Part 5

Mr. Mackay, who was from its inception President of the Commercial Cable Company, assumed also the Presidency of the Postal Company early in 1901 at the earnest request of Mr. Chandler, who desired to be relieved, partly by reason of somewhat impaired health, and partly because of his preference to spend much of his time in his Vermont home. Upon his retirement from active charge, he was made Chairman of the Board of Directors, and in this capacity renders a variety of services and exercises as a useful influence. He is still, as he has been for many years, a Vice-President of the Commercial Cable Company, of which Mr. Ward continues as first Vice-President and General Manager.

Mr. Clarence H. Mackay has succeeded his father as President of the Commercial Cable and Postal Telegraph Companies, and entered with great pride and energy into the project of laying a cable to Hawaii and the Philippine Islands as projected by his father.

These very important links in the circuit round the globe adds further power and opportunity to the Postal Company, whose activity seems now to have fairly begun, and being laid upon sound foundations of finance, construction and methods of business is evidently destined to continue an increasing success.

The following figures show the pole and wire mileage, number of offices operated or reached, and number of messages handled in 1903 by the Postal Telegraph Cable Company, its subsidiary companies and direct connections in North America:

Pole mileage 48,801 Wire ” 276,244 Points reached 19,977[A] Messages handled 21,600,577 Number of new offices added in 1903 3,729

[A] 1,782 of these are reached by no other company.

The properties in the United States owned and controlled by the Postal Company represent an investment in lines and equipment aggregating about $25,000,000.

In order to perpetuate the name of his father, the virtual founder of the Commercial Cable and Postal Telegraph Companies, Mr. Clarence H. Mackay, President of the United Companies, recently addressed a circular letter to the stockholders inviting the deposit of their stock for exchange for shares in a trusteeship created under the Massachusetts laws with the name of “The Mackay Companies.”

The capitalization of the Commercial Cable Company, which also owns the Postal Telegraph and Cable Company, is $15,000,000, upon which 8 per cent. dividends are paid.

“The Mackay Companies” has authorized for exchange for this stock $30,000,000 par value of its own 4 per cent. cumulative preferred shares and a like amount of common shares, so that each stockholder in the Cable Company will receive for his holdings 200 per cent. in the common shares of the new concern.

The Trustees are Clarence H. Mackay, John I. Waterbury, President of the Manhattan Trust Company of New York; T. Jefferson Coolidge, jun., President of the Old Colony Trust Company of Boston, both directors of the Commercial Cable Company, and Mr. W. Cook, Counsel to the Company.

The plan is practically consummated.

Mr. Mackay said in reply to an enquiry that this action on his part was the outcome of his desire to put on a permanent basis the properties created by his father, and to provide for all contingencies that might arise from death or changes in commercial conditions. He will continue to devote his entire time to the active management of the Company.

The Commercial Cable Company owns and operates four transatlantic cable lines and its connecting lines between Nova Scotia and New York, and Ireland and France, in all some fourteen thousand miles of cable, with also the cable from San Francisco to Honolulu and thence to the Philippines.

The Mackay system has an exclusive connection with the Canadian Pacific telegraphs and with the all red cable line to Australia and New Zealand.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS OF AMERICA.

(_London Daily Express._)

With the evolution of the United States into a world power there has grown up across the Atlantic the greatest news-gathering agency ever imagined or created, whose despatches are momentarily being read by nearly half a hundred million people, and upon which Europe itself is sometimes dependent for the first word or whisper of what has happened within her own gates. The name of the agency which supplies America with its news is the Associated Press.

Startling in its scope, romantic in its history, the Associated Press has now, probably, more influence upon daily international events than any other agent, except the will of the peoples, which it helps to form.

Sixty years ago, when America was in industrial and political childhood, its papers depended for news upon Associated Press post-boys, who, after meeting incoming schooners at New York, rode hot haste, or leisurely, according to the character of the rider and nature of the beast, to the various papers inland.

To-day the Associated Press sends over 31,000 miles of private telegraph lines, which form a network across the continent of America, thousands and thousands of columns, supplying about 3,000 American papers with news of what is happening from minute to minute in America and abroad.

NETWORK OF WIRES.

In addition, the Associated Press keeps Europe and the rest of the world informed of the news of the great Republic, gathered and distributed by over 2,000 employees, who are supported on an annual revenue of over half a million sterling.

The Associated Press was started about 1840, when seven of the New York daily papers combined to reduce the expense of news by post-boys.

The organization at present consists of over 700 of the leading American daily papers. Each paper has a vote whereby fifteen directors are elected. These in turn elect officers. Through contract relations 2,300 other papers are granted the Associated Press News service, making a total of 3,000 out of the 3,200 daily papers published in America.

