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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.*

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 From the same 144,000,000 tons. source we learn that the coastwise shipments and receipts of the eight nication, in The American Year Book for 1911,

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

*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 Commu

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.

CHAPTER IX.

1865-1912.

DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS.

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Demoralization of the railroad business by the Civil War - The revival following peace lines Vicious railroad competition and consequent consolidation condition of steam railroads - Our merchant marine after the Civil War the last century — Increase in our domestic shipping in the present century The first electric railway and the subsequent extension of electric lines.

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Following the Civil War there was an immediate and great expansion in the railroad business of the country. Not only had the war shown the necessity of railroads, but the check put upon construction by the Civil War and in the years immediately preceding resulted in a dearth of facilities that had to be overcome at once. Besides, the general inflation of business, and especially the quick development of manufacturing, when those who had long served in the field returned to their former pursuits, created a new demand for transportation. Moreover, in the South the railroads which existed before the war had to be completely rebuilt. Indeed, they hardly existed save on paper as legal corporations. The physical property had disappeared. Naught was left save scrap heaps of iron. rails, engines and wheels; roadbeds washed out or buried beneath rock and dirt; and piles of ashes and rotted

- Street car transportation

wood where once had been stations, freight houses and cars.

Great plans had been made before the war for railroad extensions in the West and the policy of governmental land-grant subsidies had done much to encourage these movements. Immediately after peace had been secured, this work was again taken in hand and vigorously pressed. In the next 15 years all the Western States and Territories hitherto without railroads fell into line - Nevada in 1868, Montana and Utah in 1869, Colorado, Indian Territory, Wyoming and Oregon in 1870, North Dakota and South Dakota in 1873, Idaho in 1874, New Mexico in 1878, and Arizona in 1879. Of later origin were the first railroads in Oklahoma and Alaska.

But the introduction of railroads into States previously devoid of them was only part of the wonderful railroad growth of this period. Everywhere in the country the work of expansion and improvement went on.

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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;

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