The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1899-11-25
AMERICAN RAILWAYS
As Related to Commercial, Indus
trial and Agricultural Interests.
Present Period Styled the Age Of
Transportation - Foreign Coun.
tries Buying Our locomotives
Development of the West.

tnlS CLOSING ptTlou VI INC AhaceSeAeh
century that it is an age of transporta-
ton. Transportation underlies mate
rial prosperity in every department of
commerce. Without transportation
would be impossible. Those
states and nations are rich, powerful
and enlightened whose transportation
facilities are best and most extended.
The dying nations are those with little
or no transportation facilities"
These were a part of the opening
words of an address delivered before
the International Commercial congress,
recently held in Philadelphia, by
George Fl. Daniels, General Passenger
Agent of the New York Central & Hud-
son River railroad, and president of the
American Association of General Pas
senger Agents.
He then went on to quote Mr.. Mulhall.
the British statistician. who in his work
on The Wealth of Nations" said of the
United States in 1895: eff we take a
survey of mankind in ancient or mod
ern times, as regards the physical, me-
chanicaI and intellectual force of ma
tions, we find nothing to compare with
the United States"
Mr.. Mulhall proved by his statistics
hat the working power of a single per-
son in the United States was twice that
of a German or Frenehman, more than
three times that of an Austrian and five
times that of an Italian. He said the
United States was then the richest
country in the world, its wealth exceed
ing that of Great Britain by IS per
cent, and added that in the history of
the human race no nation ever before
possessed Al, 000, 900 of instructed citi-
Gems. Should Mr.. Mulhall revise his fig
ures to-day, the differences would all
be in favor of the United States, for in
the past IS months we have demon
strated the superiority of u manufac-
lures in every direction, and Jul ability
to cope successfully with questions
which have heretofore been handled ex-
clusively by the older nations is now
recognized by all the world.
Mr.. Daniels told of p letter he had Fe-
ceived from a friond in Toxic, written
only e short time ago, in which was this
significant sentence: You will be in
terested in knowing that 1 have hang
ing on the wall of my office a framed pic
ture of your Empire State Express
and we expect in the near future to be
hauling a japanese Empire Express
with an American locomotive" They
have now in Japan more than 100 To-
comotives hat were built in the United
States. In Russia they have. nearly
1000 American locomotives, and prac-
tically overy railway in Great Britain
| has ordered locomotives from this coun-
try since the beginning of the war with
Spain.
But it is not alone our locomotives
that have attracted the attention of for
eigners who have visited our shores;
our railway equipment generally has
commanded admiration and is now re-
ceiving the highest compliment, name
ly, imitation by many sister nations.
The demand for American 1ocOmo-
tives from all parts of the world Mr..
Daniels attributed, in the first place,
to the superior quality of our ma
| chinery, and, in the second, to the fact
that the general passenger agents of
the American railways Fave, through
their advertising, made the marvellous
| results accomplished by our locomo-
tiyes household words in every country
on the globe.
The emperor of Germany in his
speech to the Prussian diet in January
last, said Mr.. Daniels, did not lay the
greatest stress upon the necessity for
increasing the army OF for the oon-
struction of additional ships for the
navy, but he did impress upon his hear
ers the great Importance of extending
the railroads and the navigable canals.
In order that the German nation might
have knowledge of the most advanced
theories and practice in the construc-
ton and operation of railways an i'm
perial German commission was sent to
the United States a short time ago for
the purpose of examining American
railways and making such recommen-
dations as their investigation should
suggest. In the report of this commits
sion. which was recently published, one
of the first sentences is as follows:
slack of speed, lack of comfort, lack
of cheap rates, are the charges brought
against the German empires railways,
as compared with those of the United
States" They recommended the adop-
ton of many of our methods, explain.
ing in their report that they were fa1
superior, rot only to those in vogue in
Germany, but also superior to those OF
any other country.
One of the claims made by Mr.. Daniels
is that railroads supersede the canals
and he gives as one reason the genera
demand of the American public fol
quick time. A shipper having a hun
dred thousand barrels of flour or a mil
lion bushels of grain for export mus
move it from Buffalo to New York with
in a specified time, and he cannot risl
the slow process of the canal.
What Railroads Have Accomplished
A few examples of the achievement
of American railroads in a little more
than half a century, and many OF then
within the last IS years, were ther
given. Before the railroads were bull
it took a week to go from New York t.
Buffalo, nearly three weeks from New
York to Chicago; and at that time nj
man would have thought Of making
49, f,- Naw Vorl- m tho pocifc coa ST