The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-18
COL. E. l.. RUSSELL TALKS
OF RAILWAY SYSTEMS

Col f. L. Russell vice-president of the
Mobile and Ohio, delivered a most inter
estlng and Instructive address at the
Chronicle Chautauqua on Mobile and
Ohio day. His theme was the "Evo-
luton of the American Railway System"
Colonel Russell spoke as follows:
Lord Bacon has said: There be three
things which make a nation great and
prosperous-a fertile soil. busy work
shops and easy conveyance for man and
goods from place to place." Certain it
Is that there has been no factor in the
progress Of civilization or the material
development of modern times which has
played so important part as the steam
railroad
From the moment when the expert
mental ideas of Robert Stephenson in re-
gard to the application of the power of
steam to the purposes of locomotlon
passed into fixed and practicable form,
the construction of steam railroads has
furnished the greatest field for the en-
ergy and enterprise of the human race.
The needs of separated communities
for quicker and safer methods of commu-
nication made the demand for the con-
struction of lines of railway urgent and
imperative, as soon as the practicability
of such methods had been fully demon
strated.
When this great work was first com
menced the requirements of individual
communities and particular sections OF
the country we're of such a character
that construction necessarily began with
Out anV general plan hetnp la III ont For
providing harmonious system of trans
portation for the whole country.
The result of this was that there were
many short lines of railway constructed
to meet only local conditions, or the re-
quirements of special items of traffic
without any regard to a general design
These widely separated lines We're so
different in gauge, equipment and other
physical characteristics that it was i'm
possible that they could be welded to-
gether before these inequalities were re-
moved
That necessity is the mother of inven-
ton" however, has never been more
completely demonstrated than in the way
by which these obstacles were removed
and the development of the American
railway system made possible. The de
mands of the people, out of which this
great welding process began, first took
definite form when passengers were no
longer willing to submit to the annoy
ance, exposure and danger of frequent
changes of cars no matter over how
many different lines the requirement Of
travel might carry them, or for how long
a distance.
From this resulted the formation of
sleeping car lines and the adoption of
other arrangements by which through
passenger cars could be run over the
rails of more than one company, ana
brought about the creation of those cor
porations. which by reason of trackage
rights acquired, have done so much to-
ward perfectlng unbroken lines OF travel
and means of safe and easy conveyance
for man from place to place.
The necessities of certain high-class
traffic resulted in the establishment of
express companies, which provided the
facilities for handling small ana Nalua-
hle narcels over more than one railway,
without this traffic being subjected to
the DELAY and danger of loss which would
necessarily result from same passing to
and from the possession of more than
one company.
II was not long before the demands of
the people made 1t absolutely essential
that all freights, no matter how large IN
volume should be handled from point or
origin to point of destination, no matter
how great the distance, or over now
MANY lines of railway these shipments
must of necessity pass, without break OF
bulk.
As soon as this became the established
r,,le for handling all freight, it became
necessary that all rails and equipment
should be brought to some general stand
ard. BY a remarkable concert of action
the entire railway system of this country
was. in almost day, brought to the
same gauge, and by slower, but no less
sure. process, the equipment or all Oh ,ne
railroad companies has been orousn' ~
a state of interchangeability.
sections widely separated both by dis
lance and by dissimilarity of climate and
production of ~ began to be drawn