Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1877-09-17
RAPID GROWTH OF THE RAIL-
ROAD.


our yearly average of railroad construc-
tion was about 500 miles. In 1850 this
average had increased to 1900. In 18-
go it was nearly 10000, and in 1871
it was stated that enterprises requiring
an expenditure of $8O0,O00,O0O, and
involving the construction of 10000
miles of railroad, were in actual process
of accomplishment In 1872 the ag-
gregate capital of the railroads of the
United States, which were estimated to
embrace one-half of the railroads of the
civilized world, was stated to amount to
the sum of $9,l59,423, ,O57, their gross
revenue being s473,241, ,O55.
Thus within forty years, within lit
tie more than generation. this enor-
nous amount of wealth had, as it were,
been created from nothing. Here is
probably twenty times more wealth than
was obtained by the "conquistadores"
of the sixteenth century at the time of
the discovery of America, when all
Europe was made wild by the stories of
untold gold in the new-found world.
The difference in the methods of its ac-
QUESTION may roughly indicate the prog
ress made in two centuries toward the
organization of labor. The Spanish
conquerors decimated the fourishing
countries they obtained possession of by
the sword, and making slaves of the
natives, actually extermlnated them in
many of the West India Islands by their
enforced labor in the mines. The ad-
vent of the railroad has made the set
Element of the whole West possible, and
raised the production of cereals in the
United States for the year 1872, accor-
ding to the Agricultural Department, to
the enormous total of 1866, ,199,10O
bushels.
With such rapid growth of the rail
road era, it was naturally to be expect
ed that every thing connected with it
has not been conducted in the most or
derly manner possible. People learning
by experience are apt to make mistakes,
and when an entire nation is simultan-
eously passing through the same educa-
tional process of culture, it can not be
expected to reach perfection at the first
attempt. There was no precedent by
which the railroad should be governed,
nor which the people could consult for
guidance in dealing with it. The turn
pike and canal was as incompetent pre-
cedents as the games of children would
be for the serious business of their after
life. And as the railroad has had to
create its own engineers, competent to
deal with the new problems of construc-
tion it has introduced, so has it had to
originate its own financial measures !;
and it was inevitable that the criticism
of a larger experience might justly find
fault with the mistakes of both. Were
the problem to-day presented to the
country, with the knowledge that we
have upon railroad matters, to furnish
anew system of railroad transporta-
tion as competent for our industrial
needs as that we now have, there is no
doubt an arrangement would be made
very different from any now existing.
The existing system was not constructed
to meet the needs of the present course
of trade, but for totally different neces-
sites. At the same time, but for the
advent of the railroad, the trade which
now finds itself hampered for want Of
facil tiles would never have existed.
None of the trunk-lines, which are the
only reliance for bringing to the Allan
tic coast the grain crop of the West,
were designed for this work. At the
period of their construction there was
no settled West. and no grain crop to
transport. They were built to connect
other points, and to supply other needs.
The facts in the construction of the
New York Central will show this readi-
ly. This line, between Albany and
Buffalo, consisted originally of various