│Switzerland│ 252│ 1,858│ 3,715│ 668,916│ 2,534,240│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 10,000│ │Spain │ 142│ 8,871│ 17,743│ 533,376│ 16,302,625│ 1 to│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 100,000│ │United │ 4,126│62,782│125,564│ 12,904,770│ 31,148,047│ 1 to│ │ States │ │ │ │ │ │ 7,549│ │Dominion of│ 382│ 6,747│ 8,935│ 573,219│ 3,976,224│ 1 to│ │ Canada │ │ │ │ │ │ 10,400│ └───────────┴─────────┴──────┴───────┴────────────┴──────────────┴───────────┘ Footnote 1: From the Annual Cyclopædia. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1868. In large sections of the United States the proportion is much greater. Thus, the Pacific States embrace an area of 600,000 square miles; Belgium, 11,000. The former provide an office to every 2,500 of their population; the latter, one to every 12,416. Thus, the Pacific States sustain five times as many offices in proportion to population as Belgium, to say nothing of the great disparity in the condition of service by the vast range of wild territory occupied by the one, and the fine roads and cultivated area of the other. In view of the facts shown in the preceding table, how can it be said that in America the telegraph is less practically provided to the people than in any other civilized country on the globe? THE COMPLAINT OF INDIFFERENCE TO PUBLIC CONVENIENCE WITHOUT FOUNDATION. “Instead of an auxiliary to the postal system, controlled, like it, by the state, sought, like it, to be made useful to the great masses of the people without regard to the pecuniary profit to be secured, as in nearly every civilized country in the world, we see the system in this country in the hands of rival companies, anxious only for profit, extending their lines only to prominent places where such profits are to be secured, and too indifferent to the public convenience. In short, the popular verdict of the people of this country, if it could be heard, would be that the telegraphic system, in view of what it is in other countries and might become in this, is practically a failure.” _The above complaint is without the least foundation. In no country in the world is there so vast a system of lines under one control as in this; in no country is the business done so well or so cheaply; and nowhere else has there ever been so earnest an endeavor made to serve the people faithfully and satisfactorily._