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BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
American 
 
 Railroads, i 
 
 Their Relation to 
 Commercial, 
 Industrial and 
 Agricultural Interests. 
 
 ¥ 
 
 An Address by George H.|Daniel8, 
 General Passenger Agent, 
 New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, 
 And President of the 
 
 American Association of General Passenger Agents 
 Before the 
 
 International Commercial Congress, 
 At Philadelphia, 
 October 25th, 1899. 
 
Reprinted from the 
 
 Buffalo Evening News. 
 
, M ' ; i ■ /- ^ 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the International 
 
 Commercial Congress : 
 
 I congratulate the United States, and every com- 
 mercial country on the globe, upon the interest 
 which this Congress has inspired, and which has se- 
 cured the attendance of the representatives of 
 commercial bodies from practically every country of 
 the world. 
 
 I also congratulate the City of Philadelphia, the 
 greatest manufacturing city in the United States, 
 upon the public spirited character of its citizens, who 
 have organized and carried to a successful issue the 
 National Export Exposition. 
 
 The holding of such expositions as this, and the 
 Pan-American Exposition to be held in Buffalo in 
 1901, cannot but be of great value in aiding the ex- 
 tension of international commerce, and the whole 
 world is interested in its extension. 
 
 An A§fc of Transportation. 
 
 One of our great writers has said of this closing 
 period of the nineteenth century, that it is an age of 
 transportation. 
 
 Transportation underlies material prosperity in 
 every department of commerce. Without trans- 
 portation commerce would be impossible. 
 
 Those states and nations are rich, powerful and 
 enlightened whose transportation facilities are best 
 and most extended. The dying nations are those 
 with little or no transportation facilities. 
 
 Richest Country on the Globe, 
 
 Mr. Mulhall, the British statistician, in his work 
 on "The Wealth of Nations," said of the United 
 States in 1895 : " If we take a survey of mankind, 
 in ancient or modem times, as regards the physical, 
 mechanical and intellectual force of nations, we find 
 nothing to compare with the United States." 
 
 Mr. Mulhall proved by his statistics that the work- 
 ing power of a single person in the United States 
 
was twice that of a German or Frenchman, more 
 than three fc'mee that ^f an Austrian and five times 
 that of an Italian. He said the United States was 
 then the richest country in the world, its wealth ex- 
 ceeding that of Great Britain by thirty-five per cent, 
 and added that in the history of the human race no 
 nation ever before possessed forty-one millions of 
 instructed citizens. 
 
 Should Mr. Mulhall revise his figures to-day, the 
 diflferences would all be in favor of the United States, 
 for in the past eighteen months we have demon- 
 strated the superiority of our manufactures in every 
 directien, and our ability to cope successfully with 
 questions which have heretofore been handled exclu- 
 sively by the older nations is now recognized by all 
 the world. 
 
 Results of War Between Japan and China* 
 
 In an address before the New York Press Associa- 
 tion, four years ago, I referred to the future of our 
 export trade, as follows : "One of the inevitable re- 
 sults of the war between Japan and China will be the 
 opening to the commerce of the world of fields here- 
 tofore unknown, perhaps the richest on the globe," 
 and in urging the members of the New York Press 
 Association to do everything in their power to assist 
 in securing to the United States a portion of the 
 great commerce to be developed between the west- 
 ern nations and these two old countries of the world, 
 I asked these questions : . 
 
 " Shall the grain in China and Japan be harvested 
 by machines manufactured in the United States, or 
 will the manufacturers of England and Germany sup- 
 ply them ? 
 
 " Shall the fires in Yokohama and Tientsin be ex- 
 tinguished with engines built at Seneca Falls, or will 
 France or England send their fire engines to Japan 
 and China ? 
 
