York market the past year, through her three channels, equaled 71,384,143 bushels!

Of animal food the two railroads brought to tide-water the past year, 425,185 tons, worth on the average $200 per ton, and in the aggregate $85,037,000. The Canal brought 12,574 tons, valued at $2,766,694. The aggregate value brought by the three routes was $87,803,694. The aggregate tonnage of breadstuffs and animal food brought to tide-water, the past year, was 2,305,321 tons, and their aggregate value $160,906,778, a sum nearly, if not quite, equal to the value of the Cotton crop of the United States the past year. If we add the value of the vegetable and animal food brought to tide-water, the past year, from the Western States over the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads, the aggregate will be over $200,000,000!

Against this movement on the Eastern routes, there were received at New Orleans, the past year, by way of the Mississippi River, 965,860 barrels of Flour, 13,116 sacks of Wheat, 1,722,037 sacks of Corn, 659,550 bushels of Oats, 216,523 barrels and 1,874 hogsheads of Pork, 83,922 barrels of Lard, 44,934 barrels and tierces of Beef, and 82,819 casks and hogsheads of Bacon. Reducing the Flour to bushels, the total number of bushels of grain received at New Orleans was 5,687,399, against 71,384,143 received at tide-water over the New York lines, or at least 85,000,000 bushels over all the five Eastern outlets. The tons of animal food received at New Orleans the past year, was 95,700, against 437,759 by the New York routes, or adding the tonnage of animal food brought by the Pennsylvania and Baltimore and Ohio Railroads, against, probably, 525,000 tons on the five Eastern outlets of the great valley.

These facts show how small a proportion of the products of the North-Western States goes to market by way of the Mississippi River. The produce received at New Orleans came almost entirely from the Southern States the Flour from St. Louis, and the Corn and Bacon from Kentucky and Tennessee. It is not probable that one-fiftieth of the total exports of grain from the North-West went down the Mississippi. Of other articles of export, Wool, Lumber, Butter, Cheese, Hides, etc., etc., no portion

whatever is sent down the Mississippi - the whole going direct to the Eastern States.

These facts are stated, not by way of invidious comparison, but to show the power that resides in the North and East by virtue of their numbers, wealth, industries and means of inter-communication, and how completely these sections have changed the direction of the great routes of commerce of the interior. The free navigation of the Mississippi, which only a few years ago was considered so indispensable, is for the North-Western States an imaginary rather than a real necessity. They would not, of course, consent that any of their outlets should be closed, as it might increase the exactions of others, and, as extraordinary emergencies might occur, creating interruptions in those now used. It is not probable that the people of New Orleans will ever allow the free navigation of its great feeder to be interfered with, as this would threaten the destruction of their wealth and trade. The peaceable effect of Secession may be to close its mouth in which event the entire trade of the Valley could be easily, and in the end to the convenience and benefit of all, sent over the Northern and Eastern routes.

It may be assumed that the cotton grown in Tennessee, a portion of Alabama, all Mississippi and Arkansas, and a part of Louisiana, can be delivered at Cairo as cheaply as at New Orleans. From Cairo to New York, $4 a bale, or $16 a ton, would afford a fair business to the carrier. From New Orleans to New York, by the outside route, including charges at the former place, and insurance, the rate cannot be estimated at less than a cent to a cent and a quarter per pound. In favor of the interior route is time, climate and uniform health. There is now annually consumed in the Northern and Eastern States, nearly one million of bales. Our manufacturing establishments are already receiving large amounts through the interior routes, which will be steadily increased till the greater part consumed reaches them in this manner. All the railroads connecting the interior with the Eastern States, are making extensive provision for this new traffic, which is certain to be secured by our method of low charges, and by the great advantages which New York, Boston and Philadelphia present as the parts of shipment.

CHAPTER VIII

TRANSPORTATION

INTRODUCTION

There is no single influence which has played so large a part in American industry as transportation. So long as we remained in the economic condition of colonies, depending chiefly upon foreign commerce for our prosperity, it was marine transportation with which we were chiefly concerned. Shipping and the carrying trade were our greatest economic interest. After 1815 this interest did not decline absolutely, but it became relatively less important. It was still the source of many private fortunes and of much accumulation of capital, and ranked in importance with the growing manufactures of the country. With the growth of a great internal commerce, however, the creation of a national system of transportation gradually came to the front as the most important concern in our economic affairs. Transportation projects internal improvements as they were called - everywhere became the largest and most numerous economic undertakings. This was the field which soon came to absorb the greater part of our accumulations of capital and to furnish opportunity for our greatest business ability. Here first appeared those characteristic figures of American society, the millionaire and the captain of industry. Here was developed more rapidly than anywhere else that striking institution of American industry, the great corporation.

Owing to the fact that the policy of internal improvement never greatly affected national politics and after Jackson's time disappeared as an issue altogether, historians have generally failed to appreciate the importance of this factor in American development. Much more attention has been given to the growth of manufactures, to currency and the banking system; but none of these matters has exerted a tithe of the influence upon our economic growth that has come from improvements in transportation. In fact since 1815 our most conspicuous economic achievements have depended directly upon this factor.

