This estimate was made before the consolidation of the American Telegraph Company and other properties with the Western Union Telegraph Company, and when its capital was only $27,000,000. Invested in buildings, $95,208.83 Stocks in other companies, 1,429,900.00 Office fittings, 360,000.00 “It is remarkable that while _the length of wire_ is given, the length of line nowhere appears.[14] There is a vast difference between the cost of a _telegraph line_ and a _telegraphic wire_. We have seen the cost of a line with a single wire estimated at $61.80, and each additional wire placed on the same posts, $31.80 per mile. Footnote 14: We have given the length of the lines, as well as the length of the wires belonging to the Western Union Telegraph Company, on page 32. “In the absence of any exact information on the subject, we may fairly estimate that the lines of the companies named average three wires to each line. They possess, then, 20,000 miles of telegraph line, with an average of three wires thereon. They speak of ‘single wire lines costing $180 per mile.’ This estimate is too high for any line now in use; but if it be adopted as the basis of calculation, and an allowance of $45 per mile be made for each additional wire, we have, for the 20,000 miles of line owned by the companies named, a cost of $5,400,000, represented by a capital stock of $41,000,000! ‘The average cost’ per mile of each wire suspended on their lines, ‘_as based on the now united capital_, is $450 per mile.’ If ‘the united capital’ had been based upon the actual cost of the property of the company, it would have been nearer $4,000,000 than $41,000,000. “The ‘information’ furnished to the Postmaster-General is compiled with the evident intent to discourage the experiment then contemplated. It is incomplete, and is compiled with an intent to mislead. To any one who will take the trouble to examine it carefully, and to apply the proper tests to its assertions, it furnishes additional arguments in favor of a careful experiment by the government in the construction and maintenance of telegraph lines under control of the Post-Office Department.” To impugn the motives of an opponent is the weakest of arguments. If his statements are wrong, it is easy to show wherein, but wholesale denunciation convinces no one of the strength of the cause or the culpability of the assailed. We do not question Mr. Washburne’s honesty of purpose in making his unjust and extremely erroneous statements regarding the property or executive ability of the Western Union Telegraph Company, but we do say that he is most egregiously deceived upon all points which he has discussed.