1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 315 



new markets and values to crops ; and it may be safely said, 

 that the addition of a powerful and rapid means of trans- 

 portation has not only given new life to all the old industries, 

 but has added a new one of inestimable value and importance. 

 The labor and expense of exchanging commodities have ]>een 

 so far diminished in our day that every producing industry 

 is now able to employ its time and means to the best possible 

 advantage. No time is now wasted by the manufiicturer in 

 traveling from his mill to his market ; none l)y the farmer in 

 transporting his crops from his fields to the consumer. No 

 limit is now put to the capacity of the mill, the capital 

 absorbed and the hands employed, by distance and obstacles 

 on sea and land. The farmer whose time and means and 

 horses were fully employed in hauling the crops of a hundred 

 acres to market fifty years ago, can now employ his force at 

 home in increasing the crop of ten times that area of land, 

 while it is harvested and borne to market l^y machinery. 

 Lands which were once useless to the cultivator are now 

 brought l)y rail to the very doors of the market required 

 by their crops. And not only is the transporting capacity 

 of each individual increased, but the force which can be 

 retained for work on the land is vastly enhanced, as well as 

 the profit on the crop itself. When, many years ago, the 

 railroad from Springfield, 111., to the Illinois River was 

 opened, it was announced in a leading newspaper of that day, 

 " One week before the railroad was finished, corn could be 

 had here in any quantity at fifteen cents per bushel ; now, 

 not a bushel can be had for less than twenty-five cents." 

 With a system of farming which I have defined, and a system 

 of transportation which we possess, the producing power of 

 American labor and land is almost unlimited. 



The relations which have been established between these 

 active and vigorous industries to which I have alluded have 

 produced upon society, moreover, a degree of mental energy 

 and general intelligence never equaled in any age of the 

 world. In the afiairs of life, now, a man's head is considered 

 to be worth as much as his hands, — the relative market 

 value of these two commodities having materially changed 

 since the ' ' common and concurrent mind " began to assert its 

 supremacy. The necessity for economizing and utilizing 



