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Title: Highways and Highway Transportation

Author: George R. Chatburn

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HIGHWAYS
AND

HIGHWAY TRANSPORTATION

© Major Hamilton Maxwell
© Underwood and Underwood
STORM KING HIGHWAY
A Great Engineering Project Along the Hudson between Cornwall and West Point, N. Y.

HIGHWAYS
AND

HIGHWAY TRANSPORTATION

BY
GEORGE R. CHATBURN, A.M., C.E.
Professor of Applied Mechanics and Machine Design
Lecturer on Highway Engineering
The University of Nebraska

NEW YORK

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

Copyright 1923, by
THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY

Printed in the United States of America

PREFACE
The following pages on Highways and Highway Transportation do not
pretend to be an exhaustive treatise on the subject, but rather a glimpse of
the vast development of the humble road and its office as an agency for
transportation. Possibly the grandeur of the mountains is best appreciated
by one who lives among them, who climbs their acclivitous heights, who
daily experiences their power and majesty, and measures their magnitude by
grim muscular exertion. But, even so, it would be foolish to contend that he
who gets his information from the seat of a Pullman car receives no benefit
from the hasty glimpse, or, that his imagination is not quickened and
cultured by the experience. In writing this book, then, I have had constantly
in mind the myriads of people who have not the time, and possibly not the
facilities, to search the pages of the literature of the past for the origin and
development, or to work out their present importance, of our amplification
of roads and of road uses. It is felt that many of these people laudably desire
a conversational knowledge of the origin, evolution and present status of
highway transportation, even though it be glimpsed by a very rapid passage
through a very large subject.
The primary objects have therefore been, to sketch briefly and simply the
development of the transportation systems of the United States, to indicate
their importance and mutual relations, to present some practical methods
used in the operation of highway transport and to make occasional
suggestions for the betterment of the road as a usable machine for the
benefit and pleasure of mankind.
Any observations made or conclusions drawn are purely personal. I
entered into and have carried on the work entirely unbiased. I am not
financially or otherwise, except academically, interested in any firm or
company whose business has to do with transportation either directly as a
carrier, or indirectly as a manufacturer of the instruments or accessories to
transportation, nor does any of my living come from societies or
foundations organized as propagandists for any particular forms of
transportation, or transportation materials or equipment. I have no
admiration for the man who hopes to see the steam and electric railways put
out of business or even caused to run at a loss by the automobile, motor

express or motor bus. Neither have I any plaudits for the man who would
arrest the growth of the new forms of transportation by drastic legal
enactments and excessive taxation in order to preserve the old. I believe
there is room and need in the United States for all forms of transportation,
and that each can thrive in its respective field just as do wheat and corn but
none will thrive if they attempt to occupy the same field at the same time.
The text is naturally divided into two parts—the development of
highways and their use. The first part treats of the relation of transportation
to civilization generally, explaining briefly how the two have grown
together like children at school, how each has helped the other, and how the
meter of one is the measure of the other.
Leaving the old world there is sketched all too briefly the development in
the United States of transportation facilities from the coastal and natural
waterways, from the pack and trail, used by the aborigine and early settlers,
through the treks of the pioneers, the periods of canal digging, the toll road
competition, and the railway frenzy, to the advent of the modern road with
the coming of the bicycle and automobile and their wonderful accelerative
impulse.
The effects of State and Federal aid upon the road conditions of the
country are fully treated as is also the planning of highway systems.
Automotive transportation for business and pleasure including rural
motor express and bus lines, and their effect on production and marketing
are described and discussed.
In the chapters on highway accidents and highway aids to traffic,
attention is called to many types of accidents, including railway crossing
accidents, with suggestions for their mitigation. Here also are given the
most recent practical rules for the regulation of traffic in both city and
country.
A chapter is devoted to the esthetics of the highway, a subject just
coming to the attention of road men who have heretofore been mostly
concerned with distances, grades, widths and surfaces, which, by the way,
are frequently mentioned in the text. As in all building construction the first
appeal was made to material things and their relation to the pocket-book,
while the last and most enduring appeal is spiritualistic and is made to the
pleasures of the imagination.
The same idea of making the road a means of catering to the preservative
and pleasure instincts of man is considered in the final chapter on aids and

attractions to traffic and travel. Safety and warning devices are discussed as
such, while comforts and conveniences are means for luring the average
citizen to the highway, to the camps and parks, for the broadening effect
upon his character, the health of his body, and the enlightenment of his soul.
Thus we close a most hurried journey from the very beginning of roads to
their modern far superior yet very imperfect attainments. The main thought
throughout has been the road as a usable agency in the economic and
entertaining phases of life. Each equally important to the wealth, health, and
happiness of our people. The mind easily travels ahead to a time when
separate roads will be devoted to the two great ends of business and
pleasure. Then the flight of fancy passes on to still another period of time
and sees the highways made inoperative and superfluous, overgrown by
weeds and grass, for the argosies of business and pleasure have taken to the
air.
George Richard Chatburn.

Lincoln, Nebraska
March 9, 1923.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE

Transportation a Measure of Civilization 1
Stages of Civilization: Direct Appropriation; Pastoral; Agricultural
— Manorial and Feudal Systems; Handicraft — Merchant
Guilds, Effect upon Trade, Domestic System, Government
Control, Agriculture; Industrial — Building of Canals, Smelting
Iron, Invention of Steam Engine, Railways Developed. Some
Historical Roads and their Influence: Early Highways —
Asiatic, Greek, Roman, Pre-Historic American.

CHAPTER II
Transportation Development in the United States: Early Trails
and Roads 34
First Settlements near Coast. Birch Bark Canoe, Meagerness of
Roads. Settlement follows Waterways. Portages. Lines of Travel
— Through Alleghanies, from the North, Boone’s Trace or the
Wilderness Road, Calk’s Diary. Explorations — Marquette,
Lewis and Clark, Fur Companies. Western Trails — Oregon,
Salt Lake, Later California, Santa Fé, Gila and Spanish.
Turnpike Roads, Wagon Road Neglect, National Participation
— Cumberland Road. Early Inns.

CHAPTER III
Waterways and Canals 70
Coastal, Inlets, Rivers, Creeks. Canals — Europe, New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Other States; Passenger Traffic on;
Prosperity and Desuetude. Ship Canals: Sault Ste. Marie, Cape

Cod, Panama — Inducements for, Early Schemes, Routes —
Tehauntepec, Nicaragua, Others; French Participation —
DeLesseps’ Grant, Company Organized; Other Promotion
Schemes; Indignation in the United States against Foreign
Building Canal; DeLesseps begins Work; Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty; Hay and Pauncefote Treaty; Commission Reports
Favorably on Nicaraguan Route; French Company Bankrupt;
Colombian Congress Refuses to Sell to the United States
Control of the Canal Strip; Panamanian Revolution —
Roosevelt’s Part in Revolution; United States Secures Control
of Canal Strip, Colombia Protests; Construction of Canal
Begun; Description of Canal, Canal Traffic. River
Transportation: Small Boats, Pole Boats, Large Boats, Rafts.
Steamboat: Construction, Mississippi River Traffic, New
Orleans Levee, Mississippi Steamboats and Steamboating;
Steamboat Fares. Government Attitude toward River
Improvement. John Fitch Granted a Right in New Jersey;
Calhoun’s Activities, Monroe’s Attitude. National Aid for
Internal Improvements.

CHAPTER IV
Railroads 99
Origin and Early Development. Optimism of Promoters. Early
Locomotives. First Chartered Railroad — Charleston and
Hamburg, First Passenger Car on Baltimore and Ohio, New
York Central, Camden and Amboy, New England Roads, West
of Alleghanies, in the South. Rapid Growth in Railway Mileage.
Call for Government Aid. Land Grants. Pacific Roads —
Congressional Discussion, Compromise Bills, Construction of
Pacific Roads, Crédit Mobilier. Era of Railway Consolidation
— Typical Consolidations, Methods of Consolidating.
Mechanical Development: Rails, Freight Cars, Locomotives,
Gauge, Telegraph, Signals. The Evolution of the Sleeping Car.
Street Car Service. Electric Traction — Origin, Development.

CHAPTER V
The Modern Wagon Road 126
Neglect and Desuetude of Wagon Roads, 1830-1890. Laying out
and Working Roads, Statutory Width of Roads. Influence of
Bicycle for Better Roads: Origin of Bicycle, Development,
Ordinary, Safety, Cycling Boom, Organization of Wheel Clubs,
Propaganda for Good Roads, Prevalence of Poor Roads,
Comments by Writers. Good Roads Associations; League of
American Wheelmen, National Highway Commission, Col.
Pope’s Propaganda, Bills Introduced in Congress. Office of
Public Roads Inquiry: Duties and Limitations, Cooperation with
Good Roads Organizations, National Good Roads Association
— Good Roads Trains, Object Lesson Roads, Policy
Discontinued, Duties and Scope of Office of Public Roads
Widened and Name Changed — Educational Work, Research,
Administration of Federal Aid. Rural Free Delivery of Mail:
Origin, Development, Advantages. State Aid: Origin — New
Jersey, Salient Features, Difficulties of Getting it Enacted;
Massachusetts; Other States; State Bonds for State Aid. Federal
Aid; Enactment of Law, Provisions, Appropriation,
Administration, Additional Appropriations.

CHAPTER VI
Interrelation between Highway and Other Kinds of Transportation 159
Classification of Transportation. Railroads have not always Acted
Honorably. Quantity Production and Division of Labor Applied
to Railway Transportation, to Motor Transport. Automobiles
Cutting into Railway Earnings, Babson’s Prediction. Effect of
Motor Competition on Interurban Trolley Lines, on Street Car
Lines, Taxicabs and Jitneys, Buses, Trackless Trolleys.
Guaranteeing Earnings of Street Car Companies, Legitimate
Fields of Transportation Agencies. Length of Haul for
Economic Trucking. Reduction of Rates and Expenses. Carving
out New Fields. Still Room for all Kinds of Transportation.

CHAPTER VII
Automotive Transportation 181
Defined, Radical Changes to be Expected. Business Passenger
Traffic: Jitney and Taxicab, Motor Bus — Qualifications, Fares,
Competition with Street Cars, Cross-country Service, Carriers
of School Children, Transfer between Depots. Pleasure
Passenger Traffic: An Influence in the Purchase of Automobiles,
Pleasurable Effect of Automobile Riding, Recreational and
Pathological Benefits of Motoring, Cost of Motoring. Freight
Traffic: Cost and Time Factors, Motor Trucks and Congested
Districts, Time Devoted to Loading and Unloading, Depots,
Warehouses, Devices, Removable Bodies, Sectional Containers,
Store to Door Delivery, Mass Loading. Devices Connected with
the Truck. Devices Separate, Special Types of Bodies. Traffic
between Towns: Economic Distance, Licenses and Insurance,
State Regulation without Competition, Development of State
Regulation. Motor Bus Traffic: Buses, Rates, Future of Motor
Bus and Other Types of Transportation. To and from the Farm:
Importance of Farm Trucking, Arguments in Favor of, Cost of
Trucking, Diversified Farming, Intensive Farming, Live Stock.
Trucking, Benefits to the Farmer, Economy of Farm Trucking,
Parcel Post Service and the Farm, Rural Express, Milk Trucks,
Convenience to the Farmer, Purchasing a Truck. Terminal
Facilities: Advantages. Social Aspect of Motor Transportation:
Effect on Merchandising, Housing, Unification of Society,
Standard of Living, Size of Farms, Salesmen, Hotels, City and
Country Stores. Consolidated Rural Schools: The Public School
and Patriotism, Peace, Changing Concepts of Public Schools.
Rural Mail Delivery. Automobile and Health: As a Form of
Exercise, Effect on Styles; Medical Science; Sanitary Effects —
Mosquitoes, Flies. The Automobile and Crime: Bootlegging,
Robbery, Vandalism. Types of Automobile Transportation.

CHAPTER VIII

Planning Highway Systems: Selection of Road Types 222
Object of a Road. Road Classification: Agricultural. Recreational,
Commercial, Military. Problem of the Road Planner: Economy,
Accommodation, Utilizing Existing Roads. Essentials to be
Considered: Ruling Points, Branch Lines and Detours, Alternate
Routes, Existing Highways and City Streets, Vested Rights,
Widening Roads and Streets, Railroads, Trolley Lines, etc.,
Bridges, Culverts, Drainage, etc., Ruling Grades, Esthetics.
Motor Transport Efficiency Outline, Highway System Unit:
Arguments in Favor of National System — Eliminates Sectional
Differences, Gives Continuous Roads, Military Roads, Benefits
of Example. State Systems — Benefits. Procedure of Laying
out a Road System: Commission, Determining Factors, Maps,
Tentative System, Reconnaisance Survey — What Shown, How
Taken, Instruments; Hearings — Object; Final Location —
Considerations, Traffic Census Advisable. Financial
Considerations: First Cost, Upkeep, Traffic Census: Affects
Location, Type of Road, Grades, Width, Foundations. Making a
Traffic Census: Variation of Traffic — Number of Counting
Days, Hours Each Day, Weights, Observer’s Cards, Both Way
Count, Weather, Stations — Location of. Classification of
Traffic: Object, Maximum Loads, Effect of Heavy Loads,
Influence Units of Traffic — British, French, Other Countries,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Borough of Brooklyn; Suggested
Form of Traffic Sheet — New Jersey. Destructive Factors:
Density of Traffic, Weight of Vehicles, Impact, Speed,
Wrinkling, Sprung and Unsprung Weight, Tires, Pleasure Cars
and Light Traffic to be Considered. Other Methods of
Estimating the Amount of Traffic: Area Served, Tonnage
Arising. Distribution of Traffic over Township Roads. Selection
of a Suitable Type of Road. Taxpayers Allowed to Assist in
Selection, Engineers to Suggest. Ideal Road: Qualities of —
Low First Cost, Durability — Materials and Design, Resistance
to Traction and Tractive Force — Horse, Truck, Speed,
Temperature, Roughness, Width of Tire, Diameter of Wheel,
Table of Resistances; Resistance Due to Grade — Formulas,
Coefficient, Available Engine Effort; Slipperiness — Type of

Pavement, Climatic Conditions; Sanitariness — Definition,
Effect of Type of Road; Noisiness; Acceptability. Some Types
of Roads and their Qualities: Earth, Sand-clay, Gravel,
Macadam, Bituminous Macadam, Bituminous Concrete, Brick,
Concrete, Creosoted Wood Block, Asphalt Block, Sheet
Asphalt, Other Types. Comparison of Roads — Specimen
Tables.

CHAPTER IX
Effect of Ease and Cost of Transportation on Production and
Marketing 273
Production Defined, Productive Activities — Change of Form,
Change of Place, Change of Time. Nature and Labor. Capital —
Stored up Labor. Marketing — Wholesaling and Retailing.
Grain Exchanges; Defined, Object, Commission Merchant,
Dealing in Futures — Hedging. Cooperative Marketing:
Advantages. Local Grain Merchant — Financing Movement of
Crops. Elements Entering into the Cost of Marketing.
Transportation from Farm to Local Market. Cost of Production,
Effect of Good Roads upon, Intensive Farming, Fruit Farming,
Long Haul Transportation. Stock Marketing: Changing
Character of Stock Raising, Distance of Economic Hauling by
Team and by Truck, Effect of Truck Hauling on Number of
Hogs Marketed. Seasonal Effect. Stock Merchant — Local,
Shrinkage, Dairying. Poultry. Forestry: Logging and
Lumbering, Forest Management, Use of Truck and Trailer, At
Saw Mill, Log Loader, in Lumber Yards, Mining. Factory
Products. From Factory to Retailer. Terminal Charges
Eliminated. Construction.

CHAPTER X
Financing Highways and Highway Transportation Lines 306
Origin and Reasons for Road Work. Working out Road Tax
Abolished. Private Financing, Public Financing. Taxation: Tax
Defined, Classified. Direct Taxes — Levied Uniformly. Indirect

Taxes: Defined, Classes of, Special Taxes, How Levied,
Benefits Decrease with Distance, Petitioning Influence —
Curve of, Concrete Illustration. Zone Weights: How
Determined, Plots and Tables. Frontage: Defined, Calculation,
Illustrative Example. Unequal Zones and Irregular Lots —
Concrete Illustration. Another Method of Apportioning
Assessments. Rule for Assessment. Miscellaneous Sources of
Revenue: Public Service Corporations, Bus and Truck Lines,
Municipal Sale of Water, Gas, Electricity, Ice, Coal. Public
Ownership of Transportation and other Necessary Utilities.
Bonds: Sinking Fund, Serial, Annuity, Comparison of Costs.
Term of Bonds. Stocks and Bonds. National and State Aid.
Present Status of Federal Aid. Matching Federal Aid Dollars.
Financing Highway Transportation: Individual, Partnership,
Corporation. Public Ownership — When Advisable.

CHAPTER XI
Highway Accidents and their Mitigation 351
Accidents Result of Disorder, Codes to Prevent, Automobile
Accidents Lead in Number. Causes: The Driver — Mentally or
Physically Unfit, Ignorant, Indifferent, Reckless; Driving and
Operating: Recklessness, Speeding, Around Sharp Turns,
Passing Cars. Horns. Stopping Cars on Grades, in Streets, etc.,
Backing. Other Forms of Carelessness. The Car: Skidding,
Brakes, Flexibility, Steering and Turning Ability, Lights,
Unlighted Vehicles, Speedometer. Bad Roads: Slipperiness —
High Crowns, Embankments and Guard Rails, Super-elevation
— Rule for, Clear Vision, Curves, Bridges and Culverts.
Railway Crossing Accidents: Prevalency, Elimination of
Crossings — Cost, Automobile Drivers Careless —
Observations, Methods of Mitigation; Bridge Clearance.
Pedestrians — Jay-walkers, Obstacles that Obscure Vision,
Pedestrians on Country Roads, Slow Going Vehicles, Bicycles.
Road and Traffic Regulations: Development of, Council of
National Defense Code, Education Necessary.

CHAPTER XII
Highway Esthetics 382
Indispensable Elements of Architecture — Stability, Utility,
Beauty. Esthetic Sense — Applied to Roads, to Landscape
Gardening. Styles — Natural and Formal. Application to Roads.
Varieties of Road and Street Trees — List; Shrubs — List;
Climbers — List. Semi-formal Style. Telephone and other
Poles, the Ideal Section, Legislation Necessary. Local
Conditions Determine Planting.

CHAPTER XIII
Aids and Attractions to Traffic and Travel 418
Pleasure Riding — Extent, Advantages to a Community to Have
Tourists Pass through, Ranking and Parking, Parking Spaces a
Convenience to Motorists — Space for and Angle of Parking,
Location of Parking Spaces, One Way and Rotary Traffic, Opera
House Traffic, Public Garages — Several Story Garages.
Terminal Stations — Omaha, Poughkeepsie, Elsewhere. Gas,
Air and Water Stations, Named and Numbered Roads; Marks,
Signs and Guides — Distance and Direction Signs, Letters and
Colors, Warning Signs, Map Signs, Detour Signs, Location of
Detour Markers, Dummy Cop, Semaphores, Signal Lights and
Colors, Road and Street Lighting, City Traffic Lighting, Traffic
Officer, Semaphore and Towers. Touring: Prevalency and
Pleasures of, Camping — Grounds, Caravans, and Equipment.
Camp Sites, Hotels, Parks, Information Bureaus and Agencies.
Index 465

LIST OF INSERTS

1. Storm King Highway Frontispiece
A Great Engineering Project Along the Hudson
between Cornwall and West Point, N. Y.
PAGE
2. The Appian Way 22
Showing the original Paving Stones laid 300 b.c.
3. Map of Italy 24
Showing Some of the Twenty or More Roads that
Radiated from Rome.
4. Map of Roman Roads in England 26
(After Jackman: “Development of Transportation in
Modern England.”)
5. Map of the North-Eastern Portion of the United
States 36
Showing the Location of Well-known Portages. There
Were Other Portages Wherever Two Water Courses
Came Near to Each Other. (See Farrand: “American
Nation,” Vol. I, and Thwaites, Ib. Vol. VII.)
6. Map 42
Showing Main Highways and Waterways in the United
States about 1830. When the Railroads Entered the
Industrial Arena, the Country Was Being Covered
With a Net Work of Highways. (Based on Tanner’s
Map of 1825 and Turner in “American Nation,” Vol.
XIV.)
7. Map 54
Showing Transcontinental Trails in the United States.
8. Way Bill 66
Used on the Slaymaker Stage Line from Lancaster to
Philadelphia, 1815. (Courtesy of Prof. P. K.
Slaymaker, Lincoln, Nebr.)

9. The Sault Ste. Marie Canal 76
10. The Evolution of the Railway Train 102
1. The First Railway Coach—1825.
2. Horse Power Locomotive—1829-30.
3. Stourbridge Lion—1829.
4. Stevenson’s Rocket Locomotive—1829.
5. The DeWitt Clinton Locomotive—1831.
(From Brown’s “First Locomotive”—Courtesy of
D. Appleton & Company.)
11. Modern Locomotives 120
1. Showing the Growth in the Size of Locomotives
During the Past Twenty Years. The Smaller
Locomotive is an American Type Class Engine of
1900. The Larger is a Mountain Type Engine.
Both are Used on the C. B. & Q. R. R.
Photographed at Lincoln, Nebr., Sept., 1922.
2. One of the New Gearless Electric Locomotives
Built by the General Electric Company for the C.
M. & St. Paul R. R.
12. Transportation Across Death Valley 126
A Picturesque Method of Earlier Days.
13. Good Roads Day in Jackson County, Mo. 132
14. Chart of the Organization of the U. S. Bureau of
Public Roads and Rural Engineering, 1917 142
15. Hard Surface Highway in Oregon 146
16. A Farmer’s Wife Meeting the Postal Truck 146
17. Trackless Trolley Operated on Staten Island, N. Y. 166
18. Motor or Rail-Car 166
Showing the Gasoline Locomotive and Trailer,
Operated by the Chicago & Great Western R. R.
19. The Evolution of the Steam Automobile 182
1. The Cugnot Steam Carriage—1770.
2. The Trevithick & Vivian Steam Carriage—1801.
3. The Gurney Steam Carriage—1827.
4. The Church Automobile Carriage (Steam)—
1833.

5. Gaillardit’s Steam Carriage—1894.
(Courtesy of the Scientific American.)
20. A Modern Rural Passenger Bus 184
21. A New York City “Stepless” Bus 184
It Has an Emergency Door, with Wire Window
Guards, and will Seat 30 Persons.
22. The Evolution of the Gasoline Motor Car 188
1. Panhard & Levassor Carriage—1895.
2. Duryea Motor Wagon—1895.
3. The Benz Motocycle.
4. Hertel’s Gasoline Carriage—1896.
5. The Olds Horseless Carriage.
6. Winton’s Racing Machine.
(Courtesy of the Scientific American.)
23. Hauling Beans by Motor Truck and Trailer 200
Sacramento Valley, Calif.
24. Hauling Sugar Beets to Market in a Motor Truck 200
25. Traffic on Fifth Avenue, New York City 234
26. Giving a Macadam Road an Application of Tarvia
Binder 254
This is Followed by a Coat of Screenings and then the
Road is Rolled Again.
27. A Road of Mixed Asphalt and Concrete Being Tested
Out 254
28. Crowning a Dirt Road in California with Tractor
Drawn Grader 263
29. A Milk Truck Equipped with both Cans and Tank 296
30. A Lumber Log Truck Used in the Northwest 296
31. A National Highway in the Mountains of Maryland 332
32. A Dangerous Curve Made Safe by an Artistic
Concrete Wall 364
The Tennessee State Highway at Lookout Mountain,
Built of Cemented Concrete.
33. Pin Oak Street Trees 388

About 15 Years Old on Land that Was Once
Considered to be a part of the “Great American
Desert.”
34. A Cottonwood Wind Break 388
Formerly very Common in the Prairie Region.
35. Warning and Direction Signs Used in the State of
Illinois 434
36. Traffic Guides 442
(From Eno’s “The Science of Highway Traffic
Regulation.”)
37. New York City Traffic Guides 444
“In November, 1903, one hundred blue and white
enameled signs, directing slow-moving vehicles to
keep near the right-hand curb, were put in use in
New York. These were probably the first traffic
regulation signs ever used.” (From Eno’s “The
Science of Highway Traffic Regulation.”)
38. Traffic Tower on Fifth Avenue, New York City 446
39. Camping Ground and Caravan 458
40. A Gipsying Touring Caravan 458

HIGHWAYS AND HIGHWAY

TRANSPORTATION

CHAPTER I
TRANSPORTATION A MEASURE OF CIVILIZATION
As the several peoples inhabiting the earth have progressed from
barbarism through the different stages of civilization, the transportation
occasioned by their wants and desires has kept a close pace. By a study of
the transportation—travel, movement of goods and commodities—and the
means and facilities for its accomplishment, the relative civilization of any
people, their rank and position may be accurately surveyed, graduated, and
estimated. The highways of a nation, whether they be of the land or sea, or
both, are most vital elements in its progress and could almost as well as
transportation be considered the measuring rod of civilization.
Stages in Civilization. —Sociologists differ as to what constitute the
several stages of civilization. One might trace the development of man
through literature, another through art, another through government; others
consider his economic activities the more fundamental factors. The most
widely used economic classification, according to Ely,[1] is based upon the
increasing power of man over nature and consists of (1) Direct
Appropriation, (2) The Pastoral Stage, (3) The Agricultural Stage, (4) The
Handicraft Stage, and (5) The Industrial Stage. These stages are well
illustrated in English history. The stage of direct appropriation
corresponding to the prehistoric period and up to 54 b.c., when the Romans
overran the island of Britain; the Pastoral stage from this time to the
invasion by William the Conqueror, 1066; the Agricultural up to about the
discovery of America, when a great impetus was given to travel and
discovery; the stage of Handicraft, from 1500 to the invention of the steam
engine and its application to manufacture at the beginning of the eighteenth
century; the Industrial stage, to the present time. While these stages
necessarily overlap each other considerably, it will be seen that as one
declines the next is ushered in with some radical change in government or
in economic or industrial condition. The present day—immediately
following as it does the Great World War, out of which have issued many
scientific discoveries and inventions, notably those advancing the theory
and practice of air navigation, with many potential possibilities in new lines
of transportation; and the setting forth of an idea which is capable of
leading to a better understanding or even a confederation of nations and

altering all forms of national government—may be the beginning of a new
stage of civilization.
Stage of Direct Appropriation. —This stage covers the whole course of
prehistoric man from the time the first ape stood erect some 500,000 years
ago[2] through the stone, bronze, and iron ages to the age of literature and
art. During these long years civilization traveled far, for the least cultured
savages observed have advanced not only away beyond the highest of the
lower animals but also beyond the lowest intellectual estate of which human
beings may be supposed capable of subsisting. And from the lowest to the
highest of these tribes are shown traits varying as greatly in degree as from
one stage in the above classification to another. The Indians at the time of
the discovery of America and the three centuries following, and many of the
tribes of Africa during the explorations of Livingstone and Stanley, were
and still are in this stage and hence have been subjected to scientific study
and investigation. Their governments while variable are of the primitive
types. Ordinarily a chief autocratically rules because of hereditary
influence. Little is manufactured, planting is scarcely known; by hunting,
fishing, and collecting nature’s products of wild seeds and roots is a
subsistence obtained often with long, arduous, and dangerous labor.
Efficiency, as we understand that term to-day, is very low, and the number
of persons that a given area can support is few. No one can predict but what
to-morrow he may have to go hungry or suffer cold from the inclemency of
the weather, for his store of food is nil or small, his shelter rudimentary and
clothing scanty. Note the hardships of the party of Henry M. Stanley during
his expedition across the African wilderness in quest of Emin Pasha.[3]
Notwithstanding Stanley’s men were possessed of firearms and edged tools
and carried some provisions with them, and were traversing a country
teeming with vegetable and animal life, many times they were on the verge
of starvation. The number of the natives in these wildernesses are no doubt
kept low because of the extreme difficulties of procuring the necessities of
life.
The barbarian requires less, of course, than the civilized man; he is
satisfied with mere subsistence. He is improvident and relies upon picking
up his needs from day to day as a robin picks worms from the grass.
Cannibalism often exists, for the sacredness of human life has not yet been
established, although magic and crude religious rites are seldom missing.
While private personal property is recognized and retained by personal

prowess, the ownership of land is absent. Coöperation of the crudest sort
only is found; division of labor consists largely in having the females
perform the work of planting, cultivating, carrying burdens—when these
are attempted at all—cooking and caring for the children in the crudest
fashion, leaving to the men the work of hunting, fishing, and fighting. Each
tribe is self-sufficient and consists of a chief with a few followers bound
together loosely for the purposes of protection from other tribes. Exchange,
barter, and trade is at its lowest ebb; consequently transportation is
practically unnecessary, and roadways except mere trails do not exist.
The Pastoral Stage. —In the process of evolution certain animals
undoubtedly were domesticated and used for food. Whether or not this
domestication preceded or followed primitive agriculture or “hoe culture,”
is not important, as the pastoral stage of culture evidently lies between the
hunting and the farming stages. The written history of mankind indicates
that this stage largely prevailed among the earlier Hebrew, Greek, and
Teutonic races. A private ownership in cattle and herds was recognized, but
the necessity of moving about with the flocks precluded fixed habitations,
although large areas were claimed and held or endeavored to be held from
trespass thereon by neighboring tribes. A given area would thus support a
much larger number of people than in the preceding stage. A small amount
of trading or bartering was carried on and consequently some transportation
was required, but road building as such was little known. Rivers and coast
waters for canoes and dugouts were no doubt early taken advantage of by
the aborigines of bordering territories. But since there is so little division of
labor, so little of barter and exchange, commerce was not developed much
during this stage.
The Agricultural Stage. —The growing and storage of crops, increased
by the use of animal power, greatly changed the economic and social
conditions of man. It made possible and profitable the living in fixed
habitations, even in communities, and this brought out the needs of rules of
government. But even yet each family provided without the assistance of
others for practically all its own needs. In planting, reaping, threshing,
grinding the meal and cooking, the family became the unit. No great
division of labor was yet evident, consequently exchange, barter, and
transportation still remained low. Ownership of land was necessary if a
family was to cultivate the same land year after year. This meant definite
rules and laws and consequently the development of governments.

Ownership of herds and land brought wealth and a certain distinction in the
community. Slavery, which had no doubt existed to some extent in the
pastoral stage, here, because it greatly increased wealth, grew immensely.
Large families likewise meant more workmen and greater wealth,
distinction, and leisure, hence polygamy and polyandry often existed. As
the evolution continued there was a trend toward handicraft and the division
of labor; the products of one place began to be exchanged for the products
of other places. This necessitated some forms of transportation, meager
though they might be, and trails between communities.
The Manorial and Feudal Systems. —In England and on the continent
during the later years of this stage there were developed the manorial or
feudal forms of government. The people lived largely in villages each
controlled by a lord or earl (eorl) and to whom in return for his protection,
the use of land, and other favors, they were bound to return to him service
in the cultivation of his land and in waging war when called upon to do so.
The lords in turn held their allegiance to the king. Some handicraftsmen
were among the retainers but they were so few that they did not form an
important part of the village, neither was there a great deal of travel or
transportation. The manor instead of the family was the unit, and it was
almost self-sufficient. The land was allotted in small tracts and tilled in the
manner designated by the lord. Each person raised barley, oats, peas, and
lentils sufficient for his own needs. Variation in crops was little practiced.
Much land at distances from the manor was still devoted to herds and
flocks.
However, toward the later part of this stage, the feudal system began to
break down. There were more free-holders and free-tenants, living upon the
land they cultivated according to their own ideas. Wheat, rye, flax, and root
crops were assuming greater importance. This variety in farming and the
larger fields cultivated by the individual naturally increased the products to
be sold or exchanged and hence increased transportation. People who had
devoted only so much of their time to spinning and weaving as was
necessary to supply their own family needs, were beginning to do more,
selling the excess and purchasing from others things not grown or
manufactured by themselves. Thus were developed towns as centers of
trade; money as a medium of exchange assumed greater importance; and a
division of labor brought into being and increased the social standing of

trades and professions. Thus was ushered in the Handicraft Stage of
civilization.
The Handicraft Stage. —In England this stage lasted through
approximately five centuries, from 1200 to 1700. The merging of one
period into another came about so gradually that a definite date can hardly
be designated, and the time is so long that undoubtedly many changes
occurred in the economic activities as well as in the government and
literature of the people.
While it is probable that merchants, middlemen who bought from one
person and sold to another, had thrived throughout the earlier civilizations
of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and even extended their trade to Britain,
merchandising held a comparatively minor position in England until the
twelfth century, when merchants became very prominent, so much so that
combinations or guilds were formed by them in all the large towns for the
purpose of protecting and controlling the conduct of business and, to some
extent, of maintaining a monopolistic control of the trade in their particular
businesses. A guild was an association or fraternity of persons engaged in
the same line of business. It differed from a trade-union in that the guild
was an association of masters and employees, whereas the trade-union is an
association of employees only.
Many of the merchant guilds grew wealthy and strong; they obtained
Royal Charters from the Crown either by direct payment or by an
arrangement to pay a special tax, or secured recognition in the borough
charters. By authority of these they were endowed with certain privileges
such as: (a) limiting the number of their own members and the number who
could participate in any line of merchandising; (b) entering into secret price
agreements and trade arrangements; (c) controlling the import and export of
wares; (d) the establishing of a court which had absolute jurisdiction over
its members and others not members engaged in the same line of business.
This court “could settle trade disputes, discipline its apprentices with the
whip if necessary, could imprison its journeymen who struck work, and
could fine its master members who acted against its rules. And, finally, the
members of the company were forbidden to appeal to any other court unless
their own court failed to obtain justice for them.”[4] Moreover, the meeting
together for social enjoyment, feasting, and worship; the helping one
another in sickness and poverty; and uniting together for the pursuit of

some common cause, naturally brought about very close and fraternal
relations.
Craft-guilds. —Craftsmen of like occupations joined together in guilds
also and they, too, became not only numerous but very influential. They
regulated their own internal affairs and specified how many apprentices
might be entered, and under what circumstances a man might become a
journeyman or master craftsman. Numerous other guilds, social and
religious, were extant throughout Europe.
Effect upon Trade. —The merchant guilds and the craft-guilds
materially affected the production and trade of the community and country.
The merchants of Phoenicia and later of Greece and Rome are said to have
visited the British Isles to secure tin and copper. The great merchant guilds
outfitted adventures to the ends of the then known world to secure the
goods—whether they were silks, spices, furs or grain—in which they dealt.
They were instrumental in the passage of laws encouraging and securing
commerce. They themselves regulated the quality of goods dealt in. For
example the Goldsmiths’ Guild of London required that all silver and gold-
plate and jewelry manufactured within three miles of London should be
brought to the guild hall for inspection. If it did not come up to the specified
standard it was ordered remelted; if it did it received the “Hall Mark” that
anyone purchasing it might be assured of its quality. It is said the guilds
were so punctilious in the matter of quality that “Made in England” goods
received in the markets of the world a standing of the highest rank; a
reputation that never entirely disappeared, and as a consequence English
uprightness of character became proverbial.
The Domestic System. —All this made necessary the building of ships
and harbors, and the improvement of internal highways of trade, and these
in turn stimulated manufacture which as yet was carried on by hand. The
family instead of the town or guild became the unit; apprentices were
entered and kept, usually, as members of the family and worked along side
the sons and daughters of the master. As these grew to manhood their pay,
beginning with mere keep, was gradually increased with their work and
responsibility until at the end of seven years they were fitted to go forth as
journeymen and later themselves became masters. The work was done at or
near the master’s home. The raw material was usually received from a
middleman, to whom was returned the finished product; the middleman
disposed of it to the merchant who in turn sold it to the consumer.

This corresponds rather closely to what is called the “sweat shop”
method of the present time. Goods in a raw or a semi-raw state are received
by the workman from the “manufacturer” and carried home; the workman
performs, with the help of his family, certain specified operations and upon
the return of the goods is paid for his work. Or in agriculture, to the contract
method, whereby specified products such as sugar beets, sweet-corn, peas,
beans, tomatoes, fruits, and other products for manufacture, canning,
preserving, or pickling in a factory, are raised by the farmer and sold to the
manufacturer at a previously agreed-upon contract price. Under the guild
plan the manufacturer or importer sold usually to the ultimate consumer. So
the economic system was gradually growing more complex, and the
interdependence of man upon man more pronounced.
The older agricultural procedure had not entirely disappeared. Most
families cultivated land, and raised more or less stock and poultry, but
performed the work of manufacturing as a side line, as at present in the
Middle West farmers make grain and stock raising their main industry with
dairying, vegetable gardening, poultry, and eggs as mere adjuncts, although
these latter often bring in about as much money as the former. Defoe[5]
describes these methods (1724-1726) as follows:
[The land] was divided into small inclosures from two acres to six or seven each, seldom more;
every three or four pieces of land had a house belonging to them ... hardly an house standing out of a
speaking distance from another.... We could see at every house a tenter, and on almost every tenter a
piece of cloth or kersie or shaloon.... At every considerable house was a manufactury.... Every
clothier keeps one horse, at least, to carry his manufactures to the market, and everyone generally
keeps a cow or two or more for his family. By this means the small pieces of inclosed land about
each house are occupied, for they scarce sow corn enough to feed their poultry.... The houses are full
of lusty fellows, some at the dye-vat, some at the looms, others dressing the cloths, the women or
children carding or spinning, being all employed, from the youngest to the oldest.

Governmental Control. —The numerous guilds reached their zenith
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and then gradually diminished
in importance. Some of them, however, still remain active in London.
During the recent World War several were engaged in welfare work. Guilds
in France were destroyed or lapsed into desuetude during the revolution,
1791-1815. Those of Spain and Portugal likewise during the revolutionary
years of 1833-40; of Austria and Germany in 1859-60 and of Italy in 1864.
Guilds, as known in Europe, never found a substantial lodging in the United
States.

The functions of the guilds were gradually taken over by the government,
which seemed later to be a better and more satisfactory medium to control
labor, trade, and commerce. Laws were enacted in England to regulate the
entering of apprentices, to force able bodied men to serve as agricultural
laborers in case of need, and to work the roads annually. Justices of the
Peace were given authority to settle disputes and regulate wages. Foreign
trade was by laws and Royal Grants encouraged; likewise immigration of
artisans to introduce new industries, the establishment of foreign colonies
and the development of banking and insurance. Almshouses were built and
poor laws enacted to care for the old and indigent. The public roads were
still very poor but a beginning was made for their betterment. Macaulay, in
writing of the State of England in 1685,[6] has considerable to say regarding
the condition of the highways. Speaking of the lack of homogeneity among
the people he says:
There was not then the intercourse which now exists between the two classes. [The Londoner and
the rustic Englishman.] Only very great men were in the habit of dividing the year between town and
country. Few esquires came to the capital thrice in their lives. [And again], The chief cause which
made the fusion of the different elements of society so imperfect was the extreme difficulty found in
passing from place to place. Of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted,
those inventions which abridge distance have done most for the civilization of our species. Every
improvement of the means of locomotion benefits mankind morally and intellectually as well as
materially, and not only facilitates the interchange of the various productions of nature and art, but
tends to remove national and provincial antipathies, and to bind together all the branches of the great
human family.
[Further on], It was by the highways that both travellers and goods generally passed from place to
place; and those highways appear to have been far worse than might have been expected from the
degree of wealth and civilization which the nation had even then attained.

The degree of civilization attained was no doubt due to other things than
the public roads. Sea transportation brought to England the products of the
world. Coast transportation was well developed and river and canal
transportation had well begun. Macaulay states that
One chief cause of the badness of the roads seems to have been the defective state of the law.
Every parish was bound to repair the highways which passed through it. The peasantry were forced
to give their gratuitous labor six days in the year.... That a route connecting two great towns, which
have a large and thriving trade with each other, should be maintained at the cost of the rural
population scattered between them, is obviously unjust.

This sounds like modern arguments against paving rural roads and
charging the cost to the abutting property, and is evidently one good reason
for state and national aid.

However, transportation and travel continued to improve. On the main
roads “waggons” were employed to transport goods and stage coaches for
people, while pack animals and riding horses were used on less frequented
trails and roads. Four and six horses were necessary to pull a carriage or a
coach “because with a smaller number there was great danger of sticking
fast in the mire.” A diligence ran between London and Oxford in two days,
but in 1669 it was announced that the “Flying Coach would perform the
whole journey between sunrise and sunset.” The heads of the university
after solemn deliberation gave consent and the experiment proved
successful. The rival university at Cambridge, not to be outdone, set up a
diligence to run from Cambridge to London in one day. Soon flying coaches
were carrying passengers to other points. Posts were established for the
change of horses and longer distances essayed. This mode of traveling was
extolled by contemporaneous writers “as far superior to any similar vehicles
ever known in the world.” It is not to be thought that these advances in
rapid transportation were without objectors. According to Macaulay,
It was vehemently argued that this mode of conveyance would be fatal to the breed of horses and
to the noble art of horsemanship; that the Thames, which had long been an important nursery of
seamen, would cease to be the chief thoroughfare from London up to Windsor and down to
Gravesend; that saddlers and spurriers would be ruined by hundreds; that numerous inns, at which
mounted travelers had been in the habit of stopping, would be deserted, and would no longer pay any
rent; that the new carriages were too hot in summer and too cold in winter; that the passengers were
grievously annoyed by invalids and crying children; that the coach sometimes reached the inn so late
that it was impossible to get supper, and sometimes started so early that it was impossible to get
breakfast.

Objections of this character have been made against every innovation and
advancement in travel and transportation to the present day when the air-
plane is beginning to attract notice as an economic vehicle. Laws were then
demanded and passed, as they are now, to regulate power and speed,
accommodations and rates, and multifarious other things which might affect
the privileges or profits of those interested in older methods, as well as laws
for the protection and safety of the general public.
Agriculture. —It might be thought that the agriculture of the preceding
stage of development might wane. But not so; with the division of labor and
improved transportation and marketing facilities agriculture received a great
impetus. Larger tracts were farmed by the individual. Growing crops and
stock became more of a business and from the lords of the manor was
evolved the landed aristocracy of the country. To be sure, there were holders

who cultivated their own soil, but much was held upon leaseholds for short
or long periods. Many still lived in the villages where “commons” were laid
out for the pasturage of the few cows each family needed for its own milk.
Farms were divided by hedges into fields or closes, the amount of land
depending upon the rent. The “Book of Surveying,” by Fitzherbert, 1539,
gives reasons for such closes and explains the manner of laying them out so
that they shall be most convenient and together. The following is a
specimen of his style:
Now every husband hath sixe severall closes whereof iii. be for corne, the fourthe for his leyse, the
fyfthe for his commen pastures, and the sixte for his haye; and in wynter time there is but one
occupied with corne, and then hath the husbande other fyue to occupy tyll lent come, and then he that
hath his falowe felde, his ley felde, and his pasture felde al sommer, and when he hath mowen his
medowe then he hath his medowe grounde, soo that if he hath any weyke catel that wold be
amended, or dyvers maner of catel, he may put them in any close he wyll, the which is a great
advantage; and if all should lye commen, then wolde the edyche of the corne feldes and the aftermath
of all the medowes be eaten in X or XII dayes. And the rych men that hath moche catel wold have the
advantage, and the poore man can have no helpe nor relefe in wynter when he hath most nede; ... and
if any of his thre closes that he hath for his corne be worn or ware bare, then he may breke and plowe
up his close that he had for his layse, or the close that he had for his commen pasture, or bothe, and
sowe them with corne and let the other lye for a time, and so shall he have always reist grounds, the
which will bear moche corne, with lytel donge; and also he shall have a great profyte of the wod in
the hedges when it is growen; and not only these profytes and advantages aforesaid but he shall save
moche more than al these, for by reason of these closes he shall save meate drinke, and wages of a
shepherde, the wages of the heerdmen, and the wages of the swineherde, the which may fortune to be
as chargeable as all his holle rent; and also his corne shall be better saved from eatings or destroying
with catel.

Later the system of crop rotation came into vogue resulting in great
improvement in the fertility of the soil.
In the same author’s “Book of Husbandry,” 1534, are described farm
tools and their uses. There are explanations to show where a “horse plow” is
better and where an “oxen plow.” It indicates that beans, peas, wheat,
barley, and oats are common crops, and that some vegetables and root-crops
were coming into use. Wheat was probably sowed after plowing up a
pasture or “fallowe” field, for he observes,
the greater clottes (clods) the better wheate, for the clottes kepe the wheate warm all wynter; and at
march they will melte and breake and fae in many small peces, the which is a new donynge and
refreshynge of the corne.

The industries and arts of transportation continued to develop: ocean
craft, especially, became more numerous and more efficient. Learning and

art grew in harmony as the intercourse of the peoples of the country and of
the world increased.
The Industrial Stage. —This stage of economical civilization, while
brought about gradually through many years as factories and special work
shops came into existence, was nevertheless greatly accelerated by the
inventions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The invention of the
canal lock (it is a disputed question whether in Holland or in Italy) in the
fourteenth century had made practicable the building of many canals
throughout Europe, one of the largest across France connecting the Bay of
Biscay with the Mediterranean Sea. However, the building of important
commercial canals began in England with the Bridgewater Canal from
Worsley to Manchester, completed in 1767. Green[7] tells us that the main
roads which lasted fairly well through the middle ages had broken down
under the increased production of the eighteenth century. That the new lines
of trades lay along “mere country lanes”; that much of the woolen trade had
to be carried on long trains of pack animals at a large cost; that
transportation “in the case of heavier goods such as coal distribution was
almost impracticable save along the greater rivers.” In fact coal was
ordinarily referred to as “sea coal” because it was brought to most ports by
water routes. The Duke of Bridgewater and a young engineer of the name of
Brindley solved the problem of transportation for the time being by
beginning the great network of canals which later covered England to the
extent of more than 3000 miles. Too great praise cannot be given to the
engineers and constructors of these canals. Brindley considered canals not
as adjuncts of rivers and bays, on the contrary “rivers were only meant,” he
said, “to feed canals.” He carried this canal by means of an aqueduct over
the river to Manchester, thus bringing the coal to a new thriving
manufacturing city. Green further says (Paragraph 1528)
To English trade the canal opened up the richest of all markets, the market of England itself. Every
part of the country was practically thrown open to the manufacturer; and the impulse which was
given by this facility of carriage was at once felt in a vast development of production. But such a
development would have been impossible had not the discovery of this new mode of distribution
been accompanied by the discovery of a new productive force. In the coal which lay beneath her soil
England possessed a store of force which had hitherto remained almost useless.

Not the least were the new methods of smelting iron with coal instead of
wood, which changed the whole aspect of the iron trade and which made
Great Britain for many years the workshop of the world. Lead, copper, and

tin were also mined and smelted by the use of coal. The great advance of
the “industrial revolution” did not come until Watt’s improvements upon the
steam engines of Newcomen, Cawley, and Savery, which were themselves
improvements over earlier inventions of Papin, della Porta, and Worcester,
made practicable the transfer of energy stored up in coal to the movement
of machinery. He changed the steam engine from a clumsy, wasteful,
inefficient machine into a workable apparatus little differing from the
reciprocating steam engines of the present. Up until the successful operation
of the turbine engine, the principal advances upon Watt’s engine were mere
details, though often of great importance. For instance the boilers for the
generation of steam were improved; the enlarged application of the
principle of expansion, developing better cut-off mechanisms and
governors, to more economical construction due to better facilities and
better knowledge of materials and their properties; and to the application of
the steam engine in locomotives to propel transportation cars.
Watt’s claims and specifications for patents from 1769 to 1784 cover
such inventions as:
1. Methods of keeping the cylinder or steam vessel hot by covering it
with wood or other slow heat-conducting materials, by surrounding it with
steam or other heated bodies, and by suffering no water or other substance
colder than steam to touch it.
2. By condensing the steam in vessels entirely distinct from the cylinder,
called condensers, which are to be kept cool.
3. By drawing out of the condenser all uncondensed vapors or gases by
means of an air pump.
4. The use of the expansion force of steam directly against the cylinder.
5. The double-acting engine and the conversion of the reciprocating
motion into a circular motion.[8]
6. Throttle valve with governor and gear for operating the same, parallel
motion for opening and closing the valves, and indicator.
These inventions not only made it possible to replace hand-labor often
with machines, but made it possible to construct machines much more
rapidly and to make them in every way more convenient.
Improvement in the arts of spinning and weaving caused the textile
establishments and population of north England to go forward by leaps and
bounds.

Previous to the invention of the “fly shuttle” in 1733 by John Kay of
Bury, the weaver had to throw the shuttle through the warp by hand.
Weaving became much more rapid; also by having several shuttles with
different-colored yarn stripes and checks could be woven into the cloth.
Since weaving had been made quicker and easier there came a demand for
more yarn. Three separate inventions satisfied this, viz., James Hargreaves
of Blackburn invented his “jenny” about 1767, by which eight threads could
be spun at once. At the same time Richard Arkwright, a barber of Preston,
invented and developed the throstle spinning frame (1769-1775). Samuel
Crompton, about 1775, invented his spinning “mule,” which seemed to
combine the good principles of the others. Power was applied to spinning
about 1785 and then it was weaving that needed accelerating. To Cartwright
in 1784 is ascribed the honor of inventing the power loom. Other inventions
for both spinning and weaving have made almost automatic the running of
thousands of spindles and hundreds of looms in a single factory.
Railways Developed. —With power manufacturing and increased
production due to the adoption of improved factory systems came still
greater demand for transportation. Tramways had already been laid in 1676
for transporting coal from the mines to the sea. The rails were first made of
scantling laid in the wheel ruts, then of straight rails of oak on which “one
horse would draw from four or five chaldrons of coal.” Later (1765) cast-
iron trammels 5 feet long by 4 inches wide were nailed to the wooden rails.
These trammels collected dust, therefore in 1789 Jessop laid down at
Loughborough cast-iron edge-rails and put a flanged wheel on the waggon.
The rails were also placed on chairs and sleepers (ties), the first instance of
this method. The distance apart of the rails was 4 feet 81⁄2 inches, what is
now known as “standard gauge.” The success of these coal roads suggested
tramways for freight and for passenger transportation between the larger
towns. The canals had become congested with much traffic; it is said that
notwithstanding there were three between Liverpool and Manchester the
merchandise passing “did not average more than 1200 tons daily.” The
average rate of carriage was 18s. ($4.37) per ton, and the average time of
transit on the 50 miles of canal was thirty-six hours. The conveyance of
passengers by the improved coach roads, was, for then, quite rapid but
rather expensive.
Some experimental locomotives had been made and used in the mining
regions. Their success led to the building of others. The Stockton and

Darlington Railway opened in September, 1825, by a train of thirty-four
vehicles, making a gross load of 90 tons, drawn by one engine driven by
George Stephenson, with a signal man on horseback in advance. The train
made at times as high as 15 miles per hour. The rail used weighed 28
pounds per yard. This road was intended entirely for freight but the demand
of the people to ride was so pressing that a passenger coach to carry six
inside and fifteen to twenty outside was put on to make the round trip in
two hours at a fare of one shilling.
When the bill passed for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1826
Stephenson was appointed engineer in charge at a salary of $5000 per year.
This road made a great impression on the national mind, no little enhanced
by the competition of locomotives at its completion in 1829, resulting in the
victory of Stephenson’s engine the “Rocket.” It made the then astonishing
speed of 35 miles per hour and proved conclusively the practicability of
railway locomotion.
To follow the progress of industry during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries would require volumes. More has probably been accomplished,
not without evils at times, than in the whole preceding history of the world.
And as no small part of these accomplishments are the means and amount
of travel and traffic and associated developments and organization made
necessary by the vast industries which now supply the world’s wants, once
more it may be asserted that the civilization of the world can be measured
by its transportation.
Some Historic Roads and Their Influence. —In the brief survey of the
stages through which ordinarily a civilization passes note has frequently
been made that as the world progresses so does the necessary transportation
increase and improve in character. It is not contended that civilization
follows the improvement of transportation, although that is no doubt
sometimes the case, but that the state of transportation follows up and down
with the state of civilization. Very likely the same could be truthfully said of
other elements of civilization such as literature, art, religion, and
government. Or even if there be applied Guizot’s three tests of a civilized
people: “First, they review their pledges and honor; second, they reverence
and pursue the beautiful in painting, architecture, and literature; third, they
exhibit sympathy in reform toward the poor, the weak and the unfortunate,”
it will be found that those nations most progressed in traffic and travel will
rank highest in these tests.

