New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-11-10

"a thirty tnOnsdnu Nhst hithcItO Octui anu
Power may safely disarm as Labor is more
proftably employed and the Masses have more
to lose by civil war and revolutionary convul-
sion. True, this effect will, TO some extent,
be counterbalanced by the diffusion of ntelli-
gence and the growing consciousness Of their
natural rights on the part of the people; but
that the general construction Of Railroads is
calculated to rivet, for season, the letters Of
the British dependencies and increase their
value to the (step) mother country, seems now
inevitable. Ultimately, it will invite and de-
velop Manufacturing in the Colonies, to the
prejudice of the British monopoly for many
arts which could not flourish in India, for ex-
ample, while that vast empire is cut up into
provinces and principalities having very little
intercourse with each other, will be probably
naturalized and developed when a population
of Two Hundred Millions shall have been
brought within the radius of cheap and rapid
daily communication with Calcutta, and
both their disposition and ability to purchase
manufactured fabrics greatly augmented. And
so, throughout the entire civilized and semi
civilized world, the construction of Railroads,
which will at first tend largely to increase the
profits of the practical monopoly Of producing
tasteful and elegant fabrics now enjoyed by the
nations of Western Europe will in the end
powerfully contribute to its overthrow
But it is in our own country that the Rail
way system is destined to attain its most per-
feet and beneiicent development. The Great
Valley is adapted to the profitable cOnstruc-
ton of Railroads to an extent which all Europe
cannot parallel The extraordinary and al
most uniform fertility of its soil, the genality
of its climate, the richness of its mines of Coal
Iron. Lead and other useful minerals combine
with the general smOOthness of IFS surface and
the abundance of timber on its streams 70
mark il as the future home of a vast and ener-
getic Population, of a diversified, advancing.
prosperous Industry. Over the wide area of
that Valley Railroads are already constructed
at a lower cost per mile than anywhere else
in the world, while their revenues even in the
present sparseness of Population and rude in
fancy of Production, exceed in the average
those of any other region in the world AMI
the Railroads Ofthe Mississippi Valley, already
stretching thousands and soon TO be computed
by tens Of thousands of miles viii necessarily
secure liberal incomes to most if not all the
great East aud West lines which connect that
Valley with the seabOard, through the more
sterile and rugged district interposed between
them, while necessitating the construction of
one or more lines westward to the Pacific.
A good double-track Railroad from the Mis-
sissippi to the Western Ocean is of paramount
necessity, Political as well as Commercial, if
we are TO retain our connection with the States
of the Pacific. Perhaps half the distance Zone
fourth at each end) will be constructed by vol.
untary associations of citizens as business en-
terprise, if the Government will insure the COM
pletiOn of the central thousand miles stretch
ing oasterly from the immediate stern base
of the Sierra Nevada. This thousand miles
will probably cost Forty Millions of Dollars
when fully equipped for seryice-an outlay
which bears no proportion, considering the
relative resources OF the parties, to that of the
State of New-York in constructing the Erie
Canal With that Railroad completed, the
passage from New-YOrk to San Francisco might
be made inside of ten days, stopping eight hours
of every twent! -four for meals and sleep and in
the enjoyment of all the comforts attainable in
aRailroad journey from Boston to Chicago
And this brings Us to the point originally
meditatcd-that of Improvement in Railroads
and Passenger Cars. Already one-third of the
People of the United States spend some part
of each year on Railroads, aud those who do 50
will very soon be majority. There are still
tens Of thousands of settlers in the West VINO
mean to visit their relatives and birth-places in
the East when Railroads shall have come near
CT their homes, or when the cost of travel
thereon shall have been so reduced that they
can afford il. 1t will be within the truth 10
estimate the increase of Railroad travel in the
United States at twenty-five per cent. per an.
mum for the next ten years
But TO render such travelling universal, there
is needed Improvement in the facilities and
means of travel III the following respects: l.
CheaIness; ,. Safety; 3 Comfort And these
are to be attained as follows:
|. ChedpHess.-The actual cost Of conveying
passengers in comfortable, roomy frst-clays
cars averages something like cent per mile.
With the Increase Oftraye through the growth
ofPopulation, Trade and Wealth, the gradual
replacement of slow-cOach generation by
one OF more go-ahead tendency, and the ex
tension and connection of lines. We NAV fairly
presume that the usual prices OF passage will
range from one to two cents per mile according