The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 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 LocomOtivcs-
Development OF the West.

"One of our great writers has said of
this closing period of the Nineteenth
century that it is an age of transporta-
ton. Transportation underlies mate
rial prosperity in every department of
commerce. Without transportation
commerce 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 part of the opening
words of an address delivered before
the international Commercial congress,
recently held in Philadelphia, by
George III. Daniels, General Passenger
Agent of the New York Central G. Hud-
son River railroad, and president of the
American Association of General Pas
scnger 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: IF we take
survey of mankind in ancient or mod
err times, as regards the physical, me-
chanionl and intellectual force of ma
tions, We find nothing to compare with
the United States"
Mr.. Mulhall proved by his statistics
that the working power of n single per-
son in the United States was twice that
of a German or Frenchman, 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 35 per
cent, and added that in the history OF
the human race no nation ever before
possessed 100000 of Instructed citi
zens. 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 our manl.fac
lures in every direction, and our 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 n letter he had re
ceived from friend in Toxic, written
only short time ago, in which was this
significant sentence: You will be in
terested in knowing that l have hang
ing on the wall of my office 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
no In To hon 10
comotives that were LNilt in the United
States. In Russia they have. nearly
1000 American locomotives, and prac-
tically every railway in Grsat Britain
has ordered locomotives from this coun-
try since the beginning of the WAY with
Spain.
But it is not alone our locomotives
that have attracted the attention of folr
eigners who have visited our shores;
our railway equipment generally has
commanded admiration and is now re-
| ceiying the highest compliment, name
ly, imitation by many sister nations.
The demand for American locomo-
ti,ss 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 have, through
their advertising, made the marvellous
results accomplished by our locomo-
tives 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 or for the con-
struction of additional ships for the
navy, but he did impress upon his hear
ers the great Importance of extending
the railroads and the navigablc 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 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:
"Lack 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 far
superior, not 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 general
demand of the American public for
quick time. A shipper having hum
dred thousand barrels of flour or n mill
lion bushels of grain for export must
move il from Buffalo to New York with
in specified time, and he cannot risk
the slow process Of the canal.
what Railroads Have Accomplished.
A few examples of the achievements
Of American railroads in little more
than half a century, and many Of them
within the last rs years, were then
given. Before the railroads were built
1t took week to go from New York to
Buffalo, nearly three weeks from New
York 70 Chica 90. and nj that time no