Early Highways. —To return to some of the important earlier highways.
All evidence seems to indicate that civilization had its origin in western
Asia. Early history speaks of the civilization and culture of Arabia and
Egypt, of Assyria and Persia. Coeval with these civilizations were trade and
commerce. Great caravans of camels traversed the sandy highway with their
accompanying merchants carrying many products of many lands—
frankincense and myrrh from Arabia; cloths and carpets from Babylon and
Sardis; shawls from Cashmere; leather from Cordavan and Morocco; tin,
copper, gold, and silver utensils from Phœnicia; pearls from the Far East;
and grain and other agricultural products nourished and grown by the
beneficence of the great mother Nile. The extensive civilizations of these
countries are handed down stingily by cuneiform inscriptions on clay
tablets scattered here and there among the ruins of their ancient towns and
villages, or inscribed upon granite mountain sides as historical memoranda
for future generations. Even Holy Writ says little about roads and highways,
but that they were known is evident from the few references made. Those
things which are commonplace often receive least attention by writers. In
Isaiah, 35:8, may be read: “And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it
shall be called the way of holyness ... the wayfaring men, though fools,
shall not err therein.” And again, Isa. 40:3-4, “The voice of him that cryeth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the
desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every
mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight
and the rough places plain.” These would certainly indicate that in Isaiah’s
time there were both travelers and roads marked and graded. Isaiah in other
places shows that he, if not himself a road builder, is familiar with that
process: Isa. 57:14, “And shall say, cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way
take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people.” Isa. 62:10,
“Prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out
the stones; lift up a standard for the people.” Also Jeremiah likens the path
of the wicked to an ungraded road. Jeremiah 18:15, “Because my people
have forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, they have caused
them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a
way not cast up.”
The trade along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and across
Palestine and the great Arabian deserts to Persia, to Babylonia, and possibly
to India was evidently of importance to the fluctuating destinies of Egypt

and Assyria, and later of Greece, Rome, and Turkey; so much so, that many
wars were waged for the control of the great highway over which it passed.
Palestine became a territory of importance. It is said Jerusalem has suffered
some three score sieges, most of them because she dominated this highway,
being at or near the confluence of its forks reaching east into the deserts,
north toward the straits over which a crossing could be made into Europe,
and southward to Egypt. Egypt and Assyria fought for its control; Greece
and Rome in turn came into possession of it; Turkey and the Mohammedans
for centuries monopolized it; and the recent great World War was no doubt
accentuated by the cupidity of Germany to control a long line of
transportation through Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Mesopotamia to
Persia, Baluchistan and India.[9]
Alexander the Great overran the East, besieged Tyre, and converted an
island into an isthmus in order to secure and hold control of the highway
and the rich bounty imagined to be at its farther end. “Babylon is a ruin, a
stately and solitary group of palms marks where Memphis stood, jackals
slake their thirst in the waters of the sacred lake by the hall of a thousand
columns at Thebes, but the road that formed the nexus between these
vanished civilizations remains after the winds of four millenniums have
sighed themselves to silence over the graves of its forgotten architects and
engineers.”[10]
But the Greater Greece, built up by the personality and sword of
Alexander the Great, fell, largely, because of the lack of roads. The very
name of Alexander was sufficient to subdue city after city, but as soon as
his personal influence was at an end the cities fell apart. Here was a
wonderful opportunity. With magnificent natural-made waterways, with
innumerable safe harbors what a chance for commerce, for trade with the
entire world. The islands of the Aegean Sea were stepping stones to Asia
Minor; Macedonia furnished an open route for the Bosphorus and
Dardanelles; Thrace led to those fertile lands surrounding the Black Sea and
extending away to the Caspian and joining once more with empire already
conquered. On the west there was close at hand the islands of, and land
bordering, the Adriatic, the great Italian boot, and Sicily where new
civilizations were ready to rise and take on Greek culture for the mere
offering. It would seem as though Greece ought to have become the
fostering mother of world colonization, but the different parts of Greece
proper, where the real mental ability lay, were separated by lack of roads

from each other. Athens was potentially nearer to the Black Sea than to
Sparta; Corinth was nearer Sicily than to Macedonia. The many Grecian
tribes were distinct, having different laws, customs and manners.
Intercourse, which could have been brought about had there been
interconnecting roads, was necessary to weld the people into a
homogeneous mass. Sparta and Athens, less than an hour apart by modern
air-plane, because of the mountains, roadless and almost pathless between
them, barriers which they failed to surmount, developed different forms of
civilization, different thought, habits, and tastes. To Athens the world owes
an everlasting debt for masterpieces in poetry, oratory, architecture, and
sculpture. “There was no Spartan sculpture, no Laconian painter, no
Lacedaemonian poet.” The lack of intercommunication caused differences
in language, in customs, in ideals, and in manners, making of Greece a
heterogeneous conglomeration of tribes where internecine strife was ever
present, and no strong centralized government could exist. Lucky for the
best of the Greek civilization that it would be carried to the ends of the
world by the roads of a young giant which was arising in the west.
Roman Roads. —The roads in Rome bore such a prominent part in the
civilization that they could not be entirely overlooked by contemporaneous
writers. The roads are often described as military roads because they were
primarily planned to transport soldiers quickly and easily to any desirable
part of the empire. But no doubt the greatness of Rome was due more to the
traffic in goods and people brought to and taken away from her precincts by
these roads than to military prowess. Her roads were the arteries and veins
through which the life blood of the nation pulsated; were the sensory and
motive nerves which fetched and carried intelligence, which prompted
action. She received and she disseminated. She was the hub of the universe,
her roads the spokes radiating to and holding together the limits of her vast
domain.

© Underwood and Underwood
THE APPIAN WAY
Showing the original Paving Stones laid 300 b.c.

How many roads Rome built it is difficult to state, for they were found in
all parts of the empire. Some, as those in Italy, were very carefully and
substantially built; others less so, grading down to mere trails in the
hintermost districts. The Via Egnatia, which was one of the important
provincial roads, is said by Strabo to have been regularly laid out and
marked by milestones from Dyrrhacium, (Durazzo) on the coast of the
Adriatic across from the heel of Italy’s boot through Thessalonica (Saloniki)
and Philippi to Cypselus on the Hebnis and later to the Hellespont, for
Cicero speaks of “that military way of ours which connects us with the
Hellespont.” This road became historic as the scene of the conflict between
the friends and enemies of the decaying Roman republic. Brutus and
Cassius on the one hand here in 42 b.c., met the forces of Antony and
Octavius. There tradition states the ghost of the dead Caesar met Brutus,
and as a matter of fact, the “liberators” were cut to pieces in two
engagements. Brutus and Cassius, believing the cause of the republic lost,
both committed suicide, and the Roman world was soon thereafter in the
hands of two masters—Antony in the East and Octavius in the West. Three
centuries later this road became the leading highway to Byzantium
(Constantinople), the great city founded by Constantine, impregnable in its
rocky seclusion, dominating the waterway to the Black Sea and the rich
agricultural land beyond.
Some twenty of these roads, more if their branches be counted,
concentrated at the Eternal City and passed through her several gates. Rome
could sit on her seven hills and by means of these roads rule the world.
Among the most important of these were the Via Appia, Via Flaminia and
Via Aemilia, Via Aurelia, Via Ostiensis, and Via Latina. One peculiarity of
these Roman roads was their straightness, passing almost in a direct line
between determining points. Another, to which is due their durability, was
their massiveness. Their general construction may be described as follows:
The line of direction having been laid out trenches were made along each
side defining the width, which was from 13 to 17 feet. The loose earth
between was excavated to secure a firm foundation and the road was then

filled or graded up to the required height with good material, sometimes as
high as 20 feet. The pavement usually consisted of a layer of small stones;
then a layer of broken stones cemented with lime mortar; then a layer of
broken fragments of brick and pottery incorporated with clay and lime; and
finally a mixture of gravel and lime or a floor of hard flat stones cut into
rectangular slabs or irregular polygons fitted nicely together. The whole was
frequently 4 feet thick. Along the road milestones were erected, some of
them quite elaborate with carved names and dates. Near the arch of
Septimus Severus in the Roman Forum still remains a portion of the
“Golden Milestone,” a gilded pillar erected by Augustus, on which were
carved the names of roads and lengths similar to a modern guide post. Some
of these roads were used hundreds of years until they fell into neglect after
Rome had been invaded by the northern barbarians. From a statement of
Procopinus, the Appian Way, construction begun 312 b.c., was in good
condition 800 years later, and he describes it as broad enough for two
carriages to pass each other. It was made of stones brought from some
distant quarry and so fitted to each other (over some 2 feet of gravel) that
they seemed to be thus formed by nature, rather than cemented by art. He
adds that notwithstanding the traffic of so many ages the stones were not
displaced, nor had they lost their original smoothness. The papal
government excavated, repaired, and reopened that road as far as Albano
and it is still being used as a highway.

MAP OF ITALY
Showing some of the twenty or more roads that radiated from Rome

The Flaminian Way extended from Rome to Ariminum and thence was
carried under the name Via Aemilia through Parma, and Placentia across to
Spain. While not so much traffic passed over it, because the West was
sparsely settled, as over the Appian Way, it nevertheless was a worthy rival.
The Aurelian Way followed up the coast through Etruria and furnished
another highway to Spain and Gaul. The Ostien highway connected Rome
with a splendid harbor at the mouth of the Tiber. But the Appian Way was
rightly the most famous of all; it was the earliest made, it was perhaps the
longest paved road, and it carried the greatest amount of traffic. The road
was built by Appius Claudius Caecus—then a Roman Censor, afterwards a
Consul, from whom it takes its name—to Capua, a distance of 142 miles.
Later it was extended across the Apennine Mountains through Beneventum,
Venusia, and Tarentum, to Brundisium, a port on the Adriatic Sea, in the
heel of the boot, a total distance of 350 miles. The improvements of Appius
were begun in the year 312 b.c., and carried out at least as far as Capua.
Livy speaks of a road over part of this way some thirty-five years earlier. A
portion outside the walls was paved with lava (silex) in 189 b.c., and during
the reign of Trajan (a.d. 98-117) the Via Appia was paved from Capua to
Brundisium (Niebuhr). From Brundisium (Brindis) traffic could be carried

by ship to Dyrrhacium and thence over the Via Egnatio to Macedonia and
the Bosphorus; or along the coast to the Grecian towns, to the cities of the
Far East and to Egypt. Many are the references to the noted highway in
literature; Milton, in “Paradise Regained,” book four, bids us to watch
flocking to the city, enriched with spoils, proconsuls, embassies, legions, in
“various habits on the Appian road.”
“What a cosmopolitan throng must have graced that highway in the first
century,” says Dr. Carroll.[11] “Thick-lipped Ethiopians with rings in noses
and ears, swarthy-browed turbaned Mesopotamians, haughty Parthians,
burnoosed Arabs still worshiping their polygods, hook-nosed Hebrews,
carven with the humility of the despised rich, Greek Pedagogues and
Rhetors and Tutors, togaed senators, white-clad vestals with modest faces,
and painted harlots with amber hair. Lictors clearing the way with rods for
some purple clad dignitary of Nero’s court and carrying the fasces and the
ax; street merchants and hawkers of small wares, slaves scantily clad, stark
bemuscled gladiators, Cives and Peregrini, citizens and strangers,
displaying, in varying degree, arrogance and curiosity; long yellow-haired
Germans, their faces smeared with ocher and their yellow hair with oil;
kilted soldiers with long spears and short broad swords; beggars (the
lazzaroni of that bygone age), pathetically sullen or volubly mendicant in
the sunshine lecticae; couches carried by bearers containing pampered
nobles or high-born ladies; the cisium and the rhoda meritoria; the carriage
and the hack of that time crossing each other’s path in the narrow road;
children naked and joyous; merchants on caparisoned asses; the swinging
columns of the legionaries; brown, straight-featured Egyptians. For part of
the distance a canal runs parallel and travelers have their choice to take the
pavement or to ride in state on painted barges dragged by mules; on the
pavement a Pontifex in his robes of office and Augurs exchanging cynical
smiles; the rattle of chariot wheels and some haggard-eyed noble, redolent
from the warm and scented bath, with flower-crowned brow, drives in
furious guise along the Appian Way, while barbarian and Scythian, bond
and free, yield the way before him.”

MAP OF ROMAN ROADS IN ENGLAND

(After Jackman: “Development of Transportation in Modern England.”)

Davis[12] tells us that the Roman road system after it had become a
network over Italy began to spread over the whole Empire. That admirable
highways were built by peaceful legionaries for commercial purposes—and
that even to-day in North Africa and in the wilds of Asia Minor where
travelers seldom penetrate may be found the Roman road with its hard

stones laid on a solid foundation. He further states that as a consequence of
these roads commerce expanded by leaps and bounds. A great trade passing
down the Red Sea sprang up with India, reaching to the coast of Ceylon,
returning with pearls, rare tapestries, and spices. Another set penetrated
Arabia for much-desired incense, or unto the heart of Africa for ivory. Also
with such merchandising there came a money system with banks, checks
and bonds rivaling those of the present day. The bridges are an important
part of any road. Those across the Tiber in Rome were regarded as sacred.
They were cared for by a special body of Priests called pontifaces (bridge-
makers). The name Pontifex Maximus was borne by the High Priest and
became a designation for the emperor; it is now applied to the Pope as the
highest authority in the papal or pontifical state.
Pre-historic American Roads. —When America was discovered it was
sparsely settled with tribes of semi-civilized peoples. The ordinary
aborigine was in the hunting and fishing stage, just beginning to cultivate
crops. True, tribes claimed regions and attempted by force to keep other
tribes from trespassing thereon. They had no literature save perhaps a few
rough diagrams or drawings. There was no trade or commerce and
consequently no roads except mere trails. Their methods of transportation
consisted in walking or in paddling canoes. In the making and operating of
canoes and of weapons of warfare and of the chase they were most
advanced.
In many parts of the country there had been a civilization, but so long ago
no very authentic knowledge of its character can be predicated upon the
mounds, utensils, and other evidence now remaining. The Mound Builders
and the Cliff Dwellers are as yet to us unknown peoples.
In Mexico, Central America,[13] and Peru a much higher civilization
prevailed. Especially in Peru where a very high state of agriculture was in
vogue. There is even evidence of a considerable degree of Art and
Literature.[14] Many of the remains remind one of early Egyptian and
Persian temples and roads, but perhaps no more lucid description of the
ancient Peruvian roads and transportation exists than that given in Prescott’s
justly celebrated classic, “The Conquest of Peru.” Slightly abridged it reads
thus:
Those who may distrust the accounts of Peruvian industry will find their doubts removed on a visit
to the country. The traveler still meets, especially in the central regions of the tableland, with
memorials of the past, remains of temples, palaces, fortresses, terraced mountains, great military

roads, aqueducts, and other public works, which, whatever degree of science they may display in
their execution, astonish him by their number, the massive character of the materials, and the
grandeur of the design. Among them, perhaps the most remarkable are the great roads, the broken
remains of which are still in sufficient preservation to attest their former magnificence. There were
many of these roads, traversing different parts of the kingdom: but the most considerable were the
two which extended from Quito to Cuzco, and, again diverging from the capital, continued in a
southerly direction toward Chili.
One of these roads passed over the great plateau, and the other along the lowlands on the borders
of the ocean. The former was much the more difficult achievement, from the character of the country.
It was conducted over pathless sierras buried in snow; galleries were cut for leagues through the
living rock; rivers were crossed by means of bridges that swung suspended in the air; precipices were
scaled by stairways hewn out of the native bed; ravines of hideous depths were filled up with solid
masonry; in short, all the difficulties that beset a wild and mountainous region, and which might
appall the most courageous engineer of modern times, were encountered and successfully overcome.
The length of the road, of which scattered fragments only remain, is variously estimated at from
fifteen hundred to two thousand miles; and stone pillars, in the manner of European milestones, were
erected at stated intervals of somewhat more than a league, all along the route. Its breadth scarcely
exceeded twenty feet. It was built of heavy flags of freestone, and, in some parts at least, covered
with a bituminous cement, which time has made harder than the stone itself. In some places where
the ravines had been filled up with masonry, the mountain torrents, wearing on it for ages, have
gradually eaten away through the base, and left the superincumbent mass—such is the cohesion of
the materials—still spanning the valley like an arch.
Over some of the boldest streams it was necessary to construct suspension bridges, as they are
termed, made of the tough fibers of the maguey, or of the osier of the country, which has an
extraordinary degree of tenacity and strength. These osiers were woven into cables of the thickness of
a man’s body. The huge ropes, then stretched across the water, were conducted through rings or holes
cut in immense buttresses of stone raised on the opposite banks of the river and then secured to heavy
pieces of timber. Several of these enormous cables bound together formed a bridge which, covered
with planks, well secured and defended by a railing of the same osier materials on the sides, afforded
a safe passage for the traveler. The length of this aerial bridge, sometimes exceeding two hundred
feet, caused it, confined as it was only at the extremities, to dip with an alarming inclination towards
the center, while the motion given to it by the passenger occasioned an oscillation still more frightful,
as his eye wandered over the dark abyss of waters that foamed and tumbled many fathoms beneath.
Yet these light and fragile fabrics were crossed without fear by the Peruvians, and are still retained by
the Spaniards over those streams which, from the depth or impetuosity of the current, would seem
impracticable for the usual modes of conveyance. The wider and more tranquil waters were crossed
on balsas—a kind of raft still much used by the natives—to which sails were attached, furnishing the
only instance of this higher kind of navigation among the American Indians.
The other great road of the Incas lay through the level country between the Andes and the ocean. It
was constructed in a different manner, as demanded by the nature of the ground, which was for the
most part low, and much of it sandy. The causeway was raised on a high embankment of earth, and
defended on either side by a parapet or wall of clay; and trees and odoriferous shrubs were planted
along the margin, regaling the senses of the traveler with their perfumes, and refreshing him by their
shades, so grateful under the burning sky of the tropics. In the strips of sandy waste which
occasionally intervened, where the light and volatile soil was incapable of sustaining a road, huge
piles, many of them to be seen at this day, were driven into the ground to indicate the route to the
traveler.
All along these highways, caravansaries, or tambos, as they were called, were erected, at the
distance of ten or twelve miles from each other, for the accommodation, more particularly of the Inca
and his suite and those who journeyed on the public business. There were few other travelers in Peru.

Some of these buildings were on an extensive scale, consisting of a fortress, barracks, and other
military works, surrounded by a parapet of stone and covering a large tract of ground. These were
evidently destined for the accommodation of the imperial armies when on their march across the
country. The care of the great roads was committed to the districts through which they passed, and
under the Incas a large number of hands was constantly employed to keep them in repair. This was
the more easily done in the country where the mode of traveling was altogether on foot; though the
roads are said to be so nicely constructed that a carriage might have rolled over them as securely as
on any of the great roads of Europe. Still in a region where the elements of fire and water are both
actively at work in the business of destruction, they must, without constant supervision, have
gradually gone to decay. Such has been their fate under the Spanish conquerors, who took no care to
enforce the admirable system for their preservation adopted by the Incas. Yet the broken portions that
still survive here and there, like the fragments of the great Roman roads scattered over Europe, bear
evidence to their primitive grandeur, and have drawn forth the eulogium from a discriminating
traveler, usually not too profuse in his panegyric, that “the roads of the Incas were among the most
useful and stupendous works ever executed by man.”
The system of communication through their dominions was still further improved by the Peruvian
sovereigns by the introduction of posts, in the same manner as was done by the Aztecs. The Peruvian
posts, however, established on all the great routes that conducted to the capital, were on a much more
extended plan than those in Mexico. All along these routes, small buildings were erected, at the
distance of less than five miles asunder, in each of which a number of runners, or chasquis, as they
were called, were stationed to carry forward the dispatches of government. These dispatches were
either verbal, or conveyed by means of quipus, and sometimes accompanied by a thread of the
crimson fringe worn round the temples of the Inca, which was regarded with the same implicit
deference as the signet-ring of an Oriental despot.
The chasquis were dressed in a peculiar livery, intimating their profession. They were all trained to
the employment and selected for their speed and fidelity. As the distance each courier had to perform
was small, and as he had ample time to refresh himself at the stations, they ran over the ground with
great swiftness, and messages were carried through the whole extent of the long routes, at the rate of
one hundred and fifty miles a day. The office of the chasquis was not limited to carrying dispatches.
They frequently brought various articles for the use of the court and in this way fish from the distant
ocean, fruits, game, and different commodities from the hot regions on the coast, were taken to the
capital in good condition, and served fresh at the royal table. It is remarkable that this important
institution should have been known to both the Mexicans and the Peruvians without any
correspondence with one another and that it should have been found among two barbarian nations of
the New World long before it was introduced among the civilized nations of Europe.
By these wise contrivances of the Incas, the most distant parts of the long extended empire of Peru
were brought into intimate relations with each other. The while the capitals of Christendom, but a few
hundred miles apart, remained as far asunder as if seas had rolled between them, the great capitals
Cuzco and Quito were placed by the high roads of the Incas in immediate correspondence.
Intelligence from the numerous provinces was transmitted on the wings of the wind to the Peruvian
metropolis, the great focus to which all the lines of communication converged. Not an insurrectionary
movement could occur, not an invasion on the remotest frontier, before the tidings were conveyed to
the capital and the imperial armies were on their march across the magnificent roads of the country to
suppress it. So admirable was the machinery contrived by the American despots for maintaining
tranquillity throughout their dominions! It may remind us of the similar institutions of ancient Rome,
when, under the Caesars, she was mistress of half the world.

Hiram Bingham, Director of the Geographic Society-Yale Peruvian
Expedition[15] gives an interesting description of the tracing out of two of

these old roads. Evidently the trail was mostly used by foot passengers, or
possibly llamas, for there were frequently steep grades and flights of steps
and open ravines which had more than likely been crossed by the osier
suspension bridges. No doubt much commerce beside fertilizer from the
great nitrate beds was carried on over these roads.
Conclusion. —If the story, very briefly given, of these old roads does not
verify the thesis that transportation is a measure of civilization, a view
might be taken of the tribes and peoples now living in the various parts of
the earth. If the character of the transportation of the tribes of Africa and of
Asia, of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, the least civilized now known, be
compared with that of those nations considered most civilized, the same
general conclusion would be drawn. Compare the railways, canals,
highways, cars, automobiles, ships, and aircraft of the present-day United
States with the pack animals and ox-carts of many less favored nations and
the further evidence of amount of traffic and travel per person, will be
unnecessary to establish the relative states of civilization. It is not necessary
even to go beyond the confines of the great American Republic. Writers
who traveled through it in the ’forties, ’fifties and ’sixties are wont to call
attention to the uncouthness of the inhabitants, to the lack of the
refinements of speech and manners characterizing those who dwelt in the
more populous communities. But the honesty, integrity, generosity,
willingness, and ability of the American pioneers to dare and to do, were
unquestioned. It is a pity that many of the best traits of humanity disappear
when people are crowded into cities, when their wants and desires are
increased, when the refinements of civilization have replaced the
ruggedness of pioneer life. Then, as now, upon the action of a bare majority,
which in a republic is called “the will of the people,” often hung the
political, social and financial destiny of the nation. A slight change would
have changed the course of civilizing evolution; who knows whether for
good or ill. As the trivium and quadrivium were the roads, believed by the
ancients to lead to a liberal education, so the government and the
civilization of this now great nation has rested consecutively in its upward
progress, upon the slender path of the aborigine, swelled to the well defined
trail of the pack-train, broadened into the cart and wagon road, cast up into
a turnpike; and upon the rippling trace of the light canoe, the dugout, the
keel-boat, the pole-boat, the flat-boat, the canal-boat and the steam-boat; all
to be supplanted by the thunder of the locomotive. What in the process of

evolution will follow it? The automobile, the truck, the flying machine?
Time alone can tell.

SELECTED REFERENCES

Davis, William Stearns, “The Influence of Wealth on Imperial Rome,” pp. 85-105. The Macmillan
Company, New York.
Ely, Richard T., “Outlines of Economics,” The Macmillan Co., New York. Chapter III.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. Articles on the “Steam Engine,” “Yarn,” “Weaving,” and “Railway.”
Green, John Richard, “History of the English People,” Book IX, Chapter III.
Havell, H. L., “Republican Rome,” p. 112, Harrap & Co., London, 1914.
Heitland, W. E., “The Roman Republic,” University Press, Cambridge.
Livy, Titus, “History of Rome,” Translated by William A. M’Devitte, Book IX, Chap. 29; XXII, 15;
XXIV, 8; George Bell & Sons, London, 1890.
Macaulay, Thomas Babington, “The History of England,” Vol. I, Chapter III.
Mommsen, Professor Theodor, “The History of the Roman Republic,” Abridgment by Bryans and
Hendy, pp. 95, 97, 98, 108, 175, 219, 251, 318, 319, 320. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York,
1893.
Morley, S. T., “Excavations at Quirigua, Guatemala,” The National Geographic Magazine, March,
1913.
Account of explorations made in Peru by a joint expedition of Yale University and The National
Geographic Society in The National Geographic Magazine, April, 1913, February, 1915, and
May, 1916.
Niebuhr, B. G., “Lectures on Ancient History,” Vol. III, p. 156; “Lectures on the History of Rome,”
Vol. III, p. 229. Taylor, Walton & Maberly, London, 1852.
Osborn, Henry F., “Men of the Old Stone Age.” C. Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1915.
Prescott, William H., “Conquest of Peru,” 2 Vol., Vol. I, pp. 62-67, J. B. Lippincott & Co.,
Philadelphia, 1869.
Sands, W. F., “Mysterious Temples of the Jungle,” in The National Geographic Magazine, March,
1913.
Selfridge, H. Gordon, “The Romance of Commerce,” John Lane, London.
Stanley, Henry M., “In Darkest Africa” (two volumes). C. Scribner’s Sons, New York.

FOOTNOTES

[1] “Outlines of Economics,” by Richard T. Ely. The Macmillan Co., N. Y.
[2] See “The Man of the Stone Age,” by H. F. Osborne.
[3] “In Darkest Africa” (two volumes), by Henry M. Stanley. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New
York.

[4] “The Romance of Commerce,” by H. Gordon Selfridge. John Lane, London.
[5] Quoted by Ely in “Outlines of Economics.” Macmillan, New York.
[6] “The History of England,” by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Chapter III.
[7] “History of the English People,” by John Richard Green, Paragraph 1527.
[8] It is well to note that Watt in his application for a patent on steam engines granted in
1769 also laid claim for a rotary engine. The rotary engine has been lately developed into the
steam turbine.
[9] “Germany and Austria-Hungary were increasingly convinced that in the further
disintegration of the old Turkish Empire they must be recognized in an exceptional way and must
be allowed ... to acquire an undisputed influence from the Adriatic to the Black Sea and the Persian
Gulf.”—Albert Shaw in the introduction to Simonds’ “History of the World War.” Also see map
Vol. II, p. 346.
[10] From the report of a lecture at Shreveport, La., 1905, by B. H. Carroll, Professor of
History, Baylor University, Waco, Texas.
[11] Lecture delivered at Shreveport, La., by B. H. Carroll, Ph.D., Professor of History,
Baylor University, Waco, Texas, later U. S. Consul at Naples.
[12] “The Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome,” by William Stearns Davis, The Macmillan
Company, N. Y., pp. 95-105.
[13] See “Mysterious Temples of the Jungle,” by W. F. Sands, and “Excavations at Quirigua,
Guatemala” by S. T. Morley. The National Geographic Magazine, March, 1913.
[14] See several excellent articles with illustrations on the explorations made in Peru by a
joint expedition of Yale University and The National Geographic Society in The National
Geographic Magazine, April, 1913, February, 1915, and May, 1916.
[15] Geographic Magazine, May, 1916.

CHAPTER II
TRANSPORTATION DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES;
EARLY TRAILS AND ROADS

The early settlements of this country were made upon the shores,
naturally, because the settlers were brought by ships from Europe and
supplies of various sorts were from time to time renewed by ships. The
settlers were not skilled in the art of living on the country as were the
natives and when supply vessels failed to put in their appearance there was
real hardship in and sometimes entire extermination of the colonists. The
penetration of settlement to the interior was slow and even to times within
the memory of men now living much of the interior was an unknown
wilderness.
The Birch Bark Canoe. —Travel from place to place was at first
insignificant and what little there was was carried on by walking, horseback
riding, or by boat. Settlement, which had begun on the ocean or at the head
of ocean navigation on inlets or rivers, was eventually pushed farther
inland. The rivers and other waterways being at hand were utilized; the
birch-bark canoe, the dugout, and the plank boat, furnished the principal
vehicles of transportation. The Indians were very expert in the manufacture
and operation of light birch-bark canoes. Longfellow in “Hiawatha” gives a
poetical description of this:
With his knife the tree he girdled;
Just beneath its lowest branches,
Just above the roots he cut it,
Till the sap came oozing outward;
Down the trunk from top to bottom,
Sheer he cleft the bark asunder,
With a wooden wedge he raised it
Stripped it from the trunk unbroken.

Then he explains how the framework is made of cedar:
Like two bows he framed and shaped them,
Like two bended bows together.

After which they were tied together and the bark fastened to the frame by
fibrous roots of the larch, then Hiawatha

Took the resin of the fir tree
Smeared therewith each seam and fissure,
Made each crevice safe from water.

The aborigine paddled this frail bark so skillfully that the noise of rowing
was scarcely audible or the waves visible. And when he came to the
headwaters of the stream he was able to raise the light craft above his head
and follow the dim trail across the lower lying hills to the stream beyond
the water-shed leading in the opposite direction.
The white man, profiting by the Red Man’s experience learned to build
these boats, as well as heavier ones of logs and timber for transporting
goods, and utilized the same trails to push his civilization farther into the
unknown.
Meagerness of Early Roads. —In the “History of Travel”[16] Mr.
Dunbar quotes from a document in the New York Historical Society’s
collection, written by Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of His Majesty’s
Province of New York, and dated 1694, which shows the lack of roadways
or even passable trails in northern New York: “It is impossible to march
with any party of men to Canada by Land, either in winter or summer, but
they must passe a Considerable Part of ye way over ye Lake, ye land on
each side being extream steep and Rocky mountains or els a meer cumbered
with underwood, where men can not goe upright, but must creep throu
Bushes for whole days’ marches, and impossible for horses to goe at any
time of ye year.”
The same author quotes from a letter by Deputy Governor Hinkley of
Plymouth Colony, about 1680, asking the English Government for favors
because this Colony was “the first that broke the ice, and underwent ye
brunt, at our own charge, for the enlargement of his Majestie’s dominions in
this heretofore most howling wilderness, amidst wild Indians and wild
beasts.”
In Massachusetts,[17] on the other hand, it is stated that while
communication was usually by water one writer boasts that “the wild and
uncouth woods were filled with frequented ways and the large rivers were
overlaid with bridges, passable both for horse and foot.” But
notwithstanding this it was probably not before the beginning of the
sixteenth century that any very serious attempts were made even to widen
the trails so that wagon traffic was possible. In 1754[18] four days were
needed to go from Boston to New York by stage, and three days more to go

to Philadelphia. Twelve years later it required the “Flying Machine” two
days to make the trip between New York and Philadelphia.
Settlement Follows Waterways; Portages. —The opening up for
settlement of new territory necessitated means of communication. That near
waterways was most easily reached and most easily kept within reach of
older settlements and was, therefore, naturally first taken up and occupied.
To penetrate farther the interior made it necessary to cross from one water
system to another. As necessity arose the trails were widened into roads and
often at these portages were established forts and villages for protection
against the natives and to facilitate trade. Villages grew into towns and
towns into cities. Portages became known and were talked about just as
railroad lines were later.[19] To go from the region near New York the
Hudson River was available to the watershed near Lake George, where
there was a 15-mile portage guarded by Forts Edward on the Hudson and
William Henry on Lake George. After traversing Lake George there was
another portage to Lake Champlain guarded by Fort Ticonderoga. These
names are often mentioned in the histories of the French and Indian and of
the Revolutionary wars.

MAP OF THE NORTH-EASTERN PORTION OF THE UNITED STATES SHOWING PORTAGES
Showing the Location of Well-known Portages. There Were Other Portages Wherever Two Water
Courses Came Near to Each Other. (See Farrand: “American Nation,” Vol. I, and Thwaites, Ib.
Vol. VII.)

The Oneida portage, leading from the Mohawk, a tributary of the
Hudson, to Wood Creek thence by the Oswego River furnished a way to
Ontario and the other Great Lakes. A portage around Niagara Falls is now
supplanted by the Welland Canal.
Lines of Travel. —To reach the Ohio Valley travelers might go by way of
the north along the routes just mentioned to the Great Lakes, thence to the
interior of Ohio, or they could leave the Mohawk and portage across to the
upper waters of the Allegheny. The Indians gave trouble along these lines,
so a more southerly route was often taken. Some of these, commencing on
the north, were: Up the Susquehanna to its headwaters, portage to one or the
other of tributaries which flow into the Allegheny near Kittanning; leave the
Susquehanna and go up the Juniata and portage over to the Conemaugh,
thence to the Allegheny—a course partly occupied now by the Pennsylvania
railroad; or, by way of the Potomac, and Wills Creek, then across the
Youghiogheny, and Monongahela. Several other trails crossed the
Alleghanies. A trail through southern Pennsylvania called occasionally

Nemacolin’s Path afterward formed the line of Braddock’s Road, hastily
constructed for military purposes during the French and Indian War, and
over which Braddock’s unfortunate expedition traveled. Still farther south
there was a well-known trail often followed by the Cherokee Indians, by
trappers, hunters, traders, and missionaries desirous of reaching the lands
beyond the mountains. Skirting the north end of the Blue Ridge range the
traveler followed up the Shenandoah to near the present town of Staunton,
thence across the ridges to the headwaters of the James, thence to upper
tributaries of the New River, then by crossing a few more ridges to the
Holston River, thence into the bountiful hunting grounds of Tennessee. The
Cherokee Indians were jealous of this territory and as far as possible kept it
closed to the settler. Therefore the country beyond the Alleghanies was not
well known to the Virginia colonists, even up to 1800. True, records of
Dougherty, a trader, who had visited the Indian tribes in this region as early
as 1690 were known, and another (Adair) in 1730, and still others after
1740. Glowing reports were brought back by the few traders, hunters,
trappers, and occasional talkative Indians, who had visited those regions of
magnificent rivers, vast woods, and extended prairies. The wild beasts with
which this fertile country abounded were likened to the leaves on the trees,
they were so abundant. Even the great Ohio River was but a tributary of a
larger river of which they had no definite information. The trip, in the
language of the Indian, from the headwaters of the Holston (Hogo higee) to
the Wabash (Ohio) required for its performance “two paddles, two warriors,
three moons.”[20] These glowing descriptions only whetted the adventurous
appetite and soon such hardy pioneers as Daniel Boone and his comrades
sought this territory where they could live near to nature and be freed from
high taxes. There was also a well-worn trail from Philadelphia, east of the
Cherokee (Shenandoah) through Virginia to the Yadkin, from which
travelers could diverge at various points and reach the Cherokee trail or go
on through Cumberland Gap farther to the west.
Trails from the North. —Traders from Virginia who reached far out in
Tennessee and Kentucky found competition from those who came down by
one of the several routes from the Great Lakes or up from the lower
Mississippi. A route left Lake Erie at what is now Cleveland, passed up the
Cuyahoga, portaged across to a tributary of the Ohio, then into Kentucky;
another left the Lake at Sandusky, followed the Miami, crossed to the

Scioto, thence down to the Ohio, across Kentucky to Cumberland Gap,
sometimes called the Scioto trail and farther south the Warrior’s Trail.
As western territory settled, trails and roads became more numerous.
Readers desiring further detailed information are referred to Hurlbert,
Thwaites, Dunbar, and Farrand.[21] A few other routes, however, should be
mentioned on account of the importance they assumed in the settlement of
the nation.
Boone’s Trace, or The Wilderness Road. —This road is said to be the
first road built into the wilderness for the purpose of encouraging settlement
and development. In the late years of the nineteenth century it was no
uncommon thing for a railroad to precede settlement, but at the beginning
of the eighteenth century roads were, in America, made largely for military
purposes or where demanded by the traffic of earlier settlement.
Daniel Boone, the noted hunter and explorer, had several times left his
home in North Carolina to hunt and travel in the wilds of Kentucky. He
brought back to the eastern side of the mountains glowing descriptions.
These excited the cupidity of a friend, a judge and prominent citizen of
North Carolina, James[22] Henderson. Henderson employed Boone to confer
with the Cherokee Indians who claimed this territory for the sale of their
rights. Boone sought out the Indians and by means now unknown got them
to agree to sell. The fact that they were persuaded to dispose of their great
hunting grounds shows what influence Boone had among them. It has been
intimated that the chiefs realized the futility of further fighting the white
settler or that the Cherokees felt they had no real right to this land as it had
been rather held as neutral territory among several tribes. However, as soon
as they had given their pledge Boone is said to have gone immediately to
Henderson, who repaired at once to Fort Watauga on a branch of the
Holston in North Carolina, where he met 1200 natives in council and
completed the deal in the name of the Transylvania Company. The main
opposition came from an eloquent and powerful chief named Dragging
Canoe,[23] who was able to disrupt proceedings the first day. After his
speech the council broke up in confusion. The next day, however, the
Indians again went into council and the treaty was ratified. Estimates of the
price paid range from “ten wagon loads of cheap goods and whiskey,” to
“the equivalent of ten thousand pounds sterling.”[24]
As soon as the deal was consummated Boone, employed by Henderson,
began the marking and cutting out of a road from Watauga, North Carolina,

to Boonesborough, Kentucky. The party numbered about forty men,
consisting of colored men to care for the camp duties and the necessary
pack animals and a body of woodsmen with axes. Boone went ahead and
blazed the way by chopping notches in the sides of trees along the way, the
axmen following cleared away the underbrush and felled and removed such
trees as stood in the way. However, as it was easier to detour than to chop,
usually only small trees were cut. It was not intended that this should be a
wagon road, as wagons had but just made their appearance in this region.
However, it was to be an easily followed way for future settlers. In Boone’s
Autobiography, dictated to John Filson, the matter of the road is referred to
thus:
After the conclusion of which (a campaign against the Shawanese Indians which Boone
commanded by order of Governor Dunmore), the militia was discharged from each garrison, and I,
being relieved from my post, was solicited by a number of North Carolina gentlemen, that were about
purchasing the lands lying on the north side of Kentucky River, from the Cherokee Indians, to attend
their treaty at Wataga, in March, 1755, to negotiate with them, and mention the boundaries of the
purchase. This I accepted; and, at the request of the same gentlemen, undertook to mark out a road in
the best passage from the settlement through the wilderness to Kentucky, with such assistance as I
thought necessary to employ for such an important undertaking.
I soon began this work, having collected a number of enterprising men, well armed. We proceeded
with all possible expedition until we came within fifteen miles of where Boonesborough now stands,
and where we were fired upon by a party of Indians, that killed two, and wounded two of our
number; yet, although surprised and taken at a disadvantage, we stood our ground. This was the 20th
of March, 1775. Three days after, we were fired upon again, and had two men killed and three
wounded. Afterwards we proceeded on to Kentucky River without opposition; and on the 1st of April
began to erect the fort of Boonesborough at a salt lick, about sixty yards from the river on the south
side.

A letter from Captain Boone to Colonel Henderson is quoted by Peck in
his life of Boone, relating to this same enterprise, which shows the
dangerous nature of the work and that even Boone seemed somewhat
worried over the matter:
Dear Colonel: After my compliments to you, I shall acquaint you with our misfortune. On March
the 25th a party of Indians fired on my company about half an hour before day, and killed Mr. Twitty
and his negro, and wounded Mr. Walker very deeply but I hope he will recover.
On March the 28th, as we were hunting for provisions, we found Samuel Tate’s son, who gave us
an account that the Indians fired on their camp on the 27th day. My brother and I went down and
found two men killed and scalped, Thomas McDowell and Jeremiah McPeters. I have sent a man
down to all the lower companies in order to gather them all to the mouth of Otter Creek. My advice
to you, sir, is to come or send as soon as possible. Your company is desired greatly, for the people are
very uneasy, but are willing to stay and venture their lives with you; and now is the time to flusterate
their (the Indians) intentions, and keep the country whilst we are in it. If we give way to them now, it
will ever be the case. This day we start from the battle-ground for the mouth of Otter Creek, where

we will immediately erect a fort, which will be done before you can come or send; then we can send
ten men to meet you if you send for them.
I am sir, your most obedient,
Daniel Boone.
N. B.—We stood on the ground and guarded our baggage till day, and lost nothing. We have about
fifteen miles to Cantuck at Otter Creek.

The road began “at the settlements,” which were probably in what are
now Sullivan and Hawkins counties. Tennessee, but mostly along the
Watauga River, then thought to be a part of Virginia. The road was a
continuation of the Cherokee trail through the mountains. This trail served
the great migration following the Revolutionary War in Tennessee and
Kentucky. From the settlements there is a westerly course to the Holston
River at Long Island near the site of old Long Island Fort constructed by
Colonel Bird to winter his army during the French and Indian War in 1758.
At this place he received some reinforcements and then continued in a
generally westward direction through country he was more or less familiar
with to the Clinch River, then across the ridge to the Powell River, and
finally to Cumberland Gap, through which he entered the land of
“Kentucke.” Here he arrived at the Warrior’s Trail leading northward, so
called because Kentucky had been a sort of neutral hunting grounds of the
Indians from the North, the Miamis, Shawnees, Wyandots, and others and
of the Cherokees, Creeks, Catawbas, and others, from the South.
Nevertheless the Indians from the South habitually crossed over and fought
those from the North and vice versa, hence a large and much frequented
trail.

MAP SHOWING MAIN HIGHWAYS AND WATERWAYS IN UNITED STATES ABOUT 1830
When the Railroads Entered the Industrial Arena, the Country Was Being Covered With a Net
Work of Highways. (Based on Tanner’s Map of 1825 and Turner in “American Nation,” Vol.
XIV.)

Boone appropriated this native route for a distance of about 50 miles to
near the present town of Manchester in Clay County. Here he found a
“street” made by the buffalo, which were wont to travel through the cane-
brakes about five or six abreast, thus with their thousands of hoofs breaking
and hardening a way wide enough for a team and wagon. Turning west he
followed the bisons’ street to Rock Castle River, then turned northward
again to the Kentucky River and the site of Boonesborough. A fort was here
erected by placing stout log cabins with heavy stockades between about a
rectangular space some 150 x 260 feet. A pair of strong wooden gates
furnished ingress and egress. Several times was this fort attacked by
Indians, the last time in 1778, by nearly 500 warriors, but always, because
of the block houses at the corners with their loop-holes and the heavy
barricades, also with loop holes, they were able to withstand the attacks and
finally repulse the Indians.
The first legislature of the Transylvania Republic, as Henderson’s scheme
came to be known, was held here. Boone was a member, as was Harrod

from Harrodstown, and other early settlers of Kentucky.
There is no doubt but that this highway and blockhouse fort were of great
assistance in settling and developing the country of Kentucke.
Calk’s Diary. —One of the first parties to make use of Boone’s Trace
was that of Henderson in response to Boone’s letter heretofore quoted. A
naïve diary kept by one of its members, William Calk, is still in existence. It
has been made available by the publications of the Filson Club. Speed[25]
and Dunbar[26] quote it extensively. Theodore (afterward President)
Roosevelt[27] says “the writer’s mind was evidently as vigorous as his
language was terse and untrammeled.” While spelling, capitalization, and
punctuation may not conform to the best modern style it must be
remembered that in those early days there were no public schools. A few
private schools were taught by more or less shiftless school teachers, but the
man who could read and write at all was fortunate. Boone’s schooling, of a
very meager nature, closed when he and some of his schoolmates
exchanged the teacher’s whisky bottle for a similar one doped with tartar
emetic. The sick teacher made a “rough house” with Boone and his
companions but was finally knocked down and the school dismissed.
To return to William Calk’s diary. It is a sort of log or running account of
the trip and events from day to day as they impressed him, from its
beginning March 13, 1775, in Prince William County, Virginia, till he
arrives at Boonesborough. It is certainly a very good commentary on the
early travel conditions. A few of the entries are:
1775, Mon. 13th—I set out from prince wm. to travel to Caintuck on tursday Night our company
all got together at Mr. Priges on rapadon which was Abraham hanks phipip Drake Eanock Smith
Robert Whitledge and myself thiar Abrahms Dogs leg got broke by Drakes Dog.
Wednesday, 15th—We started early from priges made a good days travel and lodge this night at
Mr. Cars on North fork James River.

So he continues with his daily items. It may be interesting to note that
Wedns 22nd—We start early and git to foart Chissel whear we git some good loaf bread and good
whiskey.

On “fryday 24th” they turned out of the main wagon road in order to go
to “Danil Smiths” on the Clinch River, where they arrived Saturday evening
and very hard traveling they found it through the mountains. Those who
have had experience with pack animals in the timber will relish this incident
which occurred soon after the few days’ sojourn at Smith’s.

Thusd 30th—We set out again and went down to Elk gardin and there suplid our Selves With Seed
Corn and irish tators then we went on a little way I turned my hors to drive before me and he got
scard ran away threw Down the Saddle Bags and broke three of our powder goards and Abrams beast
Burst open a walet of corn and lost a good Deal and made a turrable flustration amongst the Reast of
the Horses Drakes mair run against a sapling and nocht it down we cacht them all again and went on
and loged at John Duncans.

They “suplyed” themselves with bacon and meal at “Dunkan’s.” This
was their last chance to get provisions other than the game afforded by the
country. They found this a “verey Bad hilley way.” Were mired in the mud,
fell in the water and got their loads wet. Since they turned off to go to
Smith’s they had been traveling unbroken or dim trails; on “mond 3rd” after
traveling the woods without any track they “git into hendersons Road,” that
is the trail which Boone had recently blazed for the Transylvania Company.
On “Tuesday 4th” they overtook “Col. henderson and his company Bound
for Caintuck,” at Capt. Martin’s where “they were Broiling and Eating Beef
without Bread.” They now formed a company of about “40 men and some
neagros.”
Saturday 8th—We all pack up and started crost Cumberland gap about one oclock this Day. Met a
good many peopel turned back for fear of the indians but our Company goes on Still with good
courage.

News of the depredations of the Indians frightened many and caused
them to turn back. The Henderson party were able to pursuade some of
these to remain. On the 9th they met “another Companey going Back they
tell such News abram and Drake is afraid to go aney farther there we camp
this night.”
However, after many hardships, swollen streams over which they must
sometimes swim their horses, “obliged to toat” the packs over themselves,
they arrived at their destination. Once “Abrams mair Ran into the River
with her load and swam over” he followed her and “got on her and made
her swim back again.” He mentions occasionally Killing game: one
“Eavening two Deer,” another day a “beef,” and again “2 bofelos.” The
writer was evidently disgusted with the uncleanly and unsanitary Drake,
whose dog is mentioned in the first entry, for he notes that “Mr. Drake
Bakes Bread without washing his hands,” which evidently was unusual in
even these frontier times.
After arriving at “Boones foart” they drew “for chois of lots;” some as
will always happen were dissatisfied. This small company, however, must

have decided to accept the verdict of chance for Calk writes:
Wednesday 26th—We Begin Building us a house and a plaise of Defense to Keep the indians off
this day we begin to live without bread.
Satterday 29th—We git our house Kivered with Bark and move our things into it at Night and
Bigin houseKeeping Eanock Smith Robert Whitledge and myself.

