FACTS AND FIGURES. 393 



I shall attempt to state the case of the people in this con 

 troversy by the affirmation of a few propositions that I 

 think no unprejudiced person will deny. 



RAILWAYS THE PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. 



Kailways are the highways of the country, and year by 

 year absorb the business of transportation from earth roads, 

 canals, rivers, and lakes, unless their charges are exorbitant. 

 They took the business of the common road immediately 

 on their completion, except for short distances ; and it is only 

 lately, when the charges of transportation by rail became 

 prohibitory, that we hear again of wagons being brought into 

 use for distances of fifty to one hundred miles. The Erie 

 Canal carries less flour from Buffalo eastward by far than 

 the railways competing with it. 



&quot; In 1861,&quot; says Harpers Magazine for November, 1873, 

 &quot;the canals of New York transported 2,144,373 tons of 

 Western products, and the three trunk railroads, the New 

 York Central, Erie, and Pennsylvania railroads, 905,521. 

 In 1871, the canals carried only 1,863,868 tons, and the 

 railroads 3,057,168. The Grand Trunk, of Canada, and the 

 Baltimore and Ohio railroads must add about 40 per cent, 

 to the latter amount,&quot; &quot;Steam,&quot; says Charles Francis 

 Adams, &quot; abolishes the Mississippi Kiver.&quot; 



In 1872, St. Louis received 2,838,364 tons of freight by 

 railroad, against 863,919 by river, and shipped 1,204,604 

 tons by rail, against 805,282 by river. The lakes still carry 

 a large part of the grain, shipped from Chicago, but not of 

 the flour. 



Every-where transportation by rail seems to successfully 

 compete, if it will, with transportation by any other method. 

 In other words, year by year the railroads of our country 



