Page:The Wizard of Wall Street and his Wealth.djvu/180

 *denin. The management, however, was in the hands of an executive committee composed of Gould's immediate associates. The Western Union, besides its land system, owns ocean cables and has a big interest in the telephone and stock "ticker" systems, and Gould's power as the master of this company can scarcely be estimated.

It is believed that Mr. Gould's real ambition, so far as concerned the Western Union, was to sell it to the government. But so long as the country believed that Jay Gould desired to sell there could be no public opinion aroused in favor of purchasing it. So Gould, if such was his real desire, masked his purpose behind a display of indifference or opposition, in the hope that if it was thought he did not wish to sell the country would be all the more eager to buy. Thus he told the Committee on Labor and Education:

"I think the control by the government is contrary to our institutions. The telegraph system, of all other business, wants to be managed by skilled experts, while the government is founded on the idea that the party in power shall control the patronage. If the government controlled it the general managers' heads would come off every four years and you would not have any such efficient service as at present. The very dividend of the Western Union is based upon doing business well, keeping her customers and developing her business. If the Democrats were in power there would be a Democratic telegraph; if the Republicans came into power