VIA JAM ES A. SCRYM LON PRESIDENT MEXICAN TELEGRAPH COMPANY CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN TELEGRAPH COMPANY 66 BROADWAY NEW YORK JAMES A. SCRYMSER (Editorial from New York Herald, January 14, 1917.) LINKING UP THE AMERICAS Another romance of American business enterprise a romance that far excels any dream of fiction because its happy climax is written in accomplishment is told in an article published in to-day's "Herald" recounting the struggle of nearly half a century to extend American cable communication to Brazil and by so doing forge the last link in a cable and land line chain of communication be- tween this country and the great republics of South America. The recent decision of the highest court of Brazil granting to the Central and South American Tele- graph Company the right to extend its lines from Buenos Ayres to Santos and Rio de Janeiro, despite the hard fight made by the Western Telegraph Company to retain a monopoly it had long enjoyed, opens the way to direct communication with the cities of Brazil over American owned lines. It is a happy circumstance that Mr. James A. Scrymser, who began the fight for American owned com- munication betzveen the republics of this hemisphere, should see with his own eyes this fruition of his efforts. Documents now for the first time published tell of the keen interest in and hearty support of Mr. Scrymser's enter- prise sho^vn by every Secretary of State from Mr. Seward to the present day. Mr. Scrymser himself tells the "Herald" the story of the long contest, which in a sense has been only an incident in the development of American cables, which began with his creation of American cable communication with Cuba. The Mexican Telegraph Com- pany and the Central and South American Telegraph Company, both of which corporations have grown to be great under his. presidency, now operate more than twenty thousand miles of cable and land lines. The new link between Argentina and Brazil zvill add another 2,500 miles. (From New York Herald, January 14, 1917.) AFTER FORTY-EIGHT YEARS FIGHT AMERICAN CABLES WILL CONNECT NATION WITH BRAZIL JAMES A. SCRYMSER'S EFFORTS OF LIFETIME ARE SUCCESSFUL BRITISH COMPANY LONG BLOCKED WAY VICTORY FINALLY IS WON IN A CONTEST BEFORE SOUTH AMERICAN TRIBUNAL After more than forty-eight years of persistent and un- tiring effort on the part of James A. Scrymser, president of the Mexican Telegraph Company and the Central and South American Telegraph Company, cable communication between the United States and Brazil over all American-owned cables and land wires is assured and will be an accomplished fact in the near future. Mr. Scrymser has been supported loyally by his associates in his struggle of nearly half a century to accomplish the task he set himself, but he always has been the leader in the fight. Heretofore cable communication over all American-owned lines between the United States and Brazil has been impos- sible because of certain exclusive cable concessions granted many years ago by the Brazilian Government to British com- panies. It is true that the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany when controlled by Jay Gould obtained a cable conces- sion from Brazil, but, owing to the British cable monopoly there, he abandoned the scheme, as a cable, if laid, would have been obliged to connect exclusively with the Brazilian Gov- ernment land lines, and the latter could not compete success- fully with the British-owned cables, which connected all of the coast cities of Brazil. Therefore, the only Brazilian telegraph traffic that could have been obtained by the Western Union would have been that of the town, where its cables landed in Brazil. CONCESSION BLOCKS LINE The Brazilian Submarine Telegraph Company after- ward the Western Telegraph Company a British company, obtained in March, 1870, an exclusive right to the entire coast of Brazil for cables from the north for a period of sixty years. That precluded any American-owned lines from the United States or the West Indies or Mexico from making a Brazilian extension and prevented the Mexican Telegraph Company from getting there. When, however, the Central and South American Tele- graph Company established its present "via Colon" cable route from New York to Valparaiso, Chile, along the Pacific coast of South America, and then acquired its own land lines across the Andes to Buenos Ayres, Argentina, Mr. Scrymser saw the way opened at last to get to Brazil with his lines. Mr. Scrymser could not get there from the north because the British company owned that privilege exclusively, but he could get there from the south from Buenos Ayres. Ac- cordingly, he put in a formal application to the Brazilian government to lay cables from the south and establish connections at Santos and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In other words, having run up against a stone wall which he could not get over, he determined to go around it and so reach the same objective. The Western Telegraph Company, which Mr. Scrymser