These 3,000 papers have a daily issue of 15,000,000, and each paper is estimated by an impartial statistician to pass through the hands of three persons; hence it is estimated that every despatch sent by the Associated Press reaches 45,000 pairs of eyes.

The Associated Press is not in itself a profit-making concern, being purely co-operative, and has nothing whatever to do with any advertising. Its papers, which include those of all languages, creeds and politics, are assessed according to the expenditure involved in gathering and distributing the home and foreign news.

Over its own telegraph wires the Associated Press sends through its own telegraph operators, east, west, north and south, the news of the moment.

SOME QUICK WORK.

This is received in its branch offices in all the important towns throughout the United States, and transmitted to the papers. The result of last year’s Derby was in the New York office of the Associated Press, nearly 3,000 miles away, twenty-five seconds after “Rock Sand” had passed the winning post, and was published in San Francisco, about 7,000 miles from Epsom, two minutes afterwards.

Interesting as is this system whereby the news of America and the outside world is simultaneously distributed to the American papers--a system of mechanical ingenuity and organization that would require several columns to describe adequately--it must be almost of secondary importance to English readers compared with the influence wielded by this American news agency over matters British and European.

The Associated Press has treaty relations with the three great European news agencies, viz., Reuter’s, which supplies Great Britain, Greater Britain, all the British possessions, Egypt and the Far East, except Tonquin, with their news. Havas, which covers the newsfield of France, and through its subsidiary agencies all the Latin countries, including South America; and Wolff’s, which from Berlin controls and distributes the news of Germany and all the Teutonic countries, and, through allies, the news of Russia, Austria-Hungary, the Slav countries, Scandinavia and Danish territory.

These three European agencies in turn rely upon tributary agencies such as the Telbureau, in St. Petersburg; the Stefani, in Rome; the Fabrin, in Madrid, and the Corresponz, in Vienna--all official voices of Government opinion.

NO SALES IN ENGLAND.

These European agencies and their tributaries constitute one great clearing-house of news. Havas gathers the news of France primarily into Paris; thence it radiates throughout the world: to Reuter for England, to the Associated Press for America, to Stefani for Italy, and so on. In this way a budget comprising the news of the world appears day by day.

Not content with receiving for its papers the news of Europe through the agencies already mentioned, the Associated Press has established in practically all the European capitals, bureaus of its own. In London the Associated Press keeps a large staff, though no attempt is made to sell a single item of news to English papers. All their work is to gather news and send it to America.

In London the staff of the Associated Press, as it is familiarly called, is under the direct supervision of Mr. Walter Neef, who is in charge of the entire European service.

The correspondents resident on the continent are in close touch with the Chancelleries, and are welcomed at their respective Foreign Offices with a kindness that speaks eloquently for the friendship these European nations are willing to offer to America.

The first news of the arbitration treaty that sealed the Anglo-French “entente” was cabled to New York by the Associated Press from Paris, and re-cabled to London, where it was promptly denied by no less an authority than the _Times_. The first news of the recent Anglo-Spanish treaty came to England from the Associated Press in New York, having been cabled from its London office.

When Martinique was devastated by a volcanic eruption, which included among its victims the correspondent of the Associated Press at St. Pierre, the Fort de France representative called on Mr. Melville E. Stone, the General Manager, then in New York, for assistance.

Mr. Stone promptly placed a steamer at his service, and the other correspondents of the Associated Press in places of danger were rescued, and lived to tell to the world the story of that hideous visitation.

This cost the Associated Press about £5,000, and that is the sum it usually expends on the international yacht races for the America Cup, which are reported for England and America by correspondents and half a dozen special boats equipped with wireless telegraphic instruments.

When Pope Leo died, London, Paris, Berlin and other European capitals got the first intimation of his death from New York. The Associated Press correspondent in Rome had telegraphed the news on which all the world waited, and it had arrived in America exactly nine minutes after having been sent out from the Vatican, which is nearly two miles from the central telegraphic office in Rome.

This gave the Associated Press time to re-cable the news to Europe before it had arrived from another source. On that day the Associated Press published in its American papers over one page of closely printed description of the events centering round the Vatican, all of which was cabled from Rome after 4 o’clock on the preceding afternoon.

When Cardinal Sarto was elected Pope, the news again came to Europe in the same way--from the Associated Press office in New York. The decision of the Alaska Boundary Commission was cabled by the Associated Press to New York and Canada on a Saturday, and re-cabled back to England for the Sunday papers, though it was not officially announced in London until the following Tuesday.

To come to still more recent events, the news of the transmission of Russia’s final note to Japan was received in London from the St. Petersburg correspondent of the Associated Press via New York, while despatches from the same agency announced in America the rupture of diplomatic relations and the practical outbreak of war as early as Saturday afternoon on February 6.

