EFFECT OF RAILROAD BUILDING. 179 



the Interior. In commenting upon the railroad con- 

 struction for the year, the writer says : 



" At the same rate of construction for the current quarter the 

 total trackage laid for the year would be about 10,700 miles. 

 This construction, assuming the actual cost to be $25,000 per 

 mile, on the average and it is probably not far from that 

 will involve the conversion of $270,000,000 of circulating capi- 

 tal into fixed capital." 



What does this writer mean ? " Circulating capi- 

 tal " is generally understood to be money. Does he 

 intend to be understood as saying that $270,000,000, 

 in money, have changed their nature and been ' 6 con- 

 verted " into iron, and wood, and roadbeds ; and con- 

 sequently, that there is just so much "circulating 

 capital " lost to the world ? Oh, no, he does not 

 intend to say that. But that is the meaning of the 

 language used, or it has no meaning. It is that kind 

 of " con version" that would make it "fixed," i.e., 

 immovable. 



The statement is a pure fallacy, without a grain of 

 sense to sustain it. The truth is, that not one dollar 

 of capital, of any nature, has been converted into rail- 

 roads. All such capital has simply been temporarily 

 used in the construction of the roads, as were the 

 wheelbarrows of the laborers, and still remain as "cir- 

 culating capital " for further, or other uses, as do also 

 the old wheelbarrows, if not worn out ; a liability to 

 which " circulating capital " is not incident. 



Labor is the only " capital " that has undergone a 

 "conversion," and become "fixed" in the railroads 

 that have been built. In that " conversion " the labor 