had been fighting unsuccessfully but with never failing energy since 1868 in his efforts to get into Brazil with his cables, immediately made every effort to prevent the entrance of his lines from the south. The British company appealed to the courts of Brazil and a long legal battle began. Now it is practically at an end. MR. SCRYMSER'S LETTER A final and complete victory for the American company is a foregone conclusion, as will be seen from the following correspondence now published for the first time : CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICAN TELEGRAPH COMPANY 66 BROADWAY JAMES A. SCRYMSER "New York, Nov. 24, 1916. "HoN. ROBERT LANSING, "SECRETARY OF STATE, "DEPARTMENT OF STATE, "WASHINGTON, D. C. "Sir It affords me great pleasure to be able to forward to you the following copy of a telegram which has just been received from our agent in Rio de Janeiro, Mr. Carney: " 'Rio de Janeiro, Nov. 22, 1916. " 'Scrymser, New York : " 'I am delighted to report that Supreme Court has rendered judgment in our favor. Ten votes against one. Western Telegraph Company will probably appeal for second hearing, but owing to our large majority we have nothing to be afraid of. Carney.' "And likewise the following cablegram received from Ambassador Morgan, en route to New York : " 'Los Andes, Nov. 24, 1916. " 'Scrymser, New York : " 'Please accept congratulations on favorable decision of Brazilian Supreme Court. Shall reach New York end December. Edwin Morgan.' "This is the culmination of over forty-eight years' work, begun in 1868, when the Honorable William H. Seward was Secretary of State. I quote from his letter of instructions to Minister Webb: " 'Department of State, " 'Washington, March 30, 1868 " 'James Watson Webb, Esq., &c., &c., " 'Rio de Janeiro : ' 'I herewith enclose to you a copy of a communi- cation addressed to this department by James A. Scrym- ser, Esq., projector and director of the International Ocean Telegraph Company, desiring to obtain aid and authority from the Brazilian government to extend the lines of his company over the West India Islands to a convenient point on the coast of Brazil. " 'You are instructed to give such assistance as may be in your power toward effecting the accomplishment of the object in view. ' 'I am, sir, your obedient servant, " 'W. H. SEWARD.' "In every administration since, the department has adopted Mr. Seward's policy, and, as you know, very largely through your good offices, the company was able to secure recently a contract from Brazil permitting the extension of our cables (from Buenos Ayres) to the cities of Santos and Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. As you also know, the granting of this contract was enjoined by the Western Telegraph Company, an English corporation. It is upon the latter suit of injunction the Supreme Court of Brazil has rendered a decision in favor of this company. "I am sure that the importance of an American-owned cable from the United States to Brazil is fully realized by both the United States government and the Brazilian gov- ernment. As I have previously pointed out, such a cable connection will be of inestimable value to the commercial interests of both countries and of vital importance to the government of the United States, which is now unable to communicate with its representatives in Brazil, excepting through foreign owned lines. "In the name of the Central and South American Tele- graph Company, I beg to thank you, Mr. Secretary, for the loyal support which you have given to this project and to again assure you of our sincere appreciation of your good offices, which you have so courteously extended in the past. "I respectfully ask that you will thank the" American Ambassadors to Brazil and Argentina for the able support which they have so generously rendered. "I will keep you advised of further developments in this connection. "With renewed thanks, I am, dear sir, "Very respectfully yours, "JAMES A. SCRYMSER, "President." IN FIGHT FROM START The fight of nearly half a century to get to Brazil re- ceived the diplomatic support of the following Secretaries of State: William H. Seward, Thomas F. Bayard, James G. Elaine, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, John Hay, Elihu Root, Philander C. Knox, William J. Bryan and Robert Lan- sing. Mr. Scrymser was in it from start to finish. He is a fighter. He has a record of always getting what he goes after, regardless of difficulties in the way. He had absolutely nothing but his nerve, optimism and self-reliance when he started in 1865 to acquire a concession from Spain to lay a submarine cable between Florida and Cuba and the West Indies, but he succeeded and laid the cable, the first of his many successful ventures. Mr. Scrymser was born in New York in 1839. He was educated at College Hill Seminary, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. When he was twenty-two years old he enlisted in the Twelfth New York Volunteers, April 20, 1861, and he served through- out the civil war, being