 " Will the locomotives to haul the fast mail trains 
 between Yokohama and the interior of Japan and 
 through the rich valleys of China be built at Schen- 
 ectady, Philadelphia or Dunkirk, or will our Oriental 
 
friends and neighbors in the Pacific buy them of our 
 English cousins ? " 
 
 I predicted that active efforts toward the exten- 
 sion of American commerce by commercial bodies, 
 supported by a liberal and broad-minded policy on 
 the part of our government in connection with the 
 aggressive action of the transportation companies, 
 would undoubtedly secure to the United States the 
 blessings that come from a great and varied com- 
 merce, and I said that the New York Press Associa- 
 tion, and similar associations all over the country, 
 could stimulate a public spirit that would insure the 
 important results outlined. 
 
 At that time we had no idea that a war between 
 one of the old nations of the earth and our young 
 Republic would be fought ; at that time we had no 
 idea that American manufacturers would be furnish- 
 ing locomotives to the English railroads as well as to 
 those of nearly every other country on the globe. 
 No one thought four years ago that American bridge 
 builders would go into the open market and success- 
 fully compete for the building of a great steel bridge 
 in Egypt ; nor that in so brief a time American en- 
 gineers would be building railroads into the interior 
 of China from her most important seaports. 
 
 At that time no one supposed that the Trans- 
 Siberian Railway would be laid with steel rails made 
 in Pennsylvania, upon cross-ties from the forests of 
 Oregon, and that its trains would be hauled by 
 American locomotives ; nor that this great railway 
 which is to stretch from St. Petersburg to Vladivo- 
 stock and Port Arthur, a distance of more than 6,000 
 miles, would be completed two years in advance of 
 the original expectation, as a result of the use of 
 American construction tools and machinery. 
 
 But this is all true, and it is further true that the 
 tools and machinery for the construction of the 
 western portion of the Trans-Siberian Railway were 
 supplied by American manufacturers, at about one- 
 half the price that Russia had been paying previ- 
 ously, and with this American machinery the Russians 
 
are able to do nearly double the work that they 
 could perforin with the machinery manufactured in 
 other countries. 
 
 An Empire Express in the Orients 
 
 In a letter from a friend in Tokio, Japan, written 
 only a short time ago, there was this significant 
 sentence : " You will be interested in knowing that 
 I have hanging on the wall of my office a framed 
 picture of your ' Empire State Express,' and we ex- 
 pect in the near future to be hauling a Japanese 
 'Empire Express,' with an American locomotive." 
 They have now in Japan more than one hundred lo- 
 comotives that were built in the United States. In 
 Russia they have nearly one thousand American 
 locomotives, and practically every railway in Great 
 Britain has ordered locomotives from this country 
 since the beginning of the war with Spain. 
 
 In this connection it will be interesting to note in 
 passing that the second American locomotive was 
 built at the West Point Foundry, near Cold Spring, 
 on the Hudson River, and was called the "Best 
 Friend," and from that day to this the locomotive 
 has been one of the best friends of this Republic. 
 
 Our Superior Railway Equipment. 
 
 But it is not alone our locomotives that have at- 
 tracted the attention of foreigners who have visited 
 our shores, our railway equipment generally has 
 commanded admiration and is now receiving the 
 highest compliment, namely, imitation by many of 
 our sister nations. 
 
 Prince Michel Hilkoff, Imperial Minister of Rail- 
 ways of Russia, 'has, since his visit to the United 
 States a few years ago, constructed a train on much 
 the same lines as the " Limited Trains " of the New 
 York Central and the Pennsylvania. 
 
 Only a short time ago, at the request of one of 
 the Imperial Commissions of Germany, I sent to Ber- 
 lin photographs of the interior and exterior of our 
 finest cars and other data in relation to the opera- 
 tion of American railways. Several other countries 
 
 6 
 
have asked for similar information and there is a 
 general waking up of foreign nations on the subject 
 of transportation, brought about mainly by the 
 wonderful achievements of American railways. 
 
 The demand for American locomotives from all 
 parts of the world is attributable, in the first place, 
 to the superior quality of our machinery, and in the 
 second place, to the fact that the general passenger 
 agents of the American railways have, through their 
 advertising, made the marvelous results accom- 
 plished by our locomotives, household words in every 
 country on the globe. 
 
 A Naval Object Lesson. 
 
