Message to Walter P. Marshall on the Occasion of the Transcontinental Telegraph Centennial.

Mr. Walter P. Marshall, President

The Western Union Telegraph Company Omaha, Nebraska

I am happy to send my greetings and cordial good wishes to the Governors, Mayors, officials, members of patriotic and historical societies, educators and others participating in the observance of the transcontinental telegraph centennial.

It has been my pleasure to receive, over a line linking ceremonies at cities along the original transcontinental route, copies of the historic messages received by President Abraham Lincoln on October 24, 1861.

Those messages, so eloquently assuring Lincoln of the loyalty of Western states to the Union, then divided in Civil War, are proof of the vital importance of the first transcontinental line to the preservation of our nation.

Rapid communications play a vital role today in our national security, as they did in 1861, and have a great part as they did then in the development and carrying on of business and industry.

I join with all of you in saluting the pioneer telegraph men who built the line a century ago, and also those who are building and operating the great communications systems of today.

JOHN F. KENNEDY