of the Nation's resources along all lines through improved methods of production and transportation.

A few figures will serve to illustrate the extent of this development and, in the absence of detailed data, will enable us to appreciate the enormous growth in the volume of interstate traffic. In the 40 years from 1870 to 1910 the production of wheat in the United States increased from nearly 235,000,000 to more than 695,000,000 bushels; of corn, from 1,094,000,000 to 3,125,000,000 bushels; and of oats, from 247,000,000 to nearly 1,127,000,000 bushels. Of these respective crops in 1910, statistics show that about 54 per cent. of the wheat, 22 per cent. of the corn, and 30 per cent. of the oats were shipped out of the county where grown, by far the largest portion of them entering into the interstate commerce of the country. The production of cotton increased from 4,352,000 to 11,965,000 bales, and the movement of this crop as explained in detail elsewhere,* is chiefly interstate in character. Prior to 1860 the meat industry was conducted mainly in a large number of localities, and, owing to the lack of refrigeration and the refrigerator car and steamer, comparatively little of the products was sent abroad or to distant States. With the movement of the live-stock-raising business to the West and the concentration of the packing business in a

*S. S. Huebner, The Development of the Interstate Commerce of the South, in The South in the Building of the Nation, vol. vi., p. 357.

few large centres, accompanied by modern means of refrigeration, most of the meat product of the country entered into interstate commerce. Between 1870 and 1905 the value of meat products increased from $75,000,000 to nearly $1,000,000,000, and of this amount at least 15 per cent. was exported from New York, Boston and Philadelphia. In fact, as regards all leading agricultural staples, there now prevails the system of concentrating them at great terminal centres like Chicago, Minneapolis, Duluth, Kansas City, Omaha, St. Louis, etc., and then redistributing the same to the eastern or foreign centres.

In the mineral and manufacturing business the development since 1860 has been even more phenomenal, although space permits only a few facts to illustrate this tendency. American copper production in 1870 amounted to only 12,600 tons, whereas in 1910 the production approximated 485,000 tons, practically all of which enters into interstate commerce. Iron ore production increased between 1870 and 1905 from 3,000,000 to 49,000,000 tons (1,500 per cent.); and the yield of mineral oil from almost nothing to 130,000,000 barrels. In both instances the product enters mostly into interstate commerce. Similarly, the manufacturing industries multiplied greatly in number and increased their capacity along all lines. The iron and steel business, entering into so many other lines of manufacture, is usually regarded as the best barometric index

of the Nation's industrial development; and here it may be stated that the production of pig iron increased from 1,665,000 tons in 1870 to the tremendous total of 27,074,000 tons in 1910; while during the 35 years between 1870-1905 the capitalization of the iron and steel manufacturing business increased from $210,000,000 to nearly $949,000,000, and the value of the annual product from $296,000,000 to nearly $906,000,000.

Along with this greatly increased production, the Nation witnessed a great extension of railway mileage and steamship tonnage in all sections of the country and a remarkable lowering of freight rates. Whereas in 1860 the railway mileage of the country amounted to only 30,635 miles, the total single track mileage now totals nearly 250,000 miles. The sail and steam tonnage on the Great Lakes increased from 684,704 in 1870 to 2,062,147 tons in 1905. According to the Reports of the Commissioner of Navigation, the total gross tonnage of documented vessels engaged in domestic trade in 1896 was 3,858,927 and in 1906 5,735,483 tons, an increase of 48 per cent.

For the year 1873 Mr. Moseley reports the average freight rates to be 412 cents per ton per mile on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 7 cents on the Boston and Lowell and the Winchester and Potomac, and 10 cents on the Petersburg, and Portsmouth and Roanoke lines. These rates seem extraordinarily high when compared

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clearly indicate the tremendous proportions of our internal trade, but it is a regrettable fact that no statistics exist by which to trace the tonnage movement of freight between the leading sections of the country. The limited data available, however, shows that the growth of freight movements has been large in all sections. In 1890 the railroads of the country carried a total of 745,000,000 tons of freight, or approximately 11 tons for every man, woman and child. In 1910 the freight carried on our railroads aggregated 1,850,000,000 tons, while the original tonnage, not including freight secured from connecting lines, exceeded 881,000,000 tons. The average length of the haul is given by the Interstate Commerce Commission as 249.6 miles, and it is estimated by various authorities that of the total tonnage only about 15 to 25 per cent. is intrastate in character.

