Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-09-08
RAILWAY LINE
 ThR0UGH JUNClE completion of Madeira Ma- more Railway in Heart of South America Marked
 By Celebration.
RUBBER I INDUSTRY
Benefited by This 2SO Miles Railroaai Which Was Constructed Under
 Seemingly Insurmountable 't.s Difficulties.

Washington. Sept. 7.-Yesterday thsre was held, at the little town of Villa Bella in central South America, . celebration of which the world in general will probably hear little but which will be of immense importance to nearly all parts of the civilized globe, particularly those portions in terssted in the use and greater pro- ductiOn of rubber.
 The celebration marked the comple- tioA of the Madeira Mamore Railway, . little line only 23O miles in length, lying thousand miles from the near est rails with which it could possibly be connected; but it is no unwarrant- cd statement to say that this little railway will carry on its roadbed more traffic and do more to develop an area almost boundless in extent that the 10000 of the Cape to Cairo railroad in Africa and the projected American line in this hemisphere put together.
 The Madeira Mamore Railway, now completed after years of hard work and defiance of all the dangers of the traekless jungle, is intended to tap the heart of the South American continent, to provide an outlet to
 thousands of productive but unap-
 lFoachable acres and to bring into contnet with commerce from across the aeas a region which cannot pos sibly progress without it-a huge tract in Brazil. Peru and Bolivia. which must otherwise remain virgin wilder nSss.
 , The size of this vast territory is hest noted by comparison. The two Brazilian states most to be benefited N the new railway are Matto Crosse 4ad Amazonas. The former is six times and the latter eight times the combined areas of England, Scotland md Wales The combined area of these f two Brazilian states and the lart of Bolivia which will be tapped by the new railroad is slightly less tSaA one-half the area of continental purope and little more than one half that. of the United States, inclu- give of Alaska. Truly an immense ter ritory to be brought into contact with world commerce by railroad com- paratively small and insignificant A line of this size anywhere in the Unit ed states, already honeycombed by vust trunk lines from coast to coast, would make; but little difference-in South America it will mean the ad- dition of millions upon millions of dollars of internal revenue and the addition to the wealth of the world of billions of dollars in valuable pro- dace.
 For this railway will tap the very i1eart of the South American conti- Ient. It is destined to make the n1mes of Bolivia, Peru and Brazil we'll known in the markets of the world long after the tin of the first, tho copper of the second and the diamonds of the third are forgotten The mineral wealth of all three repub Hes may be exhausted, but their agri- cultural resources will increase as time goes on and the land becomes more accessible Rubber, cocoa, cof- fee, sugar, cinchona, cotton and tho citrus trees all thrive abundantly in this garden spot of the world-all would be inaccessible were it not for the railway which American genius and capital has completed.
 The finished railway measures l36 miles (330 kilometers) and runs from Porto yelhao on the Madeira river to Villa Bella on the frontier of Bo- liyia and, under an extension planned recently, somewhat further into that republic. The line ls almost in the center of Western Drasil and offers fast and regular com between the mouth of the Aanazcn river and the vast interior of ne continent, particularly the east srA slopes of the Peruvian and Boliv- an Andes.
 { Al idea of the value of the railroad n the saving of human lives and .aiu&ble property is to be gained rom the reports of the Brazilian gov Irnnent authorities who place the ,nnual loss of lives and cargoes hfough the use of the river route Srrespuudinss to the railroad at 9 er cent. Navigation of the Madeira nd Mamore rivers is extremely diff cult owing to the presence of dan- er0hs rapids and waterfalls around ,