A MANAGERIAL GENIUS.

Mr. Melville E. Stone, the General Manager and presiding genius of the Associated Press, whose indomitable “grit”--as they say in America--was the chief factor in the victory won when the Associated Press fought for five years for supremacy in America, has recently paid a flying visit to England, after being received by the Czar in St. Petersburg and by the Kaiser in Berlin.

Several other crowned heads have been pleased to consult with Mr. Stone, who naturally is one of the most prominent of Americans. He has been decorated by the King of Italy, the President of the French Republic, and the Kaiser.

As a result of Mr. Stone’s personal suggestion, the Czar has removed the censorship on all news that leaves Russia for abroad.

In a few hours the head of the American news agency was able to convince the Ruler of All the Russias that the censorship was not only useless, but absolutely harmful to the Empire. The tradition of centuries has been swept away, and, on the word of the Czar, all the world will be free to have the individual opinions of correspondents who may care to come into Russian domain.

No country is likely to benefit more by this decision of the Czar than Russia itself; no public is likely to be more slow to realize the genuineness of the change than that of Europe. The extent of the revolution effected can scarcely be gauged except by those who know Russia well.

When asked the other day to what principles this American news agency owed its ascendancy in the world, Mr. Stone laconically replied: “Accuracy of statement and speed in transmission.”

Of such is the Associated Press of America.

PROF. S. F. B. MORSE.

Born April 27, 1791, at Charleston, Mass. His father, the Rev. Jedediah Morse, author of the well-known book entitled “American Geography” and compiler of the “Universal Gazette.” His mother was Elizabeth Ann Breese.

At seven years of age young Morse entered the preparatory school at Andover, Mass., and at 14 the Freshman Class at Yale, graduating in 1810.

The faculty which first developed in him was the artistic. He provided himself with brush and paint and commenced taking on ivory the portraits of his more opulent companions. He found in painting an inspiration, and selected it as his chosen profession.

He placed himself under the tutelage of Washington Allston, one of America’s famous artists, who encouraged him in the choice he had made. He accompanied Allston to Europe in 1811, bearing introductions to some of England’s most distinguished men.

Benjamin West was then in the zenith of his fame. It was a proud day for Morse when he met West and was welcomed to his studio. A mutual attachment sprang up between them, and West became thereafter his friend and counsellor.

Meanwhile West’s friendship and the introductory letters he had brought with him introduced him to men of influence and reputation.

Some of their names are historic. It was something for a young man to meet such men as William Wilberforce and Henry Thornton, Zacharias MacCauley, father of the great historian, Lord Glenelg and many others, all of whom gave a warm and cordial welcome.

Mr. Morse’s instincts were refined and his companionships choice. He had for his room-mate in London the gifted Leslie, then, like himself, struggling for fame in a sublime art. For companions he had such men as Benjamin West, Copley, Allston, Coleridge, Rogers, Charles Lamb and others famous in art and literature.

He wrote thus to his mother in 1812:

“My passion for my art is firmly rooted, that I am confident; no human power could destroy it. The more I study the greater I think is its claim to the appellation of divine. I am going to begin a picture of the death of Hercules. The figure is to be large as life.”

The picture when finished was shown to West who warmly praised it, and in May, 1813, it was accepted for exhibition in the rooms of the Royal Academy, at Somerset House, then regarded as a very marked token of favor.

A new and unexpected triumph grew out of this painting. In executing it he pursued the plan of conscientious artists who first model in clay the figure to be painted in order to ensure strict anatomical proportions and accuracy.

This cast, to which he attached no special value, was seen by West, and was induced through his kind criticism to send this model to the Society of Arts in competition for a prize in sculpture.

This venture proved successful, and was publicly presented with the annual prize and a gold medal by the Duke of Norfolk.

In the British Art Reports the “Dying Hercules” is placed among the nine best paintings in a gallery of nearly one thousand, and among them the works of Turner, Northcote, Lawrence and Wilkie.

When young Morse went to Europe he was dependent to some extent upon his father for his resources. He was to be away three years. It was now 1815, one year longer than his limit, but he was ambitious and felt he had the power within him. He determined to compete for the chief prize offered by the Royal Academy for a subject he had chosen, “The Judgment of Jupiter in the case of Apollo, Marpessa and Idas.” The prize was a gold medal and fifty guineas.

The picture was completed, and hoping he would be allowed to compete in his absence, he offered it for that purpose to West, who, struck with its merits, advised him to stay, but this he could not do, and the rules cut him off. The premium had to be delivered to the successful artist in person.

A petition to make his case an exception was declined, and “Jupiter” went with its author to America.

