The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-20

which must not be confused with lazi- | ness or weariness) for Ferrero appears | to have written under constraint to pro- | duce with all convenient dispatch some | what of his impressions of the Ameri- | cas-; and the book cannot be a deliber-
 ate effort of his to do justice to the occasion. Some of his lessons are wide 1 of his ability and skill, and to make use | of one of his own suggestions (the l advice given by Apelles to the shoe maker to confine his discourse to shoes) Ferrero should have waited until he i hid dgested and assimilated his obser
 vations. for he would not have drawn so boldly upon conditions in Europe which, though similar to those prevail ing in America. are to be accounted for in a manner which did not appear to Ferrero. He philosophzes for instance, upon the influences of machinery and
 railroads in America. from the view
 point of the historian who, for the
 time being excludes all other consdera-
 tions than that of the Americans as conqueros of a vast domain which is to be brough under subjugation by such
 agencies. these ideas of subjugation
 and conquest being of the natureal bent of the historian as the teller of tale well told: but the subju gation of the people of the United States by their great railroad systems does not seem
 to apeal to him at all; nor does he appear to be impressed by the effect of these railroads upon the manners and customs and morals os the people. The
 one may belong more properly to the domain of the economist. and the other to that of the moralst; but the historian has taken all knowledge as his globe and he is well equipped enough to hold him accountable accord ingly. Those of us who are sufficiently removed from the busy whrl of things to permit of deliberate consideration of the matter, know full well that these great railroads systems are built and operated in this vast country with an end in view of producing" eff I may use the term) that most intangible of intangibilities transportation" as an article of commerce, or in other words for the purpose of exploiting one part of the country against another part.
 U does not, for instance. behoove the railroads that the coal deposits, say, of the Dakotas shall be developed. for so long as they shall remain undeveloped
 the railroads must needs enjoy the transportation, and the profits there
 on, coal from distant fields to the Dakotahs: and when these deposits in distant fields shall have become ex- hausted, then the railroads must en-
 joy transportation" and the profits thereon on coal from the Dakotahs to
 
 fields of one state may be utterly sup
 pressed to the development of the wheat industry in a distant state to the end that this most peculiar "com
 modity' or article of commerce known as transportation" may be produced, and so following, for the precepts set down by these suggestions are not hard nor far from any one, but are easy of compensation, by any man to whom the divine gift of thought is more than the mere terrestrial gift of steam is to a steam engine--a mere means whereby noise and dollar may be made.
 There being no border lines between the states whereat import and export duties may be levied and collected, and at which embargoes may be placed on the natural products and manufacturrs of other states to the protection of the natural products and manufactures of the several states, the states are at the mercy of all schemes for the "produc- tion" of "transportation,' this being of the deficiencies not foreseen by the framers of our constitution when pro- visions against import and export du | ties as between the states of the union were considered and written into the | fundamental law of the country. The | experiences of the European states 1 which were foreign to each other, ap- pealed to them, and we were to expe- 1 rience none of the inconvenience at | tending the relations between states | foreign to each other. Wipe out the
 border lines between the countries of 1 Europe. and what would become of the l wheat fields of France? They would be | transported" to Russia in short order l (unless it should happen to tend to a more profitable transportation" to | transport the wheat fields of Russia
 to France), and the same processes of sCIIf ir,.rr, n nr1b ioh ho h. | served in America would begin to de- velop in Europe. The Germans were 1 shrewd enough to see quite through 1 the matter, and by their schemes of | subsidies, proceeded to nullify effects | of border-line export and import duties, | none of the countries of Europe hav- l ing suffered therefrom more severely | along these lines are so illimitable, that we may be pardoned the suggestion l (foreign as it may be to this review) 1 that in the future there must be inau- 1 gurated schemes for protection against l schemes of subsidies as between states 1 which are not foreign to each other, l or one state may accomplish complete | ascendency over all others. As has | been suggested above the effects of railroads upon mines, morals, and GUS toms of the people of the United States has been quite overlooked by the doctor but his faculty for comparison. had he | devoted himself somewhat to the brief history would have brought him to a 1 realization of the fact that we are
 confronted with conditions which these | railroads have suddenly brought about
 Through the ease, comforts, and com parative cheapness of travel in thi: great country, we became great travel | CTS, but we are now confronted with the fact that We are virtually nomads
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