ADVANTAGES OF THE RAILROAD FUROR.

421

country, the immediate access afforded to new sources of great wealth, and the increase in the variety and magnitude of industrial development, could not be other than an advantage in many ways, and highly profitable in the long run. The harm was limited and temporary; disturbing relations rather than resources. It was so far a positive benefit that the disturbance of business made political economy and the laws of trade and finance the subject of a prolonged and profound study while industry was changing its front and its organization, and capital was preparing for new undertakings. The sudden introduction of new and powerful forces into the fields of business, and the immense wealth developed thereby, had disconcerted the best trained intelligence of the age; the laws of business and industry applicable to former times and dif ferent situations were no longer in point; fresh studies were required to master a science whose field had lost its ancient boundaries by a vast enlargement and included new elements.

The financial reverses and business stagnation that followed. the autumn of 1873 gave the needed opportunity of re-examination, and an immediate effort was made to comprehend and control the difficulty, to eliminate the immoral elements introduced or inspired by the confusion and disorder of war, and to apply such modifications to public policy as experience and reflection should suggest. The result could not but be beneficial. Meantime the true wealth and prosperity of the country remained the same. The Valley, the seat and source of the bulk of real wealth in the nation, was least affected by the temporary check--the ebb-tide of businessher farmers still supplied the markets of the world with their surplus products, and, by organization, were able to apply some restraint to powerful corporations by whom they had felt oppressed, and secured a larger per cent of profit on their products than formerly; and, though the rush of improvement. ceased, extensions of the railway system actually required continued to be made.

That system had grown by nearly 5,000 miles yearly for the three years following 1870. It still continued to extend at the rate of more than 1,000 miles yearly. Many roads became unprofitable to the holders of their stock while yet doing good and useful service to the communities through which they passed; and in general, after a little time, the financial reverse was more injurious to individuals and corporations than to the public at large. In this, as in so many other cases in American experience, the free operation of social and industrial law soon corrected the errors of governments and the disorganizing effects of unnatural events-such as excess and hurry of immigration, the existence of slavery, civil war, and general overhaste in improvement. All the departments of life are found to have been submitted to the operation of definite laws, and to possess, in themselves, a recuperative power which, if its operation be not interfered with, quickly reveals a remedy for the wounds that may have been received by ignorant or excessive action; and this remedy commonly presents itself during the reaction following naturally after the harm.

During this period of activity following the war, every part of the Valley was made accessible and obtained profitable connections with the markets it required; or, in cases where important links had not been completed, in 1873, they were finished subsequently. Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and even the Indian Territory, were brought into relations with all the rest of the country.

In 1874, the lines of railway west of the Mississippi, in all the States and Territories to the Pacific, fell but little below 20,000 miles; the five States formed out of the original Northwest Territory had constructed nearly 21,000; and the remaining part of the Valley had more than 8,000. Of the railways beyond the Mississippi scarcely 3,000 miles lay beyond the western border of the Valley, and about 45,000 out of the 72,600 in the United States, were in the Valley itself.

RAILWAYS AND TELEGRAPHS CONSOLIDATE.

423

The total cost of all these railways has been considerably more than twice the amount of the public debt.

This was the material preparation for the new union and the new greatness which was rendered possible by the result of the war. In the accomplishment of this task the railway was powerfully aided by the electric telegraph, which, extending its intricate network still more widely than the railway system over all parts of the country, put every section in daily and at need, almost instantaneous, communication with the rest; it facilitated the dispatch of business as much as it promoted intimate intercourse, mutual acquaintance and unity of sentiment.

These two instruments, the one bearing exchanges of value, the other exchanges of thought, consolidated the Union much more perfectly than the war could do it. They aided in equalizing the wealth of the sections, in building up mutual interests and sympathies, and in removing all the remaining barriers that kept them apart.

CHAPTER VI.

PRODUCTION OF MINERAL WEALTH IN THE NEW ERA.

The universal spread of railways in the Valley furnished a test of its capacities in many directions. The Atlantic Slope had proved to be extremely rich in coal, in iron, and in building material, and the Pacific coast had, soon after 1870, already supplied a thousand and two hundred million dollars in precious metals. The Valley had been chiefly esteemed outside of it for its capacity to supply unlimited quantities of food and for giving, by these supplies and its purchases, the most complete support to the varied manufacturing industries of the East and the mining of the West. It seemed almost unfair to other sections that it should display anything more than a local abundance of resources in their own special lines.

Yet, the magnitude of modern development rendered a monopoly of any one line for a limited region impossible for any long period of time. Competition reduced profits to a narrow margin and made it necessary for many branches of business to transfer themselves to the regions where they could be pursued most economically. Under this imperative law of economy, the mineral wealth of the Valley began to rise to prominence with the spread of railroads, and, from seven to ten years after the war, some of the industries found it impossible to maintain an extensive and profitable activity without its aid.

The Valley had been projected on a grand scale in all its features; whatever it did contain was found, in most cases, to be incomparably abundant, superior in quality, and to be obtained with unaccustomed ease and cheapness. Geological explorations had already, before the war, made known many of its advantages; and the great State of Pennsylvania—lying

INCREASE OF IRON PRODUCTION IN THE VALLEY. 425

on either side of the mountains-soon found the western part more varied and abundant in sources of wealth than the eastern, notwithstanding the enormous deposits of anthracite coal which lay so near the largest cities and greatest manufacturing centers of the country. The production of petroleum and coal across the mountains became, soon after 1870, nearly equal to the vast coal trade of the anthracite fields of the east; and the iron trade soon developed in the Valley to great proportions.

Although most of the States of the Atlantic border abound in iron, which was first worked there, the larger quantity, purer quality and greater ease and cheapness of production speedily led to extensive mining on Lake Superior, in Missouri, in Tennessee and Alabama; and more especially that an abundance of suitable coal was to be found within easy reach of the ore beds. The water highways of the West permitted the superior ores of the Michigan and Missouri mines to be cheaply transported to the vicinity of the coal mines of Pittsburgh and Ohio, to Chicago and to Indiana; while the proximity of excellent ores and extensive coal beds in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama encouraged the progress of iron production in those States. In 1872, when the point of highest production was reached, the amount of pig-iron from western ores began to approach one half that of the whole country. The rapid increase of this production was checked, in 1873, by the financial crisis; but it became quite evident that the facilities of the Valley would, in a few years, concentrate within its borders much the larger part of the iron production of the country. England has long produced one half the iron and steel used by the world, obtaining much of her ore from other countries; but the Valley, which has both the best ores and suitable coal in unlimited quantities, will inevitably, from these facts, take the lead of the world as well as of the country at no distant time.

In 1856, the world consumed 7,000,000 tons of iron annu