Thus ends this interesting journal kept under difficult conditions when
ordinary men would have considered it useless labor to make such a record.
There is no doubt but that Boone’s Wilderness Road and Boone’s Fort were
both very instrumental in the settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee. The
territory of Kentucky was separated from Virginia in 1786 and admitted to
the union as a state in 1790, when it had a population, by U. S. Census, of
73,077.
Marquette’s Explorations. —Religious devotion and zeal has done
much for the settlement of North America: the Puritans in New England, the
Quakers in Pennsylvania, the Catholics in Maryland and Canada, and very
much later the Mormons in Utah are familiar examples. A French Jesuit
missionary, Jacques Marquette, who with another, Claude Bablon, had
founded (1668) a settlement at St. Mary’s on the falls between Lakes
Superior and Huron, said to be the first French settlement within the present
boundaries of the United States, had made friends with the Illinois Indians
and learned their language. He also collected the remains of the Huron
tribes at St. Ignace and established a mission there (1671). Marquette had
heard from the Indians many tales of the Great river to the west, and
decided to explore the region along its borders, despite their assertion of
great dangers, that its warriors never spared the stranger, and that monsters
would devour both men and canoes. Traveling with his company up the Fox
River from Green Bay he crossed the portage, which still retains the name
“Portage,” to the headwaters of the Wisconsin. With the explorer Joliet and
five subordinates as companions, he boldly embarked upon the Wisconsin
and floated down its course, knowing not where it would lead nor what
dangers might be in store. After seven days of solitary travel they floated
with inexpressible joy on the broad bosom of the Mississippi, June 17,
1673. They continued their lonely voyage along its placid waters until they
reached the mouth of the Moingona, where were seen evidences of
habitation. Fourteen miles in the interior was a native village. They said
they were received most friendly with a calumet, invited into their
dwellings, and feasted. They explained their religious doctrines and were

sent away with the gift of a calumet or peace pipe embellished with the
heads and necks of various colored bright and beautiful birds.
They sailed along their solitary way and were soon rewarded by hearing
the rush of the swifter, more turbulent, muddy waters of the Missouri,
which seemed from thereon to enhance the speed of the current. They went
on past the mouths of the Ohio and the Arkansas, where they found savages
who spoke a new tongue and were armed with guns, proof that they had
trafficked with the Spaniards from the Gulf of Mexico, or with the English
from Virginia. These exhibiting hostility which was only allayed by the
peace pipe, they retreated and sailed back up the river. When Marquette
reached the Illinois he entered and ascended that river where he beheld the
magnificent fertility and coloring inuring to the late summer and early
autumn of the extensive plains and vast wooded tracts of Illinois. An easy
portage brought him to the Chicago River, a short stream whose waters are
now reversed and flow into the Illinois. Some authorities claim Marquette
to have been the first white man to set foot upon the site of Chicago (1673).
Others[28] state that the French Jesuit Nicholas Perrot and his party of fur
traders pitched their tent on its prairies the latter part of 1669.
To Marquette, however, belongs the honor of discovering two very
important routes to the Mississippi Valley; the one by way of the Fox and
Wisconsin Rivers, and the other by way of the Illinois. Unfortunately the
hardships of this journey undermined his health and the next year (1674) a
half hour after he had retired for devotion to a small altar of stones on the
banks of a little stream now called by his name, he was found dead. Thus
judged by the extent and value of the territory traversed, passed away, at the
early age of thirty-one, one of our country’s greatest explorers.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition. —Another exploring expedition
sought a path to extend the commerce of the United States in the far Oregon
country. The great Rocky Mountain ranges precluded direct approach. The
idea had evidently fastened itself upon Thomas Jefferson, even before he
became president, that the Missouri River might be made the highway
across the continent, and that trade and commerce thus engendered would
inure to the benefit of the country. Also being a highly educated man, he
was deeply interested in extending the geographical and biological
knowledge of this vast region even though no remuneration to the nation
might come therefrom. Furthermore, it is possible, he desired to secure the
territories beyond the Rockies as a part of the country, but he was too

shrewd to make plain statements to that effect. His shrewdness and the
business sagacity of Livingston, minister to France, coupled with the
financial straits of Napoleon resulted in obtaining an extensive portion of
the country without which the United States could not have developed into
a strong well-bound nation reaching from coast to coast. Whether Mr.
Jefferson would have attempted to take this country by force matters not
now. The fact that the Lewis and Clark military expedition was ready to
start almost as soon as the purchase was made, lends suspicion to that idea.
The nomination of Monroe to be Minister to France, the man whom
Jefferson expected to conduct the Louisiana negotiations, and who arrived
in France just in time to see them completed by Livingston, was made
January 11, 1803; while the message proposing the expedition was
submitted January 18; the treaty of cession for the purchase was signed
May 2; and during that same month the expedition which had previously
organized left its winter quarters about a day’s journey from St. Louis, and
proceeded up the Missouri River. The expedition consisted of forty-five
persons in three boats, one a flat boat decked over at the ends and two
pirogues[29] together with a number of horses which were to be driven along
the bank for the use of the hunters. The personnel consisted of the two
officers, Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant (by courtesy Captain)
William Clark, both of whom were from families already distinguished in
border service; twenty-seven men who expected to make the entire journey;
seven soldiers and nine voyageurs who were to go only to the Mandan
villages of the Missouri, where the party would winter. Of the twenty-seven
permanent members one was a half-breed hunter who would also act as
interpreter, two were French voyageurs, and one a negro servant of Clark.
All, except the black slave, were enlisted in the army that discipline might
be secured. Their progress was necessarily slow and a full account of it
reads like a romance. They of course had to live off the country as they
proceeded. There was no roadway along the river, often the brush was thick
and the grass high; the river with its turbulent waters, snags, and sand bars
made navigation difficult; flies and mosquitoes, those pests of bottom and
marshy land, were abundant. They had some trouble with the Sioux Indians,
but Captains Lewis and Clark were evidently able to cope with them
successfully. They reached a point near the present site of Bismarck, N.D.,
that summer. This region was occupied by the Mandan Indians, who lived
in villages of rather permanent character. Among these they found some

who had traveled far toward the headwaters of the Missouri. One woman,
known as the Bird Woman, was especially helpful to them. She had been
captured some time previously from a mountain tribe and according to
Indian custom married to one of their own number, a half breed. During the
stay at winter quarters, in addition to writing up their journals and records
very carefully, they cultivated the acquaintance of this woman. She, with
her half breed husband and small child, accompanied the expedition when it
began its onward journey in the spring of 1805. There was real need for
them not only to act as guides and interpreters, but to replace those who had
been sent back down the river with reports of the progress and observations
of the expedition up to this time. Part of the duties of the expedition, as
heretofore intimated, was to note the character and productivity of the land,
as well as the nature and number of Indians found and general information
concerning them and their mode of living.
When the falls of the Missouri were reached there seemed to be an
impasse. But from logs and other timbers found there they constructed a
crude wagon on which their supplies and equipment were transported to the
river above. They had brought with them the iron framework of a smaller
boat than those used heretofore with the idea of covering it with stretched
skins. They found difficulty, however, in getting it watertight. They
attempted to get pitch by heating pine tree trunks but were again
unsuccessful. They resorted finally to a combination of powdered charcoal,
beeswax, and buffalo tallow—practically natural products of the land. The
boat floated nicely and they were greatly encouraged but when it was taken
from the water the mixture dropped off and the seams opened up. Lewis
finally gave up the attempt and buried the framework and built canoes
according to the Indian fashion. In passing up they came to forks in the
river and were often at a loss which to take. By conference with the Indian
woman and reports of scouts sent ahead they were usually fortunate in
choosing the right course. Being explorers of a new country they assigned
names to the rivers as they discovered them. At three forks, they called the
rivers, Gallatin, Madison, and Jefferson, names which they still retain.
Three branches of the Jefferson were Philosophy, Philanthropy, and
Wisdom; these names have not remained—probably they were too fanciful
—the Philanthropy is now the odoriferous Stinking Water.
They followed up the Jefferson until it became too shallow and
precipitous to navigate longer. Lewis started out overland into the interior

hoping to find an Indian habitation and someone who would guide him to
waters flowing Pacificward. Game, which had been very abundant
practically all the way, was here scarce and the company were often hungry,
and very likely despondent. After arduous and weary wandering Lewis
came across an old Indian woman and some girls. They were afraid of him
and bowed their heads for execution. Instead he gave them trinkets and face
paint. The men of the tribe having come up he with difficulty persuaded
them to go with him to the river where the “Bird Woman” who had come
with them from the Mandan village was recognized as the sister of the chief
of the band with which Lewis had fortunately come in contact.
Their food up to this time, which was mostly meat, was easily supplied
from the numerous herds of buffalo, elk, deer, and antelope; from flocks of
wild fowl, and prairie chickens; and from several varieties of fish found in
the waters. “On the return voyage, when Clark was descending the
Yellowstone River, a vast herd of buffalo, swimming and wading, plowed
its way across the stream where it was a mile wide, in a column so thick
that explorers had to draw up on shore and wait for an hour, until it passed
by, before continuing their journey.”[30] They frequently found hungry
wolves, grizzly bears, and rattlesnakes which gave them more or less
trouble, but they complained mostly of the mosquitoes.
But now having left the open country they found game very scarce. The
Indians occasionally brought them a Rocky Mountain sheep but they
themselves claim never to have seen one alive. After a short exploration in
the region of the headwaters of the Jefferson they decided to continue
toward the west. So purchasing ponies from the Indians and cacheing most
of their goods went on until the rivers were again passable for boats, where
making new canoes they again took to the waters and voyaged to the mouth
of the Columbia. Hunger harassed them, while rapids and whirlpools made
their downward travel very disagreeable. The Indians on the lower reaches
were generally friendly but their food consisted largely of dog meat, which
at first was nauseating; however, after awhile they became reconciled to the
Indians’ favorite dish.
The party wintered on the coast at a post they named Fort Clatsch. The
damp winds here were cold and raw and to persons used to active outdoor
life the winter’s enforced idleness cloyed, and they were glad when spring
came and they could turn back. The streams toward the mountains are very
swift so much of the return journey to the place where they had left their

horses with the Nez Percé Indians had to be made on foot. Upon again
securing their horses they separated at the top of the divide, Lewis returning
by way of the Missouri and Clark going by way of the Yellowstone. Clark
for a portion of the way subdivided his party in order that the maximum
territory might be explored. They met again at the confluence of the
Missouri and Yellowstone and concluded their expedition at St. Louis,
September 23, 1806. Thus ended a marvelous journey of three and a third
years through a wilderness beset with many dangers, inhabited by savage
tribes, venomous reptiles, and ferocious beasts; but a wilderness on the
whole extremely friendly, abounding in succulent vegetation and edible
game, and endowed with a healthful and invigorating climate. During all
this time, notwithstanding hardships and exposures, one man only had died,
one had deserted and not more than two Indians had been killed.[31] To
Lewis and Clark for their ability to handle men, for their courage, and
fidelity should be given much praise.
Upon the report of this expedition being made public very many hunters,
trappers and fur traders came to the lands beyond the Missouri. These in
turn were followed by bona-fide settlers. Soon this country was furnishing
supplies for those farther east, the great rivers Missouri, Mississippi, and
Ohio being busy routes of internal commerce. As a result of Lewis and
Clark’s labors the United States was able to lay claim to the Oregon country
some years later. The door was opened for the development of a vast empire
with versatile resources far beyond the fabled riches of the far east.
Transcontinental Trails. —Following the purchase of the Louisiana
territory there was, of course, an extension of settlement to the prairies
beyond the Missouri. The State of Missouri was early occupied and became
a state in 1821, but it was many years later before other portions of the
Louisiana Purchase were sufficiently settled to become territories.[32] The
settlement of these lands, together with the opening up of Oregon and later
California with its great gold rush, created a demand for transcontinental
roads. The mountain ranges were searched for passes, possibly not so much
for the purposes of settlement as means for going to and coming from fur
trading posts which large companies established throughout the whole
Rocky Mountain region. St. Louis became the greatest fur center in the
world, a position which she probably holds still.[33] Provost, leader of a
detachment of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company (Wm. H. Ashley, of
Virginia, founder), found the South Pass by way of the Sweetwater branch

of the North Fork of the Platte River, 1823. This pass held preëminence as a
crossing through the Rockies to the great interior basin and to the Pacific
coast. Already has been mentioned the crossing of Lewis and Clark in the
North. Bridger discovered the pass in Southern Wyoming bearing his name,
about 1824. This defile though wide enough for an army to pass through
seems narrow because of its lateral walls of red granite and metamorphic
sandstone extending almost perpendicularly from 1000 to 25,000 feet. The
overland mail route prior to the building of the Union Pacific Railroad was
through this pass. Jedediah Smith, who succeeded Ashley as head of the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company, explored practically all the region from
Great Salt Lake to the Pacific, and from San Diego to the upper Columbia
River in Canada. To him is the world indebted for its first knowledge of
much of the vast region west of Salt Lake as by other active members of
this company was revealed the sources of the Platte, the Yellowstone, the
Green and the Snake Rivers, and possible routes through the almost
impassable mountains drained by them. New England was especially
interested in the Oregon country and through men from there the Humboldt
River route was discovered.
During this same period there were being opened up trade and trade
routes with the Spanish possessions farther south. In 1822 a wagon train
was taken from Missouri to Santa Fé by a man named Beckwith to trade for
horses and mules, and trap along the way. For years St. Louis was
headquarters for many overland traders to these regions, taking to them
cloths and other manufactured goods and bringing back furs, silver, mules,
and horses.

TRANSCONTINENTAL TRAILS IN THE UNITED STATES

The Oregon Trail, the Santa Fé Trail, the Spanish Trail and the Gila
Route, had become quite well known by the early ’thirties and after the
discovery of gold in California in ’forty-nine carried many people and much
traffic across the continent.
Origin of the Oregon Trail. —At Bellevue the Nebraska State Historical
Society erected, June 23, 1910, a monument a part of the inscription on
which reads:
Commemorative of the Astorian Expedition organized June 23, 1810, by John Jacob Astor’s
American Fur Company. This Expedition discovered the Oregon Trail which spread knowledge of
the Nebraska country leading to its occupancy by white people.

John Jacob Astor’s purpose in organizing the Pacific Fur Company, a
subsidiary of the American Fur Company, was to establish himself and
American control in the already disputed Oregon country.[34] As a result
two expeditions were fitted out to go to and establish trading posts in
Oregon with a central control or main post at Astoria. One of these
expeditions went by water around Cape Horn to “carry out the people,
stores, ammunition and merchandise, requisite for establishing a fortified
trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River.” The other “conducted by
Mr. Hunt, was to proceed up the Missouri, and across the Rocky Mountains,

to the same point: exploring a line of communication across the continent,
and noting the place where interior trading posts might be established.”[35]
The overland expedition, consisting of about sixty men with four boats
left their winter quarters in Missouri and proceeded up the river in the
spring of 1811. They deviated somewhat from Lewis and Clark’s route by
leaving the Missouri River at the mouth of the Grand River, near where the
Pacific extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul railroad crosses.
They seem to have gone across the country north of the Black Hills into
Wyoming to the Wind River and Wind Mountains south of the Yellowstone
Park, using present-day terms for locations; thence a short distance to the
head waters of the Snake River, a part of the Lewis and Clark route, which
with some deviations they followed to the Columbia. At the mouth of the
Columbia they met the sea party, and on July 28, 1812, a party of six men
started back with dispatches. They wintered near Scott’s Bluff, Nebraska,
having crossed the mountains substantially along the line afterwards known
as the Oregon Trail. In the spring of 1813 they continued down the Platte to
the Missouri. This trip proved the possibility of a direct route avoiding the
long roundabout journey by way of the headwaters of the Missouri River.
The evolution of the Oregon Trail has been summarized by Albert Watkins,
Historian of the Nebraska State Historical Society, in Collections, Vol. XVI,
p. 26, as follows:[36]
The Missouri Fur Company sent an expedition of 150 men to the upper waters of the Missouri in
1809. The powerful and ferocious Black Feet Indians, who were the providence of the Oregon Trail,
discouraged the attempts of these men to gain permanent foothold there. Part of them retreated and
another part, headed by the intrepid Henry, crossed the mountain divide in the fall of 1810 and
established Fort Henry on Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. This was the beginning of the southern
movement. In 1821 Pilcher, who succeeded Lisa as head of the Missouri Fur Company, made another
attempt at a foothold in the Black Feet country, but was forced back. Ashley, leader of the Rocky
Mountain Fur Company, organized in 1822, was also beaten back in 1823. By this time Henry was
discouraged about holding on to the upper Missouri and turned his attention to permanent
exploitation of the Green River valley. In that year Provost made the important discovery of South
Pass. In 1824, Ashley conducted an expedition to the lower fields along the regular trail except that
he went to Council Bluff and from there west up the Platte Valley. In 1830, his great lieutenants,
Smith, Jackson and Sublette, went west with a train of fourteen wagons—the first to go to the
mountains over the cut-off; that is, up the Little Blue valley to its head, across to the Platte, following
the river to the mountains. In 1832 Bonneville also went over the cut-off and took a wagon train over
the South Pass, the first wagons to cross the mountains. In 1832 Nathaniel Wyeth went over the cut-
off to Oregon, but did not take wagons over the mountainous part of the course. In 1836 Marcus
Whitman, one of the intrepid winners and founders of Oregon, went almost through to the Columbia
with a wagon, thus demonstrating and illustrating the practicability of a transcontinental road for all
purposes. The Oregon Trail was now clearly outlined. It was thoroughly established in 1842 by the
aggressive Oregon emigration.

The Final Trail. —The Trail as finally adopted and used by emigrants
and freighters to Oregon in the “forties” started from Independence and
Westport (outfitting stations near the present metropolis of Kansas City,
Missouri) then followed in a general way the Kansas, Big Blue, and Little
Blue Rivers to near the Platte, crossing over to the latter river a short
distance west of the present city of Kearney. The trail here proceeded up the
South bank to the forks, and from there up the North Fork to the
Sweetwater which it followed through South Pass. Thence it bore
southwestward, westward, and northwestward to the Snake River which
was followed to a point about west of Boise where a cutoff was made
through the Blue Mountains arriving at the Columbia River about the mouth
of the Umatilla, thence down the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean.
Salt Lake Trail. —Many variations of the above described trail were in
use. Travelers up the Missouri River disembarked at St. Joseph, Nebraska
City, Plattsmouth and especially at Council Bluffs. The great Mormon trek
was made from the last-named place. They reached the Platte River west of
Omaha and followed it on the north bank, paralleling the Oregon Trail from
Fort Kearney to Fort Laramie, where they crossed over and joined with the
Oregon Trail through South Pass then leaving that trail turned south and
west to Great Salt Lake.
Later California Trail. —A continuation of the Salt Lake route north of
Great Salt Lake and along the Humboldt River, across the desert to near
Lake Tahoe, where there was a crossing through the Sierra Nevada
Mountains, the Truckee Pass, thence to the Gold Diggings or across
California by way of the American and Sacramento Rivers, was a trail very
popular to California gold miners and was afterwards used by the overland
stage, and known as the Later California Trail.
Santa Fé Trail. —This road passed westward and a little south to the
Arkansas River, which it followed to Bent’s Fort (Colorado), thence up
Timpas Creek and over the Raton Pass to Las Vegas (New Mexico). Then
westward through Apache Cañon to Santa Fé. This trail was too rough for
wagon traffic, so later a route which crossed over south from the Arkansas
to the Cimarron and meeting the old trail at Las Vegas was used.
Gila and Spanish Trails. —Two routes were possible from Santa Fé.
One southwestward by way of the Rio Grande and Gila Rivers into
southern California. The other took a northwesterly direction up the Chama
River, down the Dolores Valley, and across to the Grand River near the

present site of Moab, Utah. Then west to the Sevier, up which it followed
until it crossed over to the Virgin River; up this for a short distance then
turned directly south-west across the Mohave desert toward Los Angeles.
This last route received the name of Spanish Trail.
Many of these trails were difficult on account of scarcity of water in the
deserts. Descriptions of early travel over them are replete with hardships,
sickness, and deaths. Some of the graves were marked with wooden, stone,
or iron markers with names roughly chiseled, but more received no marking
whatsoever. Many travelers and settlers were killed by the Indians; the
tribes apparently becoming more hostile as the number of whites increased
until their own numbers became so decimated they could no longer
command sufficient warriors to warrant further attacks. It would seem as
though no advance in civilization is unaccompanied by its toll of human
lives.
Era of Turnpiking. —The need of better transportation facilities was
“borne in” on the people of the eastern part of the country long before the
west had been developed. The Indian trail, a single path,—for they always
traveled in single file—gave way to the “tote path” over which each year
the settler’s surplus crops were transported to market on pack animals. Even
if they owned wheeled vehicles the roads were generally so bad they could
not be used. However, wheeled vehicles were not many prior to 1800.
When Braddock wished to transport his army to western Pennsylvania he
called upon the colonies for wagons, but Maryland and Virginia furnished
only twenty-five. He appealed to Franklin, who by his influence was able to
secure 154 wheeled vehicles[37] from Pennsylvania, probably the best
supplied with wagons of all the colonies.
It was the custom for communities to join together after crops were
gathered to start a caravan of packers to market.[38] A master driver with
one or two assistants could manage a pack-train of a dozen or so horses.
“Hides and peltries, ginseng, and bear’s grease” are mentioned as articles to
be bartered for salt, iron, nails, pewter plates and dishes, and cloth and
articles of clothing, although the latter were usually made at home. The
horses traveled in single file each fitted with a natural crotch of wood for a
tree. Hobbles and bells were provided that the horses could be turned loose
to graze at night. Sometimes packs had to be taken off to be carried over
streams or through narrow defiles. Naturally, methods of transportation had
much influence on the character of the crops raised. Stock—cows, sheep,

and pigs—could be driven to market by the raiser or sold to a drover who
acted as a middleman. Farm products were concentrated by being fed to
stock or manufactured into something requiring less space. Settlers
complained that it required two bushels of grain to get one to market.
Whisky and brandy were easily made, served to concentrate the grain and
surplus fruit and always had a ready sale. When the government placed an
excise tax on it the opposition was so great as to produce an insurrection in
Pennsylvania (1794). Had there been good transportation facilities probably
there never would have been a “Whisky Rebellion.” Sixteen gallons (two
kegs) of whisky worth $1.00 per gallon east of the Alleghanies was a horse
load; whereas the same animal would only pack about two bushels of grain
worth, perhaps, 80 cents. That packing was a business of considerable
importance is shown by a statement in “The History and Topography of
Dauphin (and) Cumberland Counties (Pa.)” quoted by Dunbar: “Sixty or
seventy years ago five hundred pack horses had been at one time in
Carlisle, going thence to Shippenburg, Fort London and further westward.”
This was written in 1848.
Naturally so much traffic induced men to make packing a means of
livelihood. They became so numerous and strong that when wagons began
to take over the business of freighting they considered it an infringement
upon their vested rights. But as goods could be transported more easily and
cheaply by wagon the old had to make way for the new. Wagon roads and at
first two-wheeled then four-wheeled vehicles began to appear. This created
a demand for better roads. At first that consisted in merely widening the
packtrain trails. But about the beginning of the nineteenth century,
Tresaguet in France, and Macadam and Telford, in Great Britain, were
building broken-stone roads which greatly changed and augmented the
internal commerce and the industry of those countries. The most populous
and wealthy of the colonies likewise began to consider the road question. A
few military roads, such as Braddock’s, had been constructed; there was a
road along the coast of Massachusetts, and some roads and bridges in the
interior, there were roads connecting the larger cities as from Boston to
New York and from New York to Philadelphia. The cities in order to retain
and extend their trade needed highways of commerce.
Turnpike Roads. —The construction of turnpike roads many of which
were stoned was encouraged by a number of the states, especially by
Pennsylvania. The Lancaster turnpike from Philadelphia to Lancaster was

“stoned” in 1792 by throwing on it stones of all sizes. These were
afterwards removed and stones “passing a 2-inch ring” substituted. This is
said to have been the first scientifically built hard surfaced road in America.
In 1800 Pennsylvania fostered the construction of a system of turnpikes
(toll roads), by granting franchises and subscribing stock, which was
eventually to cover the state and control the western market. By 1828 there
had been 3110 miles of chartered turnpike in Pennsylvania costing over
$8,000,000. These thousands of miles of fine turnpike roads including many
good bridges placed Pennsylvania in the lead for internal improvements.
But other states were similarly employed. New York and New England by
1811 had chartered 317 turnpikes.[39] Virginia appropriated funds “to be
used exclusively for river improvements, canals and public highways,” in
1816. South Carolina voted a million dollars, in 1818, to be raised in four
annual levies for similar purposes.
During these years the states were opening public roads but the only
good roads were those built by the turnpike companies, which erected gates
and collected tolls every few miles. This resulted in a higher cost of
transportation than was liked by the public who clamored for free roads and
canals. They were wanted by both the producer and the merchant. The
turnpikes were opposed to anything which would tend to reduce their
control of transportation.
Wagon Road Desuetude. —The introduction of the steam railway with
its quicker, better, and cheaper form of transportation put out of existence
the freighting and coaching business of the turnpikes, in fact of all wagon
roads. Roads which had had a thriving trade found their toll boxes scarcely
held enough to maintain the gate keeper. As there was no adequate system
of maintenance, although many of them had been macadamized, they
gradually fell into a state of disrepair. Freighters and coachers gravitated
westward or took shorter runs as feeders to the railroads. Turnpikes, built as
private or semi-private enterprises, were gradually being taken over by the
public and maintained by local road overseers. The old practice of calling
on the freeholders to work out their road tax annually was in vogue and is
still in use in places. By it no road was ever kept at a high state of
efficiency. Even the National highway, the Cumberland Road, which had
been constructed to Vandalia, Illinois, and surfaced with stone to Columbus,
Ohio, at an expense to the nation of nearly seven millions of dollars, had
lost its ardent supporters. Jackson’s theory that national money should only

be spent for roads in territories, and the states’ right idea that each state
should be the unit of government and look after all its own internal affairs,
seemed to prevail. As a result wagon road building further than to make a
mere way for crop marketing at odd seasons of the year stood still until
bicycle enthusiasts began an agitation for better roads about 1890.
However, a real awakening to the advantages of good roads came only after
the advent of the automobile about 1900.
National Participation. —The Revolutionary War had shown the need of
roadways for quick intercourse between the seaboard and the trans-
Alleghany regions. The efforts of the different states, still retaining their
colonial jealousies, to secure the control of the trade of these regions
emphasized the need of a unifying influence which would bring harmony.
The debate proceeded in a desultory fashion for a number of years. Strict
constitutionalists did not believe the national government has the authority
to construct roads at all. States’ rights men argued that road construction is
the province of the states and the National Government has jurisdiction only
in the territories. On March 29, 1806, President Thomas Jefferson approved
a bill to survey and construct a road from a point on the Potomac near
Cumberland to the Ohio River near Steubenville popularly known as the
Cumberland or National road, and appropriated therefor $30,000. This was
in the minds of friends of government control to be the beginning; there was
increasing need of travel and traffic facilities from the Hudson to the Great
Lakes, from the Delaware to the Ohio; from Virginia and the Carolinas to
Kentucky and Tennessee, to say nothing of north and south routes, which
unfortunately did not mature in time to prevent the great Civil War a half-
century later.
Alfred Gallatin and Henry Clay sponsored the Cumberland Road. The
former in compliance with the wish of Congress (1808) drew up a scheme
for a national system of internal improvements by roads and canals at an
annual expense of $2,000,000 for ten years. But its opponents were able to
stay it off and the war of 1812 coming on caused financial troubles and the
entire scheme was indefinitely postponed.
The first appropriation for the Cumberland Road had been made, not
from the general funds of the government, but from the proceeds of the
sales of land, a fiction, of course, for the benefit of the strict
constitutionalists. Gradually, however, Congress came to accept the doctrine
of “implied powers.” Madison in his last message invited the attention of

Congress “to the expediency of exercising their existing powers and, where
necessary, of resorting to the prescribed mode of enlarging them, in order to
effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals, such as will have
the effect of drawing more closely together every part of the country, by
promoting intercourse and improvements and by increasing the share of
every part of the common stock of national prosperity.”[40]
Up to this time there had been completed only 23 miles of the road. In
1816, $300,000 was appropriated for its completion; two years later
$260,000 was voted; but a proposal to appropriate $600,000 for internal
improvements failed in 1817, as did also a bill providing for the extension
of the Cumberland Road. But as a result of the labor of Henry Clay, Albert
Gallatin, Thomas Jefferson, President James Madison, and other friends of
cheap and rapid transit, by 1820 the total of Congressional appropriations
for the Cumberland Road amounted to more than $1,500,000; in 1844 the
thirty-fourth appropriation made a total of nearly $7,000,000.[41] The
growth of the road was slow: the first contract was let in 1811 for 10 miles;
contracts for short sections were let from year to year and the road by 1817
had crawled, following approximately the Nemacolin Path, with the
Potomac through the Cumberland gateway over the Alleghany range by
way of Negro Mountain at an elevation of 2325 feet, down to the
Youghiogheny, past the scene of Braddock’s defeat and the cairn which
marks his resting place, through the Laurel Hill Range over to Brownsville
within reach of Pittsburgh, thence westward slightly north through
Washington (Pennsylvania), to Wheeling (West Virginia) on the Ohio River.
Thus had the old Indian trail developed into a route for Washington and
his band to Fort Necessity; into Braddock’s road to Great Meadows; into a
pack train trail trampled by thousands of caravan hoofs; and, finally, into a
finished paved highway cleared to 66 feet in width, having no grade above
5 per cent which Washington and Jefferson and Madison had visions would
be the means of binding together with the strong bands of commerce the
cis- and trans-Alleghanian countries.
Extension of the Cumberland Highway. —The road immediately
proved its worth. The mail coaches were placed upon it; great freight lines
were established having their own stage houses and depots in towns along
its way; inns and hotels thrived; apparently the “pulse of the nation beat to
the steady throb of trade along its highway.”[42] Like the Appian Way it
became noted the world over. The National, Good Intent, June Bug, and

Pioneer stage coach lines were common names as are the Pennsylvania,
New York Central, Burlington, and Union Pacific railroad lines of to-day.
The coming to town of these coaches, which had developed from the plain
square box, through the oval type to the finished Concord painted in
brilliant colors, perhaps bearing the name of some prominent personage,
drawn by four and six horses, with the proud and arrogant driver often
better known than the eminent patrons whose names now grace the pages of
history, was an important event in the work of the day. Hardly had the stage
stopped before the hostlers were busy changing the horses, taking the tired
animals to rub-down, rest, and feed, bringing on fresh high-stepping spirited
ones, champing their bits, apparently very anxious for a galloping start
toward the next post; the passengers were alighting to stretch their legs, rest
and refresh themselves at nearby food “emporiums” or select an inn from
among the claims of numerous barkers; agents were transferring and
recording baggage, mail, and express; and the curiosity loungers constituted
most of the remaining populace. The stage driver, Westover, made a record
of forty-five minutes for the 20 miles between Uniontown and Brownsville,
while “Red” Bunting’s drive of 131 miles, with the declaration of war
against Mexico, in twelve hours remains, like Paul Revere’s ride, a part of
the nation’s history.
The amount of traffic over the National road was tremendous. The annual
traffic was probably not less than 3000 wagons.[43] One firm in Wheeling is
said to have, during the first five years of its existence, done a business of
over 5000 wagons carrying 2 tons each.[44] A view of the road must have
been interesting, for the Conestoga wagons with their sway-backed canvas
covers were said to have been “visible all day long,[45] at every point,
making the highway look more like a leading avenue of a great city than a
road through rural districts.... I have staid over night with William Cheets
on Nigger (Negro) Mountain when there were about thirty six-horse teams
in a wagon yard, a hundred Kentucky mules in an adjoining lot, a thousand
hogs in their enclosures, and as many fat cattle in adjoining fields. The
music made by this large number of hogs eating corn on a frosty night I
shall never forget. After supper and attention to the teams, the waggoners
would gather in the bar-room and listen to the music on the violin furnished
by one of their fellows, have a Virginia hoe-down, sing songs, tell
anecdotes, and hear the experience of drivers and drovers from all points of
the road, and, when it was over, unroll their beds, lay them down on the

floor before the bar room fire side by side, and sleep with their feet near the
blaze as soundly as under a parental roof.”
Ah! where is the poet whose facile pen will engrave upon the tablets of
literature the tales of these men as has Longfellow the “Tales of a Wayside
Inn” in Sudbury Town so alike, where:
... from the parlor of the inn
A pleasant murmur smote the ear,
Like water rushing through a weir;
Oft interrupted by the din
Of laughter and of loud applause;
And, in each intervening pause,
The music of a violin.

The success of the Cumberland Road to the Ohio created demands for its
extension. In conformity to this demand $10,000 was appropriated in 1820
to lay out a road from Wheeling to the Mississippi River near St. Louis.
This continuation was for a road 80 feet wide and in spite of much
congressional objection and occasional presidential vetoes, the road was
pushed on; the last appropriation being made for a portion west of the Ohio,
May 25, 1838. The exact total of all appropriations amounted to
$6,824,919.33. The road proper reached southern Illinois.

Courtesy of Prof. P. K. Slaymaker
WAY BILL USED ON SLAYMAKER STAGE LINE FROM LANCASTER TO PHILADELPHIA,
1815

States wanted appropriations for other roads, but these were pretty
generally vetoed. One important case was the veto, 1830, by Jackson of the
bill authorizing a subscription by the United States for stock in the
Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Road Company. The company
was incorporated in Kentucky to build a road from the Cumberland Road at
Tanesville, Ohio, to Florence, Alabama, on the Tennessee River, which had
been surveyed by U. S. engineers in 1827. Maysville, through which the
road was to pass, was on the south side of the Ohio River, and did
considerable trade in Kentucky and Tennessee. A census was taken of the
existing road, admitted to be in bad condition, showing an average daily
traffic of 351 persons, 33 carriages and 51 wagons. The $150,000 to be
subscribed by the government was not to be paid until an equal amount had
been subscribed in equal parts by the State of Kentucky and private
individuals. Other bills of a similar character were before Congress, one for
a road from Buffalo to New Orleans having been laid on the table, and
opponents of the bill insisted any road anywhere could be as well regarded
to be a national road as could be the Maysville road. The Washington
Turnpike Company bill of a similar tenor was vetoed.[46] Jackson evidently
doubted the constitutional right of the government to enter into internal
projects of this character. In his message to Congress he had conceded that
“every member of the Union, in peace and in war, will be benefited by the
improvement of inland navigation and the construction of highways in the
several states,” he noted the opposition to methods heretofore adopted as
unconstitutional and inexpedient. He therefore proposed an amendment to
the constitution, to be submitted if it could not otherwise be done, whereby
the surplus revenue might be appropriated to the several states in proportion
to their representation in Congress for the purpose of internal
improvements. State sovereignty was always to be maintained.
In 1838 when the road had reached Southern Illinois a new element
entered the industrial world. The railroads were proving their ability to
compete most successfully with other forms of transportation. The building
of national highways ceased; canal and river transportation were practically
put out of business with the entrance of this new leviathan.

SELECTED REFERENCES

Adams, Henry, “Life of Albert Gallatin,” Edited by Henry Adams, Vol. I, pp. 78, 79, 305, 309, 370,
395. J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia.
Boone, Daniel, “Autobiography,” dictated to John Filson, 1784, is given also as an appendix to
Hartley’s “Life of Daniel Boone.”
Calk, William, “Diary of” in Filson Club publications.
Doddridge, Joseph, “Notes on the Settlement of Indian Wars.” Chaps. I, XIII, XVIII, XXIV; First
publication, 1824, Third—Rittenour & Linsey, Pittsburgh, 1912.
Dunbar, Seymour, “A History of Travel in America,” 4 volumes, 1915, Bobbs-Merrill Co.,
Indianapolis.
Early, Alice Morse, “Stage Coach and Tavern Days.”
Channing, Edward, “The Jefferson System,” Vol. XII, The American Nation Series, Harper &
Brothers, New York.
Farrand, L., “Bases of American History,” Vol. II of the American Nation Series, Harper &
Brothers, New York.
Hartley, Cecil B., “Life of Daniel Boone,” 1865, Porter & Coates, Philadelphia.
Howard, George E., “Preliminaries of the Revolution,” Vol. VIII of the American Nation Series,
Harper & Brothers, New York.
Howe, Henry, “History of the West.”
Hurlbert, A. B., “Historic Highways of America,” 16 volumes, 1902-05, A. H. Clark Company,
Cleveland, O.
Hurlbert, A. B., “The Paths of Inland Commerce,” Chronicles of America Series, Vol. 21, New
Haven, 1920.
Irving, Washington, “Astoria,” Irving’s Works, Vol. I, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York.
Longfellow, Henry W., “Poetical Works,” Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.
McMaster, John Bach, “History of the United States,” Vol. V, Chap. XLIV, D. Appleton &
Company, New York.
Monette, John W., “History of the Valley of the Mississippi,” Vol. II, Chap. II, pp. 52-58, Harper &
Brothers, New York, 1846.
“Register of Debates in Congress,” Vol. VI, pp. 433-435, 806, and 820. Published by order of
Congress, 13 Vol. Washington, 1825-37.
Richardson, James D., “Messages and Papers of the Presidents.” 8 volumes, Government Print,
Washington.
Roosevelt, Theodore, “Winning of the West,” Vols. I, II and IV. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York,
1889.
Speed, Thomas, “The Wilderness Road,” No. 2 of the Filson Club publications, Louisville, 1886.

Turner, Frederick J., “Rise of the New West,” Vol. XIV of the American Nation Series, Harper &
Brothers, New York.
Tyler, L. G., “England in America,” Vol. IV of the American Nation Series, Harper & Brothers, New
York.
U. S. Census review of “Agencies of Transportation,” 1880.
Watkins, Albert, “The Oregon Trail,” Nebraska State Historical Society Collections, Vol. XVI, p.
26 et seq.

FOOTNOTES

[16] “A History of Travel,” by Seymour Dunbar.
[17] “The American Nation,” “England in America,” by L. G. Tyler. Vol. IV, p. 322.
[18] “American Nation,” Vol. VIII, p. 15.
[19] Cf. “Historic Highways of America,” by A. B. Hurlbert, and “Basis of American
History” (Vol. II of “The American Nation”), by L. Farrand.
[20] Ramsey’s “Annals of Tennessee.”
[21] “Historic Highways of America,” by A. B. Hurlbert, 16 volumes, 1902-05, A. H. Clark
Company, Cleveland. A series of annotated reprints of some of the best contemporary volumes of
travel in America, compiled by Reuben Gold Thwaites, 1904-07, 32 volumes, A. H. Clark Co.,
Cleveland.
“A History of Travel in America,” by Seymour Dunbar, 4 volumes, 1915, Bobbs-Merrill
Company, Indianapolis, Ind.
“Basis of American History,” Chapter II, “Routes of Travel,” Vol. II of the American Nation
Series, by Livingston Farrand, 1907, Harper & Brothers, New York. There is good bibliography in
this volume.
[22] Cecil B. Hartley in his “Life of Daniel Boone,” gives the name of the head of this
company as Colonel Richard Henderson.
[23] “The Winning of the West,” Vol. II, by Theodore Roosevelt.
[24] Dunbar’s “History of Travel,” Vol. I. Roosevelt’s “Winning of the West,” Vol. II.
[25] “The Wilderness Road.”
[26] “A History of Travel in America.”
[27] “Winning of the West.”
[28] Henry Howe.
[29] A pirogue proper is a canoe dug out of a single log. These may have been and probably
were keel boats built of timber and the name pirogue extended to them colloquially.
[30] “The Winning of the West,” Vol. VI, by Theodore Roosevelt.
[31] Cf. “Winning of the West,” Vol. VI, p. 259; and “The American Nation,” Vol. XII, p. 94.
[32]

Admitted Admitted
a a
State Settled Territory State
Missouri 1755 1812 1821
Arkansas 1685 1819 1836

Kansas 1854 1854 1861
Nebraska 1847 1854 1867
North Dakota 1812 1861 1889
South Dakota 1859 1861 1889
Wyoming 1834 1868 1890
Colorado 1859 1861 1876
Idaho 1852 1863 1890
Montana 1861 1864 1889
Iowa 1833 1838 1846
Minnesota 1846 1849 1858

[33] Reports for 1920 show that New York has exceeded St. Louis in manufactured furs but
St. Louis seems still to be the largest market for raw furs.
[34] Albert Watkins in “Collections of the Nebraska State Historical Society.” Vol. XVI, p. 22.
[35] Washington Irving’s “Astoria.”
[36] Cf. p. 230, Ibid.
[37] Dunbar’s “History of Travel.”
[38] Doddridge’s “Notes on the Settlement of Indian Wars.” Monette’s “History of the Valley
of the Mississippi.”
[39] Cf. Gallatin’s report for a scheme of national roads and pavements (Adams’ Gallatin, p.
350 et seq.).
[40] Richardson, “Messages and Papers.”
[41] Hurlbert, “Cumberland Road.”
[42] Hulbert, “The Paths of Inland Commerce.”
[43] “American Nation,” Vol. XIV, p. 100.
[44] Hurlbert, “The Paths of Inland Commerce,” p. 121.
[45] Searight, quoted by Hurlbert.
[46] Debates of Congress VI, 433-435, 806, 820.

CHAPTER III
WATER WAYS AND CANALS

From the earliest exploration and settlement periods rivers and coast
inlets have been used for transportation. As has been pointed out, the
Indian, before the coming of the white man, made good use of his canoe.
Boats and barges propelled by oars, poles, or snubbed along by ropes
attached to trees on the banks were in early use. Along the coast and the
larger rivers sails were made use of. Upon the ocean there was a large
development in wooden sailing vessels. The great number of American
ships and the inroads made by American merchants upon English trade had
much to do with bringing on the war of 1812.
Canals. —Canals had shown their usefulness in England and other
European countries, for transporting the internal commerce cheaply and
efficiently; it was but natural, therefore, that they should be considered in
the United States. The first canal was in Orange County, New York, and
was used for transporting stone as early as 1750. Numerous short canals
were constructed in Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts prior to
1810, but the peak of canal building came after this date. The first lock used
in the United States was part of a canal extending from the Schuylkill River
to the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania.
New York, seeing the trade of the Northwest Territory going to
Philadelphia on account of the turnpikes which had crossed the Alleghanies
through state and private means, was anxious to do something to get
control. An agitation for a canal joining the Hudson River with Lake Erie or
Lake Ontario consummated in a commission, 1810, headed by Gouverneur
Morris, to investigate the question of building one or both of the canals
which seemed feasible, namely (1) from Albany up the Mohawk and
westward to Lake Erie near Buffalo; (2) from Albany to Lake Champlain,
thence an opening to the St. Lawrence, which had already been surveyed. In
1812 a second commission was formed which included with Morris, such
men as De Witt Clinton, Robert Fulton, and Robert R. Livingston. An
endeavor was made to secure Congressional aid. The war coming on no
action was taken, but the demands for the canal continued. To the energy
and political ability of DeWitt Clinton is attributed the final success of the

enterprise. When he was elected governor in 1816 he made this the
paramount effort of his administration. He stirred public interest by
addresses and presented a convincing memorial to the legislature. He
argued that “As a bond of union between the Atlantic and western states it
may prevent the dismemberment of the American empire. As an organ of
communication between the Hudson, the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, the
Great Lakes of the north and west, and their tributary rivers, it will create
the greatest inland trade ever witnessed. The most fertile and extensive
regions of America will avail themselves of its facilities for a market. All
their surplus productions,” he prophesied, “whether of the soil, the forest,
the mines, or the water, their fabrics of art and their supplies of foreign
commodities, will concentrate in the city of New York, for transportation
abroad or consumption at home. Agriculture, manufactures, commerce,
trade, navigation and the arts,” he continued, “will receive a corresponding
encouragement. That city will in the course of time become the granary of
the world, the emporium of commerce, the seat of manufactures, the focus
of great moneyed operations, and the concentrating point of vast, disposable
and accumulating capitals, which will stimulate, enliven, extend, and
reward the exertions of human labor and ingenuity, in all their processes
and exhibitions. And before the revolution of a century, the whole island of
Manhattan, covered with habitations and replenished with a dense
population will constitute one vast city.”[47]
As bombastic as this may seem his predictions have been more than
realized and the realization began with the completion of the canal to
Buffalo in 1825. There grew up along its way the great cities of Buffalo,
Rochester, Albany, and scores of smaller ones. The products of the entire
west did seem to flow through it, for the tolls are said to have been a half
million dollars per year immediately upon its completion and over a million
by 1830.[48]
This the largest canal project in the United States is still in use. As first
constructed, it was 40 feet wide at the top, 4 feet deep, and was navigable
for 76-ton boats. It was later enlarged to a general width of 70 feet and
depth of 7 feet, navigable for boats of 240 tons burden. Some of the locks
had been replaced by power lifts; the transfers are more quickly made.
The increase of New York’s prestige of course diminished that of
Philadelphia. Pittsburgh was, too, growing up at the head of Ohio River
navigation and in the coal and iron regions of Pennsylvania.

While numerous canals had been constructed by private enterprises an
extensive system of canals was begun under an act of 1825, to connect
Philadelphia with Pittsburgh as well as other objective points. Jealousies
sprang up over the state, as usually do with any improvement. Always one
part thinks the other is getting more than its just share. But notwithstanding,
nearly a thousand miles of canals have been constructed in Pennsylvania,
some of which washed out and were never replaced, some were abandoned
and some are still in operation. In Ohio two canals were built by the state
from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, over 400 miles in all. One of these
extended from Toledo through Defiance, St. Mary’s, and Dayton to
Cincinnati; the other from Cleveland through Akron, New Philadelphia,
Coshocton, Newark, Columbus, Chillicothe, to Portsmouth. Branch lines
were run down the Muskingum to Marietta, down the Hocking to Athens,
and from Junction westward to Antwerp to connect with the Indiana canal
system. Making a total for Ohio about 1000[49] miles. In Indiana the
Wabash & Erie Canal, begun about 1834, was constructed through Fort
Wayne, LaFayette, Terre Haute to Evansville, in 1853, on its way to the
Ohio River. By this time the railroads had paralleled its course and its trade
had practically ceased.
One of the earliest projects, said to have had the backing of President
Washington, culminated, eventually, in the Chesapeake & Ohio canal
extending from Georgetown, the upper limit of tidewater on the Potomac, to
Cumberland. After numerous efforts and years of talking, representatives of
Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania met in a
convention in the city of Washington and passed resolutions stating that
“Whereas the connection of Atlantic and Western waters by a canal leading
from the city of National Government to the River Ohio ... is one of the
highest importance to the states ... Resolved that it is expedient to substitute
for the present defective navigation of the Potomac River, above tidewater,
a navigable canal from Cumberland to the eastern base of the Alleghany
and to extend such canal as soon thereafter as practicable to the highest
constant steamboat navigation of the Monongahela or Ohio River.”
Jealousies between the states delayed matters somewhat, but in 1825 the
proponents obtained governmental participation. Delays occurred for
various causes, but in 1828 Congress authorized the U. S. treasurer to
subscribe for $1,300,000 worth of stock and went further and guaranteed
subscriptions made by the towns of Washington, Georgetown, and

Alexandria to the amount of $1,500,000. The United States had then once
more endorsed the policy of spending national money for internal
improvements, and had become a partner in a canal proposition. Building
proceeded slowly. Many difficulties were encountered. Opponents fought it
in the legislatures of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, as well as in
Congress. In two years the money was gone and the canal not completed.
Maryland extended further aid, and then still more aid by the help of which
the canal was completed to Cumberland in 1850. In 1870 efforts were made
to have the Government carry the canal on to the Ohio River, but the plan
was never consummated. This canal is still in use, the bulk of its traffic
being coal brought down to Washington.
Canals were constructed in many other states, but they need not here be
followed in detail. Illinois was connecting Chicago with the Mississippi
River; Massachusetts built artificial ways about falls and rapids; New
Jersey connected the Hudson with the Delaware; and numerous other
schemes were carried out.
Canal Prosperity and Desuetude. —Until the greater advantages of
railway travel and traffic lessened the usefulness of the canals, they did a
thriving business. As has already been noted with regard to the Erie canal so
was it with the others.[50] In the whole United States there was a “grand
total of 4,468 miles[51] of canals, costing approximately $214,141,802.” Not
all these were remunerative. To the end of 1872 the New York Canals had
only averaged a profit of 3.2 per cent, while the Erie Canal proper paid but
4 per cent on its cost.[52] The speed at which the barges traveled was about
2 miles per hour; this was reduced on account of time lost by regular stops,
passing through locks, and accidents, to 1.7 miles per hour on the average.
Rates for freight were about 0.3 cent per ton per mile. The railroads later
hauled through freight at 0.7 cent per ton per mile. Both these rates were, no
doubt too small, for proper maintenance and remuneration.
Passenger traffic, notwithstanding the slow speed, amounted to a
considerable volume. Packets were in use, that for workmanship, finish and
convenience vied with the Pullman cars which later supplanted them. They
were decorated in bright colors—green, yellow, brown, red, white, blue—
with windows and panels done in contrasting and harmonizing shades and
tints. On the interior in addition to compartments for the crew which were
separated from those for the passengers, were usually a large general
assembly room ordinarily occupied by the men for lounging, writing letters,

playing games, and protection from stormy weather. There was a special
cabin for the women, also lavatories and conveniences for men and women.
In addition there were kitchen, lockers, and cupboards. Three times daily
the assembly saloon was transformed into a dining room by re-arranging
and setting the tables which constituted a regular part of the room’s
furniture with others of a temporary nature, carried stored away on the boat,
into one long table lengthwise of the room. The captain and his two
assistants—the mule driver and steersman not on duty at the time—
performed this service and waited upon tables. At night both the saloon and
ladies’ cabin were converted into dormitories by attaching shelves about 6
feet long and 31⁄2 feet wide to hooks in the wall, the outer edges being held
up by wooden supports extending from the floor. In each berth was placed a
“mattress,” that is a tick having some straw in it and a pillow of similar
make.
The passenger usually furnished his own sheets if they were wanted,
although some of the later boats were supplied with sheets and coverlets.
The berths were three high along the wall and had curtains suspended in
front of them. The passengers selected their berths in the order in which
they had secured passage, late comers being obliged to sleep on the tables
or on the floor. Sometimes the whole floor was thus covered. Travelers
complained bitterly of the mosquitoes. Crude as this may seem at the
present time, these packets were no doubt the forerunners of the present
Pullman palace car. The outside decks and the roof of the car were utilized
for promenading, lounging and sight-seeing. They were often enlivened by
music and dancing.
Greeley[53] speaks of the “‘cent and a half a mile, mile and a half an
hour,’ line boats.” The expression he puts in quotations as though it were
common or a slogan. Charges on the Wabash and Erie Canal in Indiana
were for the 221 miles from Cincinnati to Fort Wayne, $6.75; 138 miles
from LaFayette to Fort Wayne, $3.75; 104 miles from Fort Wayne to
Toledo, $3.25.[54] An average of about three cents per mile.
The canals were unable to compete with the railroads when time became
an element. Passengers would not be content to travel 36 miles per day
along a tortuous canal when they could travel a much more direct route at
nearly 36 miles per hour. The swifter speed of freight traffic accelerated
business; the merchant’s capital could be turned over more frequently; his
net profits were consequently greater. Is there any wonder, therefore, that

the business of the canal continually decreased while that of the railroad as
continually increased. Many canals were actually abandoned, others
allowed to depreciate from want of proper maintenance, and now only
occasional barges are run to transport heavy non-perishable freight such as
grain, iron-ore, and coal. And of these commodities, because of better
terminal facilities and the time element, the railroads soon were carrying
much more than the canals.

