440 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



000,000 more than it would have done at the rate current 

 in 1860. Notwithstanding this enormous advance in the 

 cost of the main item of construction, it is susceptible of 

 proof that the rates of transportation have steadily de 

 creased. 



The foregoing tabular statement does not include the sev 

 eral millions expended, during the past three years, on the 

 first-class roads, for steel rails. Every trunk line out of 

 Chicago makes the majority of renewals with steel, which, 

 at $120 per ton, demands no small outlay. At each of the 

 rail mills more than a thousand men are engaged, every one 

 of whom owes his employment as directly to the railways as 

 do the engineers who run the trains. 



2. EQUIPMENT. At favorable locations mammoth enter- 

 terprises have been called into existence to supply the rail 

 ways with rolling stock. In several eastern cities are es 

 tablished locomotive works. One of these, the Baldwin, 

 covers six entire squares in the city of Philadelphia; in 

 prosperous times, employs five thousand men, supports twenty 

 thousand persons, and annually turns out over $5,000,000 

 worth of work. Another Quaker City enterprise, the Whit 

 ney Car Wheel Factory, covers one square, supplies several 

 railroads, and exports car wheels to Europe. In the same 

 city a single railroad company, at one time, expended $5,- 

 000,000 for rails, engines, cars, etc. Locomotive and car 

 works have built up Paterson, Manchester, Wilmington, 

 Jeffersonville, and other similarly favored places. Numer 

 ous cities hold out inducements, in the certain knowledge 

 that the possession of such vast establishments affords prof 

 itable employment to hosts of skillful men, whose earnings 

 benefit the entire community. Bloomington gave a large 

 bonus to secure the location of the Chicago & Alton Puail- 

 road shops, and Aurora enjoys like advantages from the 



