, 1882-08-30

Other nations might have comprehended
as shrewdly as the American the advan-
tagr of railway construction to their oun
tries. None could have displayed such
resolution and faith in applying the dis
cOvery The idea itself of the utility Of
a complete railway system to q region
like that which the North American Union
swayS is simple enough. Railways for the
American people are as much lab0ur-sav-
ing machines as the spinning jenny and
steam plough. The American people has
inherited a huge domain, with few labOur-
erS to develop it. The ten thousand miles
of railroad computed TO be in process Of
addition to the United States system in
this year will enable the farmers Of
thousands of miles of fertile land to do tho
work of double their number. In a cOun-
try like England or Belgium, or even
France, railways econOmize labOur in an
analogous though an inferior degree. In
the United States they are, according to
the manner in which the American people
regards its territorial possessions, a neces-
silly. ColoniStS formerly were sent sout,
and went ont, to find a place where they
might live, from a place which, for one
reason or another, refused them the
means. If they could establish a homo
and persuade the soil to yield them sus-
tenance, they had fulfilled the end of their
emigration. A surplus was welcome
rather than indispensable. 1t provided
them with opportunities tor importing
exotic Injuries for the establishment of
existence To the American nation it's
st%upendous acreage is less a possibility Of
future homes than stock in trade. Ameri-
can soil and its capabilities for producing
marketable goods are what Americans
count upon for the maintenance and ad-
vancement of their position in the world.
For their object it is not Sufi' lent that
they should after a weary pilgrimage, like
the disciples of Brigham Young, discover
q spot which they can occupy and Which
may yield them food and raiment, The
road back has to be yet easier than the
road thither. By mechanical arrange
ments space must be practically Obliterat-
ed, or nine.tenths Of American farmers
would take to another vocation and to
more accessible quarters. AS population
grows and becomes more solf.Suficlng,
American railways will somewhat change
their function. They will more especially
serve the purpose, as in older countries, OF
enabling the people and its resources to
circulate among themselves. For the pre-
sent they belong more to populations
thousands of miles away than to the vii
layers and tOWuSmen along their course,
They are the means by which distant pc.
pulations realize the riches which nature
has bestowed upon them in the far West
and Northwest. Without them hundreds
OF thousands of square miles, fitted for
the comfortable and even luxurious ha.
bItation of white men, would have been
left TO the bear and bison and Red Indian,
The world manifests its adhesion to
this view by the financial statistics our
correspondent summarizes. Minnesota
and Illinois and Iowa farmers could not
have collected a hundredth part of the
gigantic outlay upon the mileage the past
and preSen. years have created. Boston
and New York and London and Frankfort
capitalists would not have subscribed,
VITA all their ~benevolence, towards tue
fac.litati0n of social intercourse in the
American backw0ods. The hundreds OF
millions which have been raised in Euro
pedn ond American stock exchanges for
tne building OF American railways are Q
recognition Of the truth that the planters
whom and whose produce the roads con-
vey are doing the work of the world as
Well Is their own. These lines are col
lect0rs despatched to recover the worlds
dues from willing nature. Their construe.
ton IS a speculation Into which distant
cap talists enter with their eyes open.
They have full notice that they ara engag-
ed in d species of cooperative farming, ip
which they supply the transport service,
as a Tuscan landowner supplies the oxen
for ploughIng. While the balance-sheet
is so favourable as th 1T for last year for
eign investors are not likely to hold aloof.