American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1909-05-08
RAILROADS AND
CIVILIZATION
Building Of Homes in Wilder.
ness Made Possible.
Railroads Took Fight Out Savages and
Changed Face of Nature mo
Greater Boon to Man
Than Railroads.

that railroad through a country is
simply a ribbon of civilization. We
should say that depends altogether on
the country. When the old Union and
Central Pacific railroads were built
through this country it was much more
than ribbon. 1t was the linking of
the east and the west; it was the driv-
ing of the frontier back five hundred
miles in both directions; it was what
took the fight out of the savage and
made possible the planting of homes in
mid-desert, because they then were
only three days travel to sea shore
either way.
The building of railroads through the
wilderness can hardly be described. 1t
changes the face of nature; it takes
away all feeling of isolation it puts the
man in the desert in direct communica-
ton with all his fellow men everywhere.
Our country for two hundred and fifty
years did the best it could. The man in
Massachusetts fought the savage; the
swiftest communication he had was so
slow that when his son in Massachusetts,
bade the family goodbye to go to make
his home in western New York, it was
as though a funeral was in that home.
The thought was that perhaps the boy
might some time be seen again, but all
the chances were against it. The same
journey is now made in night and
nothing is thought of it,
AS the men in Massachusetts fought
back the Indians, so did the men OF
New York, so did the men of Ohio, sc
did the men of Illinois, and so the long
fight went on clear across the CONT
nent until the railroad was opened
That stopped all the Indian wars within
five hundred miles of the road. A mar
in California for twenty years, nearly,
was month away from his friends ir
the east. He became a different per-
son; he was so far away that while his
particular relatives were willing to ad.
NIT that he was civilized being, they
were sure that he was surrounded by
barbarians. That feeling has always
attached to the east and the men there
have not known how narrow and pro-
vincial and small they are, at that very
moment when they think they are wise
and are looking down with commisera.
tion on the less fortunate men in the
west.
There is more civilization in one line
of railroad than there is in a thousand
missionaries; there are more practica
results to human kind in line of rail
road than in century of blowing ane
small manufacturing and farming-it is
the evangel of modern times. Its in.
vention was notice to the world te
right about face and forward march
A good many wrongs have been inf1ict
ed through it; no place has capital beer
more tyrannical than it has been in Che
management of railroads. At the same
time no such boon of mercy was evel
given to man as the invention of rail
roads.
The flying machine will come after {
while, but for all around good there is
nothing to compare with a great rail
road, and when the flying machine
comes it will be, we presume, as it was
with the Indiana farmer who fought
the telegl aph as simply chimera of {
crazy mans brain, until finally a dis
patch was delivered fresh from a towr
a thousand miles away, and he was
asked what he thought of that. Ther
his reply was that they might run small
parcels on it, but he still stuck to i
that it never would do for heavy
freight.
By the way, some strenuous railway
building is being done in Africa. VIZ
have story before us of an engineel
killed in his sleep by a proving lion, al
engineer who was laying out roat
through that region. We presume tht
president will pass over the place in the
next few months, but we do not expect
that any lion will catch him asleep
And that reminds us that Kansas mar
has petitioned to accompany the presi
dent on that journey. The presiden
had better shake him, because if hi
takes one wild Kansas man with him
when the sentinel for the wild animals
gets one glimpse of him he will givs
the alarm and there will be no wild ami
mails on that side of Africa.
But seriously speaking of railroads
think what our country would hav'