© Underwood and Underwood
THE SAULT ST. MARIE CANAL

Ship Canals. —Reports show the tonnage of the Erie Canal to have
continually decreased from 2,031,735 tons in 1911 to 667,374 tons in 1918.
The total tonnage of all the New York state canals shows a like decrease
from 3,097,068 tons in 1911 to 1,159,270 tons in 1918. Notwithstanding
such records there are those who firmly believe canal transportation will
again take an upward trend with better terminal facilities and possibly
electric propulsion. There is one class of canals that seems to have held its
own, that is ship canals. The great canal and locks at Sault Ste. Marie
transfer a vast lake traffic annually from one level to another between Lakes
Superior and Huron. Vast quantities of iron-ore are brought in mammoth
vessels by this route from docks near the Mesaba mines for the great iron
mills at Gary, at Cleveland, at Pittsburgh, and other points. Similar vessels
loaded with wheat, oats, and flax from the Northwest grain fields are
unloaded at Buffalo for transportation to the seaboard. Agitation has been
going on for some time to enlarge the Welland Canal and its locks between
Lakes Erie and Ontario, thus giving seagoing vessels the opportunity of
coming up by way of the St. Lawrence River and traversing the entire Great
Lake system. The ambition of cities is here again manifest; Chicago would
like such transportation, but it would not be beneficial to New York.
A ship canal across Cape Cod saves 70 miles and considerable time and
makes the trip much less dangerous from New York to Boston. Ship canals
within the islands along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts have been proposed to
make safe coast commerce. There is also talk of a ship canal from Chicago
to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers; and
still another from Lake Erie to Pittsburgh.
The Panama Canal. —All present-day readers are familiar with the
greatest of all ship canals, the Panama Canal, constructed by the
Government at a cost of approximately $400,000,000, and open to the ships
of the world. It will be remembered that a canal across the isthmus had been
dreamed of practically ever since Balboa passed over and for the first time a
white man saw the Pacific from the west coast of America. With the
opening of the Oregon territory there was increased interest in such a canal.
With the discovery of gold in California much traffic went by way of
Panama being freighted across and transshipped on the other side. Soon a

railroad was established for that purpose. Other crossings, too, were much
in mind. In 1846 a treaty of amity and commerce was entered into with
New Granada, afterwards the United States of Colombia, which gave the
United States a right of way across the Isthmus by any available method. In
return the United States agreed to guarantee the neutrality of the Isthmus.
Great Britain had likewise long been interested in a canal scheme and
courted Nicaragua. Also because of English settlements at Belize or British
Honduras they claimed rights which had been confirmed by the treaty of
Versailles in 1773. Another route, across the isthmus of Tehauntepec, had
also assumed importance. In 1848 a company of American citizens was
formed for and began at once to construct a railway across the isthmus of
Panama. Another contracted with the Nicaraguan government for a canal
there. A treaty was made with Nicaragua whereby a concession was granted
the company for the waterway, the United States guaranteeing the neutrality
of the way as had been done with New Grenada. But the British
government claimed control of the eastern terminus, therefore a treaty had
to be negotiated with her. As a result the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty was signed
and ratified in 1850, whereby the United States and Great Britain agreed to
join in promoting a canal by the Nicaraguan route promising that neither
“would obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive control over the ship-
canal,” nor, and here was the joker, “assume or exercise any dominion ...
over any part of Central America.” Neither was to acquire nor have any
rights the other did not have and they both guarantee the neutrality of the
canal. This, apparently, was a violation of the Monroe Doctrine in so far as
it did allow a European nation a foothold upon this continent, and it was
contrary to the Washingtonian policy of avoiding “entangling alliances.”
However, it was considered at the time to be a victory for American
diplomacy. But Great Britain retained her hold on Belize and some islands
along the coast, and finally it was made known that before the signing of
the treaty Sir Henry Bulwer had left with Clayton a memorandum to the
effect that British renunciation in Central America should not apply to
“Belize” or any of its “dependencies.” Greytown, a British trading post, had
been established as a “free” city at the eastern terminus of the Nicaraguan
route through British influence and support.
In 1851 Greytown levied tribute upon the steamers of the transit
company. One of these refused to pay and was fired upon by a British man-
of-war, the fiction of Greytown being a “free city” apparently went

glimmering. The situation was critical and for some time looked as though a
war might result. Meanwhile the Accessory Transit Company continued in a
state of trouble with the Greytown government. So bad was it that the
United States vessel Cyane was called upon to protect the buildings of the
Canal Company from destruction. Conditions remained strained, feelings
ran high, until in 1854 one of the officers of a company steamer killed an
individual and in a riot which followed the mob attacked the United States
consul. Lieutenant Hollins, commanding officer of the Cyane, demanded
reparation, and as this was not forthcoming he bombarded and destroyed
the town. This accentuated the trouble between the United States and Great
Britain but did not particularly enhance the building of the Nicaraguan
canal.
About this time Great Britain became involved in the Crimean War while
in the United States the slavery question divided the country. Some hot-
headed southerners wished forcibly to annex Nicaragua and filibusters
actually joined in some of the “revolutions” which are almost always in
progress in Central American States with the idea of extending slave
territory.[55] Through one of these a man by the name of Walker had made
himself head of Nicaragua and for two years remained a dictator. His rule
was marked by severity and a series of acts that won him the enmity of the
Central American States and also that of the Accessory Transit Company,
whose charter and steamers he confiscated. He had secured the presidency
and opened the state to slavery; he had also been able to get recognition at
Washington. But another revolution broke out and he was driven out in
1857.
The action of Walker had destroyed American influence in Central
America. In the United States opinion was divided. Slavery enthusiasts
openly advocated control of any transit route across the isthmus and that
“no power on earth should be suffered to impede.”[56] This and numerous
other troubles which followed, off and on intermittently, delayed and
prevented canal construction.
French Participation. —After the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 by
the French an organization of French scientists made a careful study of the
various routes across the Isthmus and decided the one at Panama to be the
most feasible. As a result, in 1875, De Lesseps, the engineer of the Suez
Canal, began a careful survey of that route and in 1878, Lucien Bonaparte
Wyse, of the French Navy, secured from the United States of Colombia

(which had succeeded New Granada) a concession giving a company to be
organized by him exclusive right to construct a canal and railroad across the
Isthmus of Panama. Neutrality was to be maintained and troops transported
only by permission of Colombia. In return for this privilege and certain
grants of land Colombia was to receive 5 per cent of the gross tolls
collected. The concession was for ninety-nine years and the canal was to be
opened within eighteen years. While it was claimed this concession did not
conflict with the treaty of 1846 between New Granada and the United
States, nevertheless it provided that the latter might share in its advantages.
The concession was transferred to De Lesseps, who arranged for an
International Congress of Geographical Sciences, which assembled in Paris,
May 15, 1879. The United States was one of the twenty-five nations there
represented. Fourteen projects involving seven different routes were
discussed and included all that were considered feasible.
Without going into detailed description some of these routes may be
mentioned. The Tehauntepec route was 148 miles long and required 120
locks, would take about twelve days to pass a vessel through, and was in the
region of earthquakes. The Nicaraguan Route was favored by many—it was
180 miles long, needed 17 locks, but it required an actual construction of
only 60 miles as existing rivers and lakes could be utilized. A route from the
Chiriqui Gulf to the Gulf Dulce, another from the Gulf of Darien by way of
the Atrato and Napipi Rivers, and another into the San Miguel Bay, were
discarded for various reasons. The choice centered upon the route from
Colon to Panama by way of the Culebra pass and the Chagres River. This
route, the shortest of all, was only 45 miles in length, but there were several
disadvantages. The Chagres River must be diverted by a large dam or
carried for miles in an aqueduct.
A company (Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique) was
organized and popular subscriptions invited. It was claimed that further than
granting the charter the French Government had nothing to do with the
canal. Stock could be owned by people of all nations, but the United States
did not take kindly to the measure, although no formal action to prevent the
construction of the canal was taken. Several promotion schemes were
advanced by private individuals to head off the French and Congress was
petitioned for aid. Captain Eads, who by jetties had deepened the mouth of
the Mississippi River, and an engineer of note, suggested a ship railway
across the isthmus of Tehauntepec. A “Marine Canal Company of

Nicaragua” wanted Congress to guarantee its capital stock; another
Nicaraguan company had Ex-President Grant as a sponsor.[57] The surveys
made by the United States of the Panama and of the Atrato-Napipi routes in
1875, were printed by order of Congress. In 1880 the House asked the
president for the report of surveys made in 1872 and submitted in 1875
which had not yet become public; this report recommended the Nicaraguan
route.
From time to time indignation was manifested in the United States
against allowing a foreign country to gain a foothold even though by a
neutral company on the American continent. The Monroe Doctrine was
brought out; the Clayton-Bulwer treaty was presented; the reports of
Congressional Commissions were referred to as arguments against the De
Lesseps Canal. Various other complications entered, one of which was a
possible conflict of authority if in case of a revolution on the Isthmus it
were necessary to send troops by the United States to maintain the
neutrality of the railroad and by France troops to maintain the neutrality of
the canal.
Sweeping aside these questions De Lesseps made preparation to
construct the canal, and landed a force of seventy engineers,
superintendents and workmen on the Isthmus of Panama in 1881. De
Lesseps planned a tide-water canal which would require a cut of 285 feet in
the Culebra pass. Difficulties encountered from slides in this cut and other
reasons made it advisable afterwards to change the plans. De Lesseps
purchased much machinery in Europe and America at large expense; bought
the Panama railroad for $17,000,000, because the line of the Canal crossed
it frequently and it could be utilized for transporting materials, and began
the operation of opening up the cut at various points along its course. The
engineers estimated the cost at 843,000,000 francs; this, De Lesseps cut to
600,000,000 francs, and set the opening ceremonies for 1888.
During the Garfield administration Secretary of State Blaine held out for
a strong American policy and informed Colombia, which was charged with
making arrangements whereby certain European powers might assume joint
guarantee over the canal, that “any movement in the sense of supplementing
the guarantee contained (in the treaty of 1846) would necessarily be
regarded by this government as an uncalled for intrusion into a field where
the local and general interest of the United States of America should be
considered before those of any other power save those of Colombia

alone.”[58] England claimed to be a new world power equally interested
with the United States in maintaining the neutrality of the canal. Blaine
proposed amending the Clayton-Bulwer treaty so that the United States
could fortify the canal, also to annul that part extending it to any other
practical routes so that the United States might be free to build a canal at
Panama or elsewhere as it chose. Garfield’s death and Blaine’s retirement
from the cabinet ended for the time being policies regarding South and
Central Americas that would either have brought the United States in
trouble with England or secured to her complete control of the canal and
also, perhaps, much of South American trade. A treaty with Nicaragua
allowing the construction of a canal wholly under American control, the
United States guaranteeing the integrity of the territory of Nicaragua, which
was undoubtedly a violation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, and prepared by
Frelinghuysen, Secretary of State under Arthur, for the purpose of testing
that treaty, was withdrawn by President Cleveland who was inaugurated
before its confirmation.
There was a growing feeling that the De Lesseps company would never
finish the canal. The company had spent $10,000,000 more than the
estimate of 600,000,000 francs ($120,000,000), and had not paid the
$17,000,000 promised for the Panama railway. In fact it was bankrupt.
While a large amount of excavation had been done, it was small compared
with what was necessary. A magnificent plant with much costly machinery
was going to decay.
The Spanish-American war brought forcibly to the attention of the public
the need of an interoceanic canal.
In 1900 a treaty negotiated by John Hay and Sir Julian Pauncefote
embodying some modifications of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty had been so
amended in the Senate that Great Britain would not accept it. A new treaty
made in view of the Senate amendments and the British objections was
submitted a few months after Roosevelt became President. It abrogated
parts of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and gave to the United States full
ownership and control of the proposed canal. Colonel Roosevelt had
strongly advocated this while governor of New York before his accession to
the presidency.[59]
Two commissions in the past had reported favorably on the Nicaraguan
route. A third commission with Admiral John G. Walker as chairman was
appointed and authorized in 1899 to expend a million dollars, if necessary,

to make a thorough investigation of the several routes. In 1901 the
committee reported that the “Commission is of the opinion that the most
practicable and feasible route for an Isthmian Canal, to be under the control,
management, and ownership of the United States is that known as the
Nicaraguan route.”[60] The Commission placed the estimated cost of the
Nicaraguan Canal at $189,864,062; of completing the Panama Canal at
$144,233,358; and that to this latter sum should be added the cost of
acquiring the rights of the French company. The company asked
$109,141,500, but the Commission estimated its worth at $40,000,000. The
company considered this unfair but finally offered to negotiate with the
United States and sell on the best terms possible. The Commission made a
supplementary report recommending the Panama route and purchase of the
French company’s work and rights at $40,000,000. An act was signed by
the president, June 28, 1902, which had passed Congress, not without
opposition, authorizing the president to acquire control of the rights and
property of the Panama Canal Company, to acquire perpetual control of a
strip of land not less than 6 miles in width, across the Isthmus, to proceed as
soon as these rights were acquired to construct a canal through “The
Isthmian Canal Commission” created by the act; but should he be unable to
get satisfactory title to the property of the French company and the control
of territory from Colombia, then the president was authorized to negotiate
with Nicaragua and build a canal along the Nicaraguan route.
Attorney General Knox reported that the French company could give a
clear title; a convention was entered into by which the United States upon
the payment of $10,000,000 in cash and an annual rental of $250,000 per
year was to receive the necessary control and strip of land. The Senate
ratified this March 17, 1903. When it went to the Colombian congress,
however, it was rejected by unanimous vote. President Roosevelt declared
Colombia wanted to wait until they could forfeit the title of the French
company then sell to the United States for $40,000,000.[61] This view may
and possibly was erroneous. There was again a demand that the Nicaraguan
route be chosen. But on November 3, 1903, the Panamanians, instigated by
the French company, whose entire concession and undertaking would revert
to Colombia in less than a year,[62] seeing their interests being sacrificed by
the cupidity of Colombia, consummated a revolution. Many were of the
opinion that the president of the United States was particeps criminis. In a
letter to a friend[63] dated October 10, 1903, he says, “I cast aside the

proposition at this time to foment the secession of Panama. Whatever other
governments can do, the United States can not go into the securing, by such
underhand means, the cession. Privately, I freely say to you that I should be
delighted if Panama were an independent state, or if it made itself so at this
moment; but for me to say so publicly would amount to an instigation of a
revolt, and therefore I cannot say it.”
Many years later when chaffingly accused of being a wicked conspirator,
Mr. Roosevelt is quoted as having said: “What was the use? The other
fellows in Paris and New York had taken all the risk and were doing all the
work. Instead of trying to run a parallel conspiracy, I had only to sit still and
profit by their plot—if it succeeded.”[64]
The revolution was bloodless except for the accidental killing of a
Chinaman and a dog. Colombia, however, as soon as possible sent troops to
Colon. The following day the U. S. Ship Nashville landed fifty marines. The
next day the Colombian troops left, said by some to have been bribed. A
Panamanian government was formed; on November 6th, the American
consul was ordered from Washington to recognize it; a week later their
minister was formally received by President Roosevelt. On January 4, 1904,
the president presented for ratification a treaty. The Senate ratified it
February 23, 1904. Thus rapidly did things move. By this agreement the
United States secured from the Republic of Panama a zone of land 10 miles
wide for the canal with full power over it. In return the United States
guaranteed the independence of the Panama republic, and agreed to pay
$10,000,000 upon exchange of ratifications and the sum, beginning nine
years thereafter, of $250,000 per annum.
The Colombians protested and sent their former president General Reyes
to Washington to persuade the Government to abrogate its compact with
Panama. The counsel for Colombia is quoted as saying that “Reyes was
authorized to accept $8,000,000 for all the desired concessions and he
would have taken $5,000,000, but Hay and Roosevelt were so foolish they
wouldn’t accept.”[65] Be that as it may, the effort was several times made to
get for Colombia a gratuity much greater than Reyes would have accepted,
and in 1921 Congress appropriated for that purpose $25,000,000, thus, in a
way, acknowledging that Colombia was wronged and that the United States
had been profited thereby.
A commission was formed to undertake the construction of the canal.
This was changed two or three times during the construction. The

immensity of the work necessary to make a tidewater canal, and the fact
that its completion would be materially delayed, caused the abandonment of
that plan. Three sets of locks were provided—at Gatun, Pedro Miguel, and
Miraflores. A great dam was built across the lower end of the Chagres,
entirely blocking the flow of that river and creating a large artificial lake
165 square miles in area whose maximum height is 85 feet above sea water.
This lake serves for storage water necessary to manipulate the canal and
locks; any surplus flows through a spillway into the Pacific Ocean. Great
breakwaters were constructed to make smooth harbors at Colon and
Panama and prevent silting. The canal is at sea level to Gatun, 8 miles, then
three steps lead it to Gatun Lake; it continues on that level for 32 miles;
then down one step at Pedro Miguel to Miraflores Lake, 55 feet above sea
level; thence through the Miraflores locks to sea level again and then out to
deep water in the Pacific, 11 miles. The locks are 1000 feet long and large
enough in every way to accommodate the largest ships afloat. These great
locks with their mammoth gates, tunnels for filling, and mechanical means
of operation are one of the seven wonders of the modern world. The cost
was about $400,000,000 to date of opening. Since that time considerable
sums have been spent in fortifications, improvements, and maintenance—
several large slides having occurred in the Culebra Cut. The “total amount
expended or advanced to disbursing officers for purchase, construction,
fortification, etc., to June 30, 1919, $452,075,376.”[66] The tolls amount to
about $7,000,000 annually.
The principal arguments in favor of the United States building the inter-
oceanic canal were its utility as a measure of preparedness for and strategy
in case of war. By furnishing quick passage between the east and west
coasts the navy necessary for the protection of these coasts could be
reduced one half. With the canal entirely in the control of the Government
no foreign nation could take advantage of it to our detriment.
Notwithstanding the need of the canal for war purposes, the benefits to be
derived by the commerce of peace will doubtless be manifold more
valuable. It furnishes cheap transportation between the west and east coasts,
and shortens materially the distance from the Atlantic seaboard to western
South America as well as to the islands of the Pacific Ocean. During the
year 1920, “2814 ships representing 11,236,119 tons of cargo, passed
through the waterway” being a considerable increase over any preceding
year.[67] Of these 45.5 per cent were registered United States vessels, more

than any other one nation. Fuel-oil, nitrates, steel and iron hold leading
places in the line of commodities carried.
River Transportation. —As has already been stated streams and rivers
were early adopted as a means for transportation. Birch-bark and dug-out
canoes, flat-boats and keel-boats, with and without sails, and rafts were
extensively used. For small boats paddles and oars furnished the means of
navigation, while several pairs of oars were utilized on the larger boats. In
shallow water poling was much in vogue. Two men by pushing poles
against the bottom of the stream from opposite sides of a small boat could
easily propel it. On still larger boats and rafts the men as they pushed
walked toward the stern as far as possible while the craft moved through the
water under them. A third man held it with his pole until the first two
regained a position near the front for another push. By this arduous and
crude means boats were propelled up shallow but often swift currents. On
the larger rivers sails were employed. Going downstream offered little
difficulty except to keep clear of sand bars and snags. Sails, oars, and poles
were sometimes relied upon to assist the current in making speed. Large
rafts of logs and lumber made by tying timbers together with wooden pins
were floated down the rivers and broken up and sold when they reached
their destination. Furs, hides, bacon, cured hams, or jerked-meat might form
a cargo, stored during transit, in a small cabin erected at the center of the
raft, which might occupy from 400 to 600 square feet.
The construction of a practicable steamboat in 1807 by Robert Fulton[68]
and another by John Stevens, the same year, revolutionized both river and
sea navigation. While many attempts had been made to utilize the steam
engine for propelling boats, and some of them mechanically successful,
Fulton’s was the first boat built and adapted for the conveyance of freight
and passengers on a scale commercially successful. Fulton had had the
confidence and backing of R. R. Livingston and the firm of Fulton &
Livingston was formed. This firm secured a monopoly for operating steam
vessels in the waters of the state of New York. The first boat, the Clermont,
named after Livingston’s estate on the Hudson River, was 130 feet long, 18
feet beam, and 7 feet deep, with a burden of 160 tons. The Boulton & Watt
engine had been brought from England the year previous by Fulton and the
boat built for it. The vessel made a successful trial trip to Albany, August 7
to 9, and returned the following two days; her running speed had only
averaged about 5 miles an hour, but she had demonstrated the practicability

of steam navigation on inland waters. Following close after this event,
Stevens, who had been experimenting for years and, it is claimed, had
launched a screw propeller vessel driven by steam as early as 1804,
perfected his vessel, but because of Fulton & Livingston’s monopoly took it
to the Delaware River at Philadelphia. The trip around by sea demonstrated
the feasibility of steam navigation on the ocean. Very shortly thereafter
Fulton & Livingston had placed a fleet of their vessels on the Hudson River
and Long Island Sound, and had begun to build them at Pittsburgh while
John Stevens & Sons had their vessels on the Delaware and Connecticut
Rivers. Soon all navigable waters were covered with steam propelled
vessels.
Prior to the introduction of the steamboat Mississippi River traffic had
been, as has been stated, carried on by flat boats, rafts, and perhaps some
twenty barges[69] of a better quality. These latter had been making one
round trip a year requiring sixty days down and ninety days back from
Louisville to New Orleans. This time, by 1822, had been reduced to seven
days down and sixteen days up. By 1830 all the navigable tributaries of the
Mississippi were traversed by steamboats and the produce of a western
empire teeming through the portals was rapidly making New Orleans a
great city. The value of these commodities were given as approximating
$26,000,000 annually.[70] In 1860 a writer said: “upward of two hundred
millions of dollars worth of merchandise are annually brought to this
market.”[71] New Orleans was an extremely busy place with all the
picturesqueness of pioneer cities generally. Ranking twelfth of the cities of
the United States in 1790, it had steadily climbed up to third place in 1840,
[72] when the northern cities through the influence of the railroads and the
decline of river traffic began to outstrip it. The levee, an embankment along
the river, several feet higher than the city, was bordered by a long line of
warehouses on the land side and by quays extending into the river on the
other side. Miles of ships, boats, and barges were anchored along the levee
as automobiles are now parked along a street, heads in. A contemporaneous
writer describes it thus:
The New Orleans levee is one continuous landing-place, or quay, 4 miles in extent, and of an
average width of 100 feet. It is 15 feet above low water mark, and 6 feet above the level of the city, to
which it is graduated by an easy descent. During the business season, from November to July, the
river front of the levee is crowded with vessels, of all sizes and from all quarters of the world, with
hundreds of large and splendid steamboats, barges, flat-boats, etc. The levee presents a most busy and
animated prospect. Here are seen piles of cotton bales, vast numbers of barrels of pork, flour and

liquors of various kinds, bales of foreign and domestic manufactures, hogsheads of sugar, crates of
ware, etc., draymen with their carts, buyers, sellers, laborers, etc. Valuable products from the head
waters of the Missouri, 3000 miles distant, center here. The Illinois, the Ohio, the Arkansas and Red
Rivers, with the Mississippi, are all tributaries to this commercial depot.

Under the influence of the river traffic many other cities were springing
into importance. Many of these later became centers of railroad activity and
thus retained or even bettered their rank. Others gradually wasted away
until they are mere hamlets to-day.
The times seem to have been ripe when Fulton’s Clermont appeared, for
almost immediately the steamboat industry thrived. During the first ten
years 131 steam vessels had been built and by 1832, 474;[73] in 1836 and
1837, 145 and 158 respectively were launched. Building was for a few
years checked by business depression but soon revived and in 1846 there
were constructed 225 steam vessels. The Civil War reduced the number;
immediately following business sprang up again and taking into account
coasts, rivers, and lakes has continued brisk ever since.
With the growth in the number of vessels, up until railroads began to
monopolize travel and freight, the accommodations and speed were
continually improved until river and sound boats were frequently spoken of
as “floating palaces.” Packets were built to accommodate several hundred
passengers, with staterooms, saloons, dining rooms, bathrooms, barber
shops, and other features. The river steamboat may be said to be a
development of the pole-boat or flat-boat. On account of the shoals they
must be broad and shallow. The paddle wheels on the sides are operated
independently in order to facilitate quick turning. The weight of engines,
boilers, fuel bunkers, freight and passenger burden, are distributed fairly
well over the entire surface. Some of the best lower Mississippi boats had a
length of hull of 300 feet, a width of 50 feet and depth of hold of 9 feet. The
boat fully loaded drew about 10 feet of water, when light, 4 feet. “Mark
twain,” 6 feet, represented the shallowest water the vessels piloted by
Samuel L. Clemens could navigate; after quitting steam-boating he adopted
that term for a nom-de-plume, under which his inimitable writings were
published.[74] The main deck overhangs the hull and is about 90 feet wide.
A complete system of ties and braces above the hull gives it strength and
stiffness. Modern boats are electric lighted and have swinging gangplanks,
capstans, and all the recent power improvements for the rapid handling of
freight and passengers. The staterooms are erected on the saloon deck with

doors opening into the saloon and on a narrow passageway along the
outside. The saloon generally extends the full length of the house, giving a
large well-lighted room, used as a lounging and dining room. Above this is
another deck on which are officers’ quarters and above all fully glassed in is
the pilot house. The freight capacity of these boats is given as 1500 tons,
and there are 70 staterooms to accommodate 140 passengers. Deck passage
could be provided for a number more. The cost of a “floating palace” was in
the ’eighties from $100,000 to $120,000.
Extremely handsome, well equipped, and finely decorated boats ply
regularly on the Hudson River and on Long Island Sound. Some of the
vessels of one line are over 400 feet long and 50 feet wide. The decks are
about 90 feet wide and they have over 350 state rooms; many of them are
magnificently equipped.
O’Hanlon’s “Irish Emigrants’ Guide to the United States,” published in
1851, would indicate that all traveling in that day was not as comfortable as
might be inferred from the preceding. With regard to steamboats it says:
These have been termed “flying palaces,” and many of them are fitted up in style of great
magnificence. But the comfort of traveling by them is confined to cabin passengers, state rooms,
accommodating two persons each, in separate berths, are appropriated for retirement by day and for
rest at night; ladies and gentlemen have separate cabins, but dine at the same table, which is set out in
the “social hall,” and stocked with a variety of luxuries.... The deck passengers are immediately
under the cabin, and in the hinder part of the boat.
A few berths are fitted up for their reception without bedding. Provisions must be provided at their
own expense, and also a mode of preparing them. Sometimes numbers are huddled together on board
without having room to move, or stretch themselves out for rest; the inconvenience of this mode of
traveling can hardly be appreciated without being experienced.

It is also stated that steamboat traveling was dangerous because of the
explosions. It is true there were a number of boiler explosions. Mark Twain
mentions one of the very worst,[75] the explosion of the Pennsylvania. He
also discusses the subject of racing, which after the Government rules
regarding steam pressure went into effect, he claims not to have been
dangerous. One of the later races, that between the Robert E. Lee and the
Natchez in 1870 was an event of national interest. The time of the Robert E.
Lee from New Orleans to St. Louis was 3 days 18 hours and 14 minutes
from dock to dock. Mark Twain claims the fastest long-distance running
was made by the Eclipse in 1855 when she made the trip from New Orleans
to Cairo at an average speed “a shade under fourteen and three-eighths
miles per hour.”

An idea of the rates charged for passenger fare and for freight traffic on
steam-boats may be obtained from the following.
In 1816 from New York to Albany the fare was $7, about 4 cents per
mile. For way stations between about 5 cents per mile, but no charge less
than $1.[76]
Steamboat Fares
Fare
Per Mile
Date Between Distance Total Cents
1816 New York and Albany 145 $7.00 4
1817 New York to Providence 200 10.00 5
1825 Boston to Portland 160 5.00 3
1825 Boston to Bath 6.00 With
-
1825 Boston to Augusta 7.00 meals
1825 Boston to East Port 275 11.00 4

1848 New York to Albany 145 .50 .3
1848 New York to Erie 600 7.50 1.3
1848 New York to Detroit 825 8.50 1
1848 New York to Chicago 1520 12.50 .7 [77]
-
1848 Baltimore to Richmond 378 10.00
1848 Tuscaloosa to Mobile 675 12.00
Sailing
1848 Boston and New York to New Orleans - 40-50
Packet

In 1817 from Rhode Island to New York, $10, approximately 5 cents per
mile.
The Government’s Attitude Toward River Improvement. —The
individual states had been encouraging turnpikes, canals, and other interior
improvements by subscribing and underwriting stock in private companies
authorized to build and operate the improvements. Frequently monopolies
were granted to operating companies.[78] States were jealous of each other
and hesitated to appropriate money for improvements which would inure to
the benefit of another state, and frequently an improvement in one state was
worthless unless joining improvements could be made in neighboring
states. Many men, believing in a large and unified nation rather than a
confederation of several small nations advocated governmental action.
Strict constitutionalists and states’ rights men objected. President Madison
had vetoed Calhoun’s Bonus Bill for roads and canals upon the ground that

the constitution did not vest Congress with power to undertake such
improvements.[79] Calhoun had used all the power of his great eloquence
based upon the “common defense and general welfare” clause of the
constitution in favor of such improvements. He considered it the duty of
Congress to “bind the republic together with a perfect system of roads and
canals.” He exclaimed that the very extent of the country “exposes us to the
greatest of all calamities,—next to the loss of liberty,—and even to that in
its consequences—disunion. We are great, and rapidly—I was about to say
fearfully growing. This is our pride and our danger; our weakness and our
strength. We are under the most imperious obligation to counteract every
tendency to disunion.... Whatever impedes the intercourse of the extremes
with this, the center of the Republic, weakens the Union.”[80]
Monroe’s first message indicated that he followed Madison in the belief
that Congress was not empowered by the constitution to establish internal
improvements; and later he vetoed a measure to authorize the president to
erect toll houses along the Cumberland Road, appoint toll gatherers and
otherwise regulate its use, on the ground that it exceeded the power of
congress. He favored internal improvements but thought a constitutional
amendment necessary.[81]
The next year, however, some bills for internal improvements got through
among them the first act for the improvement of harbors. In 1802, under the
influence of Gallatin, Randolph and Jefferson, 5 per cent of the Ohio lands
sold were appropriated for the building of roads.[82] In 1809 was passed the
first act for river improvement.[83]
These were the beginnings of National aid for internal improvements in
the United States. The “implied powers” adherents seem to have been in the
ascendency for a report of the treasurer shows that up to 1830 the United
States had appropriated for internal improvements—Cumberland Road,
$2,443,420.20; subscriptions to canal stock and improvements of the
Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, $1,263,315.65; for other items such as
building of piers, preservation of ports and piers, making roads and
removing river obstructions, $1,603,694.31. It was pointed out that only
$234,955.92[84] had been expended in the territories where the question of
constitutionality did not arise. Presidents had nearly always declared in
favor of internal improvements but desired that constitutional provision be
made for the same. Jackson, a strong state sovereignty man, suggested that
the surplus funds of the Government be distributed among the several states

in proportion to their representation in Congress; and in 1830 vetoed a bill
for subscription to the stock of one canal and pocketed others, and closed
his administration by pocketing a bill for the improvement of the Wabash
River. While Jackson’s attitude checked federal appropriations, especially
for roads and canals, those for rivers and harbors became almost a national
scandal, and were with other public appropriation bills frequently referred
to as “pork bills.” A congressional appropriation, whether for rivers and
harbors, a federal building, or an irrigation project, brought considerable
money into a state; it was considered a feather in the cap of a congressman
and enhanced his chances for reelection. Consequently nearly every
congressman introduced such an act for his district and “log-rolling”
schemes were entered into by many to procure their passage. River and
harbor appropriations continued to increase until 1882, when they
amounted to the vast sum of $18,743,875 to be applied to some 500
different localities. President Arthur[85] vetoed the bill, but Congress passed
it over the veto and the “barrel of pork” was divided up as usual. The
publicity given the matter checked appropriations for a while but they soon
climbed higher than ever. The appropriation for the fiscal year of 1920 was
$33,378,364.[86]
SELECTED REFERENCES

Arthur, President Chester A., Veto of river and harbor bill, Richardson’s “Messages and Papers,”
VIII, pp. 120-122.
Barnard, Charles, “Inland Navigation of the United States,” The Century Magazine, Vol.
XXXVIII, pp. 353-372.
Calhoun, John C., “Works of.” Edited by Richard K. Cralle, 6 volumes, 1853-1855. Vol. II, p. 190.
D. Appleton & Company, New York.
Canals.—“Report of the Committee on Roads and Canals (of the House of Representatives) in reply
to memorials of Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and inhabitants of
Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, asking additional subscriptions by the United States to
the capital stock of the Canal.” Report No. 414, H. of R. 23d Cong. 1st Sess., pp. 378 et seq.
Dunbar, Seymour, “History of Travel in America,” 4 volumes, Bobbs-Merrill Company,
Indianapolis.
Greeley, Horace, “Recollections of a Busy Life.” J. B. Ford & Co., New York, 1869.
Hazard, George S., “The Erie Canal. Its National Character.” Published by order of Board of Trade,
Buffalo, N. Y., 1873.
Howe, Henry, “Historical Sketch of the West.”
“Isthmian Canal Commission Report,” Sen. Doc., 57th Congress, 1st session, No. 54.

Johnson’s Cyclopaedia. Article on Canals.
MacDonald, William, “Jacksonian Democracy,” Vol. XV of the American Nation Series, Chapter
VIII, “Internal Improvements.” Harper & Brothers, New York.
McMaster, John Bach, “History of the United States,” Vol. V, Chap. XLIV. D. Appleton &
Company, New York, 1911.
O’Hanlon, Rev. J., “Irish Emigrant’s Guide of the United States,” Boston, 1851.
Panama Canal.—Financial Statement to June 30, 1919, The American Year Book for the year 1919,
p. 364, D. Appleton & Co., New York.
Richardson, James D., “Messages and Papers,” Vol. I, 584, President Madison’s Veto of Calhoun’s
Bonus Bill. Published by order of Congress, 8 Vols., Washington, 1896-1899.
Roosevelt, President Theodore, “Messages to Congress,” January 4, 1904, Sen. Doc. 58th Sess.,
No. 53, pp. 5-26.
Smith, Theodore C., “Parties and Slavery,” Vol. XVIII, of the American Nation Series, Harper &
Brothers, New York.
Sparks, Edwin E., “National Development,” Vol. XXIII of the American Nation Series, Chapters IV
and XIII, Harper & Brothers, New York.
Thayer, Wm. R., “Theodore Roosevelt,” p. 178 et seq. Grosset & Dunlap, New York.
Thayer, Wm. R., “John Hay,” Vol. II, pp. 339-41. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1915.
Turner, Frederick J., “Rise of the New West,” Vol. XIV of the American Nation Series, Chapter
VIII, “Western Trade and Ideals,” Harper & Brothers, New York.
Twain, Mark (Clemens, S. L.), “Life on the Mississippi,” Harper & Brothers, New York.
U. S. Census review of “Agencies of Transportation,” 1880.
Warner, I. W., “Immigrant’s Guide and Citizen’s Manual.” New York, 1848.

FOOTNOTES

[47] “American Nation,” Vol. XIV, p. 32.
[48] McMaster, “United States,” Vol. V.
[49]
Length of Miami and Erie Canal 301.49 miles
„ „ Ohio Canal 512.26
„ „ Penn. and Ohio Canal 76
„ „ Sandy and Beaver Canal 79
„ „ Whitewater Canal 32
Total 1000.75 miles
—Dunbar’s “History of Travel in America”.
[50]
Total mileage of boats clearing from
Fort Wayne in 1849 209,982
LaFayette 162,297

Total mileage by passengers from and to
Fort Wayne in 1849 519,336
LaFayette 505,397
“Annual Report of the Trustees of the Wabash and Erie Canal,” 1849.
[51] U. S. Census review of “Agencies of Transportation,” 1880.
[52] Johnson’s Cyclopaedia.
[53] “Recollections of a Busy Life,” by Horace Greeley.
[54] “A History of Travel in America,” Dunbar.
[55] Smith: “Parties and Slavery,” (“American Nation,” Vol. XVIII).
[56] Democratic Platform, 1856.
[57] North American Review, Vol. CXXXII, p. 107.
[58] “American Nation,” Vol. XXIII.
[59] “Theodore Roosevelt,” by W. R. Thayer, 180. “John Hay,” by W. R. Thayer, II, 339-41.
[60] Isthmian Canal Commission Report, Sen. Doc. 57th Congress., 1st session, No. 54.
[61] Message of January 4, 1904, Sen. Doc., 58th Cong. 2nd Sess. No. 53, pp. 5-26.
[62] “Theodore Roosevelt,” by William Roscoe Thayer, p. 184 et seq.
[63] Letter to Albert Shaw by President Theodore Roosevelt. Literary Digest, October 29,
1904.
[64] “Theodore Roosevelt,” by W. R. Thayer, p. 190.
[65] “Theodore Roosevelt,” by W. R. Thayer, p. 186.
[66] “The American Year Book,” 1919. Appleton, N. Y.
[67] Panama Canal Record.
[68] For a long list of steamboats built in America, and operated under their own power prior
to Fulton’s Clermont, see “A History of Travel in America,” by Seymour Dunbar.
[69] “American Nation,” Vol. XIV.
[70] “American Nation,” Vol. XIV, p. 105.
[71] Henry Howe, “Historical Sketch of the West.”
[72] Statistical Atlas 1900. 12th Census of the U. S.
[73] Charles Barnard in The Century Magazine, Vol. XXXVIII, from which also is derived
information relative to dimensions and decorations of steam vessels, pp. 353-372.
[74] See “Life on the Mississippi,” by Mark Twain, p. 117.
[75] “Life on the Mississippi,” by Mark Twain, Chapter XX.
[76] Dunbar, “A History of Travel in America.”
[77] Warner’s “Immigrant’s Guide and Citizen’s Manual.”
[78] March 18, 1786, John Fitch was granted by New Jersey “the sole and exclusive right of
constructing making using and employing or navigating, all and every species or kind of boats,
impelled by the force of fire or steam” within the limits of that state. Delaware gave him similar
rights in 1787 and New York, likewise, the same year. In 1798 Fitch’s grant in New York, which
was to have run fourteen years, was canceled and Livingston given a monopoly for twenty years
providing within a year he run a steamboat at four miles an hour. This he failed to do, but got his
grant renewed in 1803, and again extended until the successful operation of the Clermont in 1807.
[79] “Messages and Papers,” Richardson, I, 584.
[80] Calhoun: “Works II,” 190. “American Nation” XIII, 253.

[81] “American Nation,” XIV, 231.
[82] “Laws of the United States,” VI., 120.
[83] MacDonald, “American Nation” Vol. XV, 134.
[84] “American Nation,” Vol. XV, pp. 136-137.
[85] Richardson, “Messages and Papers,” VIII, 120-122.
[86] “The American Year Book,” 208.

CHAPTER IV
RAILROADS

During the period of the development of the canals there was growing up
along side of them an agency for transportation that was destined practically
to put them out of business. Engineers in both Europe and America were
straining every energy to apply the steam engine to the propulsion of
wagons along a highway. No one at first looked upon the railroad as a
separate and distinct industry. For years upon roads over which there was
much hauling of heavy loads planks had been placed in the tracks to prevent
rutting. These planks had developed into rigidly set timbers or rails either
attached to cross timbers or to stones set in the roadway. A little later iron
straps were fastened to the tops of the rails to lessen wear and friction. It
was found that a horse could haul on these tramways several times as much
as he could on the dirt roadway. The steam engine had revolutionized
industry and was turning all sorts of machinery with an efficiency unknown
before, why then could it not be applied to propel vehicles? In England
George Stephenson and associates were proving that it could. But prior to
their time many thinkers of America believed in it. John Fitch, the half
crazy inventor of an early steamboat, had built a model locomotive. Oliver
Evans, who had placed wheels under a steamboat of his invention (1804)
and run it over the streets of Philadelphia, predicted “The time will come
when people will travel in stages moved by steam engines, from one city to
another, almost as fast as birds fly, fifteen to twenty miles an hour.” His
vision went still further; he saw what most people think to be absolutely
modern innovations: “A carriage will set out from Washington in the
morning, the passengers will breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia,
and sup at New York, the same day ... and travel by night as well as by day;
and the passengers will sleep in these stages as comfortably as they do now
in steamboats.”[87] Evans antedated Stephenson’s thought that speed with a
locomotive could only be made on nearly level rails. John Stevens, who is
often spoken of as the father of American railroads, of course, had similar
beliefs, and wrote a pamphlet to impress his ideas of the importance of
railways upon Congress. He said: “I am anxious and ambitious that my
native country should have the honor of being the first to introduce an

improvement of such immense importance to society at large, and should
feel the utmost reluctance at being compelled to resort to foreigners in the
first instance.”[88] Had Congress not turned a deaf ear to him it is quite
possible that he might have been before Stephenson in demonstrating the
practicability of the locomotive.[89] Stevens built a small locomotive and
demonstrated it on a piece of track on his grounds with himself as passenger
in 1820. Several tramways or railroads operated by horse were established
in different parts of the country. One of them—sponsored by the people of
Baltimore, anxious to retain their trade—was the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad, which had secured from Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania
charters for its construction in 1827 and 1828. It was being built with many
curves, as it, too, was expected to have horse propulsion. Many persons
thought it should be made straighter in order to take advantage of the steam
locomotive when the inventors had perfected it sufficiently to be usable. It
was not considered feasible to operate locomotives on crooked roads. Peter
Cooper, justly praised for many benefits to his country, decided to build a
locomotive to prove it could run on a crooked track. In his own words:
“Under these discouraging circumstances many of the principal
stockholders were about to abandon the work, and were only prevented
from forfeiting their stock by my persuading them that a locomotive could
be so made as to pass successfully around the short curves then found in the
road.”[90]
Accordingly in 1829 Cooper fitted up a small engine and boiler on a flat
car and with that crude locomotive, the Tom Thumb, was able to
demonstrate that curves could be “navigated.” Having made some changes
in the Tom Thumb, Cooper, the next year, ran it over the 13 miles from
Baltimore to Ellicott’s Mills in an hour and a quarter, an average of 6 miles
per hour, returning in sixty-one minutes, including a stop of four minutes.
The engine pushed ahead of it a flat car carrying twenty-four passengers.
The wheels of the engine had been constructed on the “cone principle”
which allowed it to round the curves of 400 feet radius without trouble.[91]
This was the first time a car filled with passengers had been hauled over a
railroad in the United States by means of steam power.
In England steam engines had been tried out but not until 1820 was the
first commercial road, the Stockton & Darlington Railroad, 37 miles in
length, completed. Prior to this time the tram roads had been erected for
specialized private transportation (from colliery to canal, for instance) or as

improvements to the public highways. The Stockton & Darlington was
intended to be operated with horses. And even as late as 1828 the Liverpool
& Manchester Railroad, intended primarily to haul freight and relieve the
congested condition of the canals, was chartered with a provision that the
owners could exact toll of all who might put vehicles on the road for the
transport of goods. The engineer, George Stephenson, however, was a
strong advocate of steam power and the success of the Rocket, built by his
son Robert, in 1829, as this road was nearing completion, definitely
determined the power to be used. Roads in America followed the same idea
that they were public highways. In Pennsylvania the state built a railroad
from Philadelphia to Columbia and licensed over twenty different
companies to run their horse-drawn cars over it.[92] In other states the same
idea prevailed and the right to charge tolls “upon all passengers and
property” transported upon the road was legalized by the charter.
The utility and economy of the railways were so manifest that
organizations were formed rapidly over the whole well settled portions of
the country. Several locomotives were imported from England. One of
these, the John Bull (locomotives were for a number of years all named like
sleeping cars are now), brought over by Stevens & Son, is said to have
given Baldwin information which enabled him to build Old Ironsides, the
first locomotive to run on Pennsylvania tracks, and establish a business
which afterwards became one of the largest locomotive works in the world.
Old Ironsides was built by Matthias Baldwin and his brother-in-law Rufus
Tyler for the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Road. Tyler seems to
have made the drawings. Baldwin was by trade a jeweler but his mechanical
ingenuity had carried him further. He had added to his business that of
constructing tools and calico printing apparatus and machinery. He had built
a steam engine for his own shop. A museum operator in Philadelphia
desiring to add to the attractions of his place of amusement wished to put in
a miniature locomotive and railway. He applied to Baldwin, who built the
road with its small locomotive and cars. On April 25, 1831, its installation
was completed and it hauled two four-seated passenger cars about a circular
track, to the great delight of the patrons, who were anxious for the
experience of riding on the railroad.

The Evolution of the Railway Train
1. The First Railway Coach—1825.
2. Horse Power Locomotive—1829-30.
3. Stourbridge Lion—1829.
4. Stevenson’s Rocket Locomotive—1829.
5. The DeWitt Clinton Locomotive—1831.
(From Brown’s “First Locomotive”—Courtesy of D. Appleton & Company.)

One of the roads that seems to have been prolific in “first things” was
between Charleston and Hamburg, South Carolina. Chartered in 1827, again
in 1828. In 1829-30 it experimented with sailing cars, as did also the
Baltimore & Ohio and with treadmill horse powers. But the company
fortunately employed Horatio Allen, who had studied the English roads and
was strongly inclined to steam power. He so convincingly presented his
ideas that it was decided to strengthen construction and use such
locomotives. This then, very likely, was the first railroad in the world to
adopt formally the steam locomotive as its means of propulsion (January
14, 1830). The company accordingly built its lines substantially and placed
upon them the “first locomotive made in America for regular and practical
use on a railway.”[93] This locomotive known as the Best Friend of
Charleston was built in New York and shipped to Charleston by sea. After
some adjustments it satisfied the demands of the contract, but distinguished
itself by being the first locomotive to explode. It is said a negro fireman sat
upon or held down the safety valve to prevent escaping steam from
annoying him. The Charleston Courier’s account closes with the gratifying
information that “none of the persons are dangerously injured except the
negro, who had his thigh broken.” A new locomotive, the West Point, was
secured, upon which several improvements suggested by experience had
been made; among them the safety valve was placed out of reach of the
fireman, making it fool-proof.
The beginning of the New York Central may be traced to a charter
granted in 1826 to the Mohawk & Hudson Company, which with five or six
other small lines was joined together into that company. Its first locomotive,
the De Witt Clinton, had a rather interesting initiation. The engine was
constructed by the West Point foundry, the same concern that had built the
Best Friend and the West Point. A demonstration was announced for August
9, 1831, the road having 17 miles of rails at that time. The locomotive, a
small affair compared with the modern engines, is still in existence and with

its train of that day was exhibited at the Pageant of Progress, Chicago, July
30, 1921, as the “pioneer American steam passenger train.” The whole
engine was only about 12 feet long with large wheels, tall smoke stack and
a central steam dome. Back of it were the tender and wood for fuel and two
barrels of water, two passenger coaches modeled after stage coaches, and
following these several small flat cars to which had been attached
temporary benches for seats. The locomotive and cars were joined together
with short sections of strong chain. When the engine started these jerked so
badly the passengers could not retain their seats; stopping had a similar
effect. On the trip it is said the passengers appropriated rails from a near
fence and made braces to keep the cars the full length of the chains apart.
The wood fuel produced many sparks which flying backward set fire to and
ruined much of the passengers’ clothing. But according to a newspaper
report[94] the train “passed over the road from plane to plane, to the delight
of a large crowd assembled to witness the performance. The engine
performed the entire route in less than one hour, including stoppages, and
on a part of the road its speed was at the rate of 30 miles an hour.”
On May 10, 1893, Engine No. 999, of the New York Central Railroad,
made, traveling alone, a record of 112.5 miles an hour.
The Camden & Amboy road was chartered in 1830 and was somewhat
unique in that New Jersey in return for $200,000 worth of stock had granted
a monopoly of the right of way between Philadelphia and Newark. Poore
says:[95] “The state became a willing party to the scheme, under the idea
that it could thereby draw the means for supporting its government from
citizens of other States, thus relieving its own from the burdens of
taxation.” He says, “the state now (1860) derives a revenue of over
$200,000 annually from transit duties and dividends on the stock presented
to it.”
NewEngland started three railway projects about the same time: Boston
& Lowell, chartered in 1830 first used in 1834, 26.7 miles long; Boston &
Providence, chartered in 1831, first used in 1834, 43.5 miles long; and the
Boston & Worcester, chartered in 1831, first used in 1834, 44.6 miles long.
[96] These roads were chartered with the idea of using horse-drawn vehicles,
except the Boston & Worcester, where steam locomotives were authorized,
but it was not until about 1834 that they were used. Some of these roads, as
did most of those built farther west, followed the English practice of laying
track. One of them, at least, laid its track upon wooden cross-ties, thus

securing the necessary resiliency for service. It was not many years,
however, before several other roads were established with regular trips of
locomotive drawn cars arranged both for passenger and freight traffic. The
time of passenger service from Boston to New York had been materially
shortened by connecting the schedules of stage coaches to Providence with
those of steamboats down the Sound. When the steam railway came into
existence the time of the trip was again shortened, and still again when an
all rail route was opened in 1848, as shown by the following table:
1775 General Washington was 12 days en route.
Early coaches required a week.
1800 Stage coaches required 4 days.
1832 Stage coaches required 41 hours.
1822 Coach to Providence, steamboat to New York, 28 hours.
1835 Coach to Providence, steamboat to New York, 16 hours.
1835 Railway to Providence, steamboat to New York, 15 hours.
1848 All railway, 10 hours.
1922 All railway, 5 hours, 10 minutes.
1922 Air plane, 3 hours.

