The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-29
TRANSPORTATION
 AND ITS GROWTH Theodore ShontS Talks on Problems of Present Day A TEST OF DEVELOPMENT shonts Argues for Higher Freight Rates In Face of Decreased Traf-
 fic and Pleads for Honesty
 and Square Dealing.
A TEST OF DEVELOPMENT

Centerville Ia-, August 2S.-Five hun dred former Appenoose county residents, from half the states of the union, joined with 10000 home people at the Chautau- qua Home Coming today.
 We still have hope" declared Theo- dore P. Shonts, president of the Clover Leaf Chicago and Alton, and Interbor- ough- Metropolitan companies, in an ad- dress on Transportation" at the cele- bration that we are going to be let alone and allowed to run our own busi- ness Destroy that hope and we will have in this country an era of misery that will send to eternal damnation those who are responsible for it."
 Continuing he called transportation the hand-maiden of prosperity and said 1t is certainly proper to see that her feet tread the right path, but that the maiden should not be loaded with letters if she is to serve her mistress with zeal and success.
 MT. shonts referred in his address to he remembered seeing covered wagons passing through the town and said:
 From those days and those methods of transportation to the present, equalled nowhere else in the world, is a far cry
 "In the intervening years and because of these improved methods of transporta- ton the value of Iowa farms has in- creased from approximately s250, oO,OoO to considerably more than $1,5O0, ,00o,000. Ev- cry other state in the union, in propor- tion to its natural resources, the pro- gressiveness of it's citizens and the oppor- tunities which railroad extensions have carried to its doors can tell the same story.
 Test of Development.
 "The transportation facilities of a coun- try are, and always have been, the true test of the nations commercial develop ment. Rome was the greatest road-build- CT in the world in her day, and the supreme commercial power Her high ways, which are still the wonder of modern engineers, represented the most advanced stage of the art of transporta- tion as it was then known and made possible the development of her territory So strongly was this essential feature recognized by her governing powers that with every territory subdued her first act was to commence the construction of roads to develop its transportation.
 ''The territory of the United States is so great that if it had not been for the discovery of steam as a motive power and the development of steam transpor- tation lines, it would have been impos- sible in hundreds of years to develop the territory as it is developed today.
 Three Periods.
 ''In studying the transportation history of this country we can divide it into three broad periods First was the pioneer con- struction-that is, the lines that were thrown out in advance of the population by those great, hardy, courageous men, who had foresight and faith, and risked their all on the correctness of their judg- ment-such men as the Huntingtons, the Crokers and the Hills, and in a lesser way men like Gen. Francis M. Drake of Centerville. In my opinion the pioneers who took these chances were entitled to every reward that came to them, whether 1t came from the gratitude of their gov ernment, or whether 1t came in dollars to enrich their pockets. For every dol lar that they made for themselves they made thousand dollars for other peo- pie. From 1870 to 1900 the last year for which figures are available, the number of acres in improved farm lands in the United States increased from 113, ,OO0 900 to nearly H5.000,000 and the value of all farm property increased from less than $4,0Oo,- GOO to more than s20, ,000, ,O00 900. But for the railroads there could have been noth- ing approaching this marvellous increase in the agricultural wealth of the coun- try.
 Second Period.
 "The second period of railroad devel- opment involved problems of greater complexity than those of the pioneer days. The demands for transportation multiplied so rapidly that construction was unable to keep pace with it. Great cities grew up and with them an i'm perative demand for terminal facilities which would be sufficient not only for present needs, but would look well into the future. In the face of ruinous com petition, which had forced rates down from one-half to one-third of what tn ey were In any other country in the world, roadways and bridges had to be built, Improved safety devices invented and installed, curves had to be elimi- mated and grades reduced so that the tonnage per train could be increa sed.