Such statements by senior figures in the Bush Administration seem to designed to telegraph the bottom-line of the Helsinki summit: Gorbachev expects to be paid -- and paid handsomely -- for his country's "cooperation" in the Gulf crisis.
American states in the late 19th century treated telegraph lines as common carriers, obliging them to carry dispatches from any person and from any other line at consistent rates.
But what would he have made of the fundamental change in the Telegraph's operation, from being a simple newspaper to being a combination of paper and complex on-line production?