246 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



lions of dollars more than the whole income of the 

 United States Government a few years ago. 



" It is impossible to contemplate this vast aggregation 

 of money power and commercial control in the hands 

 of one man without feeling concern for the result. 

 Neither military, nor political nor commercial su- 

 premacy can be pushed beyond certain limits without 

 danger. It would seem as though the limit in this case 

 had been reached. Yet, not content with the mastery 

 of 2150 miles of railway, involving in a large degree 

 the control of the internal trade of the States of Illi- 

 nois, Indiana, Ohio, and New York, it is well under- 

 stood that, in October next, at the annual election of 

 the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Commo- 

 dore will enter into possession of that great property 

 likewise, with its sixty or seventy thousand miles of 

 wires, its forty millions of capital, and its eight or nine 

 millions of revenue. When this occurs, not only will 

 the commerce of the four chief States of the North be 

 subject to Mr. Vanderbilt under such feeble restric- 

 tions as our Legislatures may impose but the whole 

 telegraphic correspondence of the country will obey his 

 law. He may prescribe, not only what shall be the price 

 of a barrel of flour in New York, but also when, how, 

 and at what cost citizens may communicate with each 

 other by telegraph. 



" Of course he will be subject to legislative control. 

 What that will amount to we all know. In the past 

 no Legislature in this State has ever dared to beard 

 him. He will be a bold man, indeed, who attempts to 

 do so now, when his resources are so unbounded, and 

 his power so far-reaching. It was said that the late 

 James Fisk, Jr., who controlled a paltry 450 miles of 



