7IO READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



unjust discriminations practiced by railway corporations. The 

 influence to which attention is directed arises from the very 

 nature of transportation from the fact that interruptions in the 

 transport of commodities are unavoidable, and that, wherever they 

 occur, wealth and population tend to collect. Interruptions in 

 transportation have been classified as mechanical and commercial. 

 The former necessitates the transfer of passengers and the re- 

 handling of commodities, while the latter involves in addition a 

 change in the ownership of property. Both classes of interrup- 

 tions, but especially the latter, concentrate population and tend to 

 the aggregation of wealth. The vastness of the territory of the 

 United States, resulting in the need of distributing centers, has 

 given rise to numerous commercial breaks ; and their influence 

 in promoting the wealth of cities cannot be doubted. Moreover, 

 three-fourths of the steam power of the United States is engaged 

 in water and land carriage ; and the volume of the latter alone is 

 twice that of all the rest of the world, so that any interruption 

 in its movement becomes extremely influential and worthy of 

 consideration. But the application of steam to transportation has 

 been influential in still other ways in promoting the prosperity 

 and piling up the wealth of cities. This is well illustrated in its 

 effect upon the relation of the inland town to the commercial 

 metropolis. When men reached the interior by horse power, by 

 the ox team or on foot, the rural town had a living chance to 

 advance in wealth and population. For the industrial army which 

 had moved into the wilderness or the open country, the rural 

 village was the new base of supplies. The commissariat must go 

 along with the columns. The large center was too far away. But 

 the coming of the railway bridged the distance. It brought the 

 village ten or twenty miles away in touch with the great city, 

 making it a sort of suburb. The outlying depot of supplies is 

 no longer needed ; the railway train has taken the place of the 

 country storehouse. 



6. Industries monopolistic in character, such as trusts, and espe- 

 cially street railways, waterworks, gas and electric-light plants, 

 which become increasingly valuable with growth of population 

 and social development, are for the most part located in cities, 