Complete statistics of the coastwise trade are lacking, because vessels engaged in this trade are not required to report their cargo tonnage. For the year 1910, however, the United States Bureau of Statistics reported the coastwise coal shipments from New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk and Newport News to be nearly 43,500,000 tons, with most of this freight destined to ports of other States. The coastwise receipts of

lumber at New York, Boston and Philadelphia during 1910, mostly from Southern ports, are reported at over 1,000,000,000 feet. In 1910 800,000 tons of cotton are reported to have been sent from Southern to Northern ports by water, and the shipments of oil from Texas to Northern ports are given as nearly 8,000,000 barrels. The coastwise shipments between the 48 leading ports, extending from Bangor (Me.) to Newbern (N. C.) are given by the United States Corps of Engineers as amounting to nearly 144,000,000 tons. From the same source we learn that the coastwise shipments and receipts of the eight leading Pacific ports aggregate nearly 19,000,000 tons; but it is impossible to tell what proportion of this is interstate in character.

On the Great Lakes the shipment from all the ports aggregated nearly 87,000,000 tons in 1910. Of this volume ore and minerals represented nearly 47,000,000 tons; coal, 24,680,000 tons; and flour, grain and lumber, nearly 7,000,000 tons. By far the larg

est part of this trade - probably ninetenths is interstate in character. It may be added that government statistics place the freight tonnage on the Delaware at nearly 21,000,000 tons, on the Ohio River and its tributaries at 20,000,000 tons, and on the Mississippi River at approximately 5,000,000 tons; but in no case is it possible to separate the interstate and intrastate traffic.*

* In addition to the works cited in the above article, the following may be consulted: Philip A. Bruce, The Rise of the New South, vol. vii., of The History of North America (Philadelphia, 1905); Clive Day, A History of Commerce; G. G. Huebner, Trade, Transportation and Communication, in The American Year Book for 1911, pp. 537-567; S. S. Huebner, The Interstate Commerce of the South Prior to 1865, in The South in the Building of the Nation, vol. v., pp. 404412; and The Interstate Commerce of the South since 1865, in The South in the Building of the Nation, vol. vi., pp. 357-363; Edward A. Moseley, Interstate Commerce in Depew's One Hundred Years of American Commerce, chap. iv.; Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on "Transportation by Water in the United States" (Washington, 1909); Reports of the Commissioner of Navigation (Washington); Internal Commerce of the United States, published periodically by the Department of Commerce and Labor in the Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance of the United States.

were

It began in 1864 and in two years was progressing with unprecedented rapidity. By 1869 it had gathered such momentum that in each of the two succeeding years the increase was 8,000 miles. But this pace could not be maintained forever. Railroad building was overdone, reckless competition ensued, and the end came with the financial panic of 1873, for which the railroads themselves largely responsible. Railroad increase dropped off 75 per cent., but there was a quick recovery, and in 1886-1887 nearly 13,000 miles of new trackage was constructed. From this point the railroads settled down to a normal growth, which lasted until the business. depression of 1893, when, for the first time in the history of the United States, there was a decrease in the number of miles operated. The miles of road in operation in this period were 30,626 in 1860, 52,922 in 1870, 93,926 in 1880, 166,706 in 1890, and 190,082 in 1900.

After 1900 the annual increase was generally greater than in the years immediately preceding, and during the decade it reached 236,777 miles, in 1909 the annual average being over 5,000. This increase was less in annual gross amount than in some of the "boom" years between 1865 and 1890, but it was more than the average of those years. The percentage increase, however, was smaller, and very much so, when compared with the early period of railroad building. From 1835 to 1860 the increase for

each period of five years was 100 per cent. These figures and comparisons indicate that at the end of the first decade of the Nineteenth century the railroads were still behind the normal demand for transportation and travel service. They had more nearly caught up with the needs of the country than in the years preceding the Civil War, but there still remained regions uncultivated and unserved by them.

The idea of a transcontinental railroad which should link the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and eliminate the long ocean voyage around Cape Horn and the plodding, dangerous prairieschooner trip across the Rockies, was considered as early as 1850 — less than 20 years after the first crude attempts at railroading had been made. It required 20 years and the exigencies of Civil War conditions when the necessity of closer alliance between the East and the Far West was made manifest—to bring the idea to realization. For this purpose the Government heavily subsidized the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific roads with bonds and land grants in 1862. Work was begun in 1865 and the line was completed by a junction of the two roads near Ogden, Utah, in May of 1869.

Other transcontinental lines were built within the next 15 years; the Northern Pacific from Lake Superior to Puget Sound; the Atlantic and Pacific, in connection with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé, and the St. Louis and San Francisco Railway;