regarded telegraphic facilities as an indispensable necessity. The small
cost soon induced the construction of rival lines, regardless of the
rights of the patentees, and within a very few years unwise competition
began to bring many lines to a condition of bankruptcy. The weaker
concerns soon passed through the sheriff's hands and found purchasers
only at an extreme sacrifice, at the bidding of the more provident and
conservative proprietors of competing lines. Instead of inducing a more
prudent course, these disastrous results only served to feed the spirit
of rivalry, and general insolvency seemed to threaten the permanent
prosperity of the telegraph business, in consequence of the wild and
reckless competition which appeared to be inherent in its nature.

This extremely unsatisfactory condition of telegraph rivalry drifted on
from bad to worse until 1854, when, from dire necessity of
self-preservation, a few of the more prudent and far-sighted proprietors
of telegraph property were induced to combine their interests with some
of their competitors and thus avoid the ruinous policy which had been so
rapidly exhausting their vitality. Accordingly the principal telegraph
lines in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and some of the neighboring States
were brought into fraternal relations and formed the nucleus of the
Western Union Telegraph Company.

The new policy soon brought prosperity in place of waste and
improvidence. Profits were devoted to the purchase of additional lines,
thus enlarging their domain and strengthening their position. Prosperity
increased with rapid strides; and the beneficial effects of extirpating
wasteful rivalry and building up a substantial system with superior
facilities and provident management gave 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