in all the battles of the Army of the Potomac until June, 1864. He became a captain and was an aid de camp on the staff of Major General William F. Smith. At the, close of the war Captain Scrymser found him- self in New York with no business or profession and unde- cided what he should undertake to make a living. "I had just $144 at that time," said Mr. Scrymser to me the other day, when I called upon him at his residence in Gramercy Park, and asked him for reminiscences and de- tails about the way he began laying cables. "I had many good friends, too," he added, "and it was owing to a conver- sation with one of them, Mr. Alfred Pell, that I first turned my attention to submarine cables. That was in May, 1865. DROPS TOUR TO PUSH PROJECT "Mr. Pell and I had started to go on a tramping tour through the mountains of Western Massachusetts. We started the last Monday in May, but we never got beyond the Harlem River. While we were on the river bank, wait- ing for a steamboat to be repaired after it had broken down, Mr. Pell told me that he had received a circular letter from the Atlantic Cable Company, in which he owned ten shares, 10 telling him that the company would issue twenty shares to him in lieu of his ten shares if he would purchase ten addi- tional shares. "He said he was undecided what to do in the matter and I strongly advised him to accept the offer. I said that I had great faith in submarine cables and had often thought that a cable between the United States and Cuba and the West Indies would pay. He said that he thought so, too, if one could get a monopoly. Then he told me that when he had been in Havana the year before, the Spanish government had granted exclusive fishing rights in the Spanish waters along the Cuban coast within fifty miles of Havana, to a company. "I jumped up and began strapping on my knapsack. " 'Where are you going?' asked Pell. ' 'I am going after that cable concesson,' I said. "We started right back to the city and went to the office of Grinnell, Minturn & Co., where we saw Mr. Robert B. Minturn, who was engaged in the West Indies trade. I was enthusiastic and I outlined to him my idea for a Florida- Cuba-West Indies cable. He listened attentively and told us to come back and see him again the next day. The next day he had Moses Taylor, a well known capitalist, with him, and he said they had talked over the cable project and had concluded to go into it. Mr. Minturn said: 'We will furnish money, and you young men will do all the work, and do it in your own names. Mr. Taylor and I will have a third interest each, and you will have a third interest between you.' 11 "I started for Washington that night to get a letter of introduction from the Department of State to the American Consul in Havana, so that I could reach the Spanish Gov- ernor General of Cuba through him. Mr. Seward, the Sec- retary of State, was just recovering from an attempted as- sassination, and I could not see him. But I obtained a let- ter from Sir Frederick W. A. Bruce, the British Ambassador to the United States, introducing me to Captain General Concha, of Cuba. "The following Saturday I started for Havana with that letter and others from Grinnell, Minturn & Co., to prominent commercial houses in Havana. I obtained an interview with the Captain General, and he agreed to do everything in his power to get me the cable concession. He sent my petition to Madrid and then advised me to leave Havana for the United States, to avoid yellow fever. But I would not leave until I could get the answer from Madrid. Finally, at the end of August, a mail came, and in it was a copy of the Diario Official containing a decree granting to Arturo Marcoartu and others authority to establish the very cable connection for which I had petitioned. "I was disappointed, but not beaten. I obtained a copy of the decree and started for New York. When I arrived and showed the copy to Mr. Minturn and Mr. Taylor they said it was useless to go further with the scheme and with- drew, offering to pay all my expenses, which up to that time amounted to $800. They gave me letters formally with- drawing from the project, and I undertook further endeav- ors on my own responsibility. "The first thing I did was to go to the office of the NEW YORK HERALD and get publicity for the royal decree, and the trick that had been played upon me. The HERALD published 12 an article telling about it and calling the attention of the United States government and all the chambers of commerce in the country to the dangers of such a Spanish concession, showing that American commerce would suffer and that a Spanish owned cable monopoly would control the sugar mar- kets of the world. The article clearly stated that it was the duty of the United States government to prohibit the landing of such a Spanish cable on the coast of the United States unless reciprocal rights for an American cable were granted by Spain. "Armed with the NEW YORK HERALD and a copy of the royal decree, I immediately went to Washington and called upon Secretary