 The admiration of foreign nations for us is not by 
 any means confined to railways. One incident that 
 startled the entire world, and directed the attention 
 of thinking people everywhere to American achieve- 
 ments in machinery, was that of the United States 
 Battleship " Oregon," built at the Union Iron Works 
 in San Francisco, and which steamed a distance of 
 more than half round the globe, without loosening a 
 bolt or starting a rivet, and arrived at her post off 
 the Island of Cuba prepared to perform any service 
 required of her, and then having given a most satis- 
 factory account of herself on that memorable third 
 of July, 1898, off Santiago, she steamed back to the 
 Pacific, and without any unnecessary delay crossed 
 that great ocean to join Admiral Dewey's fleet at 
 Manila. On her arrival there the Secretary of the 
 Navy received one of those condensed messages, for 
 which the Admiral — who has shed undying lustre 
 upon the name of the American Navy — is so noted, 
 which read as follows : 
 
 "Manila, March 18, 1899. 
 
 " The Oregon and Iris arrived to-day. The Oregon 
 is in fit condition for any duty. Dewey." 
 
 These demonstrations of what American shipbuild- 
 ers can accomplish, created a desire on the part of 
 every naval power in the world for ships of the 
 haracter of the Oregon, and the logical conclusion 
 
of thinking people was that if we could build ships 
 like the Oregon, anything else that we built must be 
 of a superior quality, and the demand for American 
 manufactures began to increase and is increasing 
 with each day until ,thousands of our factories are 
 now running night and day, and business in the 
 United States was never in a more prosperous con- 
 dition than it is in these October days of 1899. 
 
 Trade and the Flagf. 
 
 It has been said by a great American writer that 
 "Trade follows the flag." Recent events have 
 placed our flag upon the Islands of the Pacific, di- 
 rectly in the natural track between the Pacific coast 
 of the United States and Japan and China, and as we 
 contemplate our growing commerce with these old 
 nations, we are reminded of the prophetic statement 
 made at the completion of the first continuous line 
 of railroad between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 
 by the joining of the Union and Central Pacific 
 Railroads, more than thirty years ago, by that 
 prophet of his time, Thomas H. Benton, who, stand- 
 ing on the summit of the Rocky Mountains and 
 pointing towards the Pacific Ocean said : " There is 
 the East ; there is India." 
 
 Previous to the construction of this artery of 
 commerce, the route to India had been by the way 
 of our Atlantic sea ports and Europe, but with the 
 completion of our transcontinental system of rail- 
 ways, the route was changed, and a better way was 
 found by way of the Pacific seaports and the Pacific 
 Ocean. 
 
 Out Commerce in the Orient* 
 
 There are some who seem to think that we might 
 get along without trade with China, and that it is a 
 new fangled idea that Chinese trade can especially 
 benefit the United States. 
 
 Commerce with China began one hundred and fif- 
 teen years ago, the first vessel sailing from New 
 York on Washington's Birthday in the year 1774. 
 This vessel returned to New York May 11th, 1775. 
 The success of the venture was such as to warrant 
 
its repetition, and from that day to this, trade be- 
 tween the United States and China has continued 
 without material interruption until it is now greater 
 in importance and value than that of any other 
 nation trading with China, with the single exception 
 of Great Britain. If we are to continue as one of 
 the great nations of the world, we can hardly afford 
 to ignore a country that comprises one-twelfth of 
 the land area and nearly one-fourth of the popula- 
 tion of the globe. 
 
 Change in Sentiment. 
 
 At times there have been periods of legislation in 
 the United States adverse to the great transporta- 
 tion interests of the country, almost invariably the 
 result of a misunderstanding of the real situation, 
 and the hasty legislation of such times has usually 
 been repealed upon the sober second thought of the 
 people, for in the language of our great Lincoln: 
 "You can fool all the people some of the time, some 
 of the people all the time, but you can't f pol all the 
 people all the time." 
 
