by submarine cable between the shores of France and the United
States. I could not concede that any power should claim the right to
land a cable on the shores of the United States and at the same time
deny to the United States, or to its citizens or grantees, an equal
right to land a cable on its shores.
The right to control the conditions for the laying of a cable within
the jurisdictional waters of the United States, to connect our
shores with those of any foreign state, pertains exclusively to the
Government of the United States, under such limitations and
conditions as Congress may impose. In the absence of legislation by
Congress, I was unwilling, on the one hand, to yield to a foreign
state the right to say that its grantees might land on our shores,
while it denied a similar right to our people to land on its shores;
and, on the other hand, I was reluctant to deny to the great
interests of the world and of civilization the facilities of such
communication as were proposed. I therefore withheld any resistance
to the landing of the cable, on condition that the offensive
monopoly feature of the concession be abandoned,
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and that the right of any cable which
may be established by authority of this Government to land upon
French territory, and to connect with French land lines, and enjoy
all the necessary facilities or privileges incident to the use
thereof upon as favorable terms as any other company, be conceded.
As the result thereof the company in question renounced the
exclusive privilege, and the representative of France was informed
that, understanding this relinquishment to be construed as granting
the entire reciprocity and equal facilities which had been demanded,
the opposition to the landing of the cable was withdrawn. The cable,
under this French concession, was lauded in the month of July, 1869,
and has been an efficient and valuable agent of communication
between this country and the other continent. It soon passed under
the control, however, of those who had the management of the cable
connecting Great Britain with this continent, and thus whatever
benefit to the public might have ensued from competition between the
two lines was lost, leaving only the greater facilities of an
additional line, and the additional security in case of accident to
one of them. But these increased facilities and this additional
security, together with the control of the combined capital of the
two companies, gave also greater power to prevent the future
construction of other lines, and to limit the control of telegraphic
communication between the two continents to those possessing the
lines already laid. Within a few months past a cable has been laid,
known as the United States Direct Cable Company, connecting the
United States directly with Great Britain. As soon as this cable was
reported to be laid and in working order, the rates of the then
existing consolidated companies were greatly reduced. Soon, however,
a break was announced in this new cable, and immediately the rates
of the other line, which had been reduced, were again raised. This
cable being now repaired, the rates appear not to be reduced by
either line from those formerly charged by the consolidated
companies.
There is reason to believe that large amounts of capital, both at
home and abroad, are ready to seek profitable investment in the
advancement of this useful and most civilizing means of intercourse
and correspondence. They await, however, the assurance of the means
and conditions on which they may safely be made tributary to the
general good.
As these cable-telegraph lines connect separate states, there are
questions as to their organization and control, which probably can
be best, if not solely, settled by conventions between the
respective states. In the absence, however, of international
conventions on the subject, municipal legislation may secure many
points which appear to me important, if not indispensable, for the
protection of the public against the extortions which may result
from a monopoly of the right of operating cable telegrams, or from a
combination between several lines:
- I.
- No line should be allowed to land on the shores of the
United States, under the concession from another power,
which does not admit the right of any other line or lines,
formed in the United States, to land and freely connect with
and operate through its land lines.
- II.
- No line should be allowed to land on the shores of the
United States which is not by treaty stipulation with the
Government from whose shores it proceeds, or by prohibition
in its charter, or otherwise, to the satisfaction of this
Government, prohibited from consolidating or amalgamating
with any other cable-telegraph line, or combining therewith
for the purpose of regulating and maintaining the cost of
telegraphing.
- III.
- All lines should be bound to give precedence in the
transmission of the official messages of the Governments of
the two countries between which it may be laid.
- IV.
- A power should be reserved to the two Governments, either
conjointly or to -each, as regards the messages dispatched
from its shores, to fix a limit to the charges to be
demanded for the transmission of messages.
I present this subject to the earnest consideration of Congress.
In the mean time, and unless Congress otherwise direct, I shall not
oppose the landing of any telegraphic cable which complies with and
assents to the points above enumerated, but will feel it my duty to
prevent the landing of any which does not conform to the first and
second points as stated, and which will not stipulate to concede to
this Government the precedence in the transmission of its official
messages, and will not enter into a satisfactory arrangement with
regard to its charges.
[Inclosure 2.]
Mr. Minor to
the President.
Seattle, Wash., June 10, 1883. (Received July
5.)
Sir: The Legislature of the Dominion of
Canada having made an appropriation for the purchase and laying of a
telegraph cable from Vancouver Island, British -Columbia, across the
Straits of San Juan de Fuca to Point Angelos, in Washington
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Territory, I have the
honor respectfully to urge that permission be not accorded to the
Dominion Government to land said cable in the United States until
similar rights and privileges be accorded by that Government to
American citizens to lay telegraph cables and open telegraph offices
in British Columbia.
The Puget Sound Telegraph Company, which I have the honor to
represent, has repeatedly requested permission from the authorities
both of British Columbia and the Dominion of Canada to lay a cable
to Vancouver Island and open a telegraph office in Victoria, British
Columbia. These reasonable requests have in every case been entirely
unheeded, or the permission sought has been refused.
The rights they claim from us should also be accorded by them to our
citizens.
I am, &c.,
THOMAS T. MINOR,
President Puget
Sound Telegraph Company.
