Yesterday’s Great News—What It Suggests
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YESTERDAY'S GREAT NEWS—WHAT IT SUGGESTS.
The first news dispatch received by the Atlantic Telegraph1, and published in our edition of yesterday, we regard as likely to make a far deeper impression on the public mind than has been produced by any of the preceeding incidents in this “strange, eventful history.” The receipt of the Queen’s2 message, with the blunders of the electricians, did not seem to satisfy people. They wanted something more tangible—something that would convince them that the cable was not a mere scientific toy on a gigantic scale, but was capable of being successfully operated in a business point of view.
All such doubts are now set at rest. It is now certain that the telegraph is to be an agent of immediate and constant utility. News—most highly important and interesting news has been received, which is likely to exercise a very great influence over the destinies of the world. At present, the instruments now in use at Trinity Bay record words at the rate of two per minute, or 120 per hour—thus it appears that the cable can transmit not far from 3000 words per day.
The New York papers of this morning all speak of the striking coincidence that occurs in the fact that this first submarine news dispatch is a message of Peace. In their general views on the results that are likely to flow from this last and final triumph of man’s inventive skill they slightly differ. The Tribune3, in estimating the probable profits of the Cable to the Company, says:
The net income of the Company cannot be less than 20 per cent upon the capital now invested, even with the present cable. Other cables may, however, be laid down at a greatly reduced cost, proportionately increasing the profits of the enterprise. This is as it should be. The bold and persistent men who have embarked in such an undertaking ought to reap splendid rewards, not merely in universal and abiding renown, but in the grosser form of riches. Their success will be likely, however, to call forth competition for the magnificent harvest.
The Herald4 thinks that the moral world must now change its whole face under the direction of the new master spirit of the age and the universal power. It says.
See to-day the effect of the news from China! Last night it was known from Mexico to New Orleans that peace had been made there! Every merchant or trader interested in tea or silk, knows that the causes which interfered with his trade have been removed! The Russian caravans across the steppes of Asia, the English fleets from the British isles, and the swift messengers from the shores of America, all start this morning for the newly re-opened scene of their traffic, animated with the same idea, and impelled by the same knowledge.
The Times takes the matter coolly, and contents itself with grumbling at the electricians:
There is still a feeling of disappointment, and we do not think it at all an unreasonable one, that the electricians will persist, for no good reason whatever, to deny the public the knowledge of the length of time which is required to transmit a message from Valentia Bay to Cyrus Station. The dispatches from Valentia should be dated at the hour when the operators commence sending them over, and, until this shall be done there will be a feeling of disappointment and impatience, on the part of the public, at being deprived of what they feel they have a right to know.
The Courier and Enquirer takes a commercial view of the subject. Its editor writes:
We shall no longer witness the absurd and costly re-transmission of bullion to meet liabilities, when the balance or course of exchange currently demand the export instead of the import of the precious metals. Millions of dollars are forwarded annually from European nations to this country, only to be returned at an additional outlay, in the same vessel perhaps which brought it to our port. The Cable will put an ind to the ordinary and incidental losses of this nature. A daily exchange of intelligence with Europe will not only regulate individual operations; it will essentially check and abate financial derangements of a more extended character.
The Journal of Commerce5 has an article to nearly the same effect. The Express,6 the Sun,7 and the News8 are simply ecstatic, and their comments offer no salient points.
It is certain, however, that those journalists who have cried down this immense undertaking from the beginning and have persisted in denying that the Cable could ever be turned to any practical use, now stand convicted of the most obstinate infidelity and owlish old-fogyism.
Notes:
1. The Atlantic Telegraph line was laid under the Atlantic Ocean in 1858 by Cyrus West Field and the Atlantic Telegraph Company, formed in 1856. The Atlantic Telegraph was meant to increase communication between Europe and North America in a shorter amount of time. The 1858 line was ultimately unsuccessful, as it only operated for about three weeks until it failed. [back]
2. Queen Alexandrina Victoria (1819–1901) was the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837–1901. She had the second longest reign of any British monarch. Whitman had a somewhat positive view of Victoria. On the occasion of her seventy-first birthday, he had a congratulatory poem published in British newspapers, which credited the Queen with intervening against British recognition of the Confederacy during the Civil war. [back]
3. Horace Greeley's Tribune (founded in 1841) was a reform-minded New York newspaper that quickly became the most widely read papers in the country. For more information, see Susan Belasco, "The New York Daily Tribune," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
4. The New York Herald was one of the leading New York City papers during Whitman’s lifetime. It was run by James Gordon Bennett, Sr., and his son and leaned Democrat, while loudly proclaiming its political independence. It was published from 1835 to 1924. See also The New York Herald (Poems in Periodicals)." [back]
5. The New York Journal of Commerce was a small-format daily Democratic newspaper. It was edited by its co-owner Gerard Hallock (1800–1866) from its founding in 1827 until 1861. [back]
6. The New York Daily Express was a former Whig newspaper that first embraced the Know Nothings and Constitutional Union Party before finally turning Democratic in the 1860s. It was edited by Lincoln-critic James Brooks (1807–1873) until his death. [back]
7. The New YorkSun was a leading penny paper of the nineteenth century, founded by Benjamin Henry Day (1810–1889). For a time, it was the country’s most successful daily newspaper. It published pieces by Whitman throughout his career. [back]
8. The New York Daily News was a Democratic newspaper with a wide readership, founded in 1855 and edited by Gideon J. Tucker (1826–1899), a former Locofoco, until 1857. In 1861, disgraced New York mayor Fernando Wood bought the paper and put his brother Benjamin in place as its lead editor, which caused the paper to take on a pro-Douglas and, subsequently, pro-Confederate stance in the years to come. [back]