MONOPOLY OF TRANSPORTATION. 567 



grows more expensive, and rather than let it continue as 

 it is, from year to year, I would rather they take the road 

 and done with it Yours, etc., 



C. P. HUNTINGTON. 



We give the above letters as an indication of what is 

 going on at the national capitol during the sessions of Con- 

 gress. Corporations keep a well paid set of lobbyists there 

 in their interests, to encourage special legislation in their 

 behalf, or to oppose any laws that would be averse to their 

 interests. Senators and Congressmen lend their aid to the 

 accomplishment of the schemes of designing corporations 

 with a zeal that would do credit to them were their efforts 

 directed to a more honorable undertaking, and inspired by 

 more patriotic motives. That railroads and other modes 

 of transportation, properly constructed and operated, are a 

 blessing to the human family, and necessary to a higher 

 civilization, cannot be denied; and few things, perhaps, 

 have been so conspicuous for rapidity of growth and expan- 

 sion as the American railway system. There are plenty of 

 men yet living who find no difficulty in remembering the 

 time when the canal- boat and the stage coach were the 

 only means of communication between the various parts 

 of the union. 



44 It was not until 1826 that capitalists became satisfied 

 of the value of the railway as a means of communication 

 between distant points. The first road of this kind in 

 America was a mere tramway for the transportation of 

 granite from the quarries at Quincy to the Neposett river, 

 in Massachusetts. The total length of this road was about 

 three miles. It terminated at the quarries in a self-acting 

 inclined plane. It was built upon granite sleepers, seven 

 and a half feet long, laid eight feet apart. The rails were 

 laid five feet apart, were of pine, a foot deep, and covered 

 with an oak plate, and this with a flat bar of iron. The 