The almost complete monopoly of the world's cotton market was the first of our triumphs. But the possession of a soil and climate peculiarly suited to the production of this staple would not alone have secured it. It required the network of navigable streams covering the whole southwest, which the invention of the steamboat suddenly converted into a first-class transportation system, to insure our success. In the international trade in breadstuffs we have gained only a little less prominent place than in the cotton trade. Here again

it was not alone the possession of the prairies and plains of the West — natural grain fields—that gave us the first place. It was the ease with which railroads could be constructed in those regions, coupled with the internal waterways of the country that made those natural advantages available. Every one knows how our great iron industry depends absolutely upon the transportation facilities which are able to assemble at small cost the raw materials separated by a thousand miles. No feature of American industry is more remarkable than that territorial division of labor which forms the basis of our internal commerce. Nowhere else in the world has anything like it been secured over so great an area of territory. It has made possible that great development of our rich natural resources along all lines, which more than anything else is the basis of our prosperity. This also is largely the result of cheap transportation, without which our internal freedom of trade would have been little more than a name. Down to the Civil War the transportation system of the country was based upon the natural waterways. The numerous rivers upon which steamboats could be used, connected in the East by more or less protected tide-water bays and inlets, and in the West by the great common trunk of the Mississippi, formed the main part of the system. The upper courses of these streams and their tributaries above the point of steamboat navigation were of great service in floating produce down to the navigable waters. In many cases they were navigated by small steamboats and by keel boats to great distances into the interior. The part which these small streams played in the economic life of the country in early times has never been adequately recognized.

Supplementing this natural system were the canals, the most important of which were designed to connect the natural waterways. Such were the Erie and Pennsylvania canals in the East, the Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, Miami, Wabash & Erie and Illinois & Michigan in the West. The Chesapeake & Ohio and James River canals would also have served the same purpose, if they had ever been carried to completion. Most of the other canals were either branches of the main lines or intended to connect the back country with the natural waterways. New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio had an extensive network of branches. Elsewhere the canals were purely local, connecting interior regions with navigable waters. Such were the Middlesex, Blackstone, and Farmington canals in New England, and the Delaware & Hudson, Lehigh, and Schuylkill canals in the anthracite coal region. Like the canals the early railway lines were designed chiefly to supplement the waterways. Nowhere in the country was there an important commercial or manufacturing city that depended upon railroads. They were all situated upon navigable waters or easily connected therewith. All the great trunk line railways had their termini on the waterways; and the local lines were either branches of the trunk lines or tributary to the waterways. It was only at the very end of this period that railways began to supersede the waterways.

The development of the transportation system before 1860 may be divided into three stages. The first was marked by the invention of the steamboat

and its introduction on the rivers, lakes, and protected tide waters of the country. It covers roughly the first quarter of the century. The second stage is characterized by the building of canals to improve and connect the natural waterways. This stage lasted until about 1850. The third stage is characterized by the building of numerous rajlroads in all parts of the country, and covers the decade from 1850 to 1860. Before this time only about eight thousand miles of railroads had been constructed. The principal efforts had been devoted to canals. But after 1850 almost no new canal enterprises were undertaken; several old ones were left uncompleted; and nearly twenty-two thousand miles of railroad were constructed in ten years.

The policy of governmental aid to transportation enterprises was given up by the federal government early in the second period. It had been adopted by the states as early as by the federal government and was eagerly pursued by them for a time. In them, also, it was checked by the financial difficulties of the early forties. After 1850 this policy was gradually resumed again by both state and federal governments, though in a somewhat different form. The federal government began a policy of munificent land grants to aid in the construction of railroads. Several of the southern states, notably Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri, adopted the plan of aiding railroad companies by subscribing largely to their stock. Other southern states were considering such a policy when the war broke out. The most important source of public aid to railroads, however, were the local governments, cities, towns, and counties. In all parts of the country they subscribed liberally to the stock of railroad companies, or granted subsidies to them to secure their construction. Thus internal improvements did not as in former times play an important part in political discussions, but the subject continued to be a matter of the keenest interest to the people everywhere. Almost every community felt that its economic future was vitally concerned with the success of one or more railroad enterprises, and not a few of them were eager to incur debt and endure taxation to insure the success of their favorite project.

Far less important to economic life than the means of transporting commodities is the means of travel and communication. At the present time these are the same. But until the era of railways the means of travel were to a considerable extent different from the means by which commodities were transported. The traveler was carried over the roads of the country in stage coaches, except where it was possible for him to secure passage on steamboats. Little use was made of the canals for this purpose, because better time could be made on the roads, though the canals were not entirely avoided by passengers. The roads were necessarily of the rudest construction in all but a very few localities, and a journey over the magnificent distances of our sparsely settled territory involved great hardship and some danger. Nevertheless the amount of travel seems to have been very large.

The main routes were from the seaboard cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia westward to the Ohio River, and from the Hudson through central New York