188 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



_ ^ ■ 



ocean of humanity. Thej who traveled were village people and a very 

 few well to do country people. From the counties along the Missouri 

 river not five people in a thousand took advantage of the low rates. 



The experience in all the history of business shows that the old 

 saying is true, "a miss is equal to a mile," when your price, or rate, is 

 above our reach it matters not how liigh or how low you run it. A 

 fifty dollar trip is out of the reach of a poor family, and so is a five 

 hundred dollar one. If the rates can not be reduced to something like 

 .trip charges of ten cents per one hundred miles, the great mass of the 

 people can not travel for pleasure. Ridiculous as this rate may seem, 

 it is not more so 'l.han penny postage semed to those accustomed to 

 pay 25 cents per letter. Had the postal service been monopolized by 

 individuals, the thousands of mail routes would now be stocked and 

 bonded and set to earning dividends for stockholders. This wealth, 

 which would, in that case be represented by stocks or bonds, is now 

 the common wealth, and every soul in these States is made happier 

 and more comfortable in its enjoyment. And if every public necessity 

 were administered in the same way, the amount of wealth vested in the 

 commonwealth would be enoy^gh to make the poorest, most hopeless 

 citizen of the land comparatively well off. 



Did you ever consider how it would be with us to-day if tlie postal 

 service were as dear as it was in 1840 ? Did you ever try to estimate 

 what tremendous results stood behind the seeming trivial bill to give 

 the people cheap postage ? What inventions, what infinite quantities 

 of cheap publications, how much nearer it brought us all together! 



Mighty as were those effects, they are small as compared with 

 what will follow such cheap transportation as the times demand. I 

 verily believe that the mystery of these hard times, this blight on busi- 

 ness, this unrest, suspicion and indignation, now pervading the great 

 bosom of humanity, lies right here — that whereas the times demand 

 the utmost freedom of intercourse and of opportunity, here are these 

 everalsting restrictions. Fifty years ago the difference between the 

 rich and poor, except in the great cities, was not much, and it consisted 

 in things the working class cared little about. There was the same 

 freedom of movement and opportunities in the pursuit of happiness. 

 If the rich man went in a carriage the poor went in his cart, and per- 

 haps got there tirst. To-day the poor feel bound like serfs to their 

 localities, while the rich fly to the ends of the earth. This is felt like 

 a weight or shackle. Imagine a contrary condition, and that this grand 

 invention had been developed in the interest of the commonwealth, so 

 that milUons of tons of freight, now rotting or useless, can be moved 



