47 U.S.C. § 9 — Subsidized companies required to construct and operate lines

This section applies to railroad and telegraph companies that received a subsidy from the United States, in the form of land, bonds, or a loan of credit, to build railroad or telegraph lines. It applies where the laws that created these companies, or later laws adding to those, required the company to build, maintain, or operate telegraph lines. These companies, and any company operating their railroad or telegraph lines, must maintain and operate telegraph lines using their own corporate officers and employees. This service covers railroad use, government use, commercial use, and other purposes. The companies must exercise, by themselves alone, all the telegraph franchises given to them and all the obligations they took on under the laws that granted them the subsidy.