The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1882-07-29
The March OF the Railway.

The railway development Of the United
States is something enormous, and the official
figures are calculated to make our slower
going British cousins suspicious of our
veracity. According to the statistics of
Poor's Manual-the recognized authority on
railway construction in this COuntry-nine
thousand three hundred miles of new road
were built last year and nearly four thousand
miles more during the first six months Of
the present year, giving us total mileage
on the 1st Of July Of about one hundred and
nine thousand. Add the fact that this is
about double the mileage reported in 1870,
and it will be admitted that the word
enormous" is the only adjective that
properly describes our railway development
during the past decade.
Under certain circumstances this extraOr-
binary activity in railway construction
would be cause for grave anxiety touching
the financial welfare Of the country. The
panic of 1873, it is well known, was pre-
cipitated by the locking up of immense
sums of money in new lines that could not
possibly earn dividends at the start, and
whose securities, therefore, could not be con-
verted into cash except at a ruinous sacrifice
Jay Cookies collapse was but natural con-
sequence of this state of things. Severely
as he was censured at the time he was not
more culpable than thousands of other men
who seek to make their fortunes by antici-
pating the growth of the country. No one
now regards the Northern Pacific Railroad
as a wildcat scheme, and despite the ridicule
that was heaped on the sanguine CORE
| spOndents who wrote up" the climatic
| advantages of the country through which
it had been surveyed no one any longer
questions the fact that it bisects the greatest
wheat belt in the country. Nevertheless,
over construction Of railways is Just as much
to be dreaded now as then, and if the de-
velopment of the last year and half had
been solely or even chiefly of speculative
character there would at this moment be
grave reasons for anticipating another finan-
cial crisis in the near future. As matter
of fact, however, q very small percentage Of
this development can be regarded as forced
at present building were for the most part
projected to meet an existing demand for
transportation facilities, and have played
the part of valuable feeders to the main
arteries of travel. The South and South
west have been the scene of the greatest
activity, and railway enterprise has not more
than kept pace with the industrial and agri-
cultural growth of those sections. At the
time that the Union Pacific railway was
opened it was thought that it would answer
| all the demands for transcontinental trans
portation for the balance of the century,
but time has already shown that to be q
! fallacy, and the year 1900 will undoubtedly
see four and perhaps five independent lines
to the Pacific in profitable operation. What
we failed to take into account ten years ago
was the necessity which would spring up for
lateral roads, stretching out like vertebr@
from the spine OF the continent, and knitting
ittogether in a homogeneous civilization. The
same causes which have operated to make
Denver the centre of a north and south rail
way system will undoubtedly continue IN
force until as fine web of railways has been
| spun across the great plains Of the West as