He arrived in Boston, Oct. 18, and, without delay, rented a studio. He had his “Jupiter” on exhibition, and his own fame had preceded him. Many crowded the studio to see both the artist and the painting.

Society opened its doors, but this was all. No one offered to buy his picture or give him an order in the line of high art he had marked out for himself.

After various experiences Mr. Morse settled in New York, founding the National Academy of the Arts of Design, of which in 1827 he became President, and to which office he was annually elected until 1845. He delivered the first course of lectures on the fine arts ever delivered in America, and they were notable for suggestiveness and learning.

As an historical painter Morse stood next to Allston. Had the country demanded art of a very high order it is probable that Morse would have engaged his attention as an historical painter, but the nation was too young, knew little of art and cared less. Morse was honored, but his art kept him poor. He longed, however, too, for the opportunity to try his power on some national work.

He conceived the idea of painting the interior of Representatives Chamber in the Capital at Washington, and devoted eighteen months to this. The picture measured eight feet by nine, and contained a great variety of figures. Its exhibition, however, caused him serious loss. The painting is in the possession of the President of the Arts of Design in New York.

He painted a picture of General Lafayette, who was at the time in the United States, and with whom he by this means formed a warm friendship.

In 1829 he again visited Europe, spending three years among artists and collectors of art in England, Italy and France.

In Paris he painted the interior of the Louvre, copying in miniature the chief pictures hanging on its walls. In the fall of 1832 he returned to America and resumed the Presidency of the Academy of Design, to which he was regularly elected annually during his absence.

When an artist was employed to fill with a picture one of the vacant panels in the rotunda of the Capitol, American artists, without exception, considered Morse best entitled to the honor, but great disappointment was felt when another was selected.

It was on his return from Europe on board the packet-ship “Sully” the idea of the electric telegraph engaged his attention, but it occupied many years of his time to bring it to practical shape. He would have accomplished this much earlier had he not been hampered from lack of means.

When his invention was matured and its usefulness perceived and applied, he was fortunate enough at last to reap the reward of many years of struggle and anxiety he had undergone.

On June 5, 1856, with the telegraph established in America, he again left for Europe. In London he met with great joy his artist friends: West, Landsear, Leslie and many others distinguished in science and art, all of whom warmly congratulated him on the brilliant career which had been opened up to him. In their estimation he had honored in this new realm the old art which he loved and elevated.

Morse’s development from an artist into an inventor was to them no marvel. He was still giving utterance to natural forces as when a few years before he combined his colors on canvass and produced his “Hercules.”

After enjoying for a time this pleasant reunion with his old friends in London, he also met and consulted with the English electricians, Glass, Bright, Whitehouse and others in respect to the proposed Atlantic cable in which experiments were then being made as to its possibility.

He then left for the continent. On his arrival at Copenhagen, whither he first directed his course, he was introduced to Frederick VII. King of Denmark, who, with his Court, received him with every mark of honor. There he visited the study chamber of Oersted, whose discovery of the reflection of a needle by a galvanic current was the dawning fact which eventually made his invention possible.

Continuing his journey to Russia, he found on arriving at the quay at Peterhoff the Imperial carriages with their usual retinue of footmen wearing the Royal livery in waiting. By these he and his party were driven to the Imperial Palace, where, with every demonstration of respect, he was received by the Emperor Alexander II., by whom he was most kindly congratulated as one of the world’s benefactors.

He next proceeded to Berlin. Here he was received with great cordiality by Humboldt, who welcomed him to his house and treated him during his stay with every mark of respect.

At his departure the great author of Cosmos presented him with an Imperial photograph of himself, on the margin of which he wrote:

“To Mr. S. F. B. Morse, whose philosophic and useful labors have rendered his name illustrious in two worlds. The homage of the high and affectionate esteem of

ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT.”

This memorial of one so great and gifted he greatly valued and carefully preserved.

Prussia, about the same time, presented to him the Prussian golden medal for scientific merit.

After passing through many places of interest in Europe, in all of which he was received with distinguished honor, Professor Morse returned to London the latter part of September, 1856.

The public at that time were much interested in the subject of the proposed submarine telegraph connection with America.

A plateau extending across the bed of the ocean between the two continents had been discovered under a survey conducted by Lieutenant Maury for the United States Government, and which was regarded as extremely favorable for the projected enterprise.

Professor Morse, in concert with Mr. Whitehouse and Mr. Bright, the English electricians, conducted a series of experiments and sent signals through 2,000 miles of insulated wire.

These experiments removed any apprehension respecting the retardation of the electric current over this long length of wire.

It now became a question of capital and nautical engineering. The first was quickly pledged, the latter was not doubted.

While in London thus occupied, Professor Morse was tendered a banquet, which he promptly accepted.