The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1914-04-09
one STORY HOUSES ALWAYS A PROBLEM
Matter of Transportation Con-
tinualIy Confronts World.
From the Voyage of Noah and His
Heterogeneous Passengers and Car
90 to the AeropIane, Constant
Progress Made.

Transportation has from the earliest
times played most important part in
the history of nations, of races and of
the world; but never in all recorded
time has it ever exercised the power
in every quarter of the globe that it
does at this very hour.
Volumes might be written, com
mencing with the voyage of Noah and
his heterogeneous passengers and car
go and ending with the latest aero
plane disaster, and the narrative of
transportation would be found coinci-
dent with the progress of mankind
from the earliest ages to the present
time.
During the last eighty years the
railway lines have taken the lead in
the affairs of transportation, and when
the subject is discussed these, very
naturally, are given the first thought
by the public, but moments ref1ec-
ton will take from the railroads much
of their paramount Importance
when their dependence upon the high
ways. the pixies, the country roads and
the crossroads, and upon the various
lines of interior waterways, and upon
the ocean transportation for their
traffic is considered.
The transportation interests of the
| globe are now being developed to a
marvellous degree, and every phase of
this development is bringing untold
benefits to mankind.
The paths for the camels over the
deserts Of Africa and Asia are still re-
garded as valuable for transportation
purposes to the inhabitants of those
continents, even though railways are
being constructed to take UP the work
in a much better form.
The llamas on the Andes, the bur
ros of the Cordilleras, the oxen of the
Transvaal and of India, the carabao of
the Philippines, the dogs with their
sledges in the Arctic, these are still
important adjuncts of the worlds
transportation system, cooperating as
actively as the limited express of the
transcontinental railways or the levia-
than steamships of the transoceanic
lines.
The motor boats, the motor trucks,
the auto vehicles of every class have
become an exceedingly powerful fac
tor in aiding transportation, and the
development which invariably accom-
panies betterment in transportation
facilities. 1t is said that hydroplanes
are to be used very soon now for rap
idly traversing the miasmatic reaches
of the upper Amazon, carrying In sup
| plies to the natives of the most dis
tant sources of that great river and
bringing back products of the coun-
try, making the journey in and out in
| so brief period of time as to subject
the operators to little risk from the
diseases so fatal in that region.
The splendidly constructed main
lines of the great railways, the mag
nificently equipped steamships that
ply the great oceans-these draw to
themselves the products of all climes,
only to distribute as widely as the
area from which their freights or their
| cargoes were drawn.
Vast as has been the expansion of
transportation facilities in the last
fifty years, the coming half century
will witness even a more remarkable
extensive expansion and growth
Financiers who grasp the situation
are dumfounded by the amount of
capital that could be profitably ap.
piled in thus providing the world with
the railways and steamships that are
needed to transact business in &C.
cordance with modern ideas.
Railway managers are facing de.
mands upon their facilities that they
never dreamed possible even five
years ago.
Transportation, as the world views
it today seems to have no limit to it's
growth, on the earth, through the
earth and up in the air; over the
oceans, under the rivers and across
the bays passengers and freight are
constantly on the move, the number
/ e nj 80 oI,s