The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1906-07-27
OPEN NEW FIELDS
RAILROAD BUILDERS THE MOD
ERN RACE OF DISCOVERIES
Now the Exploitation of the Great
Northwest Is Prominent in the
Minds of All-James j.
Hills Prediction.

MI. Jdu0S ". I'LL ICCSAIiy udNC SAc |
startling statement that, in his opin-
Ion, by 1910, only four years from now,
the population of the United States
will be 100, 100000, and that when that
time comes this country will consume
all the wheat raised within its borders
The man who makes this prediction
belongs to the modern race of discov-
erers, the railroad builders. Once II
was the northeast passage to Cathay
which fired the ambition of the ex,
plorer. Now it is the avenue to new
fields of production. The twentieth
century industrial explorer is the man
who seeks sources of supply for bread.
stuffs, ores, timbers, and other ma
terial of varied character on which de-
ponds the complex life of a nation of
many millions of people.
The railroad magnate who spends
his working days in an Office hidden
away in a mammoth skyscraper seems
far removed from the race of hardy
discoveries who five centuries ago
made America known to the old world.
But excepting perhaps Ponce de Leon,
who sought here the spring of eternal
youth, the pioneers among the discov-
erers of the western hemisphere were
seeking new routes for trade just as
are their successors who are to-day
extending steel highways into regions
which only few short years ago were
inhabited by wild animals and Indians.
1t is the undeveloped areas of fertile
land which now attract the pioneer in
railway enterprise as well as the
actual settler.
Whether this country will soon con-
sumo all the wheat raised within its
borders or not, the markets of the
world are clamoring for supplies and
in response to the demand the eyes of
the industrial discoveries are turned
toward the northwest. To jewellers in
the southern and eastern states, the
term northwest still means Minneso-
ia, the Dakotas, Montana and Wyom-
ing, Washington and Oregon, but in
these states the northwest has wider
meaning. 1t includes not only great
extent of territory on this side of the
line, but also vast expanse of fertile
lands in Canada which are now being
turned into productive farms and
which in a few years will be among
of the world.
When it comes to getting the prod
hct of these Canadian wheat fields to
eastern markets, it is significant that,
in the opinion of the railroad builders,
the best route is that which is afforded
by the great lakes. This means that
these inland water ways are to see
still further increases in the amount
of their commerce. The lakes have for
two centuries played an important
part in the upbuilding of the north
west. In recent years the traffic on
Lake Superior alone has grown so
rapidly that the commerce of the 500
many times exceeds that of the Suez
canal. A recent government bulletin
shows that through the canals of the
500 during April of this year there
passed 2,513,267 tons of freight, as
against 1.30Q166 in April, 1905. Last
year there passed beneath the aerial
ferry at the entrance to the Duluth
Superior harbor a total of 1853 YES
sells, with registered tonnage of &c.
216,154. In the same time there passed
the Statue of Liberty, in New York
harbor, bound to and from foreign
ports, about 5000 vessels. New York's
greatest coastwise travel gave her
first place, Duluth ranking second
among. American ports. That many
of the modern lake carriers rank in
size with ocean-going steamships is
shown by the fact that the average
net tonnage of the vessels which en-.
tered and cleared at Duluth in 1905
hn oF
Erie canal on the east the prod
ucts of the northwest can be carried
by water for three-quarters of the dis.
lance to the Atlantic coast, and this
fact has evidently not been overlooked
by the men behind Canadian railway
projects.
Brings Lake Superior Nearer.
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