The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1900-03-06
GROWTHOFRAILROAD
limited STATES LEADS ALL
OTHER COUNTRIES
Civilization Follows tho LOCOMOTIVE" """
VAST wilderne,sss Are transformers
Into Gardens. villages ana Ni''''
by Its Influence.

by Its Influence
Ar the recent international COM
mereial Congress, held in Philadelphia
George II. Daniels, general passenger
agent of the New York Central anu
Hudson River railroad and president
of the American Association OF Cen
eral Passenger Agents, delivered
notable address on our railroads anu
their relation to commercial, INDUS
trial and agricultural interests Among
other things he said:
zone of our great writer's mas salu
Of this closing period of the nineteenth
century. that it is an age of transport
tation Transportation underlies ma
terial prosperity in every department
of commerce. without transportation
commerce would be impossible. Ihose
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.
''In this connection it will be inter-
esting to note in passing that the Sec
ond American locomotive was built at
the West Point foundry, near Cold
! Spring, on the Hudson river, and was
called the BEST Friend" and from
that day to this the locomotive has
been one of the best friends OF this
republic. But it is not alone our loco
motives that have attracted the at
tention of foreigners who have visited
our shores, our railway equipment gen
orally has commanded admiration and
il now receiving the highest compli-
ment, namely, imitation by many OF
our sister nations.
prince Michel Hilkoff, imperial
minister of railways of Russia, has
since his visit to the United States a
few years ago, constructed train on
much the same lines as the Limited
Trains" of the New York Central and
the Pennsylvania.
cat times there have been periods
of legislation in the United States ad-
verse to the great transportation in
terests of the country, almost invari-
ably the result of misunderstanding
of the real situation, and the hasty
legislation of such times has usually
been repealed upon the sober second
thought Of the people, for in the Ian
guage of our great Lincoln: You can
fool all the people some of the time
some Of the people all the time, but
you can't fool all the people all the
time
zone hundred years ago the gov
ernor of the great state of New York
advised his friends not to invest their
money or waste their time in aiding
the building Of railroads, expressing
the opinion that while it was possible
that improved methods of construction
and perfected machinery might, in the
remote future, enable the people to
move car upon a railroad at the rate
OF five or six miles per hour, he did not
believe that they could ever be made
OF material advantage, and that any
attempt to transport passengers and
freight by railroad, from one part Of
the country to another, must result in
endless confusion and loss. The gov.
ernor died in the belief that the cana
was the only means of conveyance fol-
q great commerce.
Notwithstanding his prediction. thu
railroads have grown to such vast pro
portions, that today the worlds entire
stock of money, gold, silver and paper
would not purchase one-third of it.
railroads. The building of the Erie
canal, extending from Buffalo to AL
Dany' distance Of 1868 miles, was
commenced July 4, 1917. 1t was com,
pleted In 1926 at cost of 81. 6O2. 900
In 1886 the state of New York appro-
priated 100000 for charging and
improving this canal, and few figure.
from the state report on canals may BE-
of interest in this connection. Re.
liable statistics of its traffic are moi
obtainable for the earlier years of #.
operation, but in accordance with the
last annual report Of the superintend.
snt OF public works Of the state of Nav
YORK, we find that the tonnage ~ Of
the property carried on all the canal,
N both directions, in 1887, was ~
zSb tons, valued at $55, 500 .2SS Tbt
tonnage and the value increased unti
1917, when it amounted to 6672 or
tons, valued at 1920, 1913. S21 Fron
1877 the tonnage and the value Of tbt
property carried decreased, until IN
1881 there was only 3,617 ,SO4 tons car.
ried, with value of sos 1903 1888 This
IN race OF the fact that the receipts n
grain and flour at Buffalo had in.
creased from 1,1S4,6S5 bushels in 1872
to 242,14O,SO6 bushels in 1897
In 1875 the states east Of the Mis-.
sour river were sending food and
clothing to the starving people Of Kan
Sas. Thanks to the facilities affordod
by the railroads the corn cron Of Kan
sas this year is three hundred and
iorty million bushels. 1t seems bnt !
very few years since l made NV ers,
Trip TO Colorado, and stopped on INV
way at the home Of Buffalo Rin =,
North Platte, Neb, on the Union Do
CHIC. AT Ogalalla, fifty-one miles
west Of North Platte, the siour In.
ulans We're roaming over the prairie.
and nnol-fpc pam lcs