railways for a distance of one mile, for a sum so small, that outside of China it would be difficult to find a coin of equivalent value to give to a boy as a reward for carrying an ounce package across a street, even if a man or boy could be found in Europe or the United States willing to give or accept so small a compensation for such a service.
The following ingenious method of illustrating the same results has been also suggested: The number of miles of railroad in operation in various parts of the world in 1885 was probably about 300,000. Reckoning their capacity for transportation at a rate not greater than the results actually achieved in that same year in the United States, it would appear that the aggregate railroad system of the world could easily have performed work in 1885 equivalent to transporting 120,000,000,000 tons one mile. "But if it is next considered that it is a fair day's work for an ordinary horse to haul a ton 6·7 miles, year in and year out, it further appears that the railways have added to the power of the human race, for the satisfaction of its desires by the cheapening of products, a force somewhat greater than that of a horse working twelve days yearly for every inhabitant of the globe." Less than a half a century ago, the railroad was practically unknown.[1] It is, therefore, within that short period that this enormous power has been placed at the disposal of every inhabitant of the globe for the cheapening of transportation to him of the products of other people and countries, and for enabling him to market or exchange to better advantage the results of his own labor or services. As the extension of the railway system has, however, not been equal in all parts of the world—less than 25,000 miles existing, at the close of 1884, in Asia, Africa, and Australia combined—its accruing benefits have not, of course, been equal. And while all the inhabitants of the globe have undoubtedly been profited in a degree, by far the greater part of the enormous additions that have been made to the world's working force through the railroad since 1840, have accrued to the benefit of the people of the United States, and of Europe—exclusive of Russia, Turkey, and the former Turkish provinces of Southeastern Europe—a number not much exceeding two hundred millions, or not a quarter part of the entire population of the globe. The result of this economic change has therefore been to broaden and deepen rather than diminish the line of separation, between the civilized and the semi-civilized and barbarous nations.
Now, while a multiplicity of inventions and of experiences have contributed to the attainment of such results under this railroad system of transportation, the discovery of a method of making steel cheap
- ↑ As late as 1840 there were in operation only about 2,860 miles of railway in America, and 2,130 in Europe, or a total of 4,990 miles. For practical purposes, it may therefore be said that the world's railway system did not then exist; while its organization and correspondence for doing full and efficient work must be referred to a much later period.