William H. Seward, who received me very kindly. He listened attentively to what I had to say, read the article in the HERALD and the decree, and then arose and paced up and down his office in the dress coat which he al- ways wore. I told him that as the law then stood there was nothing to prohibit the owners of a Spanish cable from buying an acre of land and landing their cable on our shores and operating it. Mr. Seward turned on me and said : 'Young man, you are mistaken. The three mile limit off shore is to prohibit an enemy from erecting a battery which would be dangerous to the upland. A cable, being silent and secret in its operation, is many times more dangerous than an enemy's battery. I advise you to lay your plan before Congress, get a bill introduced giving you the exclusive right for the cable to the West Indies, and get it patented, so that you can hold it for at least fourteen years.' BILL PASSED AFTER FIGHT "I followed his advice, and a bill was introduced and finally passed by both houses after a sharp fight in the Senate. President Johnson signed it in May, 1866. I at 13 once organized the International Ocean Telegraph Company, the incorporators under the laws of the State of New York being my friends, Alfred Pell, Alexander Hamilton, a nephew of the great statesman of that name ; Oliver K. King, Maturin L. Delafield, Major General William F. Smith, James M. Digges, my brother-in-law, and myself. ''General Smith was elected president of the company. He went to Spain and obtained a royal decree annulling the Marcoartu concession and granting one to us. The cable was laid and was opened to the public in December, 1866. It was a success from the first. The first tariff was $10 for a message of ten words and $i for each additional word/' In 1878 the Western Union Telegraph Company acquired control of the cable to the West Indies, and Mr. Scrymser turned his attention to new fields. He went to Mexico and obtained a contract from President Diaz granting to the Mexican Telegraph Company permission to establish its cables and lines connecting Mexico City, Vera Cruz and Tampico with a station in Texas. The cable was laid and was in operation within one year from the signing of the contract and the "via Galveston" route was established. The Mexican Telegraph Company was so successful that Mr. Scrymser determined to lose no time in extending the system to Central and South America. The late J. Pier- pont Morgan and some of his associates advanced the cap- ital required, and the Central and South American Telegraph Company was formed and put into operation. When the company opened its lines in 1882 the rate between the United States and Buenos Ayres was $7.50 a word. The present rate between the Argentine Republic, Chile, Peru and the United States is sixty-five cents a word, and the average time of transmission between Buenos Ayres and New York City is about twenty minutes. On occasion it is much less. 14 OWN 20,000 MILES OF LINES The two companies now have more than 20,000 miles of cables and land wires under all-American ownership and control. The new cables between Buenos Ayres and Santos and Rio de Janeiro will add 2,500 more miles of cables to their lines. In places the cables of the Central and South American Telegraph Company rest on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean at a depth of 18,000 feet, and the land wires are strung over the Andes between Valparaiso and Buenos Ayres in places 12,000 feet above sea level, making a total measurement of six miles from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the mountains. The value of American-owned cables to the government of the United States both in peace and in war would be difficult to overestimate. The American-owned cable to Cuba and the West Indies was of supreme importance to the United States during the war with Spain, and the Euro- pean war has taught the world the immense value of strategic cables. At this time all cable despatches to Brazil from the United States over the English-owned lines, which must cross the Atlantic Ocean to the Azores or to England before being relayed, are subject to British censorship. Merchants in New York have great difficulty in getting despatches to German houses in Brazil, or had, until the Central and South American Cable Company arranged to forward them from Buenos Ayres over South American government owned wires to Rio de Janeiro and Santos. That service, however, very often is unsatisfactory, and its drawbacks will be en- tirely overcome as soon as the company has its own cables from the south to Brazil. It has been said that American-owned cable communica- tion with Central and South America is an indispensable ad- junct to the upholding of the Monroe Doctrine in troublous times, and certainly its strategic importance would be enor- mous if a European nation were to threaten invasion of a South American country in defiance of that doctrine. 15 University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. 886 4 Universi South Libn