File:"My country, 'tis of thee!" or, The United States of America; past, present and future. A philosophic view of American history and of our present status, to be seen in the Columbian exhibition (1892) (14761681946).jpg

Identifier: mycountrytisofth00john (find matches)
Title: "My country, 'tis of thee!" or, The United States of America; past, present and future. A philosophic view of American history and of our present status, to be seen in the Columbian exhibition
Year: 1892 (1890s)
Authors: Johnson, Willis Fletcher, 1857-1931 Habberton, John, 1842-1921
Subjects:
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. Y. Huber co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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needed to get hiswheat or corn over tortuous and defective road-ways entails a very serious loss. In many partsof the country the roads in fact are so impassa-ble in certain months that the farmer is unableto transport his grain to the railway at a time,perhaps, when the markets are high, and isforced to hold it until the ::eason opens, and todispose of it at a much lower price. There is ageneral awakening of public sentiment to thenecessity for improvement in this direction, andfor some years to come there will probably bequite as much effort expended in the betteringof country roads as in the further improvementand extension of our already colossal railroadsystem. Until the opening of the railway era, com-merce and travel followed the natural lines oftransportation—the water-ways. There were, itis true, a few exceptional instances like those ofthe ancient caravan routes which crossed thelines of the great rivers and built up inlandcities, but the operation of natural laws in time
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RAILROADS. 4oo prevailed, and these cities fell into ruins, whileothers sprang up along the coasts and water-ways. Even after the introduction of railways,the cost of transportation thereby was so heavythat the water-ways still commanded the generaldirection of commerce, and it is only since thewonderful cheapening of railway rates—due tothe enormous growth of the traf&c and the intro-duction of more heavily loaded cars and othereconomies—that the iron way has dominated thewater-way and subverted what had been one ofthe maxims of commercial development from theearliest times. At the present time, where the question oftime is not important, the carriage of passengersand goods by water is so much cheaper thanby rail as to survive in competition. Where thepassengers time is of value, or perishable goodsare carried, or the merchant is in a hurry to re-ceive his consignment, the railway, followingvirtually the shortest distance between the twopoints—piercing mountains, spanning r

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