The impress of enterprise upon telegraphy´s first century

The relative merits of private versus government ownership and operation are examined in the field of electrical communication, advantage being taken of evidence covering approximately a century, distinguishing American experience in private corporations from that of Europe in state administrations. Principal attention is focussed on telegraphy, as oldest of the electrical industries, and on those features which are of most interest to engineers and management. It is concluded that while particular forms of organization do exert an appreciable effect upon discovery and invention, their most obvious impress has been upon the respective degrees to which they have exploited invention to maximum public benefit. The disparity in effect of American and European casts of enterprise upon world progress in communication is examined pragmatically, and also analytically as to cause. Social trends leading to changes in conformations as they now exist are assessed from the viewpoint of their possible bearing upon American telecommunication.