The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-07-03

ing country and while We can grow no
more wheat our population IS steadily IN
creasing. If this be true. the center OF
political gravity would be shifted. The
United States will be compelled to import
wheat, and the effect of this upon political
and financial questions is too great even
for the ablest of statesmen and nnanciers
to determine
But if by the year 1926 the United States
Is great importer of wheat i. viii be an
enormous producer of corn and other bread
stutts, for there are millions Of acres of rich
aliuvial land in the South and Southwest
yet to be developed Senator ingalls,. VINO
has given much study 10 the question, de-
clares that ''the Mississippi valley viii
support and enrich, without crowding,
100000 OF people. and be not only the
granary but the workshop OF the planet.
THE RAILWAYS OF THE FUTURE
We may reasonably expect, if the opin-
ions Of statesmen ike ingalls, and railway
experts like Depew and Fink and Hunting
ton are to be believed, that on the Fourth
OF July. 1926 it will be possible TO enter
palace car ct New York, or Chicago, or San
Francisco and take in Il continuous jour
ney 10 Valparaiso or Rio de Janeiro. By
that time the American continent will have
been. IN the opinion Of these men, bound
together by continuous iron rails. concen-
traIed at the isthmus and radiatIng over
the United States and the South American
continent. Already the engineers are st
work making surveys. Ex-Mayor Will
lam K. Grace said 70 the writer that the
railway over the Andes. connecting the
Peruvian plateau with the Pacific coast,
is practically finished. 4 link will be
built extending through Perm 60 Bolivia
and the Argentines, and the only engineer
ing work of great difficulty in this inter
continental system Will be that which is
necessary 10 surmount the mountains of
Ecuador and Bogo,a- The engineers who
have made preliminary surveys declare
that such mastery of the mountains Will
not be so difficult as was the surrounding
OF the Andes by the railway roadbsd
which has Just been completed.
It Is not Mr.. Depew's opinion that any
extensive new systems of railways will be
constructed in the United States within
the next TWENTY-FIVE wears. The tendency
will be 10 consolidation OF existing sys-
TENS. 10 perfecsing roadbeds. and espe-
cially TO the development OF fast trains.
Railway managers now say that II IS rea-
Sensible TO expect, even with no new
Developments. that early in the next CEN
fury IL viii be part of the schedule of
every great trunk line TO run trains be-
tween the seecoaSt and Chicago, or other
cities OF the Mississippi valley, between
the breakfas. hour. and bedtime. The
public Will by that time have demanded
train service averaging about sixty miles
an hour. and il will easily be attained.
These coujectures do not take into consld-
Grafton the possibility Of the substitution
OF electricity as a motive power for steam.
THE ERA OF CANALS.
Finaneiers and men who are making q
study OF commercial conditions are salts
fed that the United States is just entering
upon sn era of canal building, and that by
1895 the country will be bi-sected by sew
eral great ship canals which shall practi-
cally overcome the limit put upon ocean
commerce by the coast. The Chamber of
Commerce of New York has informally
expressed an opinion that the Erie canal,
stretching from But. alo to the Hudson,
must be deepened so as to admit ships Of
considerable burden. Colonel Frank Bond,
who Is Well known among railway man
ayers as man of great ability. declares
that il IS inevitable that ship canal be
cut across the state OF Michigan. say from
Grand Haven 70 the ST. CLAIR river. Cap
itaiists are already in consultation
over the construction Of a ship canal
across New Jersey 10 the Delaware. thence
across Maryland 70 the Chesapeake. with
view ultimately of extending IL through
the North Carolina sounds TO Charleston or
Savannah. The expectation Is that early
in the next century a ship canal, capable
of floating as great vessels as are carried
through the Suex or VIII be carried through
the Nicaragua canal. will be cut across
the upper part of the Florida peninsula,
thus shortening by leo miles the trip from
the coast cities TO the Nicaragua canal.
The great West IS determined that ship
canal shall be built from Chicago TO the
Mississippi. Il is reasonable TO expect.
therefore, thar by the l59Ih ami
versary of the nations birth there
may have been developed the most
stupendous canal system the world has
ever known, afecting-in manner Of
which IL IS impossible 70 estimate the ex-
tent-the commercial relations Of the
United States with other countries as well
IS the relations between the various cities
Of this country.
THE DEvEIoPNESTs OF ELECTRICITY.
OF course. when some conjecture As to
the future Of the United States Is INDUCED
in the part which electricity will play in
such developments possesses the most
fascinating interest, partly perhaps be-
cause We are now Just on the threshold Of
the electric era. II is barely ten years
since electricity outside OF its use as
message bearer has had commercial dsyel-
opmeng. but the strides have been so
enormous-and in sense 50 romantic and
20