“As to the exact cost of constructing lines in the United States it is difficult to procure reliable data. There are few questions apparently so simple upon which so many conflicting opinions have been printed. So simple a matter as the cost of posts, say thirty feet long, the placing of them in the earth, furnishing and placing the necessary iron wires and insulators and the fitting up of stations with instruments and furniture, ought not, one would suppose, to be a difficult thing to fix. Yet persons claiming to be experts, and even authorities in all matters relating to telegraphs, have differed very widely. Mr. Prescott, a telegraph superintendent, and the author of a work on ‘Electric Telegraphs,’ estimates the cost of a mile of telegraph, built as they ordinarily are, at $61.80[7].... Footnote 7: This statement was written in 1859, and the object of the author was to show the inferior manner in which a majority of the lines were constructed at that time. “This is about the cost of construction of a majority of our lines, but if built as they should be, they would cost $150 per mile. If additional wires are added, each wire put up would be, per mile, $32.80.” Mr. Washburne’s statement, that telegraph lines can be built cheaper in the United States than in Europe, is entirely incorrect. Labor, wire, machinery, insulators, and every appliance peculiar to the telegraph, are very much cheaper in Europe than in America, and large importations of wire are constantly being made from Belgium and England, notwithstanding the heavy duty. The difference in the cost of labor in Europe and America is very great. The most recent authentic publication on the subject[8] states that the general average rates paid for all kinds of labor in the United Kingdom are as follows: For adult males, in England, $4.96 per week; in Scotland, $4.52; in Ireland, $3.16. For boys and youths, under twenty years of age, in England, $1.44; in Scotland, $1.70; in Ireland, $1.38. For adult women, in England, $2.76; in Scotland, $2.32; in Ireland, $2.06. For girls, under twenty years of age, in England, $1.88; in Scotland, $1.80; in Ireland, $1.62. These rates are stated to be high, as compared with other countries in Europe. Footnote 8: Wages and Earnings of the Working Classes. By Leone Levi, F. S. S., F. S. A., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Commerce in King’s College. London: John Murray. 1867. In Belgium, coal-miners earn from 33 cents to $1.00 per day, the average being 56 cents. In iron-furnaces, a puddler earns from 92 cents to $1.10, and the under hands from 50 cents to 62 cents per day. In iron-foundries, a moulder earns from 44 cents to 62 cents per day. In Paris, the average for adult male labor is 76 cents per day, and for women 38 cents; but in the interior of France the price is much less. In Prussia, first-class engineers earn $1.10, and second-class 83 cents.