While the railroads of the East were gradually working west, the trans-
Alleghany states were themselves looking toward railroad transportation.
The first railway in Ohio was begun in 1835 and had completed 30 miles by
1840. It extended from Sandusky to Springfield. When it was chartered,
1832, under the name of the Mad River & Lake Erie Railway, the intention
was to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River. A locomotive was purchased
and shipped to Sandusky by canal and lake. It arrived before any track was
laid hence the gauge of the track was made to fit the locomotive, 4 feet 10
inches. Other roads in Ohio were laid at that gauge and in time the state
adopted that as a standard.
Michigan in 1832, then a territory, incorporated the Detroit & St. Joseph
Railroad Company. After several years without doing anything the road was
completed to Ann Arbor in 1840. Later its western terminal became New
Buffalo, from which point there was steamboat communication with
Chicago. This was the germ which has grown into the Michigan Central.
A railroad was begun from Frankfort, Kentucky, to Lexington, a few
miles from the pioneer settlement at Boonesborough. By 1840 this road had
extended to the Ohio River near Louisville and was 92 miles in length.
Indiana chartered not less than a half-dozen railways in 1832 and continued
with a score or more in the next few years. The Lawrenceburg &

Indianapolis line, chartered 1832, was opened with a Fourth of July
celebration, 1834, and had laid less than 2 miles of track by 1836.[97] The
Madison & Indianapolis road was opened in 1838. The report of the
principal engineer, 1837, states that “the exclusive use of steam as a motive
power” had been adopted, thus saving “the cost of a horse path” and
avoiding “the delay and confusion arising from the simultaneous use of
both steam and horse power,” as well as elevating the “character of the road
by greater dispatch in the conveyance of passengers.” He thinks “in the use
of the railroads constructed by the state it will probably be best for the state
to furnish the motive power, leaving the cars for the conveyance of freight
and passengers to be furnished by individuals or companies, from whom the
state will exact the proper toll for the use of the road, and for the motive
power.” The idea seems everywhere to have prevailed that a railway was a
public highway to be used by and for the benefit of the public. Only for a
very short time in the history of the country did the theory have prominence
that a railway is private property to the extent that its owners could do as
they pleased with it and the “public be damned.”
At various points in the South were railways projected and built. Besides
the Charleston & Hamburg, which has already been mentioned, and which
by 1850 had extended across the state to Hamburg directly across the
Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia, and northward to Columbia with
some branches, should be noted a few others. From Richmond there was a
line westward to the coal fields (1830-31) and a line which by 1840
connected the Potomac with Fredericksburg, a distance of 75 miles. It was
constructed in the ordinary manner of wooden rails with strap-iron plates.
In Virginia there were the Petersburg & Roanoke, about 60 miles long and
other lines sufficient to total in 1840 more than 300 miles. North Carolina
also took up the rail question rather early. The Wilmington & Raleigh,
chartered in 1833, had laid upwards of 160 miles in 1840. Georgia was
building lines in the ’thirties and ’forties from Augusta across the state to
link with lines in Tennessee. The lines of these several Southeastern states
were joined together later and became parts of large systems. Of the several
projects authorized amounting to more than 1000 miles (1837) only one
materialized, namely, the road from Springfield to Meredosia, and 58 miles
had been completed by 1842. A locomotive was purchased and according to
the Springfield Journal, March 18, “the cars ran from Jacksonville, 331⁄2
miles, in two hours and eight minutes including stoppages.” On account of

the unsettled condition of the country and the accidents along the way,—no
doubt the track was poorly constructed,—it did not pay. The locomotive for
a considerable time lay out in the open where it had jumped the track. A
man bought it, equipped it with wide tired wheels and attempted to operate
it on the wagon roads. This proved unsuccessful and it was finally
abandoned on the prairie.[98] The road was sold in 1847. Several roads were
reaching out for the Mississippi River and the fertile prairies beyond. The
bustling young city of Chicago began its first railway toward the west in
1848. The other extremity was set for Galena on the Mississippi River. Not
being financially able to buy T-rails they purchased some second-hand
strap-irons. Likewise a second-hand locomotive was obtained, but when it
arrived at the water front in Chicago the city authorities having refused the
privilege of laying tracks on the street the company was at a loss to know
how to get it to the end of their rails. After much discussion permission to
lay a temporary track was given, and the Pioneer finally reached her
destination. The railway proved successful from the first; later it became
part of the Illinois Central System. The locomotive Pioneer is still retained
in the Field Museum of Chicago.
There is not space to trace the development of the railways in all the
individual states. In all natural growths, increases at first are slow, then
accelerated until a maximum is reached, followed by a gradual retardation.
So with the railway growth. The number of miles of railroad constructed up
to 1830 was 41; 1835, 918; to 1840, 2797; in small widely scattered
locations, but from that time on to the Civil War the work went on rapidly.
By 1860 about 31,000 miles had been constructed and was going on at the
rate of 5000 miles per year. Seven trunk line roads had passed through the
Appalachian Mountain system; at eight places they and their connections
touched the Ohio River, and the Mississippi at ten.[99] By 1850 there was
railway connection between Boston and the east end of Lake Erie, and from
the west end of Lake Erie to Lake Michigan with steamboat connection
across the two lakes; before 1860 there was a network of rails between the
Atlantic seaboard and the Mississippi River. Construction lagged behind in
the South. Up to 1856 the building was approximately as follows:
Northeastern States 4000 miles
Northern Central States 7500 „
South Atlantic States 2750 „
Southern Interior 2150 „

And the very fact that few of these were north and south roads, that travel
and intercourse were east and west, that the people of the North did not
fraternize with the people of the South, that they grew apart and worshiped
at the shrine of different ideals, furnished at least one cause for the cruel
Civil War. There are still too few north and south trunk lines of travel and
commerce, too little trade and friendly intercourse to heal the differences
engendered by a century of separation. There lies one of the hopes of the
interchange of summer and winter automobile visitors.
The building of railroads offered an opening for surplus capital; the
opportunity for fortune and fame was attractive; but above all the people
were crazed with the idea of improvement; every town wanted to grow
bigger and a railroad was an absolute necessity; scores of companies were
formed with the intention of beginning construction, then deeding the
improvement to some established line to operate. Many communities
subscribed stock, others voted bonds, others paid for right of way by private
subscription in order to secure a railroad. Mob psychology had got in its
work; the people were frenzied. The result was often overbuilding, parallel
lines, too many roads attempting to occupy the same territory, with the
result that branch lines often never paid interest on the cost of construction.
On the other hand the gambling instinct was rampant, many roads were
overcapitalized, stock was voted influential persons without money
consideration, and stock sold to others for more than it was worth.
As there had been for turnpikes, as there had been for canals, once again
there came a popular call for governmental aid. Land was then plenty and
the general belief was that the prosperity of the country demanded its
settlement. If railways could be induced to go out into the open prairies and
by their selling agencies bring about the occupation and tillage of these
lands, other lands owned by the Government would soon be in demand.
There would be no particular hardship on anyone, since Government land
was sold to actual settlers for such a small sum, the railroads would be
unable to dispose of their land at a much larger price. As a matter of fact the
land was sold by the railroads for whatever it would bring; the prices
increased as settlement became more dense. In Iowa railroad land sold from
$5 to $50 per acre during the ’sixties and ’seventies. The remaining land
held by the government was ordinarily increased in price from $1.25 to
$2.50 per acre.

Congress, evidently influenced by the demand for railroads, and falling
back upon the precedent of the National Highway, heretofore mentioned,
granted in 1850 to the State of Illinois a strip of land about 12 miles wide
lengthwise through the state to be transferred by it to the Illinois Central
Railroad. The act gave six sections per mile on each side of the track,
amounting, as certified to later, 2,595,053 acres. In consideration of this and
in lieu of all other taxes, the company agreed to pay the state an amount
equal to 7 per cent of the gross earnings from freight and passenger traffic.
The company had received from the sale (principal and advanced interest)
of 2,250,633 acres, up to January 1, 1873, $24,296,596;[100] an average of
about $11 per acre.
Other companies were quick to take advantage of this precedent. Each
had its representative in Congress. For over twenty years there was scarcely
a Congress that did not make one or two such grants. More than a hundred
such grants[101] were made between 1850 and 1872, aggregating
155,000,000 acres.[102] Several roads did not comply with the conditions of
the grants hence the donation lapsed. Up to June 30, 1880, grants amounted
to 155,504,994.59 acres, according to Donaldson, of which there had been
patented to the same date, 35,214,978.25 acres.
Pacific Roads. —The most gigantic land grants made by the Government
were for the benefit of the trans-continental or Pacific roads. The idea of a
transcontinental railroad has been traced back practically to the beginning
of railroad building in the United States.[103] During the ’fifties the debates
in Congress waxed strong. Should the states’ sovereignty idea prevail and
federal aid be first granted to the states and dealt out by them to the builders
as had been done with the Illinois Central and numerous other cases, or
should the National Government undertake the work itself or grant the aid
to a company for that purpose? Where would the road be built: in the North,
which would give an advantage to the abolitionists, or in the South, with
corresponding advantage to slavery partisans? The two classes were
absolutely antagonistic to each other’s desires. Then there was a middle
class, who desired to prevent separation and war who refused to vote upon
either side for fear it would create trouble with the other.
As a compromise a bill was passed in 1853 to have the country west of
the Mississippi River surveyed to determine the most feasible region for
building the transcontinental railroad. The report of the survey is contained
in eleven volumes, and was made by the War Department, of which

Jefferson Davis was the Secretary. This cabinet officer reported in favor of
“the route of the 32d parallel” as the “most practical and economical from
the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.”[104] A line this far south, of
course, was not acceptable to the North. The election and Civil War coming
on changed the status of affairs and on July 4, 1862, President Lincoln
signed the bill by which the first transcontinental road should be
constructed by two companies: the Central Pacific working from the west,
and the Union Pacific working from the Missouri River at Omaha
westward. A grant of land of approximately 35,000,000 acres was made,
namely, the odd sections lying contiguous to the line on either side. This
was not quite a return to the position of the Government when it built out of
the funds from the sale of public lands the National Road westward from
Maryland, through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, into Illinois. Then the
construction was done under the direction of the federal Government and
the road remained the property of the Government. Now federal aid was
given to private companies to be operated for their own benefit. What might
have been the result in this country had the Government taken a firm stand
for national ownership is problematical, but the fact that it has made a
success of the construction and operation of the Panama Canal leads many
to believe that the railroad question would have been handled as easily if
that system had grown up from the beginning. Opponents of government
ownership point to the roads of continental Europe as being less efficient
than those of England and the United States under private ownership. And
more recently the fiasco of Government operation under war emergency is
considered a strong argument against public ownership.
In addition to the land granted to the Union Pacific for the “purpose of
aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line, and to secure
the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war,
and public stores thereon, every alternate section of land, designated by odd
numbers, to the amount of five alternate sections per mile on each side of
said road,”[105] the company was given for “right of way” 200 feet each side
of the track,[106] “including all necessary grounds” for stations, side-tracks
and various other purposes enumerated, also to take from the public land
“adjacent to the line of said road” (afterwards limited to 10 miles on each
side) “earth, stone, timber, and other materials, for the construction
thereof.” Further help was also granted by the provisions of the act (Section
5): “That ... the Secretary of the Treasury shall, upon the certificate in

writing ... of the completion and equipment of forty consecutive miles ...
issue ... bonds of the United States of one thousand dollars each, payable in
thirty years after date, bearing six per centum per annum interest ... to the
amount of sixteen of said bonds per mile.” The act provides that this loan
shall constitute a first mortgage lien on the property, but the act of 1864
allowed the company to issue bonds to the same amount and subrogate the
Government bonds to those issued by the company making the Government
claim a second mortgage instead of a first. The Government gave similar
grants and privileges to the Central Pacific, although it was a purely state
corporation and, at first, was only to build to the east line of California.
Apparently the last vestige of the traditions of Madison and Monroe, of
Jackson and Buchanan had disappeared.
There was danger that other lines would be built. A line was preparing to
go west from Leavenworth, lines were converging on St. Joseph and Sioux
City, any of which might become rivals of the Union Pacific, so the act
provides that they shall unite with the Pacific not farther west than the one
hundredth meridian of longitude, and if they do so grants of lands and
subsidy bonds will be given to them.
However, the demand for transcontinental lines was so great that three
other lines were authorized. In 1864 the Northern Pacific Railroad to
connect Lake Superior with Puget Sound, with a land grant of 58,000,000
acres; in the Atlantic & Pacific to follow the old 32d parallel route, now a
part of the Southern Pacific, with a grant of 42,000,000 acres; and last, the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé received also a large grant. The total
Congressional grants certified or patented to railroads and military wagon
roads from 1850 to 1880 were as follows:
To States 35,214,978.25 acres
To Corporation and Pacific Roads 10,435,048.08
Military Wagon Roads 1,301,040.47
46,951,066.80
Deduct lands forfeited 607,741.76
Grand Total for Railroads and Military Wagon Roads 46,343,325.04
Acres necessary to fill grants providing all roads are constructed 155,504,994.59 [107]

Construction of Pacific Roads. —It would be interesting to take up in
detail the work of constructing these roads, but space will not permit.
Nothing can be said of the intense interest throughout the United States; of
the romance and adventure of penetrating 1700 miles of wilderness and

desert with hostile Indians ready at any time to attack; with worse than
hostile Indians in the rough-necks, gamblers, and prostitutes who followed
the camps; of the magnitude of the work employing 2000 graders to go
first, 1500 wood choppers and tie-getters spreading their labors over
thousands of miles of Government forests; of the engineers and their feats
of searching out easiest passages; of the track layers; of the boarding
houses; of general camp life; of the exciting race with the Central Pacific
ending in the union of the two lines and the driving of the golden spike at
Promontory Point on the north shore of Great Salt Lake, 1086 miles
westward from Omaha and 689 miles eastward from Sacramento, on the
10th day of May, 1869; and of the crowds in Omaha, Chicago, Cincinnati,
New Orleans, Washington, New York, San Francisco, and every other place
of importance in the whole nation, who patiently waited the sounds of the
bells rung in unison with the sounds of the strokes upon the spike,
transmitted instantaneously through the intervening space by the electric
telegraph.
There is no doubt but that the benefits that have come from the railways
through the increased facilities for transportation and the corresponding
gain to civilization has amply repaid the Government for all its bounties,
notwithstanding some of them were unnecessary, in fact, a willful waste and
led to an orgy of financial and political corruption a little later.
The Crédit Mobilier. —Perhaps the most widely noticed scandal
connected with the railroads was the scheme known as the Crédit Mobilier.
This was made much of by the Grange and other anti-monopoly movements
which reached their height in the ’seventies. Charges having been made that
many congressmen had been bribed by an organization known as the Crédit
Mobilier, a Congressional investigation was made,[108] Thomas Durant, vice
president, and other leading stockholders of the Union Pacific Railroad,
secured a controlling interest in the stock of the Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency
in 1864 and had its name changed to the Crédit Mobilier of America. One
of the ostensible functions of the company was to loan money for railroad
construction. The same men were instrumental in awarding the contract for
the building of the Union Pacific Railroad to one of their number, Oakes
Ames, a member of the United States House of Representatives, for
stipulated amounts per mile for the different sections ranging from $42,000
to $96,000, amounting in the aggregate to $47,000,000. The contract was
right away transferred to seven trustees composed of the same controlling

stockholders, who were to execute it receiving therefor $3000 per year
each, and the profits were to be divided among those stockholders of the
Crédit Mobilier of America who would comply with certain conditions. The
Crédit Mobilier agreed to furnish the necessary money at 7 per cent per
annum and 21⁄2 per cent commission, not to exceed the amount provided in
the contract to be paid by the Union Pacific company. These same leading
stockholders of the Union Pacific being also controlling stockholders of the
Crédit Mobilier were thus, because the contract prices were said to be twice
the actual constructing prices, making a big profit, practically all of which
was coming from the United States treasury. Complaints were being made
and adverse legislation was feared. Stock in Crédit Mobilier was offered to
members of congress at a very low figure on which it is said they made
dividends of 340 per cent. It amounted to this: The men entrusted with the
management of the road let the contract for its construction to themselves at
a figure double its real cost, and pocketed the profits, estimated at about
$30,000,000. These same men started the scheme, which afterward became
common, of watering the stock, that is increasing the outstanding stock, and
distributing it as dividends, upon the plea that the property had increased
without any new outlay of money. It also appears to be a method of earning
dividends upon money never invested.
Railroad Consolidation. —It has been shown that at the beginning
railroad building consisted of short stretches from town to town, or from the
end of one water communication to the beginning of another. It was but
reasonable that these would join for the purpose of through traffic. The
result was also better efficiency as the equipment could be used to better
advantage; the terminal costs were reduced as there were not so many of
them; and, what may have been a leading cause, the control, and perhaps
prevention, of competition. Unrestricted competition caused rate wars; rates
once down it was difficult to get them back and frequently bankruptcy
occurred. Government regulations were made prohibiting rate agreements
and pooling. Such apparently hastened consolidation. One objection to
consolidation was the concentration of vast financial powers in the hands of
a few, and since money had much influence in Washington and in the state
capitals, political power as well. This and combinations of other industrial
concerns were causes which brought about the enactment of the Sherman
Anti-Trust law of July 2, 1890.[109] This law did not come in time to stop
consolidation and it may be doubtful if it would for the Supreme Court has

decided that combinations are not unlawful unless they exercise an
unreasonable restraint upon trade.[110]
The methods of consolidation are: merger or outright purchase, in which
case the individual lines lose their separate identity; stock purchase,
wherein a controlling share of the stock of another road is held by the
purchasing line or by a holding company; lease usually for long periods, a
rental being paid periodically for the use of the line; and, community of
interest, that is the establishment of friendly relations. The consolidations
are more often financial than physical. When two roads physically combine
under one management it is customary to reorganize and assume the same
name. In the consolidations given in the table below many of the roads are
operated separately and almost independently but are dominated by
common financial interests with common policies or very friendly relations.
Some of the principal consolidations prior to 1912 are:[111]

Vanderbilt Interests
Mileage
Boston & Albany 392
New York Central 3,591
Lake Shore & Michigan Southern 1,663
Michigan Central 1,805
New York, Chicago & St. L. 561
Lake Erie & Western 886
Big Four 1,979
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie 215
Chicago, Indiana & Southern 329
Other affiliated eastern lines 1,759
Western Maryland[112] 575
Chicago & North Western Systems 9,827
Total 23,582

Morgan Interests
Erie Railroad 2,565
Pere Marquette 2,334
Southern Railroad System 8,667
Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific 335
Mobile & Ohio 1,114
Atlantic Coast Line 6,818
Louisville & Nashville 4,590
Chicago & Great Western 1,495

Total 27,918

Harriman Interests

Oregon Short Line 1,646
Oregon Railway & Navigation Company 1,737
Union Pacific System (remainder) 3,791
Southern Pacific 10,257
Illinois Central System 6,340
Central of Georgia 1,915
Baltimore & Ohio 4,555
Delaware & Hudson 875
San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake 1,105
Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton 1,015
Total 33,236

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé 10,472

Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul System 9,657

Seaboard Air Line 3,084

Pennsylvania Railroad Interests
Pennsylvania Lines 11,197
Norfolk & Western 1,990
Total 13,187

Gould Interests
Wabash System 2,663
Wheeling & Lake Erie 457
Missouri Pacific System[113] 3,920
St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern[113] 313
St. Louis, Southwestern[113] 1,675
Texas & Pacific[113] 1,991
International & Great Northern[113] 1,159
Denver & Rio Grande[114] 2,778
Western Pacific[113] 979
Total 15,935

Moore Interests
Rock Island System 8,144
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western[114] 1,052
Lehigh Valley[115] 1,431

Total 10,627

Hill Interests

Great Northern 7,397
Northern Pacific 6,281
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 10,443
Colorado & Southern 1,249
Total 25,370

New Haven Interests

New York, New Haven & Hartford 2,887
Boston & Maine 3,594
Total 6,481

Hawley Interests

Minneapolis & St. Louis 1,027
Iowa Central 559
Toledo, St. Louis & Western 451
’Frisco System 7,147
Chicago & Alton 1,025
Chesapeake & Ohio System 2,232
Missouri, Kansas & Texas 3,393
Hocking Valley 350
Total 16,508

Philadelphia and Reading 2,137
Grand Total of above Groups and Systems 198,638
Total milage of railways in the United States, Dec. 31, 1916 397,014

For a more extended discussion see “National Consolidation of Railroads,” by George H. Lewis.

Mechanical Development. —There is not space to follow in detail the
mechanical development of railroads. The rail, for instance, was at first a
mere plank placed in the cart track to prevent rutting; this evolved into a rail
of timber about 4 x 6 inches held in proper position by cross-ties not to be
considered as sleepers or supports especially. On top of the rail was later
placed a strap iron. Since this strap iron under the wheel loads curled up,
thicker plates began to be used. Then cast-iron rails some 4 or 5 feet long
from tie to tie, cast deeper at the middle for greater strength. Then the
rolling mills were becoming sufficiently improved to roll out wrought-iron
rails, at first rectangular plates, then T-rails held up by chairs and finally

through a dozen or more forms to Bessemer, then open-hearth steel rail
shapes as at present used. The fastenings and fish plates have gone through
a stage of evolution. The track soon assumed a standard form and has
retained it with little variation notwithstanding attempts to use steel and
concrete ties.
The freight cars, at first boxes with wheels on them, have gradually
developed into monsters of steel with draw bars, automatic brakes and
couplings. Passenger cars at first very variable were developed from stage
coaches and Conestoga wagons hitched together. In Europe they remained
short, like stage coaches with side doors. In the United States they
lengthened out with seats through the interior and doors and platforms at
the ends. Platforms were eventually housed in with vestibules. Both types
have their advantages and disadvantages. Sleeping cars seem to be a
development of the canal and steamboat sleeping quarters. Here a single
company early obtaining a working, if not a legal, monopoly of the business
of making and operating sleepers. As a result no improvements of note have
appeared in them for years. For financial efficiency the monopoly seems to
be a good thing; for mechanical progress it is not.
Locomotives have shown a continual progress. One reason perhaps is
their short lives; new ones must always be coming along and there is ample
opportunity for experimentation. From the Tom Thumb to the powerful
Mountain Type is a long climb, but as each step was taken the individual
changes were not very noticeable. Like the hour-hand of a watch only by
observing its position at times quite separated can it be noticed to have
traveled.
In fact the entire railway system with its millions of cars operating on
hundreds of roads has grown complex and yet standardized. To get a
common gauge that cars from one road might pass to another required an
act of Congress. At first companies adopted diverse gauges that their cars
could not go onto another road, but when transcontinental roads were to be
built and through lines of traffic established President Lincoln was called
upon to set a gauge. He “side-tracked” the matter and threw it onto
Congress, who established the distance 4 feet 81⁄2 inches as the standard
width between rails.
Without the telegraph the present amplification of railroad business could
not have taken place. The early trains traveled by time schedule. No extra
train could be added, although looking-posts were established at the stations

up which the train men could climb to watch for the smoke of an
approaching train. Now every division point must have its coterie of
dependable dispatchers. Each wire carries multiple messages. Electric
signals and other safety devices to lessen accidents are universal, while the
bewildering network of tracks in the ordinary city yard are operated easily
from distant towers by interlocking switches. That railroads have brought
about an industrial and social revolution, that they have increased
enormously the country’s transportation, that they have thus been very
instrumental in bringing the present civilization to its high and uniform state
of attainment, cannot be denied.

© Underwood and Underwood
MODERN LOCOMOTIVES

1. Showing the Growth in the Size of Locomotives During the Past Twenty Years. The
Smaller Locomotive is an American Type Class Engine of 1900. The Larger is a
Mountain Type Engine. Both are Used on the C. B. & Q. R. R. Photographed at Lincoln,
Nebr., Sept., 1922.
2. One of the New Gearless Electric Locomotives Built by the General Electric Company
for the C. M. & St. Paul R. R.

The Evolution of the Sleeping Car. —Mr. Husband has made a very
interesting book of the story of the Pullman car and its evolution[116] in
which he traces with much detail, step by step, the improvements from
1836, when the first sleeping car was offered to the traveling public, to the
most modern parlor car now in use. The discomfort and inconvenience of
travelers by rail was so much greater than that by canal that only the greater
speed of the former caused it to forge ahead of the latter. As the mileage of
the roads increased so also did the comforts of travel. It has already been
noted that sparks set fire to the clothing of passengers. Soon box-like cars
replaced the open carriages and bogie trucks replaced the rigid wheels, the
former giving much more protection and the latter comfort while rounding
curves. But yet passengers were herded like cattle on stiff-backed narrow
benches in cars with scant head clearance and width. Clean stone ballast for
the road bed had not yet been thought of and the dust blew in clouds
through the open windows in the summer time, and a stove vitiated the air
in the winter. There were no screens or vestibules. It is a far cry from the
dim flaring candle to the brilliant white incandescent electric lights.
Passenger cars were rapidly improved until by 1844 they had taken on
something of the appearance of the present coach.
George M. Pullman, a Chicago contractor, having experienced the
inconveniences of railway travel and also being acquainted from close
association with the Erie Canal and the sleeping arrangements of the canal
boats, had visions of similar or better rail comforts. In 1858 he engaged
Leonard Seibert, an employee of the Chicago & Alton Railroad, to remodel
two coaches into the first Pullman sleeping cars. Mr. Pullman’s invention of
upper berth construction whereby it could be closed during the day and
serve as a receptacle for bedding was introduced into these cars, before
which time sleeping car bunks had been stationary and on one side only.
The success of his venture was such that he established a shop for the
manufacture of the cars and employed technical skill to plan and make

them. He had such organizing ability, however, that before his death he saw
the Pullman Company holding a practical monopoly of all the sleeping cars
in the country, with through cars scheduled so that change of Pullman was
unnecessary from coast to coast, or if a change had to be made it was
merely a transfer from one car to a connecting car on another route. A single
ticket will carry a passenger from Portland, Maine, to San Francisco, by
way of Washington, D.C., New Orleans and Los Angeles with only two
changes of cars, namely, at New York and Washington, a total distance of
4,199 miles.
It may be interesting to note that some 26,000,000 persons are annually
accommodated by the 7500 cars operated by this company.
Street Car Service. —Now that more than one half the population of the
United States live in cities makes the matter of local transportation of at
least passing interest. Railroads were at first tram cars and many of them
were built through the city streets, it was easy, therefore, to make of them
street cars caring for such local traffic as desired to take advantage of them.
They became a popular means of local transportation in the decade 1850-
60. As the demand became greater the one-horse car gave way to the two-
horse with its longer body and greater capacity. These not being sufficient
steam locomotives were used in some cities, in others the tracks were
elevated above the surface, the first in New York in 1876, or depressed
below with steam locomotives operating trains of cars rapidly loaded and
unloaded at stopping points about four blocks apart. In 1879 or 1880 in San
Francisco where the hills were too steep for horses the cable car was
designed, whereby an endless cable operated from a central station ran
continuously in a trench or conduit under the track. A grip attached to the
car could be made to take hold of this cable and the car was thus drawn
along. Notwithstanding they were expensive to install cable cars were
rapidly replacing horse-drawn cars when electric traction came in and
displaced them.
Electric Traction. —There are reports of attempts to obtain magnetic
traction by the use of batteries, but not until the electric dynamo and motor
had become practical working machines was anything like a successful
working electrically propelled car developed. The ordinary method is to
generate the electricity at a central station, carry it along the track by means
of a wire, from which it is taken by a trolley or some form of conductor to a
motor on the car completing the circuit through the track and ground. Such

a car was practically demonstrated at the Berlin Exposition of 1879, by
Werner Siemens, with a line 219 yards long.[117] This was the first practical
electric railway. But long before this time in America experiments had been
made with electric traction. Dever exhibited a model at Springfield,
Massachusetts, in 1835.[118] In 1879, the year of Siemens’ exhibition,
another model railway having a “third rail” to carry the current was
exhibited at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Edison had a car in operation at
Menlo Park, New Jersey, in 1882, and the following year a small road
carried passengers at an exhibit in Chicago. Miniature roads were exhibited
at Philadelphia, Denver, Cleveland, New Orleans, and possibly elsewhere.
The first electric railway built and operated for profit in American streets
was at Richmond, Virginia, in 1885 on 21⁄2 miles of track. During the same
year 2 miles between Baltimore and Hampton were put in operation.[119] By
1890 the number of cities having trolley cars had increased to forty-nine.
[120] From that time on the change from horse-drawn cars was very rapid.
Trolley lines were even extended throughout the country districts. At one
time it looked as though they might replace steam cars for passenger traffic,
especially short-haul traffic. There was a complete network of interurban
trolley lines in the Eastern and Central Western states by 1910.[121] The
trolley is also being used upon hard-surfaced roads without tracks by buses
and trucks. Steam railroads running into New York City through the tubes
use electric locomotives to draw the trains, thus avoiding the smoke
nuisance and the danger therewith connected. The Milwaukee Railroad is
using electric locomotives on its mountain division in Montana and Idaho.
Electricity is generated by water power; also the trains going down grade
are run against a dynamo and storage battery thus acting as a brake as well
as renewing the batteries.

SELECTED REFERENCES

Brown, William H., “History of the First Locomotive in America.” D. Appleton & Co., New York,
1871.
Burch, Edward P., “Electric Traction for Railway Trains,” Chap. I (Historical). McGraw-Hill Book
Co., New York, 1911.
Callender, Guy S., “The Economic History of the United States,” Chapter VIII, “Transportation,”
Ginn & Co., New York.
Census, U. S. Eleventh (1890) “Transportation on Land.”
Census Bureau, U. S. Special Report (1902) “Streets and Electric Railways.”

Davis, John P., “Union Pacific Railway.” S. C. Griggs & Co., Chicago.
Donaldson, Thomas, “History of the Public Domain,” Published by order of an act of Congress,
1884.
Dunbar, Seymour, “A History of Travel in America,” 4 volumes. Bobbs-Merrill Company,
Indianapolis.
Ericsson, John, “Life of” by William C. Church, Chap. IV. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York.
Husband, Joseph, “The Story of the Pullman Car.” A. C. McClurg & Company, Chicago, 1917.
Johnson, Emory R., “Elements of Transportation,” 1909. D. Appleton & Company, New York.
Larrabee, Wm., “The Railroad Question,” Shulte Publishing Company, Chicago, 1893.
Le Rossignol, J. E., “Monopolies Past and Present.” T. Y. Crowell Company, New York.
Lewis, George H., “National Consolidation of Railroads.” Dodd, Mead & Co., New York.
Maps of Interurban Lines, Century Atlas. Century Company, New York.
Martin, E. W., “History of the Grange Movement, or The Farmer’s War against Monopoly.” A
subscription book published in 1874. National Publishing Company, Chicago.
Poore, Henry V., “History of Railroads and Canals of the United States,” Vol. I, p. 377. New York,
1860.
Sanborn, John B., “Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways.” University of Wisconsin
Bulletin, Vol. II, No. 3, Econ. pol. Sci. and Hist. Series.
Selfridge, H. Gordon, “The Romance of Commerce.” John Lane, London.
Sparks, E. E., “National Development,” Vol. XXIII, The American Nation Series, Chapter III and IV.
Harper & Brothers, New York.
U. S. Statutes, 1862-1864, Pacific Railway Acts, Investigation of the Crédit Mobilier.
U. S. Statutes, 41st Congress, 1st Session, Chap. DCXLVII, Sherman Anti-Trust Law.
U. S. Statutes, Railroad Bills, 1850-1880 House Report 42d Cong., 3d Session, No. 77.

FOOTNOTES

[87] Quoted from “Niles’ Register” of 1812 by Dunbar.
[88] Stevens’ pamphlet published in 1812.
[89] Stephenson’s first locomotive was put out in 1814. His Rocket and Ericsson’s Novelty
had their famous contest resulting in favor of the Rocket in 1829.
[90] Brown’s “History of the First Locomotive,” letter from Cooper, 1869.
[91] The coning of wheels is an invention of Jonathan Knight, Engineer of the Baltimore &
Ohio Railroad Company.
[92] Dunbar, “A History of Travel in America,” 932.
[93] Dunbar, “A History of Travel in America,” 960.
[94] The Albany Argus, August 11, 1831.
[95] “History of the Railroads and Canals of the United States,” 1860, Vol. I, p. 377.
[96] Dunbar, “A History of Travel in America,” 998, 1383.

[97] Dunbar, “A History of Travel in America,” 1071.
[98] Potter’s American Monthly, July, 1879.
[99] T. C. Smith, American Nation, Vol. XVIII, p. 60.
[100] E. W. Martin, “History of the Grange Movement,” 1874, p. 35.
[101] Donaldson, “History of the Public Domain.” University of Wisconsin Bulletin:
“Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of Railways,” by J. B. Sanborn, Pol. Sci. and History Series,
Vol. II, No. 3.
[102] The “History of the Grange Movement,” a subscription book by Edward Winslow
Martin, published in 1874, but which can hardly be taken as wholly reliable, says: “The lands
granted by the Government to various railway corporations make up a total area of 198,165,794
acres, or about 300,000 square miles—an area larger than the State of Texas, which contains
237,504 square miles ... and the railway subsidies comprise nearly one-tenth of the entire Union.”
[103] Dunbar, “A History of Travel in America,” Chap. LVI, et seq. Donaldson, “History of
the Public Domain.”
[104] Senate Executive Document No. 78, 33d Congress, 2d Session.
[105] U. S. Statutes. Acts of 1862 and 1864.
[106] By subsequent provision the right of way was cut to two hundred feet, although the
company still holds four hundred feet through parts of Nebraska.
[107] Thomas Donaldson’s “History of the Public Domain.”
[108] “House Reports,” 42 Cong., 3d Session, No. 77.
[109] U. S. Statutes, 51 Cong., 1 Sess., Chap. DCXLVII.
[110] Digest U. S. Supreme Court Reports, Vol. IV, “Monopoly,” pp. 4043-4052, The
Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, Rochester, N. Y., 1908.
[111] Funk and Wagnalls’ Encyclopedia.
[112] Jointly with Gould Interests.
[113] Jointly with Rockefeller, Kuhn, Loeb, & Co., Vanderbilt and other interests.
[114] Jointly with Standard Oil interests.
[115] Jointly with Erie, Reading and Vanderbilt interests.
[116] “The Story of the Pullman Car,” by Joseph Husband. A. C. McClurg & Company,
Chicago, 1917. Cf. Literary Digest, February 10, 1923, p. 25.
[117] Funk and Wagnalls’ Encyclop.
[118] “Special Reports, Streets and Electric Railways,” U. S. Census Bureau (1902). This, of
course, was not a practical machine.
[119] “American Nation,” Vol. XXIII, 39.
[120] U. S. Eleventh Census (1890), “Transportation on Land.”
[121] See Maps in Century Dictionary.

CHAPTER V
THE MODERN WAGON ROAD

Gone are the long picturesque lines of emigrant and freight wagons, with
their conestogas, their stage coaches, their oxen, their mules and horses;
gone are the hospitable inns with their gay and social crowds of happy
travelers; gone are the nightly wagon-formed corrals into which the
freighter was wont to drive his animals to prevent their stampeding by the
wily red-skin; gone are the complacent but slow-going canal barges so
plentiful and popular that at the cry of “low bridge,” everybody ducked by
reflex action; gone are the floating palaces on the vacillating and
changeable waters of the interior river systems; these yesteryear implements
of transportation have been all but superseded by more powerful or more
speedy instruments. The canals are very frequently but weed-grown scum-
covered channels through the soil, while many of the wagon roads are
similarly weed-grown or dust-covered lanes on top of the soil. Perhaps a
rejuvenation will come. Already the public road shows signs of a more
vigorous growth than the world has ever witnessed even in the heyday of
road building under the Roman Caesars.

© Underwood and Underwood
TRANSPORTATION ACROSS DEATH VALLEY

A Picturesque Method of Earlier Days.

Public highways began their desuetude (partial at least) about 1830, at
the advent of the steam railway. To be sure, arrangements were made for the
laying out and care of roads. There were, also, usually poll and property
taxes levied for road and bridge purposes. But generally the old English
custom of allowing such taxes to be worked out prevailed. In Iowa, for
instance,[122] the county court was given “general supervision over the
highways” which must be 66 feet wide unless otherwise specially directed.
The manner of establishing roads is set forth and the county judge may if he
wishes call in a competent surveyor and “cause the line of the road to be
accurately surveyed and plainly marked out.” “Where crops have been
sowed or planted before the road is finally established the opening thereof
shall be delayed until the crop is harvested.” The county supervisor must
appoint a deputy in each township, but the deputy “must regard himself as
an actual laboring hand” and his compensation “shall not exceed one dollar

and fifty cents for each day actually employed.” It is the duty of the
supervisor “to place and preserve the roads in as good a condition as the
funds at his disposal will permit, and to place guide boards at such points as
he may think expedient or as the court may direct.” In the Eastern states and
in the hilly districts the method of locating each individual road to follow a
trail or stream or ridge usually prevailed, but in many of the prairie states
roads were located by law on each section line and in some states on each
half-section line as well. This made every man’s farm adjacent to a road,
although it was certainly a waste of land. In nearly all the prairie states the
legal right of way is now 66 feet,[123] in other states it is made 491⁄2 and 33
feet. Massachusetts state-aid roads have a minimum of 50 feet. Texas
divided her roads into three classes with widths of 60, 30 and 20 feet. New
Jersey has some state roads 33 feet wide. On the whole 66 feet seems to be
favored. This, if roads are made on every half-section mile, appropriates
almost 5 per cent of the land, a quantity that by proper selection and
location might be materially reduced. The section line method is liked by
farmers because it leaves the fields rectangular, a convenient form for
efficiency in cultivation.
The Influence of the Bicycle on Roads. —Road construction remained
in a lackadaisical state with here and there a spurt, with now and then an
intelligent supervisor who appreciated the need of better wagon roads, until
the coming of the bicycle. That machine may be considered a descendant of
the old celeripede, which consisted of two wheels connected by a horizontal
bar on which the rider sat and propelled himself by pushing with his feet
alternately on the ground, through the velocipede, which had the front
wheel pivoted to the framework for easy steering. The attachment of pedals
is credited to a Scotchman, Kirkpatrick Macmillan, about 1840, who
applied them to the rear wheel. In 1886 Lallement in the United States and
Michaux in France, placed the pedals on the front wheels. The front wheel
was gradually increased in diameter until in the ’eighties it sometimes
measured as much as 60 inches. The rear wheel decreased as the front
increased. The stability of the wheel was not very great; headers were
common, and mounting was difficult. To overcome these defects of the
“ordinary” there was developed, 1885, the “safety,” approximately the
present bicycle, in which the pedals are carried on a separate shaft and the
power transmitted by chain and sprocket to the rear wheel. With the
invention of the Dunlop[124] pneumatic tire, and consequent overcoming of

much of the jolting so objectionable in more solid tires, the adoption of the
bicycle as a means of pleasure and business locomotion was extremely
rapid. The cycling boom reached its height about 1896 or 1897, by which
time a great many large manufactories of bicycles had been established over
the country. A frenzy seized upon the people and men and women of all
stations were riding wheels; ardent cyclists were found in every city,
village, and hamlet.
As a result of the cycling craze there were organized numerous “wheel
clubs” and finally a national one known as the League of American
Wheelmen, organized about 1887. Its object partly social and partly to
popularize the new sport of cycling, became a few years later almost wholly
a form of propaganda for “better roads.” Newspaper space was freely
utilized; many papers making special and regular features of “good roads”;
pamphlets were published and distributed broadly, and a magazine was
established.[125]
At first the wheelmen were met by the cry of selfishness, with the
argument that the city folk wanted the farmers to build good roads for their
pleasure; but men of foresight, men of affairs, saw the benefits accruing to
all kinds of business and added their influence. Mr. Potter, a lawyer of New
York City, who had graduated in civil engineering at Cornell University
before turning to the law, became interested in the good roads movement,
studied and made himself one of the best posted men on roads in the United
States. When the League of American Wheelmen decided to start a
magazine he was selected for its editor and manager. Under his direction the
subscription list of Good Roads soon reached more than 30,000.[126] “The
articles strive to show the value of roads in a commercial sense and by a
comparison with other countries demonstrate how far behind America is in
this respect.” Pictures of good and bad roads were used freely, thus holding
the attention where reading matter alone would have failed. European
roads, the French especially, were described and played up through
newspapers generally. Scarcely a journal that did not run leaders and other
articles on the benefits of good roads and methods of building and
maintaining the same. Our ordinary roads were decried on every hand. A
lady voices her opinion thus:[127]
I came to this country with the best prejudices, having enjoyed the privilege of meeting with some
of its noblest representatives in my fatherland. I admired much the individual independence, the high
standing of women, the gentle sway of the church, the liberal education of the children, and the

unsurpassed charity that extends even to distant countries. I must confess that I was struck with the
bad roads everywhere, in cities as well as in the country, and at the same time, amused at the
compensation one gets when one meets with an accident. Why not spend the money in the
improvements of the roads—make these roads perfect, and then let everybody look out for himself.
In summer the worst road is good; but in winter schools have to be closed, the children are stopped
in their regular pursuits, learning becomes desultory, and the strong feeling of duty that has to be
developed from the very beginning of life by strict good habits gets slackened and slighted; and so
also the attendance of the churches—for many people the only comfort in the struggle for existence
—becomes an impossibility. And especially the painstaking farmer must find it hard to drive his team
through the muddy, clayey road, in bringing the fruits of his labor to the market. I hear him, with
many a suppressed oath on everything under the sun, dragging his cartload through the mud and
standing pools, and in snowstorms he is sometimes totally lost. All communication stops.

And so on for a column or more. She inserts by way of anecdote which
shows that two of the greatest Germans who ever lived did not think the
lowly road too insignificant to discuss:
When Heinrich Heine for the first time met with the royal poet, Goethe, he was so impressed with
the majesty of his personality that he could speak of nothing less than the plum trees on the chaussée,
between Jena and Weimar.

Also Bill Nye, the humorist, takes a rap at the roads in this manner.[128]
Our wagon roads throughout the country are generally a disgrace to civilization and before we
undertake to supply Jaeger underwear and sealskin covered bibles with flexible backs to the African
it might be well to put a few dollars into the relief of galled and broken down horses that have lost
their breath on our miserable highways.
The country system, as I recall it, was in my boyhood about as poor and inefficient as it could well
be. Each township was divided up into road districts, and each road district was presided over by an
overseer of highways, whose duty it is to collect so many days’ work or so many dollars from each
taxpayer in the district. Of course no taxpayer would pay a dollar when he could come and make mud
pies on the road all day and visit and gossip with the neighbors and save his dollar too.
The result seemed to be that the work was misdirected and generally an injury to the road. With all
our respect to the farmer, I will state right here that he does not know how to make roads. An all wise
Providence never intended that he should know. The professional roadbuilder, with the money used
by the ignorant sapheads and self-made road architects, would in a few years make roads in the
United States over which two or three times the present sized load could be easily drawn, and the
dumb beasts of the Republic would rise up and call us blessed for doing it.

This bit of doggerel appeared in Good Roads about the same time:
They May Be Sinking Yet

Old farmer John drove off to town
All on a rainy day.
The glistening highway up and down,
With mire shone all the way.
The gentle weeping raindrops fell
And had fallen all the night;

The bottom of that highway—well;
’Twas literally out of sight.
But John had hitched his sturdy steeds.
His sturdy steeds and true
That often ’mid such urgent needs.
Had boldly struggled through.
And John had sworn a big round oath
With deep and bated breath,
He’d rather brave the deep, forsooth,
Thrice o’er than starve to death.
For visions of the flour bin,
’Twas empty he could see,
And for a week no sugar in
His coffee cup had he.
And so amid the sea of mire.
Those steeds right valiant reel,
While turbid waves creep higher, higher,
Upon the wagon wheel.
Oh! help ye powers that rule the wave,
Wherever ye may be;
Reach down and this poor mortal save
From out the turbid sea.

They sink, now just the horses’ ears
Still struggling through the flood;
Now nothing but John’s hat appears
Above that sea of mud.
The rich black loam of Illinois
Above that outfit met;
And since our roads are bottomless,
They may be sinking yet.
Thus was the propaganda for better roads spread during the last decade of
the nineteenth century. And this is not all the country owes to the
enthusiastic wheelman of that period. Their efforts had resulted in a stirring
of the whole populace. True, some were opposed to spending money for
highfalutin highways, but many of the best thinkers of the country caught
the true spirit of the wave and did all they could to continue the good work.
In many states organizations were formed and good roads meetings called.
In Des Moines, August 16, 1892,[129] more than 300 delegates representing
boards of trade, boards of supervisors, county road conventions, 88 counties
and 130 cities met in an enthusiastic convention of two days’ duration with

Judge E. H. Thayer of Clinton as presiding officer. On the programme were
such men as Horace Boies, Governor of the state, Judge Peter A. Day,
Railway Commissioner, and Charles A. Schaeffer, President of the State
University. The resolutions adopted among other things recommend that,
until further legislation can be had, the following steps by county
associations be taken: “(1) To set on foot a movement in every township in
the respective counties looking to the consolidation of road districts...; (2)
to impress on boards of supervisors the duty of levying the county fund
tax...; (3) where it is apparent that the public interests will be best subserved
by a larger immediate expenditure ... to urge ... the propriety of submitting
to the people the voting of a higher levy or the issuance of bonds ... to
agitate in cities and towns the question of the propriety of expending money
beyond their limits in improving highways leading thereto....”

© Underwood and Underwood
GOOD ROADS DAY IN JACKSON CO., MO.

While this convention was in session a similar one was meeting in
Missouri; in fact practically all the states in the Union were getting “in the
band wagon.”
The League stopped not here, but were interesting the political men of
the country in the issue. They visited the president of the United States,
Benjamin Harrison, at Washington in July,[130] at which time he turned to
Colonel Charles L. Burdet, head of the League, and said: “One thing; if
wheelmen secure us good roads for which they are so zealously working,
your body deserves a medal in recognition of its philanthropy.”
The great World’s Fair was coming off at Chicago in 1893, and “good
roads boosters” were extremely anxious that a suitable exhibition be made
there. General Roy Stone framed a bill which was favorably reported by the
Senate Committee July 23, 1892. It was a bill to create a National Highway
Commission and prescribe its duties, “composed of two Senators and five
members of the House of Representatives, and five citizens appointed by
the president” for the purpose of a general inquiry into the condition of
highways in the United States and means for their improvement, and
especially the best method of securing a proper exhibit at the World’s
Columbian Exhibition of approved appliances for road making, and of
providing for public instruction in the art during the exhibition.[131]
Colonel Albert A. Pope, of Boston, a zealous road worker, secured the
opinions of hundreds of prominent men, which he presented to the members
of congress. Only a few extracts can be made here.[132]
A want of understanding and system has resulted in a nearly useless expenditure of enough labor
and money to have furnished the settled portions of our country with good substantial roads.
—President Benjamin Harrison.
Looking at it from a postal standpoint enlarged free delivery or anything like universal free
delivery will have to be postponed until there are better facilities of communication through the rural
and sparsely settled districts. The experiments that we have made in the smaller towns and villages
have proved the practicability of greater extended free delivery, but without good roads it must
necessarily be limited to the small towns. —John Wanamaker, Postmaster General.

There is no doubt that the diffusion of knowledge in regard to the good construction of roads will
be of immense benefit to all the people. —John A. Noble, Secretary of the Interior.

I think the people of the United States are taking more interest in the improvement of good roads
than in any other non-political matter. —O. H. Platt, Senator from Connecticut.

I have often thought that the people, speaking of them generally, have never yet understood the
value of good roads. They are not only matters of convenience, but they are really matters of great
economy in every community. The farmer with one team of two horses is able to move on a good

road more than he could move with four horses and a wagon of much greater strength on a poor road.
This I have tested personally many times. Farmers are constantly in need of the use of highways to
transport their property and to move themselves from place to place. The average farmer is five miles
distant from the nearest railway station and his surplus produce must be moved that distance year
after year. If he were to compute the saving that he and his neighbors would have by reason of first-
class roadways, they would discover that it would amount to more than the expense of putting the
roads in good condition and keeping them so. Our road system is miserably deficient.
—William A. Peffer, Senator from Kansas (Populist).
Aside from the benefits that good roads bring to the people in times of peace I do not know of a
great city in this country that is provided with such highways as would admit of the expeditions
marching of a great army in times of war. Washington City is a fair example in this regard. The
highways leading to this city through Maryland and Virginia are both narrow and crooked. There is
not a single public outlet or inlet that can be called a great national highway.
—H. C. Hansbrough, Senator from North Dakota.
In the old Roman days all roads led to Rome, and they were good roads. They built roads for
military and commercial purposes, and the wisdom of their enterprise was apparent even in that early
day. European nations to-day regard road-making as one of their economic questions, and it does
seem that our Government in its honest endeavor to benefit the agricultural classes, should have
thought of good roads long ago. We want and must have splendid highways, owned not by
corporations but by the people. They will be an economical investment, and an untold comfort to the
traveler. —James H. Kyle, Senator from South Dakota.

The country could spend no money so economically and enlist no genius so usefully as in making
better roads for communications between one neighborhood and another.
—John W. Daniel, Senator from Virginia.
I esteem good roads throughout the country to be as necessary as railroads.
—Francis E. Warren, Senator from Wyoming.
The prosperity of our country depends so largely on the prosperity of our farmers that everything
possible should be done to render life in the rural districts agreeable as well as profitable and nothing
could conduce more to the comfort and happiness of our people than the improvement of the roads.
—Joseph Wheeler, Representative from Alabama.
That good roads in good condition are always of great value in a military point of view is plain
enough; for any section of active operations the prompt transportation of material and the moving of
an army would demand it. —Major General Oliver O. Howard, United States Army.

The importance of good roads has been brought to my attention most forcibly on many occasions
when my wagon trains have been forced to move at a snail’s pace over almost impassable roads, and
when every hour’s delay might mean untold disaster. The expenditure of animal force on such
occasions was fearful. In times of peace good roads are no less important; the general condition of
country roads is a very good index of the civilization and prosperity of the community. It is not
difficult to show by mathematical deduction that money expended in constructing good roads is
economy from a financial standpoint, while from a social standpoint the benefits are incalculable.
We have splendid railroads traversing the whole country in every direction and we have in most
cities very creditable means of rapid transit, but the country roads in most parts of the United States
are really deplorable. This condition of affairs is something like putting a boy at work on Latin and
Greek before he has mastered the alphabet of his own language.
—Brig. Gen. D. K. Stanley, United States Army.

The above are only a small portion of the letters from which they were
extracted, but they serve to show that the League of American Wheelmen
and such men as Colonel Pope were very active in spreading the gospel of
good roads. The arguments in these and hundreds of other letters, from men
of all classes and professions, of all political parties from all parts of the
nation, cover a very wide range and the effect has been lasting.
About this time, also, Senator Charles F. Manderson, of Nebraska,
introduced a concurrent resolution in the Senate to print a lot of consular
reports relating to streets and highways in foreign countries and distribute
them in bulletin form. The edition consisted of 30,000 and served to show
how the United States was lagging behind other countries in the matter of
road building.[133]
Office of Public Roads Inquiry. —A very few lines of the Congressional
Record serves to introduce the beginning of a great instrumentality for good
roads in America. On January 26, 1893, Representative Deborow
introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives, “instructing the
committee on agriculture to incorporate in the agricultural appropriation the
sum of $15,000 to be expended for the purpose of making investigations for
a better system of roads.”[134] On the same day Representative Lewis
presented a similar resolution “instructing the committee on agriculture to
incorporate in the bill making appropriations for the Agricultural
Department a clause authorizing the Secretary to make inquiry regarding
public roads.”[135] Both resolutions were referred to the committee on
agriculture. As a final result a statute carrying an appropriation of $10,000
was approved March 3, 1893. Under this statute the Office of Public Roads
Inquiries was instituted, October 3, 1893, with “General Roy Stone, of New
York, recognized as a superior civil engineer, and thoroughly identified with
the popular movement toward the improvement of the highways in the
several states, in charge.”[136]
The Letter of Instructions of the Secretary of Agriculture to General
Stone upon his appointment summarizes the statute and defines the object
and scope of the inquiry to be made. The last paragraph of the instructions
shows that the old theory of “state sovereignty,” still had a place in the mind
of the Secretary, and it was not for several years that this office did more
than the mere collection of information relative to roads. The letter follows:
[137]

U. S. Department of Agriculture,
Office of the Secretary,
Washington, D. C., October 3, 1893.
Sir: You have been this day appointed to supervise and carry out the investigations pursuant to the
statute approved March 3, 1893, which has four branches:
(1) To make inquiries in regard to the systems of road management throughout the United States.
(2) To make investigations in regard to the best method of road-making.
(3) To prepare didactic publications on this subject, suitable for distribution.
(4) To assist the agricultural colleges and experiment stations in disseminating information on this
subject.
It will not be profitable to enter upon all of these points at first. The work under the appropriation
will need to be of gradual growth, conducted at all times economically. Therefore, it is not expected
that there will be any considerable force of clerical help, and aside from your salary, no considerable
expenditure for the present. It is understood that you have at your command the data for a
compilation of the laws of several of the states, upon which their road systems are based. It should be
your first duty, therefore, to make such collection complete, and prepare a bulletin on that subject.
Incidentally, while preparing this bulletin, you should charge yourself with collecting data relating
to the different methods of road making, which, in the first instance, should be generic in their
character; including—
(1) The best method of constructing a common highway, without gravel or stone.
(2) Gravel highways.
(3) Macadam and other stone roads.
(4) Data upon which to base suggestions for the transportation of material within reasonable
access, for the proper surfacing of the roadbed. These data should form the foundation for the second
bulletin, or second series of bulletins.
There are certain restrictions I wish specifically to bring to your attention. It must be borne in mind
that the actual expense in the construction of these highways is to be borne by the localities and states
in which they lie. Moreover, it is not the province of this Department to seek to control or influence
said action, except in so far as advice and wise suggestion shall contribute toward it. This Department
is to form no part of any plan, scheme, or organization, or to be a party to it in any way, which has for
its object the concerted effort to secure and furnish labor to the unemployed persons or to convicts.
These are matters to be carried on by states, localities, or charities. The Department is to furnish
information, not to direct and formulate any system of organization, however efficient or desirable it
may be. Any such effort on its part would soon make it subject to hostile criticism. You will publish
this letter in the preface to your first bulletin.
Yours truly,
J. Sterling Morton,
Secretary.
Mr. Roy Stone,
Special Agent and Civil Engineer in charge of
Good Roads Investigations.

