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that would be needed were the post-office or special messenger the best means of communication. This great

saving in time makes it practicable to distribute cars with such facility as to meet current requirements. In so far as it economizes resources by keeping them in use, and securing equal results with less quantity, it cheapens transportation.

It is possible the progress of events will develop kindred improvements. None would rejoice more than the capitalist were a metal of such quality produced that it would never wear out, or a method of locomotion be discovered that would obviate the expense of roadways and steampower. These now indispensable adjuncts increase the cost of moving freight, and, to that extent, benefit the workmen engaged upon them, at the expense of the shipUntil science has overcome these drawbacks, we per. should content ourselves with present means of transportation, because they are the best and cheapest known.

Railways create communities. In thus developing the family idea, they bless the race by conferring advantages that are beyond the reach of an isolated few. Literature, science, art, and all the concomitant benefits of education and enlightenment are assured where there is society enough to foster them. Agriculture does not found cities. It is essentially segregating in its tendency. Farmers need large fields, and, therefore, must have scattered homesteads; whereas, manufactures and railway enterprises build up populous towns, and their location in his vicinity benefits the farmer, by creating a large supply for his products near at hand, insuring him better returns, because the cost of long transportation is saved. Railways have bridged the distance between the producers and consumers, and have brought them near together. They encourage manufac

tures, and, by the judicious location of their extensive shops, create cities. In the vicinity of these thriving centers, one acre is worth more than a hundred or, perhaps, (as in Chicago) a thousand were before the railways had transformed the prairie into a populous hive of industry. Why is England, to-day, the richest nation on the globe? Simply because she is one vast workshop. The same enviable result is possible here if the people are educated aright. Then they will not be duped into the belief that this continent depends upon any one class for existence. Such teaching is un-American. Yet it is the average Granger's staple utterance, albeit, it does savor of despotism and oldtime feudalism. We are mutually dependent. The farmer can not flourish unless the citizen buys his corn, and the latter must get from him enough to supply his wants. This inexorable law prevents the creation of privileged classes.

Railways educate the people. They render industrial expositions both practicable and accessible. Excursion rates are given, placing it within the reach of the poorest to view all that science or industry can produce, or ingenuity suggest. It thus enables those living in districts most seeluded to participate in all the amenities of civilized life. And, as the sharp ring of the pioneer's axe on the forest tree disturbs and causes to flee away the croaking birds and howling beasts, so the advancing head-light of the locomotive dispels the darkness of ignorance, and carries light and busy life wherever it speeds its way.

Were these benefits candidly acknowledged, they would give tone and consideration to the partial harangues of the Granger's oracles. They would then remind their impatient hearers, as one has pertinently observed, that the broad prairies of the West, being a thousand miles distant

from the eastern markets, with intervening rivers not bridged, and mountains not tunneled, had they been left to depend upon the natural highways to the sea, would yet have been comparatively unbroken; and, instead of being dotted with flourishing cities and desirable homesteads, would have remained the hunting-grounds of "Indians not taxed."

Twenty years have wrought wondrous changes. Illinois and Iowa farms were not at a premium two decades ago. The rural toilers of those days could not spare time from their drugery to brood, in conventions, over fancied wrongs. They begged and prayed for railroads. Characteristic of all, was the piteous plaint of men who, having hauled their produce by ox-teams eighty miles to Rochester, Minnesota, in reply to Jesse Hoyt's inquiry if they wanted transportation, exclaimed, "For God's sake, sir, give us a railroad! Oh, if you only would!" And their sons now threaten to fence in the roads and tear up the tracks, if the companies do not tamely submit to every legislative caprice.

In the ten years following, from 1850 to 1860, farm lands increased materially in value. In Ohio the increase per acre was $13.18; in Indiana, $11.10; in Illinois, $11.36; Michigan, $11.04; Wisconsin, $7.02; Iowa, $5.82; and Minnesota, $4.53. Meantime, the cost of the railroads, which created this increase, had been about one-half the advance in value of the farms; therefore, it would have been actual gain to the farmers had they paid the entire cost of building the roads. Carefully prepared statistics show that every additional mile of railroad to 100,000 acres of farm land yielded an average increase of $1.00 per

acre.

These facts, which are uncontrovertible, and will withstand the onslaught of the most fervid anti-monopolist, are

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commended to the consideration of those who view the railroads only in the light of soulless enemies. As Mr. Grosvenor has clearly stated, however unprofitable the roads may have been to those whose money created them, to the farmers of the West, (who now berate them with every breath) they have been worth at least $100,000 per mile.

Ten years later, in 1870, the record showed this subsequent increase in value to be: in Ohio, $3.54 per acre; Indiana, $4.68; Michigan, $7.13; Illinois, $7.28; Iowa, $7.17; and Minnesota, $1.25.

Not alone did the rural districts share the benefits. Cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee, and Indianapolis-were created by them. A metropolis worthy of the age and the people was built in every State, and stands, to-day, the glory, no less than the advantage, of their respective commonwealths.

In one respect only has the the result exceeded anticipation. It was not supposed, when the first charters were granted, that such a volume of traffic would be attained. Naturally, then, the expenditure that produced it should command abundant return. For a time it did, whereupon shares advanced. Then came reverses, brought about by ill-advised legislation, until railway stocks sank lower in home and foreign markets than almost any other securities. Thus capitalists suffered from the imprudence of spending their money for the public good. So late as 1867, the total market value of share property in railways in England was, according to Sir Rowland Hills report to Parliament, from which we have drawn liberally, much lower than the original amount invested therein. Neither have the losers been consoled by public gratitude. The opposite has been their experience. They have been charged