Total cost of telegraphs in Great Britain and Ireland, $16,475,360.00 Total cost of telegraphs in Belgium, 608,304.56 Total cost of telegraphs in Bavaria, 503,338.35 Total cost of telegraphs in France, 7,045,034.13 —————————————— Total cost for the four countries, $24,632,037.04 Total number of miles of telegraph line in Great Britain and Ireland, 16,000 Total number of miles of telegraph line in Belgium, 2,187 Total number of miles of telegraph line in Bavari, 2,115 Total number of miles of telegraph line in France, 20,028 —————— Total number of miles of telegraph in the four countries, 40,330 Average cost of construction of each mile of telegraph line for the four countries above named, $610.76 VALUE OF WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH PROPERTY, BASED ON EUROPEAN DATA. The number of miles of line belonging to this company is 50,760, and the number of miles of wire is 97,416. Taking the average cost per mile of telegraph line in England as a basis for a calculation of the cost of the lines of the Western Union Telegraph Company, we have a total value of $52,166,079.60. If we estimate the cost of our lines by the average cost of all the telegraph lines in Europe of which any statistics can be obtained, we have a total value of $31,002,177.60. Much has been said respecting the alleged unreasonably large capital of the Western Union Telegraph Company. This company was organized in the year 1851, with a capital of three hundred and sixty thousand dollars, and constructed a line of electric telegraph from Buffalo, N. Y., to Louisville, Ky., distance about six hundred miles. The cost of the line, on a gold basis, was thus $600 per mile. The present extent of line belonging to this company, if estimated by the cost of the original line, and forty per cent be added for the premium on gold, would give us $42,638,400 as its value. On the basis of the cost of the lines of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, the capital of the Western Union Telegraph Company would be about $100,000,000, and, on that of some other rival lines, nearly $200,000,000.