The Office followed these instructions pretty closely for several years.
General Stone and his successor General Dodge encouraged the formation
of good roads organizations. In fact General Stone prior to the institution of
the Office of Road Inquiries was instrumental in organizing at Chicago in
connection with the dedication of the World’s Fair in 1893, the National

League for Good Roads. General Stone himself attributed to the influence
of this League the organization of the Office of Public Roads and the great
work which it has since accomplished.[138]
Other good roads organizations were springing up. The Office of Public
Road Inquiries encouraged these to the extent of publishing addresses given
at their conventions as bulletins upon the theory that the information
relative to road improvements throughout the United States was in line with
the object and scope of the Office.
The organization known as the National Good Roads Association, with
W. H. Moore of St. Louis, Missouri, as president, and R. W. Richardson, of
Omaha, Nebraska, as secretary, seems to have been especially active.
Colonel Moore was a man of impressive manner, suave and affable, and
was able to interest and associate with him many very influential people. He
was a born “good roads booster.” He always worked with the men in power.
Directors Stone and Dodge not only had prominent places on his
convention programmes, but recommended to the Secretary of Agriculture
that the proceedings be printed as Departmental Bulletins. This was for a
time helpful to the cause of good roads, for the conventions were addressed
by able and influential men. Director Dodge in his letter of transmittal of
the proceedings of the convention held at St. Louis, Missouri, April 27 to
29, 1903, to Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, says:[139]
Among the distinguished speakers who delivered addresses were Hon. Theodore Roosevelt,
President of the United States; Hon. William J. Bryan, of Nebraska; General Miles, of the United
States Army; Governor Dockery, of Missouri; Governor Cummins, of Iowa; Hon. A. C. Latimer,
United States Senator from South Carolina; Hon. W. D. Vandiver, member of Congress from
Missouri; Hon. D. R. Frances, president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Committee; Hon. J. H.
Brigham, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture; General Roy Stone, of New York; and Mr. Samuel Hill,
of Washington. Addresses were also delivered by prominent men engaged in agriculture, railway
transportation, commercial pursuits, and newspaper work.

This organization, like many state good-roads organizations, had no
permanent membership list. Any city that would “finance” a convention
could get one. Invitations were sent to governors, mayors, county officers,
city officers, commercial clubs urging them to appoint delegates to the
conventions. As a result large conventions were promoted and held at
Chicago, St. Louis, Buffalo, Portland, and elsewhere, usually in connection
with some exposition or fair.
There being no permanent membership the only way to finance such
undertakings was by popular subscriptions and donations from social,

commercial and political bodies. Colonel Moore[140] went to New York and
talked to the president of the Illinois Central railroad, Mr. Stuyvesant Fish,
and asked for a special “train of fifteen cars to carry modern road
machinery.” “How much will this project cost?” asked Mr. Fish. Moore
replied, “As near as we can figure it out, to furnish and operate this train for
three months will cost you $40,000 to $50,000.” President Fish replied,
“That is a large amount to throw in the mud, but we will consider it.” The
train was granted. In the language of Colonel Moore, the “railroad company
shouldered the burden.” The government through the Office of Public
Roads furnished two expert engineers, other engineers and necessary
employees were hired. This train made the trip from Chicago to New
Orleans. Advance-agents were sent along the way to secure the coöperation
of the various communities. They were asked to raise a sufficient amount of
money to defray the local expenses. Moore states, “we did not visit a single
city in the South where we laid the matter before the mayor, the city
council, and the supervisors that they did not promptly respond in the
affirmative.” Road machinery carried on the train was explained by men
frequently sent along for this purpose by the manufacturers who had
donated its use or by engineers and others in charge. Short sections of road
were graded and stoned—“object lesson roads were built.” Similar trains
were run over the Lake Shore Road, and later over the Southern Railway.
The latter at a cost of about $80,000; the road equipped the train, fed the
men and furnished Pullman cars for sleeping accommodations. The last
such train was over the Northern Pacific. This particular organization (there
were others) and its work has been thus fully mentioned to show how
thoroughly the propaganda was carried on which resulted later in the
greatest road-building campaign in the history of the world. The National
Good Roads Association came to grief at the Portland Exposition in 1905,
where strenuous opposition developed to the financing methods of Mr.
Moore and an unsuccessful effort was made to oust him from the
presidency of the association. James W. Abbott, Pacific Coast Agent for the
Office of Public Roads in a newspaper interview among other things said:
[141]
“We feel that the wild, reckless and impossible things which Colonel
Moore promises to do for communities must later produce a reaction
positively disastrous. He has already promised that the construction train of
the National Good Roads Association will do an amount of work

gratuitously for communities, which, allowing for unavoidable delays,
climatic and otherwise, would take more than ten years. The three good
roads trains which have heretofore done object-lesson road work have been
under the direct operation and executive management of Colonel
Richardson. They were wonderfully well-equipped trains, but they
demonstrated that the building of suitable object-lesson roads efficiently
and economically was not and could not be made a circus proposition.”
In addition to good roads associations, the agitation for better roads was
taken up by governors who devoted a not inconsiderable portion of their
messages to the legislatures to a discussion of the subject. Even presidents
of the United States paid it attention in their messages to Congress. With the
coming of the automobile the need of better highways and hard pavements
was greatly emphasized. With lots of money for propaganda, with nearly
everyone becoming a disciple of good roads, is it any wonder that Congress
finally voted for federal aid?
Participation in road conventions and coöperation with more or less
spurious organizations was greatly curtailed when Logan Walter Page was
promoted to the Directorship of the office. Still, speakers and experts were
freely sent to address meetings for the purpose of educating the citizenry to
the need of better roads, and how they should go about to obtain them and
what such roads will cost. Speakers were, therefore, supposed to give
definite and specific information on which local committees might act
intelligently. Propaganda for the purpose of influencing legislation in any
state or city was tabooed and bulletins took on a more scientific nature
relating more to quality, availability, and cost of materials; methods and
costs of construction; and efficiency of types of roads.
Road associations have continued to increase and many have and are
doing praiseworthy work for the cause of better roads. The Good Roads
Year Book, 1914, published by the American Highway Association, of
which Director Page was president, listed, giving the names of the principal
officers, 1 international, 38 national and 617 state and county associations.
Object-Lesson Roads. —The Office of Public Roads inquiry beginning,
as has been shown, very simply, has by devoted service and extreme
economy been able to do a remarkable amount of good for the public
highways of this country. The men at its head and employed by it deserve
much praise. Their salaries were small, yet they worked with missionary
zeal. They were able to coöperate with scientific and professional

organizations, such as the American Society for Testing Materials, The
American Society of Civil Engineers, The Bureau of Standards, and a
number of organizations employing reputable high-class scientific men in
research work pertaining to road construction and road materials. The
government’s appropriation beginning at $10,000 or excluding the
Director’s salary $8000, was increased from time to time until it was in
1896, $37,660 and in 1911, $135,000. Since the adoption of the system of
Federal Aid, there has naturally been greatly increased operation. The total
appropriations for the Bureau of Public Roads are now approximately three
quarters of a million dollars.

Chart of the Organization of the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads and Rural Engineering, 1917

Text version of chart

The duties and scope of the Office of Public Roads Inquiry was gradually
widened and its name changed to the Office of Public Roads. In 1915 by
reorganization of the Department of Agriculture it became the Office of
Public Roads and Rural Engineering and took charge of all the
Department’s work which partook in any way of an engineering nature. In

1916 the Secretary of Agriculture directed the Office to act for him in the
routine administration of the Federal Roads Act. The work of the Office or
Bureau of Public Roads, as it is now designated, was in 1916, carried on
along three general lines:[142] (1) Educational; (2) Research, and (3)
Administration of the Federal Road Act. By its educational or extension
work the Office was endeavoring to reach the people by means of lectures,
addresses, the publication of bulletins and the exhibit of models.
Emphasizing the economic value of improved roads and the efficiency of
various types. Special advice and assistance to communities was given by
furnishing engineers and experts to confer with municipal officers on their
particular problems. Actual demonstration by the construction of object-
lesson roads was freely carried on. The community furnished the material
and labor; the Office sent its engineers and experts to design and
superintend the construction. These “seed miles” resulted in the
construction of many other miles by the community itself. The Office tried
to impress also the need of proper maintenance from the beginning.
Fully as important as its educational work was the research or
investigational work carried on. The Office was able to secure the services
of several young men of scientific attainment and the bulletins put out by L.
W. Page, Prévost Hubbard, A. S. Cushman and their successors have
commanded world-wide recognition. Laboratories were erected to test road
materials, and experimental roads were built to demonstrate the actual use
of the same according to various methods. In this manner careful studies
were made of a vast number of materials, including oils, asphalts, tars,
concrete, brick, crushed stone and gravel. In connection with practical road
men and research committees of such organizations as the American
Society of Civil Engineers, and the American Society for Testing Materials
many useful standards have been adopted for road materials and road
construction. The effect of traffic on various types of roads has also been a
profitable subject for study. The organization of the Bureau may be best
shown by the chart.
Rural Free Delivery. —A brief mention of this agency for better roads
should not be omitted. Postmaster-General Wanamaker, in 1890,
recommended the extension of free delivery to villages of less than 10,000
population and he inaugurated an experimental “village delivery.” After an
existence of about two years this was ordered discontinued. However, free
delivery on a broader basis was demanded by State Granges of the Patrons

of Husbandry and other farmers. Congress made small appropriations for
rural free delivery, but the Postmaster-General, W. S. Bissell, declined to
make any use of them. When Hon. W. L. Wilson became Postmaster-
General (1895) he agreed with his predecessor in believing the project
impractical, but if Congress would make the money available he was
willing to try it out. An appropriation of $40,000 was placed at his disposal.
[143]
The first Rural Free Delivery routes were established on October 1, 1896,
at Halltown, Uvilla, and Charlestown, West Virginia. Others immediately
followed. President McKinley in a message to Congress December 3, 1900,
states that “by the close of the current fiscal year about 4000 routes will
have been established, providing for the daily delivery of mails at the
scattered homes of about three and a half million of rural population.”[144]
So successful did it prove that it soon displaced nearly all the star routes
and was well established in practically all rural districts of the United
States. In 1919 out of a total expenditure by the Post Office Department of
over $362,000,000, a little less than $51,000,000 was distributed to the rural
delivery service.[145]
The Department having adopted a rule to the effect that the rural delivery
service would only be established along reasonably good roads, and that a
carrier need not go out unless the roads were in fit condition spurred the
inhabitants up to better attention of the roads for after a man once got in the
habit of receiving his mail daily he wanted it regularly.
“When a heavy snow blocks the way of the rural carrier it is customary
for the farmers to turn out and break the roads, and this is done several days
earlier than would be the case ordinarily. In this way communication
throughout neighborhoods and with the outside world is opened up
promptly. In consequence the farmer is able to take advantage of good
markets and the townspeople are not cut off from the supply of fresh
country produce, as often has happened in severe storms. Also cases of
distress in isolated farm homes are sooner reached and relieved.”[146]
The Department finding the rural delivery popular determined to make it
not only more so but to make it pay also. So they took precautions to
protect the mail in the farmer’s boxes by regulating the kind of boxes to be
used and promptly prosecuting cases of thievery and molestation of mail;
they established registration by rural carriers and allowed carriers to receipt
for applications for money orders; carriers were also authorized to receive

and deliver “drop” letters on their routes without passing them through the
terminal post office. A little later when the parcel post was instituted the
popularity of rural delivery was greatly enhanced. Like many other
conveniences the rural inhabitants cannot now realize how they could get
along without free delivery of the mails. Postmaster-General Charles Emory
Smith in his report of 1900[147] says of the then quite new system:
Rural delivery has now been sufficiently tried to measure its effects.... It stimulates social and
business correspondence, and so swells the postal receipts. Its introduction is invariably followed by
a large increase in the circulation of the press and of periodic literature. The farm is thus brought into
direct daily contact with the currents and movements of the business world. A more accurate
knowledge of ruling markets and varying prices is diffused, and the producer, with his quicker
communication and larger information, is placed on a surer footing. The value of farms, as has been
shown in many cases, is enhanced. Good roads become indispensable, and their improvement is the
essential condition of the service. The material and measurable benefits are signal and unmistakable.
But the movement exercises a wider and deeper influence. It becomes a factor in the social and
economic tendencies of American life. The disposition to leave the farm for the town is a familiar
effect of our past conditions. But this tendency is checked, and may be materially changed by an
advance which conveys many of the advantages of the town to the farm. Rural free delivery brings
the farm within the daily range of the intellectual and commercial activities of the world, and the
isolation and monotony which have been the bane of agricultural life are sensibly mitigated. It proves
to be one of the most effective and powerful of educational agencies. Wherever it is extended the
schools improve and the civil spirit of the community feels a new pulsation; the standard of
intelligence is raised, enlightened interest in public affairs is quickened, and better citizenship
follows.
With all these results clearly indicated by the experiment as thus far tried, rural free delivery is
plainly here to stay. It cannot be abandoned where it has been established, and cannot be maintained
without being extended.

© Underwood and Underwood
HARD SURFACE HIGHWAY IN OREGON

© Underwood and Underwood
A FARMER’S WIFE MEETING THE POSTAL TRUCK

The law for federal aid is based upon the clause in the Constitution
giving Congress power “to establish post offices and post roads.”[148] and
the money made available may only be expended on post roads outside of
towns “having a population of two thousand five hundred or more, except
that portion of any such street or road along which the houses average more
than two hundred feet apart.”[149] Thus may be seen the very great
importance to better public highways of the “rural free delivery.”
State Aid. —While the bicyclist and voluntary road organizations were
creating sentiment favorable to improved highways, the states were not idle.
It will not be possible to follow the progress in each of the states, but since
some form of state aid has been adopted by all of them the development of
that idea will be sketched. By state aid is meant a plan whereby a part of the
expense of constructing roads is borne by the state and a part by the locality
in which the road lies.

New Jersey,[150] like many of the other Eastern states, had a few turnpike
roads constructed and maintained by private corporations. These roads were
much better than the public roads on which there were no toll gates. The
public roads were administered under ordinary laws of overseers of
highway districts. Charges of partiality had led to amendments, then other
amendments until the laws were a maze of intricacies. To eliminate these,
the state board of agriculture in 1887 called a mass meeting of farmers and
others interested in good roads. The result of the conference, which was
well attended, was the appointment of a committee, consisting of one
member for each of the Congressional districts in the State, to examine the
laws of New Jersey, of other states and of foreign countries and report
methods for bettering the New Jersey system. After careful consideration
they drafted a law abolishing the overseers and conferring the powers and
duties of caring for the public highways on the township committee. This
was presented to the State Board of Agriculture and received unanimous
approval. But when it came before the State Legislature, of 1888, for
adoption the opposition of the road overseers succeeded in defeating it. In
1889 it was again presented and defeated; and met a similar fate in 1890.
But in 1891 with the coöperation of the governor its passage was secured.
Mr. Clayton Conrow of New Jersey[151] claims the honor of proposing
the first state aid road law in the United States. He asserts that he learned
from actual observation of the travelers on a section of highway that it was
used not only by “teams of the local township but also from the adjoining
township and the township beyond, and so on and on they came until a
score of townships were represented on this section of the road.” He
therefore concluded that the county and the state by rights should assist in
building the main traveled roads, and that “every citizen of the state is
entitled to the free use thereof.” This, he says, was in 1890, just the time the
state board of agriculture was pushing its law to discontinue the overseers.
Conrow says he consulted with Hon. Edward Burrough, president of the
state board of agriculture, and outlined his plan for a State Aid Road Law.
Burrough was highly pleased, but there was an obstacle in the way, namely
the turnpike corporations. They were creatures of the law and had rights
that should be respected. Mr. Burrough advocated the adoption of the law
having faith that the people would buy the turnpike roads so that no citizen
would be the loser. Judge William M. Lanning put the draft of the bill in
legal form. It was then submitted to Governor Abbett for his approval as

they did not care to encounter a veto if a slight change of form would
reconcile him to its provisions. Mr. Conrow claims his original draft was
changed only slightly by the board and again by the governor, then
submitted to the legislature by a Mr. Davidson of Gloucester county. This is
the act that was passed in 1891.
Salient Features of the State Aid Law. —The essential points of the law
are set forth in the following extract being the preamble and parts of the
seventh and fourth sections:
An Act to provide for the more permanent improvement of the public roads of this State.
Whereas public roads in this State have heretofore been built and maintained solely at the expense
of the respective townships in which they are located; and
Whereas such roads are for the convenience of the citizens of the counties in which they are
located, and of the entire State as well as of said townships; and
Whereas the expense of constructing permanently improved roads may be reasonably imposed in
due proportions, upon the State and upon the counties in which they are located: Therefore, ...
And be it enacted, That whenever there shall be presented to the board of chosen freeholders of
any county a petition signed by the owners of at least two-thirds of the lands and real estate fronting
or bordering on any public road ... praying the board to cause such road ... to be improved under this
act, and setting forth that they are willing that the peculiar benefits conferred on the lands fronting or
bordering on said road ... shall be assessed thereon, in amount not exceeding ten per centum of the
entire cost of the improvement, it shall be the duty of the board to cause such improvements to be
made: Provided, that the estimated cost of all improvements ... in any county in any one year shall
not exceed one-half of one per centum of the ratables of such county for the last preceding year....
And be it enacted, That one-third of the cost of all roads constructed ... shall be paid for out of the
State treasury: Provided, That the amount so paid shall not in any one year exceed the sum of
seventy-five thousand dollars....

It will be seen that under this law the property owners pay one-tenth, the
State one-third and the county the remaining 562⁄3 per cent. Except for the
10 per cent paid by the abutting property holders the burden borne by all
citizens of the county is the same.
The friends of the movement demanded its enforcement; the opponents
were equally determined which resulted in an appeal to the courts and the
mandatory features were sustained. As it was first enacted the total
expenditure was $20,000 and a Commissioner of Agriculture was to
supervise its disbursement. But as there was no such officer the next
legislature, at the suggestion of the governor, authorized the president of the
State Board of Agriculture to perform these duties; this he did until the
office of the Commissioner of Public Roads was created. The first money
paid out under the act was December 27, 1892, $20,661.85, and this was the
first money paid in the United States for state aid for the construction of

roads. With slight amendments the law remains to the present and has been
emulated by nearly all the states in the Union.
In Massachusetts advocates of better roads attempted legislation looking
toward a system of state highways in 1887 and annually thereafter until
1892.[152] In 1892 the demand became so great that the legislature enacted a
law providing for a commission of three to inquire into the entire subject
and report to the legislature of 1893, with suitable appropriation for the
purpose. The commission made a thorough investigation, held public
hearings, and made inquiries among all classes. Their findings were brought
before the legislature and a general road law was enacted providing for a
commission of three competent persons who should give advice to those
having charge of the public highways; it further contemplated the building
and care for by this commission of a system of state highways connecting
the several municipalities. At first the counties were supposed to grade the
roads and the Commonwealth to surface them but the law was changed
(1894) so that the Commonwealth through the highway commission does
the entire work of construction and maintenance then charges back to the
counties 25 per cent of the cost, so that finally the State pays 75 per cent
and the county 25 per cent. In 1913 an amendment was made to relieve
small communities from the payment of the entire amount thus the State, in
reality, pays more than 75 per cent of the expense.
The state aid principle has been adopted by all states in the union; many
before federal aid came, the remainder since. Connecticut was third in 1895
and New York fourth in 1898.
In order to raise money to meet the demands for state aid roads many of
the states bonded themselves for large amounts. New York voted a bond
issue of $50,000,000 in 1906 and another of the same amount in 1912.
California voted bonds of $18,000,000 in 1910 and $15,000,000 in 1916.
Illinois voted $60,000,000 in 1920 eventually to be paid from automobile
licenses. Maryland authorized a bond issue of $5,000,000 for trunkline
roads; additional issues were made in 1910, $1,000,000; in 1912,
$3,170,000; in 1914, $6,600,000; and in 1916, $2,700,000. Missouri
authorized a $60,000,000 bond issue in 1921 and so on for other states. On
January 1, 1914[153] there were outstanding highway and bridge bonds in
the United States to the amount of $445,147,073; of which $158,590,000
had been voted by the States and $286,557,073 by counties and townships.
After the war increased interest in road building became manifest. Between

November 1, 1918, and December 31, 1919,[154] state highway bonds
amounting to $234,000,000 were voted: Illinois, $60,000,000; Pennsylvania
$50,000,000; Michigan, $50,000,000; Missouri, $60,000,000 and many
other states smaller amounts. There is pending legislation for nearly
$300,000,000 additional bonds, among which are Minnesota, $75,000,000;
Texas, $75,000,000; West Virginia, $40,000,000; Washington, $30,000,000;
Alabama, $25,000,000. Funds are otherwise raised by direct taxation,
property and special, by appropriations from the general fund, by
automobile licenses, and from court fines. The grand total for road
construction expended in the United States from 1910 to 1920 is over
$2,500,000,000.
Federal Aid. —The real road building age in the United States was
ushered in by the enactment of the law providing that “the Secretary of
Agriculture shall on behalf of the United States in certain cases aid the
States in the construction and maintenance of rural post roads.” From the
time Representative Brownlow startled the country in 1904 by introducing a
bill to appropriate $24,000,000 for road building, not a session of Congress
passed without several such bills being introduced. Most of these took the
form of creating a commission to administer any fund for national aid that
might be appropriated, and many feared such large appropriations would
result in “pork barrels” all over the country. In 1915 one such bill passed the
House but did not become a law. However, the leaven continued to work.
The influence of the automobile was making thousands of new road
enthusiasts every day. Many petitions were being rained upon Congress and
scores of bills introduced for national aid both for specific roads and of a
general nature. During the 63d Congress, forty-nine bills were introduced,
10 in the Senate and 39 in the House. A report had been submitted by a joint
congressional committee on January 21, 1915[155] embodying data from
foreign countries showing systems in effect, the mileage and cost of roads
constructed; similar data from the several states; extracts from state
constitutions showing limitations of state debts; statistics on tonnage
transported over rural roads; statistics on length, character and condition of
rural routes; transportation rates on road materials by rail; comparative
statistics embodying possible factors in apportionment of Federal aid;
statistics of wealth, debt, and highway expenditures; comparative statistics
on the cost of road construction, historical sketches of national roads, work

of the Office of Public Roads; and a synopsis on congressional action on
Federal aid to road improvement.
The report speaks of the economic importance of good roads, the
constitutionality of Federal aid and gives data to show the public sentiment
in favor of Federal aid. Of 10,000 replies to inquiries received from every
state in the Union, 97 per cent favored Federal aid and 3 per cent opposed.
On January 6, 1916, Representative Shackleford of Missouri, chairman
of the committee on roads, introduced the bill which later became a law.
The bill ran the usual course and created a great deal of interest and was
freely debated in both House and Senate. The discussion on it comprises
more than 300 pages of the Congressional Record[156] and cover practically
every reason for and objection to the betterment of highways and the use
thereon of national money. The bill finally passed the house January 25,
1916, by a vote of 283 Yeas, 81 Nays and 70 not voting; and the Senate as
amended, May 8, 1916, by a unanimous vote. The bill went to conference,
the Senate agreed to the conference report June 27, and the House June 28,
1916. President Wilson approved the bill July 11, 1916, and it became
Public Law, No. 156, 64th Congress.
The title of the bill as amended is “An Act to provide that the United
States shall aid the States in the Construction of rural post roads, and for
other purposes.” In brief it authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to
coöperate with the states through their respective highway departments in
the construction of rural post roads. In order to keep state sovereignty intact
no money apportioned under the act could be expended in any state until the
legislature of that state shall have assented to the provisions of the Act. The
Secretary of Agriculture and the State Highway department agree upon the
roads to be constructed therein and the character and method of
construction. By providing that all roads constructed under the provisions of
the act shall be free from tolls of all kinds Congress avoided the objection
raised by President Monroe in his veto of the National Road bill in 1822. A
most liberal definition of Post Roads is also given in the bill, namely, “the
term ‘rural post road’ shall be construed to mean any public road over
which the United States mails now are or may hereafter be transported,
excluding every street and road in a place having a population, as shown by
the latest available federal census, of two thousand five hundred or more,
except that portion of any such street or road along which the houses
average more than two hundred feet apart.”

For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the act there was
appropriated for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1917, the sum of
$5,000,000; 1918, $10,000,000; 1919, $15,000,000; 1920, $20,000,000;
1921, $25,000,000. After deducting the amount necessary for
administration not exceeding 3 per cent, the remaining amount available
was to be distributed as follows: “One-third in the ratio which the area of
each State bears to the total area of all the States; one-third in the ratio
which the population of each State bears to the total population of all the
States as shown by the latest available Federal census; one-third in the ratio
which the mileage of rural delivery routes and star routes in each State
bears to the total mileage of rural delivery routes and star routes in all the
states.” The Secretary of Agriculture is to approve only projects which are
substantial in character. Items of engineering, inspection and unforeseen
contingencies may not exceed 10 per cent of the estimated cost. The share
paid by the Government shall not exceed 50 per cent of the total cost.
The same act appropriated $10,000,000 for the survey, construction and
maintenance of roads and trails within the national forests when necessary
to develop the resources upon which communities within and adjacent to
the national forests are dependent.
The Secretary of Agriculture issued September 1, 1916, a set of rules and
regulations for carrying out the Federal-Aid Road Act.[157] These are quite
detailed and require a close supervision by the Office of Public Roads and
Rural Engineering, the Director of which or other officers and employees
designated by him, was officially appointed to represent the Secretary of
Agriculture in its administration. These rules explain and relate specifically
to definitions of terms; information to be furnished the Secretary; project
statements; surveys, plans, specifications and estimates; project agreements;
contracts; construction work and labor; records and cost keeping; payments;
submission of documents to the Office of Public Roads.
A State, County or District making application for aid must present a
Project Statement “to enable the Secretary to ascertain (a) whether the
project conforms to the requirements of the act; (b) whether adequate funds,
or their equivalent, are or will be available by or on behalf of the State for
construction; (c) what purpose the project will serve and how it correlates
with other highway work of the State; (d) the administrative control of, and
responsibility for, the project; (e) the practicability and economy of the
project from an engineering and construction standpoint; (f) the adequacy of

the plans and provisions for proper maintenance of roads; and (g) the
approximate amount of Federal aid desired.” Also there must be submitted
for approval forms of contract, with documents referred to in them, and the
contractor’s bond. Likewise maps of surveys, plans, specifications and
estimates, showing quantity and cost shall have the approval of the
Secretary. The state shall provide the rights of way and railroad grade
crossings shall be avoided where practicable. A project agreement between
the State Highway Department and the Secretary is executed. It must also
be shown that adequate means either by advertising or other devices were
employed, prior to the beginning of construction, to insure economical and
practical expenditures, and rules for submitting and tabulating bids are
given. Samples of the materials to be used must be submitted for approval
whenever requested, and all materials, unless otherwise stipulated, must be
tested prior to use by the standard methods of the Office of Public Roads.
Supervision shall include adequate inspection. Reports of progress, records
and cost accounts must be kept in approved manner.
Many states in order to take advantage of the Federal aid within the time
stipulated by the Act have, as has been shown, issued long-time bonds.
Others have relied on increased taxation, and many require abutting
property to pay a special tax for improvements.
The success of the Act was extremely marked. So much so that the Post
Office Appropriation act of February 28, 1919,[158] carried an amendment
to the original Federal Aid Act providing an additional appropriation of
$200,000,000 for post roads and $9,000,000 for forest roads. Fifty million
dollars of the post road fund was made immediately available and
$75,000,000 was made available for each of the fiscal years of 1920 and
1921. Of the forest road fund $3,000,000 was made available for each of
the fiscal years 1919, 1920 and 1921. This bill transferred to the Secretary
of Agriculture all available war material and equipment suitable for use in
the improvement of highways for distribution to the several states on a
value basis the same as provided in the Federal Aid Act of 1916. Under this
provision trucks, road equipment, and road materials having when new a
value of over $100,000,000 had been distributed by November 1, 1919.
SELECTED REFERENCES

Anderson, Andrew P., “Highways,” American Year Book, 1918, pp. 317-321; 1919, pp. 308-311. D.
Appleton & Company, New York.

“Bonds for Highway Improvement,” Office of Public Roads Bulletin No. 136, U. S. Dept of Agr.
Boston Transcript, Letter by a foreign visitor giving her opinion of American Roads. Aug. 10, 1892.
Burrough, Edward, “State Aid to Road Building in New Jersey,” Office of Public Road Inquiry
Bulletin No. 9, 1894. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington.
Chatburn, George R., “Highway Engineering,” pp. 125-126, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Congressional Record.—Good Roads Resolution introduced in the Senate by Senator Manderson,
Vol. XXIV, pp. 157, 261, 300. Introduced in the House by Representative Lewis, Vol. XXIV, p.
883.
Conrow, Clayton, “Inside History of the State Aid Law,” Report of the New Jersey Commissioner
of Public Roads, 1900, p. 81.
Department of Agriculture Year Book, 1900, p. 522.
Federal Aid Road Law, History of, Congressional Record, Vol. LIII, 1916. The Federal Aid road bill,
the one that was finally passed and became the most effective road law the world has ever
known, had a history in Congress that would make a large volume in itself. The pages of the
Congressional Record where it may be found follow: House Roll 7617—To provide that the
United States shall aid the States in the construction of rural post roads, and for other purposes
—was introduced by Mr. Dorsey W. Shackleford, of Missouri, January 6, 1916 and referred to
the Committee on Roads, 637.—Reported back (H. Rept. 26), 746.—Debated, 1131, 1165,
1234, 1269, 1285, 1353-1368, 1373-1408, 1451-1480, 1516-1537 (Appendix, 21, 36, 141, 157,
160, 162, 172, 177, 178, 188, 203, 207, 208, 209, 211, 213, 214, 216, 218, 593, 1273, 2247).—
Amended and passed house January 25, 1916, Ayes 283, Noes 81, Present 3, not voting 67,
1536, 1547.—Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, 1551.—Motion for
change of reference debated, 2049-2057, 2329-2335.—Reference changed to Committee on
Post Offices and Post Roads, 2334, 2335.—Reported with amendments (S. Rept. 250), 3460,
3881.—Debated, 6425-6433, 6494-6504, 6532-6549, 6565-6585, 6731, 6782-6785, 6840-6849,
6897-6899, 7119-7127, 7225-7228, 7291-7300, 7414, 7451, 7456-7465, 7499-7518, 7560-7571.
—Amended and passed Senate unanimously, May 8, 1916, 7571.—Referred to House
Committee on Roads—Reported back (H. Rept. 732), 8357.—House disagrees to Senate
amendments and asks for a conference, 8749.—Senate insists on its amendments and agrees to a
conference, 8783.—Conference appointed, 8749, 8783.—Conference report (S. Doc. No. 474)
made in Senate, 9964.—Conference report unanimously agreed to in Senate June 27, 1916,
10086.—Conference report (No. 856) made in House. 10171.—Conference report debated in
House, 10162-10173 (Appendix, 1316, 1318, 1334, 1340, 1360, 1361, 1647, 1719, 1724, 1793,
1860, 2082).—Conference report agreed to in House, June 28, 1916, by a vote of 181 ayes to 53
noes, 10173.—Examined and signed, 10348, 10371.—Presented to the President, 10446.—
Approved (Public Statutes No. 156, July 11, 1916), 10836.
“Federal Aid Road Act, Regulations for carrying out,” Office of Public Roads Circular No. 65. U. S.
Dept. of Agriculture.
Free Delivery of Mail. Agricultural Year Book, 1917; Postmaster General’s Reports, 1892-1899; Ex.
Doc. 1, Pt. 4, 52d Cong., 2d Sess., p. 11; Ex. Doc. 1, Pt. 4, 53d Cong., 2d Sess., pp. ix, 55; Ex.
Doc. 1, Pt. 1, 54th Cong., 3d Sess., pp. 11, 120; H. Doc. 4, 54th Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 8, 116; H.
Doc. 4, 54th Cong., 2d Sess., pp. 25, 129; H. Doc. 4, 55th Cong., 3d Sess., pp. 12, 104;
American Year Book, 1919, p. 556. D. Appleton & Company.

Funk and Wagnalls’ Encyclopaedia, Article “Cycling.”
Good Roads Year Book, 1917, “State Highway Department Legislation,” pp. 37-218.
Good Roads Meetings.—“Iowa Highway Meeting,” Engineering Record, August 27, 1892; National
Highway Association at Portland, Oregon, The Morning Oregonian, June 22, 1905; Office of the
Public Roads Bulletins, Nos. 15, 17, 19, 21-26.
Greathouse, Charles H., “The Delivery of Rural Mails,” Year Book, 1917. U. S. Dept. of
Agriculture.
“Highway Bonds,” The American Year Book, 1919, 1920. D. Appleton & Co., New York.
House Document No. 1510, “Federal Aid to Good Roads,” being Vol. 99 of the House Documents.
Iowa Code of 1851, “Road Laws.”
Office of Public Roads Established, Bulletin No. 1, 1894, Report of Secretary of Agriculture, 1893, p.
36. U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
New York Times, Good Roads Department, Sept. 11, 1892.
Nye, Bill, “On Good Roads,” Good Roads, September, 1892.
Perkins, George A., “State Highways of Massachusetts,” U. S. Dept. of Agri. Year Book, 1894, p.
505.
Post Roads.—The Constitution of the United States on, Section 8.
Potter, I. B., “The Gospel of Good Roads,” League of American Wheelmen.
Smith, Charles Emory, “Rural Mail Delivery,” Agricultural Year Book, 1900, p. 522. U. S. Dept of
Agriculture.

FOOTNOTES

[122] Code of 1851.
[123] “Highway Engineering,” by G. R. Chatburn, pp. 125-126.
[124] J. B. Dunlop, a surgeon of Dublin, invented the pneumatic tire in 1888.
[125] One of the early books was entitled “The Gospel of Good Roads,” by I. B. Potter, and
appealed directly to the farming interests.
[126] New York Times, September 11, 1892.
[127] Adolphine Hingst, under the heading “Surprised at America. A European’s Shock on
Seeing its Roads and Highways,” Boston Transcript, August 10, 1892.
[128] Good Roads, September, 1892.
[129] Engineering Record, August 27, 1892.
[130] New York Times, Sept. 11, 1892.
[131] Ibid.
[132] Printed as a Senate Document.
[133] Cong. Record, Vol. 24: Dec. 15, 1892, p. 157; Dec. 21, p. 261; Dec. 22, p. 300. Senate
Documents.
[134] Congressional Record, Vol. 24, Jan. 26, 1893, p. 883.
[135] Ibid.

[136] Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, 1893, p. 36.
[137] Bulletin No. 1, Office of Road Inquiry, p. 5.
[138] Bulletin No. 26, Office of Public Road Inquiries, p. 46.
[139] Bulletin No. 26, Office of Public Road Inquiries.
[140] Address on the “History and Purposes of the Good Roads Movement,” by William H.
Moore, president National Good Roads Association, Bulletin No. 26, Office of Public Road
Inquiries, p. 10.
[141] The Morning Oregonian (Portland), June 22, 1905.
[142] “Goods Roads Year Book,” 1917, p. 29.
[143] “The Delivery of Rural Mails,” by Charles H. Greathouse. Department of Agriculture
Year Book, 1890.
[144] Cong. Record, Dec. 3, 1900, p. 12.
[145] “The American Year Book,” 1919, p. 556.
[146] Dept. of Agri. Year Book, 1900, p. 522.
[147] Year Book, 1900. Department of Agriculture, Washington.
[148] “The Constitution of the United States,” Section 8.
[149] Public Law No. 156, 64th Congress.
[150] “State Aid to Road Building in New Jersey,” by Edward Burrough, Chairman of the
New Jersey State Board of Agriculture, Office of Road Inquiry Bulletin No. 9, 1894.
[151] “Inside History of the State Aid Road Law,” by Clayton Conrow, President of the New
Jersey State Road Improvement Association, Report of the New Jersey Commissioner of Public
Roads, 1900, p. 81.
[152] “State Highways in Massachusetts,” by George A. Perkins, Chairman Massachusetts
State Highway Commission, U. S. Department of Agriculture Year Book, 1894, p. 505.
[153] Office of Public Roads Bulletin No. 136.
[154] “The American Year Book,” D. Appleton Co., New York, 1919, 1920.
[155] House Document No. 1510, “Federal Aid to Good Roads,” being Vol. 99, of the House
Documents.
[156] Vol. LIII, 1916. See page references at end of chapter.
[157] Circular No. 65, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Public Roads.
[158] “American Year Book,” 1920, p. 308. D. Appleton & Company, New York.

CHAPTER VI
INTERRELATION BETWEEN HIGHWAY AND OTHER KINDS OF
TRANSPORTATION

Transportation has been classified as primary and secondary.
Transportation on the public highway, whether of raw products to the
market or finished products to the consumer, is denominated primary;
transportation by railroads, canals, and ships as secondary. Practically all
secondary transportation is of products which were first or last or both
subjects of primary transportation.[159] There should, therefore, be a natural
harmonious relation between them. Suppose the foot should say to the hand,
“You are useless, it is I who support the body”; and the hand should retort,
“Think you’re smart, don’t you? I’ll let you know it is I who collect and
prepare the food which nourishes it; a log of wood could easily replace
you”: would that make either one of them independent of the other?
Too true that the great railroad corporations have not always acted in a
manner suitable to the man in the street, that they have often taken too
much toll, that they have become rich and arrogant, that they have
frequently manipulated the political machinery of government in their own
favor, that they have exploited where they should not, that they have shown
favoritism to prominent shippers, and that they have often borne down
heavily on the laboring man; but, this country would never have been
developed to its present state of civilization and prosperity without some
powerful and efficacious method of transportation. The railroads, proving
themselves to be more efficient than either the public highways or the
waterways, without perhaps intending any maliciousness, put them
practically out of business. Now that improved roads and automobiles and
motor trucks are giving the railroads a race for their life some unthinking
persons are gloating over the fact and shouting “to the victor belongs the
spoils.” The evolutionary law that the “fittest will survive” does not
necessarily mean that what is best for the world, for government, for
society, for business will always survive. Weeds will often choke out the
corn unless prevented by outside influence. A beautiful elm stands on the
corner. Every spring it sheds an abundance of seeds; soon these germinate
and there springs up throughout the lawn, flower and vegetable gardens,

myriads of young elm trees. Now elm trees in their proper place are
desirable, are useful, are ornamental and furnish pleasure, but when they
become weeds they should be rooted up that the lawn, the vegetables, and
the flowers may persist. Here the fittest for society survives only because of
artificial regulation. The railroads, steam and electric, the waterways and
the highways all have spheres of usefulness; let each perform its function
and there need be no incongruity or discord.
Experience has proved time and again that any machine has a particular
capacity at which it can be most efficiently operated. A simple stone crusher
kept half full is running at a loss; if crowded and speeded up it will wear
and break unduly. It would be foolish to run continually a 50 horse-power
engine to serve a 2 horse-power motor. An electric light plant is most
economical when operated at its “capacity.” Horse and wagons, motor
trucks, railways, canals, and ships, are but machines, and the law holds with
all of them that they are most efficient when operated at their proper
capacity.
Another economic truth is that the unit cost of production is usually
lowest when the output is great. Quantity production is the goal of
practically all successful manufacturing enterprises. Automatic and near-
automatic machines replace the human hand. One person by the aid of
mechanical and electrical devices produces as much in the same time as
could a score or even a hundred without such help formerly. The chief
reason why quantity production is cheaper than individual production is that
it allows for a division of labor, a separation of the preparing processes into
several operations or occupations. Growing the grain, transporting it to
market, grinding it into flour, baking it into bread, and selling the bread,
indicate some of the several occupations, that arise in the simple
preparation of “our daily bread.” The meat-packing industry affords an
excellent example of the principle: The animal is surveyed and “laid off like
a map”; and each workman as the carcass passes him has one operation to
perform. One man sticks the pig, another scalds it, another pulls the hair
from a particular portion of the body, one cuts the slits for the gambols,
another inserts the sticks, still others hoist the body to the hanger, and so on
as it proceeds along its course scores of persons are each doing a very
limited portion of the work until the entire animal is prepared and packed
for shipment. The workmen are classified and the highest paid are put to the
most delicate or important parts while for the less delicate and less

important duties the pay is very much lower. But each workman having
only a small variety of work to perform soon becomes adept and can do a
much greater amount than if he attempted the entire round of labor. The
building of automobiles wherein materials start from different places and
eventually coalesce as they proceed on their journey through the shops by
each workman as they pass adding one thing or performing one operation
until the whole emerges a complete machine ready to run away under its
own power, is another case in point.
Mr. James J. Hill, when president of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific
and Chicago Burlington & Quincy railroad companies, applied the principle
of quantity production to railroad transportation. Under his supervision
locomotives and cars increased in size; this necessitated heavier rails and
more substantial track; trains were not allowed to leave the terminals until a
full load had been accumulated; regular schedules were of course done
away with except for passenger and a few local freight trains. Other trains
were to be run only at the full capacity of the locomotive. This was not
conducive to speed, but the unit cost of hauling a ton of freight one mile
was very materially reduced. The same crew with comparatively small
increase in costs may operate a train of many cars about as easily as one of
few cars.
The same principle underlies the efforts of motor transport companies.
They are increasing the size of trucks and loads to decrease cost. They have
not used discretion, however, in this and their heavy trucks have ground to
powder high-cost roadways with the result that public sentiment is reacting
against them and regulatory laws are being passed by many legislatures.
Increasing the size of the plant, train, or truck will not bring economies
unless it can be run at its capacity load, consequently when the trade or
traffic will not utilize full loading a smaller plant should be adopted. To run
a 12 horse-power gasoline engine to turn a 11⁄4 horse-power washing
machine motor is no more foolish than to run 100-car locomotives to pull 2-
car trains, or 7-ton trucks where the load never exceeds 2 tons, or 7-
passenger automobiles with 1 or 2 passengers. The contention is well
founded that western railroad methods are futile on New England
railroads[160] and that if prosperity is ever to come to New England roads
they must reduce their rates and rates can only be reduced by making the
size and number of cars commensurate with the character and amount of
traffic. In England where shipping distances are comparatively short the

small van or car and quick deliveries have been evolved. In well-settled
portions of this country, as in New England, similar practices might well be
adopted that the railways may not be entirely eliminated and the public
forced eventually to resort to more expensive transportation methods when
both direct and indirect costs are considered over the public highways.
The railroads are also complaining that the automobile is cutting into
their passenger earnings. This is no doubt true. What else can be expected
with approximately 11,000,000 machines now in operation? Thousands of
tourists are daily traversing the country. They find the outing pleasant and
when several occupy one car it is cheaper than railroad travel. Free camping
along the way avoids hotel bills which have grown inordinately during the
past few years. If these rates continue, simple inns as in the olden days may
grow up and cut into the business of the high-priced hotels. Lower charges
for both railroads and hotels will mitigate but not entirely eliminate the
automobile competition. The motor car is here to stay and automobile travel
will continue to increase. It is no longer a theory but a condition which
exists, and the railroads and hotels should adopt the policy of the wily
politician,—who said, “If you can’t lick ’em, jine ’em,”—meet the
automobile half way and make the most of it.
If predictions of those in close touch with the automobile business be any
criterion the railroads will feel the influence of the motor car more and
more. H. F. Blanchard, writing in Popular Science Monthly, January, 1923,
p. 26, claims that the $150 passenger car is in sight, and that the “saturation
point” which has been a worry for years has not yet arrived and will not if
the lowering of prices keeps pace with increased production. It is pointed
out that the production of automobiles and trucks is still increasing. The
1922 output (2,577,220 machines) is more than the 1920 output (2,276,000)
and these are bought by the public as fast as made. Mr. Durant, a prominent
manufacturer, is quoted as saying that: “The development of a cheaper car
than we now believe possible is only a question of the development of the
highways. Millions more of automobiles would be in use in America to-day
if the conditions of our highways permitted. When our automobiles can be
built to run on highways that are on the average as good as our city streets
—and this is bound to come sooner or later—we shall have lighter, better
and far cheaper cars. And the time is not far distant.”
In Roger W. Babson’s weekly comment dated September 30, 1922, we
read:

Railroads have already felt the effects of pleasure automobiles, but they have not really begun yet
to feel the effects of auto trucking. The trucking of goods within a radii of 50 or 100 miles has only
begun and this radius may readily be extended to cover 200 or 250 miles. Transcontinental systems ...
have nothing to fear from trucks. In fact the trucks may help them. Other roads [those intermediate in
length] can survive and perhaps profit under this competition. With roads such as [short-line roads]
this is not true. These roads are bound to suffer far more from the truck than they now think possible.
We shall live to see great highways built by the state exclusively for truck use. Railroads are
destined ultimately to lose all of their short haul business and hence the roads which are in
comparatively small and compact territories are sure to suffer. The only hope for some roads ... is to
sell certain of their rights of way to the state in order that the tracks may be removed and concrete
highways laid in their place. Many roads have parallel lines to-day under their control. The wise
railroad company will develop one of these for itself and will sell the other at a good price to the state
for a concrete truck highway.

If the steam railroads are feeling the competition of the motor, the
interurban trolley lines and the street-car companies are harder hit. The
interurban lines are most of them short and depend upon local traffic. Their
cars stopped at any cross-road along the way to pick up passengers and
freight. But the motor transport is going them one better; it picks up its load
at the front gate, saving the trouble of even a short walk, or in the case of
freight, of loading and unloading and a short haul to the track.
The case of street-car lines is slightly different. So many persons are
purchasing and daily using automobiles to go to and from business that the
street-car people have complained bitterly. Many lines are running behind
and one at least, Des Moines, Iowa, entirely stopped operation (August,
1917). The moment they found their revenues decreasing they ran to the
railway commissions and city councils with requests for permits to increase
rates of fare. The increase when allowed not only failed to alleviate but
aggravated the trouble. Even old-fashioned persons who formerly traveled
home for luncheon and back afterward began patronizing cafeterias and
clubs. The habit of eating noon luncheon down town was soon formed.
Others emulated their example, resulting in the loss of hundreds and even
thousands of fares per week. Riding to and from work in an automobile has
a fascination for most men, and every one in a street car who sees his
neighbor whizzing along by the side vows that he, too, will drive a car as
soon as he can save enough money to make the first payment. Useless for
the street car managers to try to prove to him that the expenses of a car—
gas, oil, tires, repairs and depreciation—are vastly greater than street car
fares; everybody knows that, but he must be in the style. Farmers, as the
implement dealers have found to their sorrow, will do without or tinker up
old harvesters and plows in order to enjoy the pleasure of owning an

automobile. The mechanic may change his seven-passenger for a light-four
as wages go down but he still insists on riding his own car. The merchant
while complaining that others should give up their machines and pay their
bills, hangs on to his own with the grip of death. Women, even, are willing
to give up pretty dresses and wear khaki overalls at least half the time. It
looks as though many will hereafter live a nomadic life using their cars and
garages more than their one- and two-room apartments. Stop the people
from using motors and force them back to the street cars? Never, until the
hardships of living reach the state of starvation and nakedness.
In addition to the owners of automobiles there are the taxicabs, “jitneys,”
and buses. If the street car system is the logical plant it is desired to
maintain for the good of the community then these others are weeds if
allowed free rein. If, when the street-car companies go bankrupt and quit
business, the motor cars could give a better service, outside of the fact that
property had been destroyed without compensation, no particular damage
would be noticeable to the community as a whole. But the experience of
Des Moines shows that while special efforts were made to transport every
one; buses were brought in from distant cities and owners of cars most
freely picked up the pedestrians, nevertheless, there was much
inconvenience and discontent. Private cars cannot long be depended on to
carry free the throng; taxicabs are too expensive, insufficient in number and
have no regular schedule; jitneys are unreliable sporadic cars, and half of
them go out of business on days of bad weather. There is left then the buses.
These may be made of such size and be run with such regularity as to be
really valuable for local transportation service. No doubt they will survive
and always be a strong competitor of the electric surface street car. Not
being confined to a track they load and unload at the curb thus eliminating
an element of danger from passing vehicles much feared by timid people.
Not having to keep up a track, trolley lines, or a plant for generating
electricity the expenses are not particularly great per bus, from $25 to $35
per day will cover them, it is estimated,[161] which puts the bus on a par in
this respect with the small street car.

© Underwood and Underwood
TRACKLESS TROLLEY OPERATED ON STATEN ISLAND, N. Y.

© Underwood and Underwood
GASOLINE LOCOMOTIVE AND TRAILER
Operated by the Chicago & Great Western R. R.

