ther action by
Congress in the matter as it may at any time take. Several bills are
now pending in Congress relating to the landing of foreign submarine
telegraph cables within the United States, and regulating the
establishment of submarine telegraphic cable lines or systems in the
United States. As this article is going to press, it is reported that
the President has refused permission to a foreign cable company to
renew a cable terminus within the territory of the United States, and
that the question raised as to the power of the federal government to
deny admission to the cable will be referred to the Attorney-General
for an opinion. Meanwhile, the executive branch of the government
holds to the doctrine that, in the absence of legislation by Congress,
control of the landing and operation of foreign cables rests with the
President. The question of the landing of foreign cables received some
consideration from the late Attorney-General, in connection with an
injunction suit brought by the United States against certain
corporations engaged in placing on the coast of New York a cable
having foreign connection. And he suggested for the consideration of
Congress whether it would not be wise to give authority to some
executive officer to grant or withhold consent to the entry of such
foreign enterprises into this country on such terms and conditions as
may be fixed by law.

The principal and most important submarine cables traversing or
connecting the great oceans are owned and operated by private
corporations or companies. They are in number 310, and their length in
nautical miles is 139,754. The length of cables owned or operated by
state governments is, in nautical miles, 18,132.

The policies of states, the movements of fleets and armies, and the
regulation of the markets of the commercial world, depend upon
devices, communications and orders that are habitually transmitted
through the agency of submarine cables. In this view, the first aim is
to safeguard from wanton destruction the delicate and expensive
mechanism of these cables; the second is to restrain within the
narrowest limits practicable interruptions in the operation of cables,
even in the midst of hostilities; and the third is to encourage the
establishment and extension of submarine cables owned and operated by
American capital. All these ends may be advanced by the agreement of
the powers to neutralize absolutely the submarine cable systems of
the wor