314 THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL 



States, how will it affect the leading industries of the different 

 sections of the country ? The northeastern section is one of 

 varied manufactures and corresponds roughly with western 

 Europe in industrial development. The manufacturers of this 

 part of our country can hardly hope to build up a large trade 

 with Europe, but can unquestionably develop large markets for 

 their wares in the western third of the United States and in the 

 markets of the Orient when the time and expenses of transjjor- 

 tation have been reduced by an isthmian waterway. A trade 

 of some importance, though not large, can be established in 

 western South America. 



Our southern states are now producing much more cotton 

 than the mills of Europe and our own country can use, and are 

 anxious to increase their sales both of the raw staple and of 

 cotton manufactures in the Pacific countries. Besides develop- 

 ing the cotton textile industry the South is opening up her rich 

 coal and iron mines and manufacturing iron and steel, and these 

 industries must also look to the West for their chief markets. 



The states north of the Ohio and Missouri rivers include our 

 richest agricultural resources, our most productive iron mines, 

 our chief stores of bituminous coal, and also have forests of 

 large extent. The industries of these states, though still mainly 

 extractive, are to a large and rapidly growing extent comjDOsed 

 of manufactures. Their mills and factories turn out large quan- 

 tities of iron and steel, machinery, ships, furniture, wooden 

 wares, and flour. That these states in the central part of our 

 large country are enjoying such a phenomenal industrial de- 

 velopment is due mainly to the transportation facilities which 

 have been provided by the railroad trunk lines to the Atlantic 

 and the Gulf, the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, the Great Lakes, 

 and the Erie Canal. Whatever cheapens transportation accom- 

 plishes surprising economic results in this section of our country. 

 The canal across the American isthmus will give the central 

 West a chance to increase its traffic with the trans-Cordilleran 

 states and with the foreign countries that border the Pacific. 

 What the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal have done for the 

 eastern trade of these states, the interoceanic canal will do for 

 its western trade. 



The section of our country tributary to the Pacific is devoted 

 mainly to agriculture, stock-raising, farming, lumbering, and the 

 mining of the precious metals. Most of the products of these 

 industries are bulky, and onty the precious metals, fruits, and a 