There is a legitimate field for these buses in the smaller cities and on
streets in large cities not easily reached by, or upon which it is desirable not
to have street-car tracks. But they should not be free lances—they should be
under regulations as street cars are under regulations, they should make
scheduled trips, they should be backed by capital or insurance sufficient to
pay indemnities in cases of accident and upon payment of license fees are
entitled to protection and possibly monopoly in their prescribed territory.
A cheap form of transportation, either electric trolley, with or without
track, or buses, is absolutely necessary. Buses and individual jitneys cannot,
where the business is heavy, carry passengers as cheaply as the electric
street car, but for a more limited traffic the buses may take their place, and
for still less traffic jitneys can find a useful occupation. If buses and jitneys
are allowed absolute freedom without restrictions as to schedule or route

they will skim the cream from the street transportation business and so
reduce the revenues of the street cars that they will have to discontinue
operation. A thing so undesirable that the public will have to subsidize the
street cars and guarantee a certain percentage of earnings or take over their
ownership, run them at a nominal fare and let the taxpayer take care of the
deficit. By these means those persons who ride their own automobiles, the
heavier taxpayers, who are, or should be, most vitally interested in
maintaining cheap transportation for the unfortunate residue who cannot
possibly afford automobiles, yet whose labor is absolutely essential to the
industrial and commercial prosperity of the city, will be required to pay a
portion of the upkeep of street-car transportation. If a subsidy be adopted it
would be better that it should not be a direct guaranty of a fixed percentage
of earnings for in that manner there is no premium on efficiency as our
Government found to its cost in dealing with the railroads during the recent
war. It would be better if some sort of a sliding scale could be worked out
whereby the lines should be relieved of occupational taxes or license fees in
proportion as they lowered fares, and such that the lower the fares the
greater the percentage of profit they might earn.
The contract or charter might provide that all earnings above a specified
percentage, due allowance having been made for operation, repairs, and
upkeep, on bona fide capital invested should be turned over to the city as a
license for the use of the streets. For example with a fare of three cents the
city might guarantee a 5 per cent income, but allow, by reduction of taxes
and all payments to the city an earning of 10 per cent; on a five cent fare
guarantee 3 per cent and allow earnings of 8 per cent; and so on as shown
by the accompanying table the figures of which are merely illustrative:
With a fare The City And allows an
of Guarantees earning of
3 cents 4 per cent 10 per cent
4 31⁄2 9
5 3 8
6 2 7
7 1 6
8 0 5

To make a workable contract of this sort there would first have to be an
agreement as to the corporation capital upon which earning percentages are
to be based. If this could be made equal to the real investment it would be

absolutely just to both the public and the corporation. However, the so-
called unearned increment would in some cases have to be considered.
Publicity in accounting, capitalization, bonded indebtedness and earnings,
and the feeling engendered that the public is in a sense a co-partner with the
corporation would add to more harmonious relations between the two.
Similar contracts might be arranged between bus lines and the city, or
between bus lines and the state where rural roads are used, and between
railroad and other transportation corporations and the Federal Government
for interstate lines.
Objection may be raised to this plan on the ground that it violates usury
laws. Nearly every state in the Union provides by law for a maximum rate
of interest. Laws of this kind have existed almost since the beginning of
history and are so imbedded in the minds of the people that they believe 6
or 7 per cent is all a public service corporation should be allowed to make
on its investment, when as a matter of fact all sorts of private businesses are
making profits many times that amount without hindrance by law or public
sentiment. People who risk money in adventures which are in general for
the good of the public should be allowed returns fully as high as those
suggested, even though they do go beyond the customary 7 percent.
Whatever the right figures are careful accounting and publicity will have a
tendency to establish, and once established they ought to be as stable and
permanent as life insurance rates and thus encourage the investment of
funds in such enterprises.
Legitimate Fields of Transportation Agencies. —Agreeing, then, that
the present systems of transportation should not be put out of business by
less efficient ones, what seems to be the most feasible interrelations that
will allow all of them to live and let live?
There seems to be no doubt but what the railroads can and do transport
large quantities long distances quicker, better, and more efficiently than can
be done on the highways. Highways may be considered as feeders of the
railways. With good roads the zone from which the railway can profitably
draw products for long distance or quantity transportation is widened, and
again widened very materially when better roads allow the use of motors in
place of horses. This, if no other railway interferes, means a larger grand
total of traffic hauled. Again the character of the farming along the zone
served by a railroad will depend upon the facilities for marketing as well as
soil and climate. Those products ordinarily called perishable may be raised

if the roads are good so that they may be marketed quickly and cheap
enough to compete with other localities. Such produce yield a larger net
return per acre than the staple grain products. Intensive farming is usually
necessary in such cases so that a smaller farm will support a family
allowing an increase in rural population, a thing most highly desirable in
this country. The railroad benefits again, then, because of the increased
produce raised by intensive farming brought about by quick marketing
facilities, and by increased freight and passenger traffic necessary to supply
the greater population.
Furthermore, if roads were good throughout the year marketing would be
spread over the entire period and there would not at times be a glut with
corresponding scarcity of cars, and other facilities for handling. If cars,
warehouses and elevators were sufficient to care for these periods there
would be an over supply of facilities at other times and capital would be
unnecessarily tied up producing larger overhead charges. With good roads
there would likewise be less need for large quantities of money at particular
periods of the year as uniform marketing would allow a smaller capital to
be turned oftener. Moreover, unproductive branch lines would by the
increased traffic brought to them by the improved highways be either made
productive or they could be dispensed with altogether. The unproductive
short-haul traffic would then be cared for by electric railways, motor trucks
or even by horse wagons.
Intra City Traffic. —Mr. J. C. Thirlwall, of the railway and tractive
engineering department of the General Electric Company (General Electric
Review, Vol. XXIV, pp. 974-985), discussing the fields of the rail car,
trolley bus and gasoline bus, tabulates the respective costs of these types on
a comparative basis for a variety of conditions. In general the calculations
indicate that:
(a) Where rush hour headways of 3 min. or less are required with safety cars, rail cars are the most
economical and up to 6 min. headways offer successful competition to the other types where the road
is a going concern.
(b) On longer headways the trolley bus appears to have the advantage due to the lower fixed
charges.
(c) The gasoline bus on account of higher operating expense does not offer competition to the rail
car until minimum headways of 10 min. are reached on new routes and 20 min. on existing lines.
(d) The trolley bus is more economical than the gasoline bus up to headways of 60 min. or longer.
A tabulation of the respective fields is as follows:
Minimum headways, 3 min. or less; rail cars.
Minimum headways, 3 to 6 min.; rail cars or trolley bus.
Minimum headways, 6 to 60 min.; trolley bus.

Minimum headways, 60 min. or more; gasoline bus.

This does not mean that existing lines with headways of 71⁄2 to 10
minutes should be scrapped and replaced with the newer forms of
transportation. It would not pay to do this until a headway greater than 15 or
20 minutes has been reached.
Length of Haul for Economical Trucking. —The railroads would not
be alone in the benefits due to better roads. Truck lines could be established
to care for freight and passenger traffic between farm and station. Here the
truck and railroads would coöperate, there would be no competition, for
each would be performing a function incapable (or unprofitable) of
performance by the other; the net result would be a benefit to the entire
community. But most transport lines that are being established come into
actual competition with existing railroad lines. Just how far a motor truck
may profitably compete with the railway depends, of course, on the relative
costs of transportation. Mr. Cabot[162] calculates that twelve miles is the
dividing line between motor truck transport and rail transport. He figures
the cost of delivery and removal from the railway station at 15 cents per
hundred weight, or $3 per ton at each end for terminal charges and that the
cost of motor truck haul is at least 50 cents per ton mile. A ton may be
hauled, therefore, on truck, 12 miles to balance the railway terminal
expense or charge.
A formula might be worked out this way.

Let x = the number of miles where rail and truck charges just balance;
m = motor truck charge per ton-mile;
r = rail charge per ton-mile;
t = terminal railroad charge-cost of collecting and delivery to the
railroad plus the cost of removal from the railroad.

Thus motor charge for x miles is mx and railroad charge for same
distance is rx + t, equating these,
mx = rx + t.
Solving for the distance traveled,
t
x= .
m-r

With Mr. Cabot’s figures this formula gives
6.00 600
x= = = 13.5.
.50 - .055 44.5
Using the cost 25 cents per ton mile made up by actual averages
compiled by the Motor Truck Association of America and 5.5 cents used by
Mr. Cabot as the railroad cost charge, there results
6.00 600
x= = = 30 miles.
.25 - .05 20
It will be noticed that this formula contemplates no terminal charge for
the motor truck as it is expected to pick up and deliver the freight at the
doors of the consignor and consignee and that the cost of doing this is
absorbed in the cost per mile. The dividing distance between profitable rail
and freight transportation, x, is seen by the formula to vary directly with the
terminal charge and indirectly with the difference between motor and rail
cost per mile. To lessen this distance is in the interest of the railroads and
can be accomplished by decreasing the terminal charges and the cost of
transportation per ton-mile. Express companies have for years
accomplished this by employing the system of free collection and delivery,
and railways in England do likewise. The motor transport companies will
have to decrease their cost per ton-mile in order to increase the distance that
it is profitable for the shipper to utilize motor trucks. If the difference in
cost per ton-mile could be reduced to twelve cents with terminal costs at $6
per ton, and doubtless this may be done under favorable circumstances, the
distance would be lengthened to 50 miles. This is probably the maximum
motor truck haul which can in general profitably compete with rail
transportation. With better roads, larger trucks, trailers, or, in special cases,
with certain classes of goods and commodities, longer hauls will be
profitable.
The distances which it seems profitable to do trucking are continually
being lengthened. Forrest Crissey, writing in the Saturday Evening Post of
December 16, 1922, relates a case in which household goods were hauled
from Boston to Cleveland at a saving over rail rates and expenses incurred
by delays of $417.50 on the shipment.
His figures summarized are as follows:

Rail—
Crating and Hauling to Station $ 300.00
Freight 150.00
Hauling and Uncrating at destination 75.00
Hotel Bill of Family of five, two rooms and board, while waiting 525.00
House rental while waiting 67.50
Total $1117.50
Van company’s charge from home to home $ 700.00
Calculated saving $ 417.50

It should be remembered that certain kinds of goods, such as household,
lend themselves readily to truck shipments. With this class of goods
expensive packing and several handlings are eliminated. Such is true of
much merchandise which can be delivered directly from the store of the
seller to the door of the buyer; to many varieties of manufactured goods
which are sold within comparatively short distances of the factory. Each
case should be worked out for itself and all the various kinds of
transportation used that prove to be practical and economical. Where large
concerns like packing houses are supplied with railway tracks right to their
doors, shipping in car load and train load lots is not only more economical
but absolutely necessary where such large quantities are transported in
refrigerator cars. But for distribution to towns near-by the truck is much
more convenient and economical. It is impossible to say for so-many-miles
it is cheaper to ship by truck, because each commodity must be considered
individually in connection with the character of the roads, the conditions of
weather and climate, and the time of delivery. While the case of shipping
household goods alluded to above proved very successful the next one
might meet inclement weather, the truck might have to remain out in the
rain and some of the goods become damaged, as was the case of one such
shipment that came under the writer’s observation. A single swallow does
not make a summer, but the trend is no doubt toward much longer truck
trips. And as the roads and vehicles become stabilized and standardized this
will be even more evident. For example, milk collected at stations 50 and
60 miles from the large cities can be hauled in to market in large tank cars
which are built somewhat on the thermos or vacuum bottle principle, the
milk arriving at its destination cooler and in every way better than if hauled
in small containers. The truck has a large field open for its especial
qualities. Let it confine its operations to these and rail competition will not
injure it.

Short-Haul Roads Reduce Express Rates. —The Boston & Maine
Railroad is reducing express rates between Boston and towns within a
radius of 50 miles in an effort to win back short-haul traffic lost to motor
trucks.[163] The average reduction is given as about 40 per cent on less than
carload lots. The old rail service rate between Lynn and Boston was $1.50
per ton, 71⁄2 cents per hundred, with a minimum loading of 20,000 pounds
per car, while the truck service charge is about $3 per ton, yet it is estimated
that 80 to 90 per cent of the business was by truck. The reduced rail rate is 5
cents per hundred, $1 per ton with the minimum loading eliminated. It
remains to be seen whether people are willing to pay a higher rate to ship by
truck, or whether the trucks will meet the express rates. The railroads may
still lower costs by one or two other devices: They may use lighter weight
cars and locomotives; they may use gasoline motor cars such as the
McKeen used on several branch line runs by the Union Pacific, or a motor
car now being tried out capable of running on rails or on the pavements at
will. Such a car would take advantage of the light traction on the rails
between stations but could go through the main streets to pick up its load. A
rail-motor bus following the main features of the street bus and embodying
“the same elements of simplicity in construction, reliability in performance,
flexibility in operation, light weight, and low first cost,”[164] has been built
and operated at an average of 14 miles to the gallon of gasoline, a sufficient
indication that it can save in operating expenses. The car weighs 11,000
pounds and has a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour, and when required
trailers may be used without materially decreasing the speed.
Avoiding Waste. —Such methods of cheapening and bettering railroad
transportation together with a lowering of rates generally to a point that the
traffic can bear, and the adoption of managerial methods that will lessen
avoidable wastes, which the railroad unions estimate at one billion dollars
per year,[165] may eventuate in a rehabilitation and stabilization of the
railway industry. The taking over by motor trucks of short-haul freight and
passenger traffic, even though it cause the discontinuation of unprofitable
branch lines may prove to roads but a pruning which will be beneficial and
inure to the growth of the main trunk and remaining healthy branches.
William H. Manse, a member of the Congressional Joint Commission of
Agricultural Inquiry,[166] has called attention to another economic waste. He
states that “city freight houses were established when team hauling was the
only hauling.” These now are the cause of much congestion because of the

delivery there of tremendous amounts of less-than-carload freight. The
loading and unloading tracks being limited much of the freight must pass
through the depot necessitating double handling. Again, in the large cities a
considerable percentage of land in the business section, stated to be from 25
to 30 in Chicago, is occupied by the railroads for tracks, road and station
purposes. This land is worth from $10 to $50 a square foot, and if freight
cars stand upon it intermittently for the receipt and discharge of l.c.l.
freight, it is not earning continuously but, on the other hand, it is spending
every minute in interest, taxes and maintenance. With demountable
containers, which are described in Chapter VII, and the motor truck, and
with concerted action of the railroads, much of this high-value land could
be given over to other business and cheaper land farther out purchased for
trackage.
Enough has been said to intimate a firm belief that the railways as
purveyors of secondary transportation will persist. On economic grounds if
for no other reason, for no cheaper method of transportation, except by
water, has been devised; and secondary transportation over canals and rivers
ought, for the good of the country, to be revived. There is a large class of
freight that could with proper management travel at a slow rate of speed
without any detriment or inconvenience whatsoever to the public.
Carve Out New Fields of Usefulness. —It is quite likely that the newer
systems of transportation, by inter-urban electric railways, by automobile
and motor-truck, and by air-plane and dirigible, will all carve out for
themselves new grooves of usefulness, thus opening up for labor and capital
new fields of endeavor. The telephone did not, as many believed it would,
replace the telegraph; neither, yet, has “wireless” put “wires” out of use.
The telephone, rural free delivery of mail, and the automobile have already
put new life into agriculture. Farming has rapidly reached the enchanted
plane of professionalism and men are as proud now of being farmers as they
were formerly of being lawyers or ministers. And of the three
instrumentalities named, the motor car, including the improved roads it
makes necessary, has probably been most influential. In return the farmers
have supplied themselves with motor vehicles most generously. These will
result in the marketing of increased quantities of food and products that
prior to improved roads and the introduction of the motor car it was
unprofitable to raise because of the cost of transportation, or the time
consumed in transportation, or the condition in which they reached the

consumer. This, then, is one of the ways in which the motor car may be
beneficial to both producer and consumer, that is to the entire public. In the
more thickly populated districts the dairy interests practically depend upon
the motor truck; milk reaches its destination in better condition than when
hauled by horses and wagons or when delivered to the railway station,
shipped by train, and hauled again to the distributing agency. Also in
regions near the large cities vegetable gardeners and orchardists are
becoming more and more dependent upon the motor truck for the rapid
transit of their perishable products to the jobber, retailer, or even consumer.
During the railway congestion in the period of the war, not only the
dairymen, gardeners, and orchardists that supplied the large eastern cities
were saved from ruin but the consumers themselves were saved from food
shortage and hunger by the motor car.
This condition is not peculiar to the Eastern states, but applies to the
grower of perishable products near every large market; it also applies to the
raiser of live stock. During the congested period mentioned there was
difficulty to get stock cars in which to ship hogs, sheep, and cattle. Motor
trucks were seized upon and last year there came to the Omaha stock yards
in them more than 200,000 head of live stock, St. Joseph, Missouri, yards
are said to be receiving 2500 head of live stock per day by motor truck.
Sioux City, St. Paul and other markets report similar receipts. The record
day at Indianapolis is given as 6800 head of live stock delivered to the stock
yards in 500 motor trucks from a radius of 50 miles. Hogs delivered by
truck to the early market at Omaha are said to be in much better condition
than those received by train.
In some sorts of transportation light automobile delivery wagons will
give best service; this is especially true where the distance between stops is
such that considerable time may be saved by rapid transit. In still other lines
a horse and wagon may be most efficient; this is especially true where the
stops are continuous or nearly continuous along a street like a milk or ice
route, and where a trained team can be started and stopped by the attendant
from the street by word of mouth.
It seems then that there is room in this country for various kinds of
transportation. The horse and wagon; the light motor and the heavy motor;
the waterways; the electric railroad and the steam railroad. All should work
together in harmony for the good of the Nation. The little handwheel that
opens and closes the throttle valve is of as much importance to the big

Corliss engine as the large and more spectacular flywheel; the black iron
foundation, grimy with grease, as the bright highly polished brass band
around the cylinder lagging darting and reflecting beams of light into the
eyes of the beholder. Each has its own work to perform and if done well is
deserving of equal honor.

SELECTED REFERENCES

Agricultural Inquiry, Report of Joint Commission on, Published by order of Congress, 1922,
Washington, D. C.
Babson, Roger W., “Weekly Comment” of September 30, 1922, Syndicated.
Banham, W. J. L., “Motor Truck and Railroad Freighting,” Address delivered at Highway Transport
Conference, 1920, published as a bulletin by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce,
New York.
Blanchard, Harold F., “Is the Day of the $150 Car in Sight,” Popular Science Monthly, January,
1923, p. 26.
Brosseau, A. J., “Is Highway Transport an Aid to Railroads?” Commercial Vehicle, Jan. 15, 1922.
Also published in bulletin form by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce.
Cabot, Philip, “Root, Hog or Die: The New Englander and His Railroads.” Atlantic Monthly,
August, 1921, p. 258.
Chatburn, G. R., “Highway Engineering,” p. 5. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Crissey, Forrest, “Our New Transportation System,” Saturday Evening Post, December 16, 1922.
Graham, George M., “Highway Transportation,” Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the
United States Chamber of Commerce. “The Motor Vehicle—Competitor or Ally?” National
Automobile Chamber of Commerce.
Green, G. A., “Motor Bus Transportation,” Society of Automotive Engineers, Journal, 1920.
Johnson, Emery R., “Elements of Transportation,” D. Appleton & Company, New York.
MacDonald, Thomas H., “Federal Aid Highways,” Proceedings of the 8th Annual Meeting of the
Chamber of Commerce of the United States.
Norton, S. V., “The Motor Truck as an Aid to Business,” Part I. A. W. Shaw Company, Chicago.
Riggs, Henry E., “Report of the Committee on Interrelation of Highway, Railway, and Waterway
Transport,” National Traffic Association of Chicago, N. A. C. C., 1920.
Thirlwall, J. C., “Fields of the Rail Car, Trolley Bus and Gasoline Bus,” General Electric Review,
Vol. XXIV, pp. 974-985.
White, Windsor T., “Benefits of War Experience,” Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the
Chamber of Commerce of the United States.

FOOTNOTES

[159] Chatburn’s “Highway Engineering,” Wiley & Sons, N. Y.
[160] Cf. “Root, Hog or Die,” by Philip Cabot, Atlantic Monthly, August, 1921.
[161] This estimate includes the following items:

Heavy Light
Car Car
2 Drivers $8.00-10.00 $10.00 per day $10.00
Tires 4.00- 6.00 6.00 4.00
Oil, etc. .75- 1.00 1.00 .75
Gasoline 3.50- 5.50 5.00 3.50
Depreciation 4.00- 6.00 6.00 4.00
Interest 1.00- 1.50 1.50 1.00
Insurance 1.00- 1.50 1.50 1.00
Garage .50- 1.00 1.00 .50
License, taxes .75- 1.50 1.50 .75
Repairs .50- 1.00 .50 .50
24.00-35.00 $34.00 26.00

[162] “Root, Hog, or Die: The New Englander and His Railroads,” by Philip Cabot, in
Atlantic Monthly, August, 1921, p. 258.
[163] Wall Street Journal, August 26, 1921.
[164] The Railway Review, Chicago, July 30, 1921.
[165] W. Jett Lauck, a union-labor economist, in a report laid before the Railroad Labor
Board, specifies the avoidable wastes as follows:
1. Modernizing locomotives.—Gross reparable deficiencies are pointed out which it is
claimed might be avoided by the applications of improvements such as superheaters, brick arches,
mechanical stokers, feed-water heaters, there would result an annual saving of at least
$272,500,000.
2. Locomotive operation.—The magnitude of the railways’ coal bill is considered and
certain of the larger wastes calculated, and it is concluded that by use of better methods of coal
purchase, coal inspection, careful receipt, and efficient firing of the locomotives, an annual saving
could be effected of at least $50,000,000.
3. Shop organization improvements.—The sad and almost incredible inadequacy and out-of-
date equipment of the railway shops is reviewed, and defenseless wastes considered, and it is
conservatively estimated that by a proper shop organization an annual saving could be effected of
at least $17,000,000.
4. Power-plant fuel savings.—The obsolete and wasteful condition of the power plants in the
railway shops is considered, and it is estimated that in this field the possible saving of fuel would
by itself amount to an annual total of $10,000,000.
5. Water-consumption savings.—The railroads’ expenditure in maintenance of way and
structure is reviewed, necessary wastes noted, and it is estimated that easily attainable savings in
the consumption of water alone would amount annually to $12,600,000.
6. Service of supply savings.—The expenditure of the railways for supplies has been
inquired into and the avoidable losses surveyed, and it is estimated that the wastes and abuses
amount annually to not less than $75,000,000.
7. Shop accounting savings.—Attention has been given to the matter of uniform railroad
statistics and the use of efficient methods of cost accounting. An annual saving would be feasible
to the amount of $10,900,000.

8. Labor turn-over savings.—The industrial losses due to unnecessary labor turn-over and to
inadequate training of personnel have been reviewed, and it is estimated that the avoidable wastes
incident to labor turn-over alone amount to more than $40,000,000.
9. Loss and damage savings.—Inquiry has been made into the amount of the annual damage
account of the railways and into preventable causes of such losses, and it is estimated that an
annual saving might be effected to the amount of $90,000,000.
Other alleged losses, he says, would bring the total waste to over a billion.
[166] Report of the Joint Commission on Agricultural Inquiry.

CHAPTER VII
AUTOMOTIVE TRANSPORTATION

Automotive transportation is a matter of such recent growth that only a
few of the elements entering it have as yet become fixed or standardized—
the whole question is still in the experimental or growing stage. The next
few years will probably see as many, if not as radical, changes in equipment
and operation as have the past few. The law of evolution seems to include a
period of slow growth or sort of weak feeling-out; then a period of very
rapid growth, developing usually along several lines; and finally a ripening
or fixing period in which standardization is reached. The automotive
industries are now beginning the third period. Revolutionary changes are
not to be expected, but there will be many minor ones seeking efficiency or
economy. The machinery of transportation, the motor car and the roadway,
are, perhaps, in a later stage of standardization than are the social and legal
phases of the subject. The relative rights of the people on the street and
driver of the car have yet to be determined. The relation between
automotive transportation and the older forms of transportation is still in a
very formative stage. Plans and organizations for operating systems of
highway transport and methods of accounting which shall be fair to owner
and patron have in a large measure yet to be developed.
These things must necessarily be true in a new and growing industry.
Why, encyclopedias published in the ’eighties make no mention whatever
of the motor car or automobile. In fact, the first practical automobiles were
put on the market after 1893, and trucks were not sold as such until 1903,
ten years later. This was about the period when automobiles were being
made over by change of body into “business wagons.” But so rapidly has
the use of the motor car grown, automobile registrations increasing from
about one million in 1912 to more than eleven millions in 1922, that, so it is
stated, 80 per cent of all cars manufactured are still in use.
Automotive transportation may be considered to include all conveyance
from one place to another by means of motor vehicles. A motor vehicle is
one which carries within itself the source of mechanical power which
propels it providing that source be not muscular. This definition would
include the tractor, the road roller, the torpedo, and the locomotive, which

are ordinarily excluded. For the purposes of this discussion an automobile
or motor car may be considered as a self-propelled vehicle which transports
a burden other than itself as a weight upon its own wheels. This will
exclude the tractor and the locomotive, which though self-propelled, are
intended to draw other vehicles rather than to carry the load; also the road
roller and the torpedo, which have no burden to transport other than their
own weights. Some definitions would confine a motor vehicle to one
designed to move on common roads or highways. However, motor cars are
now being used on railroad tracks; they are entitled to and should be
allowed the use of the name. The automobile may have as the source of
power internal-combustion engines using such fuel as gasoline, kerosene,
benzol, and alcohol; it may use steam generated by these fuels; or an
electric storage battery charged by sources outside the engine may furnish
the propelling force. The load transported will either be passenger or
freight. Passenger traffic may be classified as business or pleasure. If a
vehicle is used mostly for business, first cost and economy of operation
may play a more important part in the purchase of the car than if used for
pleasure, in which case appearance and luxurious appointments may be the
deciding factor.

The Evolution of the Steam Automobile
1. The Cugnot Steam Carriage—1770.
2. The Trevithick & Vivian Steam Carriage—1801.
3. The Gurney Steam Carriage—1827.
4. The Church Automobile Carriage (Steam)—1833.
5. Gaillardit’s Steam Carriage—1894.
(Courtesy of the Scientific American.)

Business Passenger Traffic. —All machines that haul passengers for
hire, that are used as a means of performing, promoting, or extending
business relations, while so used, may be rightly considered business
machines and the traffic business traffic. The physician who finds that he
can quadruple the number of his daily calls; the traveling salesman who can
double the territory covered and do it much more efficiently; the business or
professional man, of whatever kind, who uses his automobile in going from
one place to another in the performance of his duties; the farmer who comes
to town to get his mail and information relative to markets or otherwise to
assist him with his farm industry; and the multifold other uses which are for
the advantage of financial or industrial enterprise may constitute a
legitimate business passenger traffic. The transportation, however, by taxi-
cab, jitney or bus is considered by many persons to be the type that should
be classified under the term business passenger traffic.
Jitney and taxi-cab traffic are of vast importance in the cities and are of
real economic use in furnishing a rapid means of transit from point to point.
The jitney is usually a privately owned vehicle not especially constructed
for the business, which plies with more or less regularity over a route that
may or may not be set out in the owner’s license. In early days the price of a
ride was a “nickel” or “jitney” hence the name.
Taxi-cabs are regularly licensed automobiles that carry passengers for
hire, usually making the charge dependent more or less upon the distance
traveled, which is registered by a taximeter. For example, the charge may be
25 cents plus 15 cents per mile or fraction thereof. This would make the
charge for distances less than 1 mile, 40 cents; from 1 mile to 2 miles, 55
cents; from 2 to 3 miles, 70 cents; and so on. The driver usually turns the
taximeter up to the fixed charge plus 1 mile, if fractions are counted as full
miles, when the passenger enters, and the instrument adds on as the cab
travels. Of course the taximeter may be made to register every quarter,
every fifth, or every tenth of a mile, or even continuously. A special waiting

charge is made if the cab is held by the passenger. Taxicabs are variable in
form, from “flivvers” to limousines. Many of the larger cities are supplied
with cabs owned in quantity by substantial companies which put on a line
of cars usually all alike and painted with some striking feature or color. The
larger ones are limousines seating five or seven passengers in the tonneau
and one on the seat with the driver. Some of these cars are almost
luxuriously fitted with fine cushions and special lighting. They have
speaking tubes or electrical devices to signal the driver. The drivers for the
large companies wear the livery of the company. Taxis, as may be inferred,
have no established routes, but go wherever the passenger may desire.
The motor-bus is well established both in city and cross-country traffic.
As at first made motor-buses consisted of special bodies with seats placed
upon freight truck chassis. This did not prove altogether satisfactory
because of their excessive weight, too much of which is “unsprung.” They
also have a high center of gravity, high floors, long turning radius and rather
rigid suspension. A bus, to be efficient, durable and comfortable, should be
especially designed. There should be lightness and strength; small unsprung
weight; a low center of gravity; a flexible control; special transmission;
wide treads; ample wheel base; short turning radius; low step entrance and
exit; low top clearance; curb receipt and delivery of passengers; ample
brake capacity; and high lowgear efficiency.[167] Pneumatic tires on account
of their resiliency make the bus much more comfortable for the passengers
by absorbing shocks, and for the same reason they also increase the life of
the car and make it possible to travel faster. Cushion tires are next in order
of merit and are an effort to combine the durability of the solid tire with the
easy riding qualities of the pneumatic. Tests made by the U. S. Bureau of
Public Roads show that the cushion or semi-solid tires stand between the
solid and the pneumatic as regards riding comfort. With many bus operators
a combination equipment is being used—pneumatics are used on the front
to protect the engine and gasoline tank from vibration and cushion tires on
the rear where the hardest wear comes.

A MODERN RURAL PASSENGER BUS

© Underwood and Underwood
A NEW YORK CITY “STEPLESS BUS”
It Has an Emergency Door, with Wire Window Guards, and will Seat 30 Persons.

Buses are made both single and double deck. The latter are in demand
where traffic is large and also where sight-seeing is an important item, the
upper deck being usually open to the weather.
The fare charged by the bus is either the same or in many cases a little
higher than that by the trolley car, but the bus has the advantage in that it
can travel over streets where the trolley is not allowed, can usually make
better time, and can load and unload at the curb, thus avoiding danger from
passing vehicles, a matter of no little importance to timid passengers. The
trolley car is able to haul large numbers at a less expense. In such cases no
passenger transportation is cheaper. But the field for the auto bus is wide
and no doubt it will come more and more into competition with the street
car and steam railroad lines. The former, whose single and primary business
is transporting passengers, are already complaining bitterly of the inroads

made upon their business by the privately owned automobile and motor
bus. The automobile is the larger factor because there are more automobiles
than buses. Since about every tenth person owns a machine which can
accommodate from two to seven passengers, one can readily see the
importance of this item to the traction companies. The result has been a
falling off in passenger fares, which the companies have endeavored to
offset by increasing rates, and this in turn has only accentuated the trouble
by driving more men to automobiles. The only way the street car can hope
to compete with the motor car is by keeping its rates low and hauling large
numbers of passengers. The handiness of the automobile, going at the
instant wanted, avoiding the usual walk of two or three blocks to and from a
car line at the beginning and the end of the journey, the consequent saving
in time, coupled with the exhilarating effect of riding rapidly through the
open air furnishes a great handicap which the traction companies will have
difficulty in overcoming. About the only things the street car has in its favor
are cheapness and dependability. It can no doubt be shown that it is cheaper
to patronize the trolley than to own and operate the average car. The street
car will go in rainy or snowy weather when motor cars must be laid up. But
the average American does not count cost; he thinks more of his own
comfort and doing as his neighbors do, i.e., being in style. It may become
necessary, as stated in another chapter, for the public to take over the street-
car lines, run them at as low rates as possible for the accommodation of
those who cannot afford motor cars, since their work is an absolute
necessity to the community, and charge any deficit to the taxpayers.
There seems to be another feasible and legitimate use for the motor bus
which may help the street car companies as well. That is extensions by
means of buses at the ends of the car lines or into territory not well served
by them. The bus might collect passengers from an outlying district and
bring them to the car line where the trolley can take them on to the heart of
the city. Thus motor buses will become feeders rather than competitors of
the regularly established traction lines. The car companies should attempt to
take advantage of this sort of thing, using either the trackless trolley or
gasoline motor, as may be thought the more suitable for the situation in
hand.
Cross-country motor service has proven quite feasible and scores of
buses now leave every large city for the surrounding smaller towns. The bus
seems to negotiate a 50-mile trip very easily at a speed of approximately 20

miles per hour including stops. These buses or stages carry from 12 to 20
passengers and are operated by one man; they are well sprung and equipped
with pneumatic tires. For country traffic seats cross ways of the car are
much more comfortable to the rider than lengthwise seats. Their usefulness
seems to lie in suburban traffic or as feeders to railroads.
Such buses are also largely used as carriers of children to and from
consolidated schools. The little red school house, wherein began the
educational training of so many of our great men, of which silver tongues
have orated, whose virtues have been painted in poetry, and praises
commemorated in song, cannot stand against the superior advantages of the
consolidated graded school brought near to the pupils by the advent of the
automobile. Since each consolidated school with about five teachers
replaces eight to ten ungraded schools, and since it is easier and cheaper to
maintain and heat one consolidated school than eight ungraded schools, the
advantage is economical as well as educational.
Another place where the motor bus seems extremely well adapted is in
the transfer of travelers from one railroad terminal to another. Railroads
contract with transfer companies to do this and a coupon, a portion of the
traveler’s ticket, is detached by the bus-man when the transfer is made. To
one who is not used to the city this is a great convenience. In the city of
Chicago, through which many long-distance tourists pass and through
which no or at least few railroads extend in both directions, hundreds of
such transfers take place daily. Passengers and baggage are thus taken care
of on a through ticket with despatch and little inconvenience.
Pleasure Passenger Traffic. —Vast and important as may have become
the business passenger motor traffic, purely pleasure travel by automobile
probably exceeds it. Of the more than ten million motor cars licensed in the
United States perhaps 80 per cent of them were purchased not for their use
in the business of the owner, although that might have been the final excuse
that consummated the deal, but for the pleasure the purchaser and his family
would get from owning a car. The great car industry which has sprung up
like a mushroom during the past quarter century may thank the people’s
desire for personal pleasure for its tremendous prosperity. The movie
picture industry is another instance of the same character; likewise the
newest epidemic to attack the people—radio. It is not claimed that these
have no economical uses. But the business and economical uses have
followed rather than preceded the pleasurable uses. There are many who

think the automobile fad, like the bicycle fad, will eventually wear out and
the whole automobile question settle down to a purely business basis. Such
a thing is not likely to occur, however. The automobile is a much more
perfect pleasure machine than is the bicycle. The knack of riding a bicycle
has to be learned and requires considerable muscular exertion. It is not the
thing a tired person eagerly turns to for recreation and rest. Anyone without
exertion and with complete relaxation may ride in an automobile. Soon
there comes a desire to drive the machine; then complete relaxation while
no longer possible is replaced by a mental effort which drives out all
thought of business, all care and anxiety regarding the ordinary affairs of
life. The mind for the driver’s own safety must be confined to his effort to
manage the machine and make it go where and as he wants it to go—
change of work is often better than complete relaxation, although the latter
has its beneficial effects in the treatment of diseases.
For these reasons then, if for no other, the use of automobiles to cater to
the pleasure propensities of the people will continue. There are very few
persons who do not enjoy an automobile ride—they are only the timid who
fear accident. The recreational and pathological benefits to be derived
cannot be overestimated. During the recent war the Government gave much
attention to the entertainment of the soldiers and endeavored in many, many
ways to divert their minds from the serious side of war. So with the people
generally. They are much better off for pleasurable diversions and the
automobile furnishes these in a very high degree.

The Evolution of the Gasoline Motor Car
1. Panhard & Levassor Carriage—1895.
2. Duryea Motor Wagon—1895.
3. The Benz Motocycle.
4. Hertel’s Gasoline Carriage—1896.
5. The Olds Horseless Carriage.
6. Winton’s Racing Machine.
(Courtesy of the Scientific American.)

If, then, there be included under the head of pleasure passenger traffic all
not purely business it may with propriety be estimated that three-fourths of
all automobile travel is for pleasure. Considering ten million automobiles in
use in the United States, that they average 4000 miles per year and carry
two passengers each, there results a total passenger mileage of
10,000,000 × 4,000 × 2 = 80,000,000,000
80 billion miles. A number beyond ordinary comprehension. The passenger
mileage upon the steam railroads is roughly speaking about 371⁄2 billion
miles, a little less than half as much as that by automobile. It is evident that
all this travel, even though a large percentage be local, must affect seriously
the earnings of the steam and electric railway lines. Since 75 per cent may
be estimated to be for pleasure purposes, it will not be possible for the
steam and electric lines ever to regain it. The people who do the dancing are
perfectly willing to pay the piper, and even though automobile riding cost
more than trolley or train riding the people will continue to have it as a
means of entertainment.[168] Most men who own cars pay the expenses in
lump sums and forget about them. To have the speedometer register in
dollars and cents instead of miles, while it might be a deterrent on the use of
the automobile, would “take the joy out of life.”
Freight Traffic. —When it comes to freight traffic cost and time will be
the principal factors to determine the type of performance. The element of
pleasure is here eliminated and only cold economical features remain.
Already horse trucking is rapidly disappearing as it seems to be able to
compete with the motor only where many stops are to be made. In large
cities motor trucks are utilized to haul packages to certain districts at
considerable distances from the store, where they are turned over to small
wagons for delivery. Ice and milk are often distributed in the same manner,

thus taking advantage of long rapid hauls upon fully loaded trucks and less
expensive delivery wagons where many stops are to be made and smaller
loads are to be carried. Even in delivery service some merchants have by
carefully arranging and timing their routes brought the cost of delivery to
below ten cents per parcel. All purchasers of goods at the store whether
delivered or not should be interested in reducing this cost because usually in
the accounting it is spread out over the entire turnover and charged to the
expense of doing business. It may be possible that in a few years horses will
be barred from the streets for sanitary reasons; then it will be necessary to
use motors for all sorts of deliveries, possibly large ones for hauling to the
distant districts and small ones for the house to house delivery in the
district.
In very congested districts motor trucks are at a great disadvantage
because they cannot be used at their most efficient speed. If the congestion
can be eliminated or at least relieved by such means as one-way traffic,
paving parallel streets, removing buildings which obstruct passage,
widening driveways, elevating railroads and street cars, supplying overhead
crossings, making subways, or by careful rearrangement and planning of
terminal facilities, warehouses, and other accommodations, the cost of
transportation in the large cities may be materially reduced. In many such
cities public service commissions are studying these questions and applying
remedies which will allow motor trucks to operate at a greater rate of speed
and much more efficiently.
Accurate observations of motor truck performance in city trucking
business has shown that a large part of the day is given up to loading and
unloading, that the truck stands still so much of the time that the cost is
more nearly proportional to time than to mileage. Since certain charges such
as interest and insurance go on whether the truck is idling or not, it is better
to keep it moving. To do this effectively depots, warehouses, and other
terminal facilities are provided to lessen the time of loading and unloading.
It may be wise to hire an extra stevedore or two to assist with these
operations, or mechanical devices may be installed where the saving will
justify it. Usually there is not only a saving in time when a mechanical
device is used but the amount of expensive manual labor is decreased.
Among the practical devices used are removable bodies. The whole body
of the truck may be swung by means of a crane from the chassis to a
platform where it is loaded or unloaded while the truck with another body is

proceeding on its way. Other bodies are so arranged on rollers that they may
be readily rolled from the chassis to the platform. Railways are also taking
advantage of removable bodies for the shipment of less than car-load lots.
These bodies are made to fit a truck and also of proper sizes so that several
of them may be nested or interlocked upon a flat car. One of these units or
containers may be left for any length of time for loading then rolled upon
the truck and off it to the steam train. At the other end of its journey it is
rolled from the car to the truck and from that to the unloading platform with
a great saving of time at each terminal. The New York Central railway
places nine containers of 6000 pounds capacity on one flat car. These are
unloaded by means of a crane in less than five minutes for each container,
or the whole car in approximately forty minutes. By this means the railroad
is able to take advantage of what has been called store-door delivery.
Instead of the consignor hauling its goods to the station and unloading them
on the platform to be loaded into cars by stevedores, transported, unloaded
into the warehouse, and the consignee notified to come for them, the
railway leaves a container which when filled is hauled by truck to the
railway yard and in five minutes’ time placed upon the car, which upon
reaching its destination is placed upon a truck and hauled to the consignee.
Goods shipped in these containers which may be made of steel and securely
locked are considered just as safe from predacious hands and the weather as
in a way car, and possibly are safer.
The demountable container which is rapidly coming into general use, and
which has for some time been used by the New York Central Railroad and
the interurban railways of Australia, consists of a large steel box or safe, the
doors of which can be locked. When it is placed upon a steel flat-car with
sides two feet high it cannot possibly be opened as the doors are on the side
of the container. And it cannot be removed from the car without the use of a
derrick, the top corners of the container being equipped with hooks for this
purpose. The containers have a capacity of 438 cubic feet and will hold
from 6000 to 8000 pounds of package freight. When the packages are
locked and sealed within the containers they are safe from fire and rain as
well as marauders. One flat-car will accommodate from 4 to 9 containers,
depending upon their size.
In addition to the safety furnished by these containers they are
economical in saving time of transportation. Re-handling is unnecessary.
The transfer of the entire container from truck to car and from car to truck is

very quickly made. The mileage of the flat cars is thus greatly increased—
with mail cars it is claimed to be doubled. Expensive packing and crating is
avoided and the checking at each rehandling of parcels is eliminated.
Mass loading or unloading, whether the whole truck body is swung off
by a crane, rolled off, or even if trailers and semi-trailers are left to be
worked upon after the truck has gone, save little in the way of manual labor.
On the other hand they require the installment at each end of the route of
special arrangements to facilitate their use.
Another class of devices are those connected with the truck itself. For
example it may have a winch on it to draw up an inclined plane at its rear
such heavy articles as pianos, safes, and large castings. It may have a crane
with a pulley running along a central beam over it to facilitate loading and
unloading heavy boxes or other things. A swinging crane is also used with
some trucks. On others, hoists are arranged to tip the body backward for
unloading building and road materials, grain, and so on. Many of these
devices make use of the truck power for their operation. Pumps with suction
hoses empty catch basins, cess-pools, stopped-up sewers and flooded
cellars, pumping the fluid to a tank body of the truck, whence it can be
hauled away and dumped by elevating the front end of the tank and opening
a gate in its rear. Devices for lifting and dumping coal truck bodies directly
into the bin save much time over hand shoveling.
Still another class of devices are entirely separate from the truck and may
or may not be connected with the warehouse. For example a chain conveyor
which can be rolled up to the back of a truck elevates barrels and boxes,
sand and stone, and is operated by a small electric motor the lead wires of
which are plugged into a suitable socket, up to the floor at the rear of the
truck from which place they can be easily pushed or shoveled to proper
position. Elevated bins are utilized to store road materials from which the
materials run by gravity into the body of a small motor-car which then goes
to the mixer where it is grabbed by a device that empties the body into the
mixer, thus saving much handling of material.
Many special types of bodies are made for peculiar purposes. These often
facilitate loading and unloading, for example tank ears for hauling water,
milk, gasoline or other fluids; or trucks fitted with shelves on which are
placed trays containing fruits and so forth. As the motor truck enters newer
fields of usefulness multiple devices will be developed to lessen the time of
loading and unloading. The financial importance to both the owner and the

public of keeping the truck moving will no doubt lead to the adoption of
these devices providing they are practical and will accomplish the desired
result.
Traffic between Towns. —Wherever the roads are dependable and
passable at all seasons of the year truck and bus lines have sprung up to ply
regularly between the towns. The length of haul most profitable seems to be
that over which the motor can make the round trip each day and have
sufficient time at terminals for loading and unloading. Forty to 50 miles for
trucks and 60 to 65 miles for buses seem to be negotiable and double these
distances are proving to be practicable. In many of the states such
enterprises have been declared to be common carriers subject to the laws
governing such carriers, and must secure licenses to do business from the
public service commissions. It is but reasonable that the public should be
safeguarded and these concerns be required to take out insurance or give
indemnifying bonds to cover loss of goods to shippers by carelessness or
theft or injury to passengers by accident. On the other hand the licensed
motor transport is entitled to protection against irresponsible truckers. The
modern method of state regulation does not contemplate competition as an
economic factor in the determination of rates and routes. The old doctrine
of “everyone for himself, and the devil take the hindmost,” is certainly most
wasteful. This is about the way that method worked. A starts a bus line
between two towns. After he has run it a short time and built up a trade B,
seeing his success, decides to put a competing bus on this same route. Then
there is a period of competition. Rates may be cut and speeds quickened
until each bus is running at a loss. This cannot continue indefinitely. The
result is that either one man goes out of business or there is a combination
of interests by actual coalescing or by a “gentlemen’s agreement,” so that
there is practical monopoly anyway. The modern method is to regulate all
common carriers as far as rates and routes are concerned so that each may
make a justifiable profit. This may be tending toward socialism and away
from individualism; it may be a violation of the Darwinian doctrine of a
survival of the fittest. But that is departed from every day. Our cornfields
and gardens would amount to nothing if the weeds were allowed undisputed
sway.
It would seem to be the duty, therefore, of public service commissions to
grant licenses to truck and bus lines, to establish routes and equitable rates,

to require careful and complete accounting and to make public from time to
time such items as the people may be interested in.
The Railway Commission of the state of Nebraska was, perhaps, the first
public service commission to exercise the right of regulating highway
transport (1918). Colorado, California, and other states soon followed. In
California the matter came upon a complaint that adequate service was not
given by the railway and the decision was:
“We are of the opinion that the public deserving transportation of freight
and express ... is entitled to a more expeditious service than that at present
being given by the Southern Pacific and American Railway Express.”
It went on further to state that notwithstanding their ability to give
service the evidence was to the effect that it was not given, hence motor
highway transport was licensed.
The first highway transport freight rates established by the Railway
Commission of Nebraska placed the freight under four classes, describing
103 items. The rates were:
1st Class 20 c. plus (11⁄2 c. per mile per 100 pounds).
2d Class 85 per cent of the 1st class.
3d Class 70 per cent of the 1st class.
4th Class 60 per cent of the 1st class.
In addition they established rules and regulations, standard bills of lading,
etc. These rates have since been rescinded.
In Colorado two sets of rules were adopted, one for the prairie and one
for the mountain division. For the prairie division the minimum charge was
25 c. and the mountain 30 c. per 100 pounds. The rates for motor truck
hauling was made, for the prairie division, 30 c. per 100 pounds for 5 miles
and for distances up to 100 miles graduated 5 or 10 c. for each additional 5
miles until they reached $1 per 100 miles. For the mountain division, the
rate for 100 pounds carried 5 miles is 36 c., graduated to $1.20 per 100
miles.
Motor Bus Traffic. —Suburban and interurban motor bus passenger
service is growing rapidly. Buses accommodating as high as sixty persons
are being used on the haul where the roads are well paved, but twenty to
thirty seems more popular. At present these buses seem to be well
patronized, usually bringing their passengers to the larger city in time for
business or shopping and returning them home in the afternoon or evening.

The rates of fare for bus travel are about the same as those for steam car
travel, or approximately 4 c. per mile. The rate of travel depends upon the
character of the roadway and the condition of traffic, being usually routed
upon dependable but less congested roads.
Just what may be the outcome of this traffic is problematical. Can the
buses compete with other forms of transportation in fares and speed? If so,
they will survive; otherwise they will gradually discontinue. Some writers
seem to think they will not only live but will eventually kill the older forms
of transportation. Although they will no doubt take over very much of that
transportation it seems highly improbable that all transportation can be
taken care of by motors.
To and from the Farm. —Farm trucking seems to be firmly established
and very much if not all farm hauling will eventually be done by
automobiles. Very many farmers now own their own trucks and the number
is constantly being increased. Glowing statements by government officials,
reports of investigational committees, and propaganda by manufacturers
and dealers have worked up the farmers’ desire for trucks. A congressional
joint committee on agricultural inquiry has recently stated that,
No single development since the railroads were first constructed has had so marked an economic
and sociological effect upon productive life as the motor vehicle. Previous to its appearance the
economic zone of transportation was sharply defined by the haulage range of the horse and the cost
of such transportation.

There is the evidence of no less a person than Secretary of Commerce
Herbert Hoover that the farm motor truck will be of vast importance to the
agricultural interests of the country. Here is his statement:
Fifty per cent of our perishable foodstuffs never reach the consumer because the farms on which
they are raised are too remote from the market at which they are sold.... Forty to 60 per cent of our
potato crop is lost each year by rotting in the ground owing to poor transportation to market because
of inadequate transportation over long distance.... By motor trucks the farmer will be able to reach
better markets farther away than now by horse and wagon. He will be able to spend more time
actually producing on his farm and be able to sell food more cheaply by eliminating the present
tremendous waste. By use of the motor truck the farmer will be able to produce more and sell at less
cost.

Some of the arguments advanced in favor of the farm truck are:
(a) The motor truck allows the farmer to haul larger loads, longer
distances in less time, thus reducing the actual cost of haulage.
(b) That he can better take advantage of market fluctuations and thus be
able to sell at high markets.

(c) That a truck on the farm will replace several horses; that the cost of
keeping these horses far exceeds the cost of keeping a truck.
(d) That the truck may be used to market produce while the horses are
busy in the field.
(e) That the truck will allow land otherwise too far from market to be
farmed with perishable but better paying crops.
(f) By means of trucks the farmer is often enabled to put his hogs or other
live stock on the early morning market in less time from the farm and
consequently fresher, gaining the advantage of better prices.
While there may be some question as to the validity of all these
assumptions they are no doubt, in the main, correct. The United States
Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Crop Estimates, collected data
showing that in 1918, the hauling in wagons from farm to shipping point
cost on the average for wheat 30 cents per ton-mile; for corn, 33 cents; for
cotton, 48 cents. For hauling by motor truck the average costs were: wheat,
15 cents; corn, 15 cents; and cotton, 18 cents. These unit costs were,
consequently, reduced to less than half by the use of the truck. The same
bulletin gives the average length of wagon haul for these products to be 9
miles, and of motor truck haul, 11.3 miles; furthermore the average number
of round trips by wagon per day was 1.2 while by truck it was 3.4.
Whether or not the truck on the farm will release any horses will depend
on what determines the number of horses kept. To do his hauling does the
farmer keep more than is necessary for farm operations alone? The
passenger automobile, no doubt, did release many driving and riding horses,
but will the truck release many more? The thoughtful, foresighted farmer
usually plans his yearly work so that he may do his hauling when the horses
are not otherwise busy. This of course limits his farm operation to products
which, like wheat and corn, can be stored indefinitely. This limits also
diversified cropping which farmers find in the long run to be very much
safer than “putting all eggs in one basket” by raising a single product. It is
seldom that a wheat crop, a corn crop, a beet crop, a hay crop, an apple
crop, and gardening crops all fail by drought, wet weather, hail, or other
untoward events during the same season. Good roads, trucks or anything
else which will lend assistance to diversified cropping are without doubt
beneficial to the farmer.
Intensive farming of perishable crops can be done only where the roads
allow daily contact with the market. The truck, because of its more rapid

speed, will widen the zone of such farming very much over the old zone
when the horse-drawn vehicle was in vogue. Because of the risk involved
and the labor necessary the net returns per acre for this sort of farming are
high, allowing small parcels of land to keep a family. As the distance, or
rather time, the “fourth dimension,” from market increases the less
intensive the farming operations and the less net returns per acre. The
community as a whole is deeply interested in widening the zone of
intensive farming in order that more people may profitably make a living
upon this land.
Persons who are not familiar with stockyard activities will be surprised
on visiting them early in the morning at any one of the packing-house
industries to see the large number of hogs and other farm animals arriving
for the early market in motor trucks. These animals have been brought from
distances up to 60 miles, but have been on the way less than three or three
and one-half hours. Careful stockyard figures show that in 1921 more than
6,000,000 cattle and very many more hogs were transported in motor
trucks. These animals upon arrival are very much fresher and show less
shrinkage than those that have been driven to their home station and loaded
into stock cars the day previous. Other things being equal, the top of the
market is accorded to the fresher animals. Also for short hauls, say up to 60
miles, the transportation costs are in favor of the trucks.
The farmer may obtain the benefits of motor transportation in at least
four different ways: (a) He may own and operate his own truck. This pays
when the farm is of sufficient size to keep the truck reasonably busy. (b)
Two or more neighbors may coöperate in the ownership of a truck. This is
applicable to small and medium-sized farms. (c) By patronizing truck lines
privately owned which haul products, freight, and express upon a charge
basis. (d) By the trucks of the United States Postal Service.
Whether or not it pays for a farmer to own and operate a truck depends
upon the size of the farm, kind and quantity of the commodities hauled,
distance from market, character of the roads, and the loading on the back
trip. A small farm could not be expected to furnish sufficient hauling to
keep a truck busy unless intensively farmed and producing commodities
which require frequent marketing. Even a small farmer, though, might by
hauling for neighbors keep his truck reasonably busy. Or several neighbors
may coöperate in the purchase of the truck and arrange how it shall be

operated. They may even form an express line and go into the transportation
business as a side issue.
The parcel-post service has been very successful in handling packages of
produce even as large as a case of eggs. The post-office department allows
its carriers to pick up and deliver packages along the route the same as letter
mail. Privately owned Rural Motor Express vehicles are also operated
successfully which pick up and deliver all sorts of express packages, farm
produce in small quantities, fruit, butter, eggs, and cream. Trucks which
haul nothing but milk and cream are quite common. The farmer leaves his
full cans of milk or cream at a specified place, usually a platform at a level
with the truck floor, on the roadway. The driver of the milk truck picks up
the full cans, leaving empties in their place. Or he may pick up the full on
his way to the market, creamery, or railway station, and leave the empties
on his return. Such routes are both privately owned and coöperatively
owned by the several farmers patronizing them. Often these trucks deliver
the milk and cream to the railway in time to catch a special milk train into
the city.

