178 LAND AND LABOR. 



During the four years of the war, from 1862 to 

 1865, inclusive, there were built 3,799 miles of road ; 

 during the next four years, 11,759 miles ; and in the 

 next four years, ending with 1873, 23,467 miles. Of 

 this 35,226 miles of railroad built during the eight 

 years which followed the war, 1,480 miles were in the 

 Eastern States, being an increase of nearly 40 per 

 cent, in that section ; in the Middle States, 5,104 

 miles, and nearly 60 per cent, increase ; in the South- 

 ern States, 3,877 miles, and 42 J per cent, increase ; in 

 the Western States, 22,833 miles, an increase of 171 

 per cent.; and in the Pacific States, 1,932 miles, be- 

 ing an increase of nearly ten fold. Which and how 

 many of these roads were not needed ? It must be 

 easy to point them out, and it would make a most 

 interesting and instructive exhibit. 



The industry that built this vast extent of railroad 

 (that would reach one and one half times around the 

 world), and incidentally the great number of furnaces, 

 forges, mills, machinery, and structures of many kinds, 

 and that created the great demands for food, clothing, 

 shelter, and other necessaries that were used and con- 

 sumed in the sustenance of the operatives, were not 

 the cause of our great industrial distress, because they 

 have all been created without the consumption or de- 

 struction of any portion of the material wealth or cap- 

 ital that before existed, and are just so much added 

 to the means for providing for man's necessities and 

 comforts. 



The following extract from an editorial in the Chi- 

 cago Times, of October, 1882, is in the same line of 

 iiillacious statement as that of the late Secretary of 



