Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-25

ship around the Horn, voyage of months;
or by steamer to the Isthmus of Panama
they called it Darien, them across tie
Panama railroad, and thence by steamer
again up the coast to San Francisco.
1t cost several hundred dollars to get
from one side of the country to the other
then Now, at the lowest rate, you may
travel from one ocean ID the other for $50;
the highest rate unless you wish to go on
private or special cara veritahle palace
on wheels-is S11515. This includes s.eep-
ing ear, berth and meals
Uniication of Management.
But the mere opening of transportation
across the continent isn't the only thing in
that Inc which the forty years since
Thanksgiving, 1865, have brought to the
people of the country for which to be
thankful.
There has been such an approach in uni
flcation of management that it is possible
to travel from one coast to the other with
only one change, though two and even
three are necessary by some routes. Practi-
cally all the railroads now are of one
gauge. Some minor lines, traversiug remote
and mountainous districts, are ST II of the
old narrow gauge, but the standard feet
8 inch gauge has long been adopted on all
the lines of any consequences; the 6-foot
gauge. then and long after by the Erie;
the old Atlantic and Great Western and
other lines has disappeared.
This and the many inventions and i'm
provements that have been devised and ap
piled to railroad ding have made possible the
present railroad fire. ght rates, and they as
much as anything else, more, perhaps, have
been the great factor in the phenomenally
rapid development of the country in the
last forty years.
There is no space to dwell upon the Won
derful extension of the telegraph since
1865. or the improved mail facilities of to-
day compared with those of forty years
ago Yet volumes might be written upon
these topics without telling the whole story,
since there has been as great Improvement
in our communication with the outside
world as in our domestic mail and tele-
graphic systems. Forty years ago there
was no Atlantic cable. Now there are sew
eral; we have cables across the Pacific and
can talk instantaneously to the uttermost
parts OF the earth.
General Material Development.
Since 1868 the general material develop
ment of the country has been such as to
transcend all ordinary human understand
ing.
The opening of vast new mining fields,
whole areas of coal deposits, many of them
entirely unsupported have been found and
developed since 1865. The enormously val
liable deposits of copper in Montana have
all been discovered and developed since
1865 Michigan's, though known before
then, have also been mainly developed in
side of forty years. So have the great iron
deposits of Michigan the zinc deposits of
Missouri and countless beds of mineral
wealth of all sorts in the south and in the
almost boundless TRANSIT Mississippi regions.
Secretary Seward knew that there was
almost fabulous treasure under the surface
of what was called Russian America when
he bought it from the cars government,
but the gold and silver and other mineral
wealth of Alaska has practically all been
found and developed within the last ten
years. In forty years the addition from
mineral sources alone to the wealth of the
country has amounted to billions on the
back of billions.
Petroleum was discovered before 1865. and
the development of territory which yielded
1t was begun forty years ago, but by far
the greater part of that development has
been accomplished since then.
Natural gas is a gift from nature which
was practically undreamed of forty years
ago That the Stanard Oil development
has occurred practically within the same
period is merely incident which, how
ever you may regard it, does not affect the