HAULING BEANS BY MOTOR TRUCK AND TRAILER

Sacramento Valley, Calif.

HAULING SUGAR BEETS TO MARKET IN A MOTOR TRUCK

Since the trucks come directly to the farmer’s gate to pick up and deliver
express or freight, the convenience is much greater than the service given
by either the steam railway or the interurban trolley. As a result the trucks
will probably be patronized when the railways would not. The habit of
sending eggs, cream, and other perishable products daily to the market is
formed. The daily credit the farmer receives amounts to a considerable sum
by the end of the month when he collects from the dealer. Many farmers
much more than pay living expenses from the sale of small items utterly
ignored before the days of the motor express.[169] Even the farmer who
owns his own truck could hardly afford a daily trip of several miles and the
time entailed to market small amounts of cream, eggs, vegetables, and
fruits, but the express man by combining the incoming and outgoing
commodities of many farms can without much expense to anyone do a very
good business for himself at an economic benefit to his patrons.
If the farmer, or several farmers, desire to purchase a truck it would be
well first carefully to consider the question with an idea of finding out the

character and amount of trucking at hand and then purchase a machine best
adapted for the purpose. The kind of bodies available should be studied,
remembering that he may wish to haul grain on one trip, hogs or sheep on
another, then cream and vegetables. He will want, probably, to haul back
groceries, flour, feed, lumber, hardware, implements, fertilizer, cement, and
gravel. In looking ahead he should estimate the increase in the quantity of
hauling that more rapid transportation, the going to more distant markets,
and the possible raising of different products which may come about
through the owning of a truck, will bring to his farm. In this connection the
reader is referred to the chapters on “Highway Transport Surveys” and
“Effects of the Ease and Cost of Transportation on Production and
Marketing,” given later.
Terminal Facilities. —Railways have found it advantageous to spend
enormous sums of money upon terminal facilities. Depots and warehouses,
garages and repair shops will be necessary if truck lines are to prove
efficient and successful. It would be quite feasible and profitable for all the
truck lines leading from a city to have a union or common terminal station.
Portland, Oregon, has such a station owned by a corporation composed of
bus lines that operate from there to every city of any importance within a
radius of 100 miles. The terminal resembles a railroad depot with waiting
rooms, ticket office, announcer, and conveniences. Buses load and unload
on a platform at the rear of the building reached by a drive-in from the
street. Patrons remain in the waiting room until the bus is announced. Two
buses are sent out if more than enough tickets are sold for one. Under the
present schedule 150 departures in 21 different directions are provided for.
This gives the farthest cities two stages per day while many closer ones are
served hourly.
Some of the advantages of a terminal station may be inferred from the
above. Another is that the total number of clerks and employees may be cut
down, for one clerk can route goods on half a dozen different lines almost
as easily as on one, and there will be no competition between lines, except
by service, if the public service commission has allowed no duplication of
lines and establishes rates. Much of the freight and express will be brought
by the shipper to the depot, where bills of lading will be made out and
charges paid. To be sure, large shippers may desire freight to be picked up
elsewhere, or small express trucks may be used for this purpose, but orders
for this can conveniently be phoned to the central office and directions

given from there accordingly. Similarly one garage and one repair shop may
easily look after the cleaning, repairing, oiling, and fueling of several cars
more economically than could each keep its separate shop or even go to a
commercial shop.
The terminal building may be arranged, if desired, so that it can be used
jointly for a passenger station, a freight depot and a storage warehouse. If
for a passenger station there would be need for the agent’s office, waiting
rooms, and toilet accommodations for men and women. The freight depot is
a place for the collection of freight and should be arranged for convenience
and rapid loading and unloading of the trucks. The installation of devices
for this purpose may become advisable as the amount of traffic increases.
Storage room should be provided for those articles which are to wait some
little time for shipment. A check stand to care for parcels is a convenience
to passengers and furnishes the company some revenue.
The Social Aspect of Motor Transportation. —The change from poor
roads and horse-drawn vehicles to good roads and motorized vehicles has
produced in society changes quite as radical. These changes are not entirely
separate from economic changes and one cannot always say that this
particular thing or that particular thing is due to the automobile alone
because every activity in life has its effect on every other activity. As the
waves upon a pond circling about the point of shock come into contact with
other waves their effect is enhanced, minimized, or transformed, and just
what part of the resultant may be due to one agency or to another agency is
impossible to decipher. That each has entered into a combination with the
whole and affected the result there is no doubt. For example it is claimed
that because of the prevalence of pleasure riding the giving and receiving of
dinners and teas have very greatly diminished. No doubt the high cost of
living has had its effect also. Clothiers and haberdashers complain that
automobile owners finding it impossible to keep grease spots from their
clothing, are now buying an inferior grade and losing the art of good
dressing. Builders claim that the expense of buying and maintaining an
automobile has prevented many persons from making needed repairs on
houses or even building new ones. As people live most of their leisure time
in the car a very small apartment will accommodate them for the remaining
time. Fewer books and newspapers are read, it is claimed, and there is less
attention paid to the cultural niceties of life. People go riding in the evening,
so the Sunday evening church service is not attended.

An editorial in the Nebraska State Journal of August 31, 1921, puts the
matter piquantly, at least:
The savage determination with which the American is sticking to his automobile despite the drop
in his income is an occasion for wonderment and no little irritation with a lot of us. For the sake of
economy we may have to exchange our seven passenger for a light six or one of the little fours.
Beyond this we need not go. But the farmer, yelling his head off at the fall in corn prices, what does
he mean by sticking to his car? Your mechanic resisting the inevitable fall in wages, would be well
enough off if only he would give up trying to ride like a millionaire. These merchants, claiming they
aren’t making a living, don’t give up their cars, you will observe. Why pity them, then?
Thus does the general assumption that the automobile is a super-luxury impinge upon the fact that
the automobile has become a prime necessity. You laugh. Well, go inquire what are the other things
the people will sacrifice before yielding up their speed machines. A sharp automobile manufacturer
assured a gloomy harvester manufacturer the other day that not only would the men do without
harvesters rather than lose their cars, but the women would yield up their very chewing gum. Yea,
more than that, their pretty clothes. Food is, of course, a superior necessity, but even that can be
reduced and simplified in favor of gasoline.
As to houses, we like to be conservative, but there is a perfectly obvious disposition to put house
shelter second to automobile shelter. That is why the house shortage isn’t hurting us as we expected it
to hurt. The people are in automobile camps. Observe the sudden energy in developing automobile
camps. They are wise. It looks now as if half the population will have deserted houses and flats for
their automobile tent within another year or two.
In winter time a corner of the garage will do well enough for a living room during the few minutes
at a time we are at home. If we insist on a separate house, then the tendency is toward a very small
one. What is the sense in maintaining a big house not to live in? That is the way our minds run now.
This will help the lumber men to understand why building doesn’t pick up as it should. And that is
how we manage to keep the car while incomes fail. It is done by cutting out such unnecessaries as
houses and furniture and clothes and heavy dinners.
America has been living at a fast gait on its nerves. Isn’t that which we see now the natural
reaction from the nervous overstrain of fixed habitation and the relaxing ways of the nomad? The
automobile came along in the nick of time to furnish the transportation, and off we go. The universal
gypsy is breaking out in us. This isn’t more than half moonshine. It is at least half solid fact, with
economic and social consequences which, whatever they prove to be, will be important.

The above editorial indicates that people are beginning to notice the
social changes being brought about by the automobile, and more, they are
ascribing them to the automobile. Changes usually come about so gradually
that, like the hands on a watch, the movement can be noticed only by
comparing what is with what was some time previous.
Rapid transportation and rapid communication has extended Broadway
clear across the continent. One writer by taking an automobile tour found
the American world extends from ocean to ocean, that the hat she purchased
in New York had its duplicate in every millinery window all the way across
to Los Angeles. She further found that the people between were not all
“hicks,” and that farmers did not go around with alfalfa on their chin and
straws in their mouths as shown in the cartoons of the funny section. Some

farmers play golf on their own pastures. The fact that the sack containing
their clubs is often tied with binding twine is of no consequence.
The social intercourse which good roads and the rapid moving
automobile makes possible between neighbor and neighbor and between
country and town tends to produce a more homogeneous people. Each gets
the view point of the other, which reacting modifies his own. Factions are
largely broken up. Tolerance gains sway and more satisfaction and
happiness results.
High wages and profits during and following the war led the average
citizen to purchase some of those luxuries which before then he was unable
to afford. He has had a taste of a “higher standard” of living. No wonder he
objects to a return to pre-war conditions, no wonder he objects to giving up
his automobile, the thing which has furnished him with more pleasure than
his previous humdrum life believed possible. No, he will fight to maintain
the new standard and new living conditions. A social revolution has taken
place, and in traveling about the spiral the world is one step higher.
And while some will for a short time be content to live in one corner of
the garage, as the editorial writer opines, the natural longing for a home will
assert itself. By the aid of the automobile property will be bought in farther-
out district where lots are cheaper, where taxes are not so high, where there
is more breathing space, and healthful conditions are more likely to prevail.
Men of wealth can build suburban estates, and men of less means
comfortable homes leaving the downtown apartments and tenements to
those who cannot yet afford motor cars, and many there be, more’s the pity.
It will be a good thing to have the farms near large centers of population
divided into smaller tracts whereon by intensive cultivation can be
supported many families. Here there is always a demand for garden
products which by means of a small car, or through the agency of motor
express lines, can be marketed daily. It does not require a very great deal of
land to support a poultry farm from which there will be a continuous
income. By diversifying crops something will be coming in at all seasons.
Good roads and the automobile not only make it possible to diversify
farming but make the home life in the country less monotonous. No trouble
to go after supper 12 or 15 miles to the town to take part in civic affairs, to
attend a lecture, watch the movies or go to church. No extra horses need to
be kept for these purposes, neither are the farm horses deprived of their rest.
While the swift ride through bracing air rests the weary farmer after his

day’s toil in the fields and gives new life to his faithful spouse upon whom
the lonesomeness of isolation lies the much more heavily.
Salesmen have in great numbers provided themselves with automobiles
large enough to carry their samples. With these they can make many more
towns than when they were compelled to depend upon trains and the small-
town livery stables. The result is either a wider territory or more frequent
calls upon customers.
Hotels, during the summer season, especially, if located on one of the
popular cross country roads, are seldom without tourist guests. Nina Wilcox
Putnam[170] states that from Washington westward the “wily tourist will
always wire ahead for rooms, and preferably two days ahead. The truth is
that the best places to stop are not nearly large enough to accommodate the
crowd.” Speaking of these hotels she finds them well equipped, clean, and
well cared for. There is no doubt but that the automobile tourist traffic has
had its effect, too, upon them. Each spring they clean and spruce up with
the idea of securing as much of this traffic as good service reported by the
camaraderie of travelers all along the way will bring to them.
Mention has been made of the country people going to the larger cities to
market their products and purchase goods wanted. It is not considered at all
unusual for country and small town people to auto 30 miles to patronize the
large department stores in the city. If a trade which satisfies both trader and
tradee is beneficial and of economic importance to both then this would
seem to be a good thing. The selling of the goods is beneficial to the store-
keeper because he makes his profit. The trader has a large variety to select
from and having made a voluntary selection is satisfied, because he or she
may secure exactly what the city cousin gets.
But what is to become of the business of the country store-keeper? How
is he to get along? The best thing he can do is to put upon his shelves goods
of a standard quality. His rents and overhead are less than those of the city
competitor; he, therefore, can sell at a less profit. This is so true that the
writer has known of city dwellers going to the country store for these
standard articles. Such interchange while of economical importance is also
sociological in differentiating between city and country merchandising and
in bringing together in a new way the city and country dwellers.
Consolidation of Rural Schools. —The people of the United States have
been justly proud of her public schools. No one has ever considered them to
be perfect, but the influence exerted upon the minds of the growing children

has been wholesome. The very life of a republic depends upon an educated
citizenry. With thorough education along right lines there is no reason why
the nation should not live forever. To obtain such an education as is
commensurate with right living and with the upbuilding and maintenance of
our government and civilization requires that every means at hand should
be utilized. The broadening, informational, and unifying influence of the
automobile should not be underestimated. Edison’s theory that the movie
should supplement the textbook because visual education is remarkably
interesting and effective, needs more than a passing thought. The instruction
which the young people receive from parents, from associates, from
newspapers, magazines, and miscellaneous books, from civic organizations
of various kinds, and from Sunday school and church cannot be
overestimated. Neither should be forgotten the vast and important education
which comes through the hard knocks of experience.
An illustration of what the public schools may do for the preservation of
the country can be drawn from the history of the Great War, the worst and
the fiercest the world has ever seen. During that war the patriotism of the
people shone forth with undiminished luster. The response to the President
by the citizenry of the country, whether of his own or opposite political
faith, by every honest organization, public or private, by business and
professional men, by Congress and legislatures, was all but unanimous.
This surprising unanimity was, no doubt, due to the influence of the public
schools. The public schools have always inculcated patriotism and loyalty,
and these lessons were potent as was evident because even before the draft
many young men with Teutonic names took their places with others whose
forebears were of other nationalities as well as with those of long-standing
American descent. Therein went astray one of the guesses of the enemy,
namely, that our Teutonic citizens with their children would prove more
loyal to the “fatherland” than to democratic America. The lessons of
patriotism the children brought home from school, the stories of Valley
Forge and Yorktown, of Gettysburg and Appomattox, were communicated
to their parents and penetrated deep, so that only a moiety of our foreign
born element could be classed with the enemy. Thus have the public schools
in this great melting pot of the world been the conservators of liberty.
The effect of the public school upon the ideals of peace is no less than
that upon their state of mind during war. Every day examples are so
plentiful they need not here be mentioned. Suffice it to say that it should be

made possible for all the young people to come under the influence of the
public school learn the American’s Creed, and be steeped in the symbolism
of the flag that stands for true democracy.
Changing Concepts of the Public Schools. —Schools have continually
had to change with changing society. During the pioneer period, and that
extended through many years from the first settlements along the coasts,
and the occupation of the great fertile areas of the mid-west to recent efforts
to subdue the semi-desert and desert regions of the farther west, the schools
taught for a few months only a little reading, writing, and arithmetic. The
farm and home life supplemented this with manual labor and the attainment
of skill in making and repairing necessary articles and machinery by the
boys, and the arts of home making, weaving, and cooking, by the girls,
thereby completing a well-rounded education for the times. But with the
increase in population there came a division of labor and specialization.
This meant that the simple school of the pioneers could no longer fit for
life, hence new and additional subjects were added to the curriculums, until
at the present time no one pupil can hope to complete all the work given by
the larger secondary schools. The changing character of society caused the
earliest private schools to be transformed into semi-private and semi-
religious schools, and these to tax-maintained schools. The graded schools
in the larger communities were found to be more efficient than the
ungraded. In country districts the advantages of the graded system could
only be brought about by consolidating several small schools thus enlarging
the districts to get sufficient pupils. This made distances from home so great
that walking to and from school was no longer possible; pupils must be
hauled. Considerable progress was made in such schools with horse-drawn
vehicles, but not until the advent of the motor bus was attained anything
like a practical solution of the problem. So rapidly has the consolidated
school made its way that now there are more than 12,000 such schools
served by motor buses. Since a six-room consolidated school will replace
about nine small schools the greater efficiency of a graded school extending
through a longer school period is gained at little if any increased cost. In the
years to come the results of these schools must have a marked beneficial
effect upon the entire country.
Rural Mail Delivery. —The development of the Rural Mail Delivery and
its relation to the better roads movement has been touched upon in Chapter
V. It will only be necessary to say here that the psychological effect of a

daily mail upon the inhabitants of the rural districts has been most
remarkable. Through its means these people are no longer isolated, they
know daily what is transpiring in the world; they are thinking of the great
questions of finance, politics, and what not, at the same time as their
fellows in other parts of the country. The nation is thus more or less unified,
the country dweller looks and thinks of himself as an integral part of the
whole. Rural mail, telephone, the automobile, modern home conveniences
and, now, radio telephony are rapidly making agriculture one of the great
and desirable professions. The rural home need no longer be a place where
there is nothing but ten hours’ work and six hours’ chores. The farmer of to-
day, with his daily paper, his market reports, his books and magazines, his
furnace-heated and electric-lighted house, his automobile ready at hand, is
better off, more independent, and should be more happy and contented than
those who dwell in the murky city.
The Automobile and Health. —“Health is something more than
strength, it is a universally good condition,” according to Munger. The
automobile, by inducing people to get more into the open air, may be
considered to be a prophylactic, and something that will bring them into
that universally good condition. The forgetting of business, the obliteration
of household cares, the unstringing of high-tensioned nerves by a swift run
like a swallow in its flight over smooth and undulating roads brings rest
with relaxation, and cure with comfort. Then away from the mad’ning
crowd, away from close poorly ventilated rooms, away from foul-smelling
germ-laden cars, to the roads, to the hills, to the country with their varied
shades of living carpets, with freshening winds and glad’ning brooks, with
bees, and birds, and flowers into nature’s great laboratory where are brewed
nectars and panaceas for the ills which infest mankind.
But all cannot have automobiles, pity ’tis, ’tis true, but all may have the
benefit of fresh air and the style for an open air life set by those who can
afford to drive the “red flyers,” the “quivering arrows,” the “bear cats” or
the “poodle dogs,” have been followed by the less fortunate hoi polloi. Thus
outdoor exercises and amusements have been popularized.
While motoring may not be the best form of exercise, may not bring into
play as many muscles as walking, horseback riding, or rowing, say, it must
be remembered that not many can have horses to ride or boats to row and
walking is too slow. Gymnasium exercises or even home gymnastics are not
exciting enough to keep one practicing, so that the outdoor life of the

present day, brought about largely by the automobile, has had a more
wholesome effect on the people generally than perhaps any other measure.
Styles of clothing have kept close pace, and the garments now worn by
both men and women are both comfortable and sanitary, allowing freedom
of bodily movement. It is to be hoped that the same influences which
induced such hygienic clothing will continue and that never more may the
autocratic demands of style force people into close-fitting uncomfortable,
unsanitary wearing apparel. For years hygienists, health reformers, and
physicians preached against tight lacing for women without results until the
automobile came to their assistance. Until very recent years women’s long
skirts have swept clouds of germ-laden dust into the air from sidewalks to
be breathed by all passers-by. All men know that their present dressing,
while it might be bettered, is so much more comfortable than formerly that
they have much reason for rejoicing. Formal dressing except for an
occasional party has almost disappeared. In the summer time men may be
comfortable on the streets without coats. But the women, though more
responsive to style changes, now go the men one better and abandon long
sleeves and high collars.
Medical science, always alert to adopt modern improvements, was one of
the first to take advantage of the time-saving benefits of the automobile. Its
universal use by physicians and surgeons, allowing them to reach the
bedside of sick patients more quickly and allowing them to visit more
patients in the same time, is certainly a pathological asset of great value.
Automobile ambulances called in emergency cases save the lives of many
injured persons by getting them quickly to the hospitals and under the care
of competent medical and surgical attention.
From a purely sanitary point of view good roads have been great
agencies for health. Clean streets, clean pavements, and clean roads are
much more wholesome than the mud puddles and quagmires that formerly
served as passageways for man and beast. In order to get better roadways
drainage was resorted to. Ponds and standing water along the side of the
road were done away with, at the same time obliterating the breeding places
of the myriads of mosquitoes that always abounded in summer time. Since
mosquitoes are carriers, as is well known, of such diseases as malaria and
yellow fever, the consequence has been a very great reduction, almost
elimination, of these ailments.

Again just as the use of the horse on the highways has diminished, so has
the summer pest of flies grown less. The favorite breeding place of the
housefly is horse dung. When nearly every house in both city and country
had its stable with a pile of horse manure by the door flies bred abundantly.
The fly has been convicted of being a most energetic distributor of typhoid
and other bowel complaints, hence the distruction of its breeding places will
be the most effective means for its extermination, and with it one of the
most virile sources of contagion.
Thus, upon analysis, it may be seen that the influence of the automobile
extends throughout the whole domain of life, changing and modifying
nearly all social customs. It is called into use at the birth of the babe to
bring the physician to the bedside of the prospective mother. It is the correct
equipage at the wedding and starts the bride and groom upon their honey-
moon and, it is to be hoped, a happy journey through life. And finally, it
bears the remains to their last resting place in the silent city of the dead.
The Automobile and Crime. —But not always have the changes
produced by automobiles been in the interest of better living. Criminals and
those who verge upon criminality have been quick to employ the superior
advantages of modern means of rapid transit to assist them in their
nefarious work. Automobile theft has taken the place of horse thievery, and
automobiles are used daily as a means of getting to and getting away from
the place of the crime. Trucks are utilized to haul the loot. Since the
adoption of prohibition laws motor cars have been seized upon by booze
runners as a convenient vehicle for transporting liquor from one place to
another, thus becoming an aid to “bootlegging.” In several of the states cars
used for illegally transporting intoxicants are confiscated upon discovery
and sold by the state. Drastic laws also deal with operators and owners.
Highway robbery of trucks hauling goods across country is reported. In
New Jersey two trucks were robbed of $120,000 worth of merchandise. In
other places express drivers have been held up and relieved of their money.
One of the earliest improvements of the roadways of England was due to
the prevalence of highway robbers—the brush and trees were ordered to be
cut from the highway in order that their might be fewer lurking places for
robbers.[171]
Here the results of robbery may lead to interesting possibilities. For
instance if the trucks above mentioned as robbed in New Jersey were
owned by the shipper the $120,000 is a dead loss to him unless he had

insurance. Even if the trucks were owned by a small capitalist he would
probably not be able to recompense the shipper. Had it been lost on a
railway it would have been paid for. If motor shipping is to continue
shipments must be covered by bonds or insurance. Even then there is a loss
to the public when outlaws seize a loaded truck and drive it into wilds
whence its contents can be disposed of at leisure. Shall truckers, like the
ancient caravans of the deserts maintain guards with long guns to fight off
marauding Bedouins? The western stages of some years ago furnished
employment as guards to the quickest shots in the world. Is it the duty of
the community to make its highways safe for transportation or must the
shipper take the risk and employ guards and machine guns?
Vandalism. —Complaints are made that those who drive or walk to the
country are often guilty of vandalism and disregard for the rights of
property. Note this editorial utterance in the Saturday Evening Post of June
17, 1922:[172]
On Sunday one dare not leave one’s farm or country place unwatched or unprotected for a
moment. The whole countryside is aswarm with Nature lovers from the near by city. First come the
makers of forbidden beverages, trooping across fields and lawns, picking the once despised
dandelion and anything else that happens to be loose; then the happy motorists in long procession,
embowering their cars in the spoil of orchards, woodlands, and wayside shrubberies. If there are no
flowers near the road these free-and-easy visitors will penetrate one’s garden and break off the
blooming branches of the rhododendrons or lilacs or whatever other bush happens to engage their
fancy. With trowel and spade the woods are looted and sometimes, if it looks safe, an unwatched
garden. Following come shy maidens, in twos and threes, daintily pulling up the woodland flowers
by the roots—arbutus, azalea, and a hundred little blossoms that wilt in the hand that picks them; and
everywhere are bands of half-grown hoodlums helping in the spoiling of the countryside.
The bolder spirits are usually those who come in motors. They can destroy more, steal more, and
get away faster than the man on foot. They meet remonstrance with effrontery and resent the notion
that a hick has any rights of property and privacy that they are bound to respect. The flowers, the
shrubs, the orchards, and occasionally the unguarded gardens are their prey. They camp beside the
woodland brook or the shaded spring, hack the trees, trample the flowers, and turn the spot into a
garbage hole with their greasy papers, tin cans, bottles and refuse food. Then up and away to the snug
flat in the big town, throwing out the wilted flowers as they go.

Spooning in automobiles parked along the roadways is a subject of
regulation in the city of Omaha. An ordinance makes it a misdemeanor
subject to fine.
However, the motor car will not be discarded or outlawed because
unscrupulous persons put it to illegal and immoral purposes. A net cast into
the sea gathers fishes of every kind, and among the wheat there will always
spring up tares.

Conclusion. —The world cannot now get along without the motor car.
What was a luxury yesterday has become a necessity to-day. Automotive
transportation is carving out a path for itself. While it perhaps will take
much from the older forms of transportation it can never hope to supplant
them. The final result will come only after the world has had opportunity
through competitive experience to determine which is most economical in
time and money and which is most desirable and comfortable from a
personal or a sociological standpoint for the various purposes and various
kinds of transportation.
At present it would seem as though the automobile will be used more
largely than ever: I. As a pleasure and business vehicle driven by its owner
for passenger traffic: (a) for local travel near home; (b) for short runs from
town to town; (c) for more extended tourist traffic, and (d) for the use of
salesmen. II. For pay passenger traffic: (a) Taxi-cabs in the cities: (b)
Motor-bus service in the cities either in competition or in conjunction with
street car service; (c) motor bus service to suburban and outlying districts;
(d) motor bus service between towns up to 75 or 100 miles, with towns not
more than two hours apart, (e) motor bus service between railway terminals.
III. For freight and express traffic: (a) Haulage of farm products to market
or shipping point in owner’s truck; (b) Haulage to market of perishable farm
products in rapid going privately or coöperatively owned trucks; (c) Heavy
trucking lines through farm districts; (d) Light express lines through farm
districts; (e) Suburban or radial distribution of goods from large cities; (f)
Short-haul traffic between towns; (g) Short branch-line or stub-end
transportation to be taken over by trucks either in competition or
conjunction with railways; (h) Trap car and store to door service by
railways; (i) Terminal distribution allowing cars to be loaded and unloaded
at a greater distance from congested centers; (j) Terminal distribution
between different lines of railway or between railway and waterway either
to relieve congestion or where there is no physical connection; (k) Longer
hauls where there are no rail facilities; (l) Logging and lumbering formerly
done by horses, oxen, or even light railway, (m) Rural mail service, and IV.
By modified or combination motors: (a) Trackless trolley; (b) Rail motors.
Addendum. —Since the above was written President Harding has issued
the annual legislative message to Congress (December 8, 1922), in which
he discusses at some length the transportation problem in the United States.
Among other things he says:

Manifestly, we have need to begin on plans to coördinate all transportation facilities. We should
more effectively connect up our rail lines with our carriers by sea. We ought to reap some benefit
from the hundreds of millions expended on inland waterways, proving our capacity to utilize as well
as to expend. We ought to turn the motor truck into a rail feeder and distributor instead of a
destroying competitor.
It would be folly to ignore that we live in a motor age. The motor car reflects our standard of living
and gauges the speed of our present-day life. This transportation problem cannot be waived aside.
The demand for lowered costs on farm products and basic materials cannot be ignored....
Government operation does not afford the cure. It was government operation which brought to us
the very order of things against which we now rebel, and we are still liquidating the costs of that
supreme folly.
Surely the genius of the railway builders has not become extinct among the railway managers.
New economies, new efficiencies in coöperation must be found. The fact that labor takes 50 to 60 per
cent of total railway earnings makes limitations within which to effect economies very difficult but
the demand is no less insistent on that account.

The President then urged merger of railroads, pooling of equipment and a
central agency to aid in their financing and to suggest economies. This
portion of his message was evidently inspired by the great labor strike
during the summer of 1922, and the subsequent shortage of cars and
inadequacy of transportation facilities. He argued that there “should be a
guaranty against suspended operation. The public must be spared even the
threat of discontinued service.” He then recommended an abolition of the
Labor Board as not being “so constituted as best to serve the public
interest.” This board is composed of three members selected by the railways
and three by railway employees, and three by the Government. According
to President Harding “it is inevitable that the partisan viewpoint is
maintained throughout hearings and in decisions handed down. Only the
public group of three is free to function in unbiased decisions.” He,
therefore, suggested the abolishment of the partisan membership and that
the work of the board be performed by or in very close contact with the
Inter-State Commerce Commission which already has supreme authority in
rate making to which “wage cost bears an indissoluble relationship.”
When a president of the United States takes up so much of his annual
message with transportation and the relationship which the different forms
bear to each other, when he argues for harmony between them and between
them and their employees, there is certainly reason for study and legislation
which will bring about just and adequate methods of administration,
operation and regulation.

SELECTED REFERENCES

Agricultural Inquiry, Report of Joint Commission on, Part III deals with Transportation, Washington,
D. C., 1922.
Alden, H. W., “Automotive Obligations Toward Highway Development,” Journal of the Society of
Automotive Engineers, Vol. VIII, pp. 161-162, 426-432.
Automotive Industries.—“Automobile Service Stations,” Vol. XLVII, pp. 174-175; “Automobiles in
Postal Service,” 178-179; “Cost of Operation of Bus Lines,” 482-483; “Motor Trucks on the
Farm,” 315; “Railroad Officials Recognize Truck as Transportation Ally,” Vol. XLIII, 1201-
1203.
Baker, C. W., “Relative Economy of Truck and Railway,” Engineering News-Record, Vol. LXXXIII,
pp. 52-67.
Bassett, W. R., “Avoiding Industrial Traffic,” Industrial Management, Vol. XLI, pp. 342-346.
Blanchard, A. H., “Traffic and Transportation,” Canadian Engineer, Vol. XL, pp. 129-131.
Blum, H., “Transportation of Bulk Freight,” Kali, Halle, Germany.
Bus Transportation.—“Baltimore Service,” Vol. I, p. 484; “Motor Buses,” 479-80; “Bus and Electric
Railways as Essentials in Transportation,” by G. A. Green, 293-295; “Battle of the Bus and the
Street Car,” by F. H. Warren, 85-88; “New Englanders Hold Meeting to Study Motor Bus and
Trackless Trolley,” 124-129, 191-193; “Railway Men Discuss the Bus and its Relation to Rail
Transportation,” 195-196.
Davis, F. W., “Motor Truck Transportation,” Engineering News-Record, Vol. LXXXV, pp. 1194-
1195.
Donnelly, William T., “Comparison of Cargo Transportation,” Marine Engineering, Vol. XXV, pp.
899-903.
Engineering.—“Bringing the Food to the Table,” Vol. VI, pp. 387-391.
Electric Railway Journal.—“Report of Committee on Trackless Trolley Transportation to the
American Electric Railway Association,” Vol. LX, pp. 576-577; “Freight and Motor Truck
Competition,” Vol. LVI, pp. 157-160.
Development of the Automobile:
Hiscock, Gardner D., “Horseless Vehicles,” Norman W. Henley & Co., New York, 1901.
Homans, James E., “Self-Propelled Vehicles,” Theo. Audel & Company, New York, 1902.
“History of Automobile Carriages,” reprinted from La Nature by the Scientific American, Vol.
LXXII, p. 389, June 22, 1895.
Many other articles in the Scientific American, some of which are: “Ponchain’s Electric
Carriage,” Vol. LXX, p. 69; “The Tachocycle,” p. 181; “Gaillardet’s Steam Carriage,” p.
200; “Simonds’ Steam Wagon,” p. 398; “Bicycle of 1816,” Vol. LXVII, p. 180; An Account
of an automobile race from Paris to Bordeaux with descriptions of some of the machines
participating, LXXIII, p. 40; “An English Horseless Carriage of 1827,” p. 214; “Duryea
Motor Wagon,” p. 293; “Petrolium Tricycle,” p. 234; “Kane-Pennington Victoria,” p. 293;
“The Benz Motocycle,” p. 315; “De La Vergne Motor Drag,” p. 377; “Steam Omnibus in
London, 1833,” p. 404.

Firestone Ship by Truck Bureau, Bulletin No. 6, “Consolidated Rural Schools and the Motor Truck”;
Bulletin No. 7, “The Motor Truck Terminal.” Akron, Ohio.
Facts and Figures, 1922. “Motor Bus Aids Rural Education,” National Automobile Chamber of
Commerce, New York.
Greenough, M. B., “Motor Trucks and Highway Transportation,” Engineering and Contracting, Vol.
XLIX, pp. 157-158.
Johnson, Emory R., “Elements of Transportation,” D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1909.
Lacy, V. E., “Inland Waterway Transportation,” Journal of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Vol.
VIII, pp. 59-62.
Lane, F. Van Zant, “Motor Truck Transportation,” D. Van Nostrand Company, New York, 1922.
Mackall, J. N., “Motor Bus as a Factor in Highway Transport,” Engineering News-Record, Vol.
LXXXIII, p. 234.
Mantell, John J., “Transportation Problems of the Metropolitan District,” Official Proceedings of
the New York Railroad Club, Vol. XXXI, pp. 6369-6393.
Mechanical Engineering.—Discussion on Motor Truck Transportation, Inland Waterways, etc., Vol.
XLIII, pp. 181-183.
Motor Rail Cars:
Railway Review.—Vol. LXIX, pp. 753-755, 792-796; 860, Vol. LXX, 49-50, 191-192, 389-392,
501, 656, 669-673, 741-747, 928-929, 930.
Railway Age.—Vol. LXXI, pp. 841-843, Vol. LXXII, pp. 749-750, 886, 920, 1008-1009, 1069-
1070, 1183-1184.
Electric Railway Journal.—Vol. LXIX, pp. 419, 513, 685-686.
Municipal Engineering.—“Text of Colorado Decision Affecting Commercial Use of Highways.” Vol.
LXIII, sup. pp. 17-18.
National Automobile Chamber of Commerce.—Graham, George H., “The Motor Vehicle—
Competitor or Ally,” 1920.
Norton, S. V., “The Motor Truck as an Aid to Transportation,” A. W. Shaw Company, Chicago.
Power Wagon.—Various articles March, July, October, November, and December, 1921, and during
the year 1922.
Stocks, C. W., “The Bus Transportation Field,” Electric Railway Journal, N. Y., Vol. LVIII, pp. 517-
522.
Spence, Lewis J., “New Era of Railroad Transportation in America,” Paper before the National
Industrial Traffic League, Railway Age, Vol. LXIX, pp. 1153-1154.
Upham, C. M., “Car Shortage and Its Relation to Highway Work,” Engineering News-Record, Vol.
LXXIX, pp. 1099-1100.
White, W. T., “War Development of Motor Transportation,” Good Roads, n. s. Vol. XIX, pp. 291-
292.
Whiteside, W. J., “Motor Truck Competition,” Electric Railway Journal, Vol. LIV, pp. 981-982.

Willard, Daniel E., “Railroad Transportation. Fundamentals for developing a complete and well-
articulated national transportation system,” Mechanical Engineering, Vol. XLIII, pp. 17-18.
Williams, C. C., “When Ship Freight by Motor Truck and When by Rail,” Engineering News, Vol.
LXXVIII, pp. 315-316, 660-661.
Young, H. E., “Freight Movements by Motor Truck,” Western Society of Engineers’ Journal, Vol.
XXVI, p. 204.

FOOTNOTES

[167] See “The Motor Bus Field as a Market for Trucks,” Automotive Industries, September
29, 1921.
[168] One method of estimating cost of automobile riding, for a machine costing originally
$1000, which having a life of 30,000 miles is then worth for scrap $100, may be given thus:
(1000-100)100
Original cost expressed in cents per mile 3.0
30,000
Cost of repairs, estimated, 0.5
Gasoline and oil 2.5
Tires 1.5
Garage
Interest
Taxes - 1.5
Insurance
License
9.0
The cost is about 9 cents per car mile. If an average of two passengers ride that is 41⁄2 cents per
passenger mile. The above is merely an illustration and cannot be applied generally.
[169] See Bulletin 770, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Markets, “Motor Transportation
for Rural Districts,” Also Bulletin 931.
[170] “A Jitney Guide to the Santa Fé Trail,” Saturday Evening Post, June 10, 1922.
[171] The statute of Winchester enacted during the reign of Edward I, of England, provided
“that highways leading from one market town to another shall be enlarged, where woods, hedges
or dykes be, so that there be neither dyke, tree nor bush, whereby a man may lurk to do hurt,
within two hundred foot on the one side and two hundred foot on the other side of the way.”
[172] Reprinted by permission from The Saturday Evening Post, Copyright 1922, by the
Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pa.

CHAPTER VIII
PLANNING HIGHWAY SYSTEMS: SELECTION OF ROAD TYPES

A road is a strip of land set apart or appropriated for travel, public or private. When a road has been
dedicated to the public or has been used so long that the public has a legal right of easement therein, it
becomes a highway.[173]
The object of a road is to provide a way for transportation. It goes without saying, therefore, that its
situation should be such that it can perform this function most efficiently, and a system of highways should
perform the same function for the public in the same manner. Efficiency here includes the ideas of economy
and satisfaction combined.
In order to make a layout of a system of highways they should first be classified as to use, for the proper
treatment will depend upon the use to which the roads are to be put. Anyone attempting a layout will make
his own classification suitable to the inherent conditions pertaining to the district covered. The classification
of Mr. T. H. MacDonald, Director of the Bureau of Public Roads, U. S. Department of Agriculture, made for
another purpose may be adopted:[174]
1. Those used chiefly related to agriculture.
2. Those which are recreational in character.
3. Those which are commercial.
4. Those which are military.
Agricultural roads comprise those leading from farm to town and are used chiefly for marketing, and for
social, educational, and religious activities.
Recreational roads are either local, upon which driving is done for pleasure, or through, those followed by
tourists in traveling over the country. Either of which may lead to places of interest within or without the
state. The national park roads and forest highways can be classified under the head of recreational.
Commercial highways comprise those exclusive of agricultural, upon which the haul is chiefly of a
business nature such as freight and express and bus traffic.
The War Department of the United States during the war refused to designate any roads as special Military
Highways, saying a road which would adequately serve the agricultural; recreational, and commercial
interests would serve the military. However, it might be well to keep in mind this possible use of the
highways. A classification of roads into National, State, County and Town has frequently been suggested.
Since national roads do not exist as such in the United States the most densely traveled routes and those used
largely for through traffic are usually designated state roads, and all others local roads.
Keeping the cost and use of the roads in view the problem before the road planner is:
(1) To secure the most economical routes in construction and maintenance and future haulage, taking into
account topography, alignment, grades, and amount of traffic.
(2) To accommodate the greatest number of people commensurate with the money available for
expenditure.
(3) To utilize existing roads as far as practicable.
The system will ordinarily consist of one or more trunk lines to be laid down first and several branch lines
connecting with the trunk lines. Some of the essentials to be considered are:
(1) Ruling points. These ordinarily will be (a) the main community centers—the large cities and villages,
for to and from these will naturally flow the greatest traffic; (b) Natural configurations such as mountain
passes, low points in hills, ridges and valleys, rivers and bridge sites; (c) Parks, scenery, and recreational and
amusement centers; (d) Articulation with the highways of adjoining jurisdictions, so that they may eventually
be united into one continuous passage.
(2) Branch lines and detours. The question will frequently arise whether to run a branch line to some
locality or detour the trunk. Much pressure will be brought by the inhabitants along the way and the deciding
power will needs have firmness and fairness in the highest degree.
(3) Alternate routes. If two roads of equal or almost equal importance are available a choice must be made
between them.

(4) Existing highways and principal streets of cities should be utilized as much as practicable. Although
sometimes betterments so great may come through changes that old routes should be discontinued, in which
case the
(5) Vested rights of citizens living along discontinued routes and damages caused by any improvements
made must be considered.
(6) The widening of existing roads and streets and costs of the same.
(7) The location of railways, trolley lines, and street car tracks may influence the layout for grade crossings
should be eliminated, or at least placed where there is clear vision each way for a considerable distance.
(8) Bridges, culverts, and railroad crossings should, preferably, be directly along the highway and at right
angles to the obstruction.
(9) Ruling grades, dependent upon the class of road will also affect the layout.
(10) Esthetics. Perhaps the people of the United States have been too materialistic and have paid too little
attention to the beauty and interest elements in highway location. Especially for pleasure riding and
recreation should the esthetic side be considered.
Motor Transport Efficiency Outline. —At this point it would be well for the road planner to consult an
excellent paper by M. C. Horine and his efficiency chart which is substantially as follows:[175]
Economic Efficiency
Highway Efficiency
Adaptability of road to carrier
Road capacity
Width of road
Pressure capacity
Impact capacity
Seasonal limitations
Tractive resistance
Grades
Route
Curves and corners
Adaptability of carrier to road
Dimensions
Capacity and weight
Speed
Climbing ability
Accelerating ability
Stopping ability
Turning radius
Tractive effort
Transport Efficiency
Adaptability of carrier to volume and character of load
Total load units to be carried
Range of load units to be hauled
Average load units to be hauled
Density of load
Length of haul
Route
Number and probable duration of stops
Comparative adaptability of motor transport
Horse transport
Highway efficiency
Transport efficiency
Vehicle efficiency
Public health
Railway transportation including trolley express
Transport efficiency
Economy
Haulage cost
Packing cost
Adaptability of carrier to traffic
Legal restrictions on equipment and operation
Possible average running speed
Bridges and ferries
Vehicle Efficiency
Operation
Moving factor
Loading delays
Unloading delays

Waiting for loads
Clerical delays
Loafing
Traffic delays
Load factor
Body capacity
Special deliveries
Return loads
Outside hauling (custom work)
Pickups
Deliveries
Trailers
Maintenance
Active factor
Disability layups
Chassis repairs
Body repairs
Accessory repairs
Tire repairs and replacements
Overhaul and painting
Driver’s disability
Requirement layups
Seasonal fluctuations
Off-peak period
Shut downs
Labor troubles
Economy
Earning factor
Unit miles
Packing cost
Loading cost
Unloading cost
Time in transit
Marketability
Insurance
Interest on value
Shrinkage and breakage
Perishability
Tracing and follow up
Advertising value
Goodwill of trade
Increased radius of trade
Increased business turnover
Cost factor
Operating cost
Fixed charges
Maintenance charges
Running charges
Overhead
Loading devices
Shipping room devices
Office and clerical expenses
Telephone
Labor
Loaders
Watchmen
Clerks
Supervisors
Accountants
Traffic department
Miscellaneous

The Highway System Unit. —Ordinarily the units will be the same as the political divisions, that is,
national, state, or local. A national system would include the whole United States and will comprise trunk
lines paralleling each other across the country east and west and north and south, considering, of course,
ruling points, with a few branch lines of importance. The total number of miles of such highways should
probably never exceed 2 per cent of the total mileage in the United States, or about 50,000 miles. A national
highway committee estimated that this mileage of roads would serve 87 per cent of the people. The
arguments made in favor of a national system of highways may be briefly summarized as follows:

(1) Political lines would be obliterated, thus welding together and unifying all the people. Commercial and
social intercourse would wipe out sectional differences, hatreds, and enmities. The people of one section
would learn that the people of another section are human beings as they themselves are, and are actuated by
the same instincts and inspirations.
(2) Economic, commercial, and pleasure routes cut across state lines and it would be much better to have
the roads continuous and administered by one central control. They would then be kept in a more uniform
condition of usefulness. The roads radiating from New York City are mentioned as an example. They pass out
of the state of New York and into the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. On any one of these roads it would be
difficult to say which state you are in by observing the license tags on the trucks and automobiles. A
Connecticut traffic census on a road carrying approximately 3000 passenger cars and 500 trucks per day
showed that 47 per cent of the cars in the analysis came from without the state.
(3) Military. All roads would become military during war. It is frequently stated that the good roads of
France saved Paris from invasion and probably saved the war to the allies. The German General Kluck admits
that while he was advancing upon the British and French south of the Marne, an army of which he had no
suspicion had struck outward from Paris and put his flank in deadly peril.[176] This army was one that Joffre
had concentrated in Paris under General Maunouri, which had been brought over two or three good French
roads from Paris by motor trucks and lorries to a point within striking distance of the German right flank,
where he attacked and began the First Battle of the Marne. In the Second Battle of the Marne, motor cars
performed a very important part in the concentration of troops which were to make a surprise attack. In
addition the motorized armed cars known as tanks played an important part.
On this side of the ocean the trunk line roads during the war supplemented the railways, which were badly
congested at the eastern terminals, by hauling large quantities of men, materials and munitions. It is said that
16,000 trucks were engaged in this work.
(4) The benefit of example. The federal government not hampered by local prejudices may construct roads
of the highest type along best possible locations which when completed will serve as an example for state and
local officers to pattern after. The people having seen such roads will more willingly vote bonds and taxes for
road betterment.
State System. —The benefits to be derived from and the arguments for a national system of roads apply
with equal force to a state system. In fact it may be better to avoid the two extremes of one consolidated
central control for the whole country and a very highly dispersed decentralized local control. The state seems
to be a sufficiently large unit to do good work and sufficiently small to be approachable. Competition with
other states may bring out developments which under a single central control would never have been thought
of. Notwithstanding the excellent research work that is being carried on by the Bureau of Public Roads there
is no doubt but that that which is being done by the several states more nearly solves those special problems
arising on account of climate, topography, soil, and so on of the particular state.
The state system should cover a greater per cent of the roads than a national system can hope to do. The
effort seems to be to take over about 10 per cent of the established roads as state highways. Such roads, if
carefully selected and located, can accommodate from 90 to 95 per cent of the inhabitants of the state.
The remaining roads would continue under local—county and town—authorities. A county system might
be laid out and money expended upon its roads about in proportion to their use.
Again there is a feeling on the part of many that the first expense of improving a road (that would include
grading, bridging, and paving, even if the latter should be done some time subsequent to the former) should
be borne by the state and the abutting property, that the maintenance should be under the direction of the local
authorities, and paid for by local taxation and by a portion of the state automobile license and gasoline taxes
to be returned to the county for this purpose.
The Procedure of Laying out a Road System. —To fix the mind definitely suppose it to be a state road
system that is to be laid out. It is generally conceded that the planning should be done by an unprejudiced
commission headed by an engineer of wide experience, one who is fair but will show no favoritism. The first
question, after deciding to make a layout and who shall make it, is what shall be the determining factor of the
lay-out. Shall it be primarily a farm to market system, primarily a commercial system, or primarily a
recreational system? A wise commission will, no doubt, attempt to embody all these features in one system,
as they should be, for, nowadays, more than half the population of the country reside in the cities and

villages. They pay taxes and are as much entitled to road facilities for their particular industries and pleasures
as are the “farm bloc,” and every fair-minded person will admit this.
Good maps must of course be obtained. Government contour maps when available will assist materially in
selecting roads that will come within a ruling grade. On these maps will first be noted the trunk line terminals
and other ruling points. The trunk lines should be as direct as practicable from one ruling point to the next.
An endeavor should be made to have the roads with the greatest travel upon them the straightest, so that the
total future haul may be a minimum. The roads having the greatest travel will usually be those connecting the
largest cities of the state or articulating with roads leading to large cities of other states. Then will be drawn in
branch lines and detours so that when the plan is complete every county seat, every village of more than 1000
inhabitants, and every manufacturing, scenic, and pleasure resort of importance will have been reached, as
well as connections with the main roads of adjacent states.
This will form a tentative system. Observation upon the roads themselves will now be necessary. A
reconnaissance survey may be made quite rapidly from an automobile. Two men are necessary. The engineer
will ordinarily drive while the topographer will be supplied with a clip board and ruled sheets of paper. The
straight line up the center of the sheet represents the roadway. Small squares on the sheets represent distances
and areas. The scale should be made according to the work. On a road with few houses and few topographical
features to be recorded 1 inch to the mile might be sufficient. With more houses, and other features, 1 inch to
the quarter mile might be none too much. As speedometers (odometers) usually read to a tenth of a mile
cross-section paper with ten smaller divisions equal to one larger is convenient. The engineer will observe
features and the recorder will record them as the machine is driven along. The miles may be marked off on
the sheets ahead then very quickly by a series of notations, such as a for a farm house, a dot with a roof
over it for a school house, a steeple or cross on top makes a church. A crossing wagon road ,
railroad track , a trolley line , stream , and so on. Written explanations can be made along
the margin where necessary.
The reconnaissance survey should cover all routes on the tentative map together with alternative or
competitive routes and others when found to be worthy of consideration. The record will show all farm
houses within a prescribed limiting distance of the roadway, factories, stone quarries, sand and gravel pits,
schoolhouses, and churches. All intersecting roads, railroads, trolleys, mail routes, creeks, canals, rivers,
drainage and irrigation ditches, culverts and bridges, together with the approximate angle of crossing the
highway. Note should be made whether grade crossings may be eliminated by underground or overhead
crossings, or by change of route. The character of the soil whether clay, loam, gumbo, or sand, when it differs
from the general run of soil should be recorded, also hills, swamps, bad condition generally with brief notes
as to how they may be bettered. Turns in the road itself may be noted by an angle thus , , , .
Where no turn is shown, straight away is understood. Other information and natural or artificial features that
may prove interesting or helpful will suggest themselves for record as the survey proceeds. Of course the
mileage of each route as measured by the odometer or speedometer from fixed and known points on the map
will be taken. By tabulating and mapping the information recorded it will be possible to get at the
comparative merits of alternative routes.
A few simple surveying instruments will be useful in the work of reconnoitering. A steel 100-foot tape, a
hand level and inclinometer, a pedometer, a pocket compass, a small aneroid barometer in mountainous
countries, a pioneer ax for blazing, and a small spade may be mentioned.
After the reconnaissance, hearings should be held, usually at county seats, notice of such hearings having
been given ahead of time. At these hearings the maps are shown and a statement made relative to the
procedure. After which an invitation for suggestions and constructive criticism and even complaints is given.
From these people who are locally interested in the roads many valuable suggestions will be received, and if
they cannot be followed the reasons therefor may be stated. The people will thus know the investigation and
the location of the road have been fairly made and that any suggestions that cannot be settled offhand will be
duly considered before final location.
The final location will usually be arrived at or at least influenced by the following considerations:
Alignment and distance, population served, grades, amount and character of haulage, other kinds of
transportation available, character of soil (sand, clay, gumbo, loam), structures, bridges, railroad grade
crossings and their possible avoidance, discovery of entirely new routes, topography, geological formation,
and other natural features and numerous local conditions, including availability and freight charges of road