 A striking illustration of the change in sentiment 
 which has taken place in the public mind in regard 
 to railroads, is the recent election by the Legislature 
 of New York to the United States Senate of the 
 Honorable Chauncey M. Depew, a man whose whole 
 life has been spent in the closest association with 
 the transportation interests of the country. This 
 event is especially significant, and marks a new era 
 in the history of our country — an era of better 
 understanding and closer and more amicable relations 
 between the commercial, agricultural and industrial 
 interests and the transportation interests of the 
 United States. 
 
 Its Peculiar Significance. 
 
 The election of so prominent a representative of 
 the transportation interests of America to one of 
 the highest political positions in the gift of the 
 people, came with peculiar significance in the same 
 week and almost on the same day that two of the 
 imperial governments of Europe gave to the world 
 
their endorsement of the idea that modem trans- 
 portation facilities form the surest foundation upon 
 which to build and sustain a nation. 
 
 Germany Extends its Railroads and Praises Ours^ 
 
 The Emperor of Germany in his speech to the 
 Prussian Diet, in January last, did not lay the great- 
 est stress upon the necessity for increasing the 
 army, or for the construction of additional ships for 
 the navy, but he did impress upon his hearers the 
 great importance of extending the railroads and the 
 navigable canals. 
 
 In order that the German nation might have know- 
 ledge of the most advanced theories and practice in 
 the construction and operation of railways, an Im- 
 perial German Commission was sent to the United 
 States a short time ago, for the purpose of examining 
 American Railways and making such recommendations 
 as their investigation should suggest. 
 
 In the report of this commission, which was re- 
 cently published, one of the first sentences is as 
 follows: ''Lack of speed, lack of comfort, lack of 
 cheap rates, are the charges brought against the Ger- 
 man Empire's railways, as compared with those of the 
 United States." They recommended the adoption 
 of many of our methods, explaining in their report 
 that they were far superior, not only to those in 
 vogue in Germany, but also superior to those of any 
 other country. 
 
 Influence of Railroads in Russia* 
 
 The Budget of the Russian Empire for 1899 dis- 
 closes the almost incredible efforts in railway exten- 
 sion that the imperial government of the Czar is 
 putting forth; in this year alone, one hundred and 
 nine million roubles will be devoted entirely to the 
 railways, and during the past twelve years four hun- 
 dred and twenty-five million roubles have been thus 
 expended. 
 
 The immense sums which the Russians are devoting 
 to the extension of their railways entirely overshadow 
 the demands ot both the army and navy. 
 
 lO 
 
RaiI]*oad Men in the Cabinet of the Czar* 
 
 It is a fact not generally known that the two men 
 who are nearest to the Czar of Russia, and who,perhaps, 
 have a greater influence than any others m shaping 
 the commercial policy of the present government of 
 that great empire are, M. de Witte, the Imperial 
 Minister of Finance, who, sixteen years ago was a 
 station agent at a small town on one of the railways 
 of Russian Poland; the other is Prince Michel Hilkoff, 
 who, when little more than a boy, left St. Petersburg 
 to seek his fortune, learned mechanical engineering 
 in the City of Philadelphia, and who is to-day the 
 Imperial Minister of Railways of the Russian Empire, 
 and a member of the Cabinet of the Czar. 
 
 China Joins the Army of Progress* 
 More than twenty years ago one of the Imperial 
 Ministers of China, in a report to the Emperor and 
 Empress, urged upon them the construction of a 
 system of railways from their principal ports to the 
 interior of the empire. In his report he used this 
 significant sentence: 
 
 "Japan, which is a mere speck upon the map, is 
 building railways, and her people are being benefited 
 thereby. Should not your Celestial Empire, which 
 comprises one-twelfth of the land area, and one- 
 quarter ot the population of the globe, do as well 
 as this handful of people among the islands of the 
 sea?" 
 
 To-day this suggestion is being carried out, and 
 railroads are being constructed in a dozen different 
 directions in China. 
 
 Railroads Supersede Canals^ 
 
 One hundred years ago the Governor of the great 
 State of New lork advised his friends not to invest 
 theii money or waste their time in aiding the build- 
 ing of railroads, expressing the opinion, that while 
 it was possible that improved methods of construc- 
 tion and perfected m.achinery might, in the remote 
 future, enable the people to move a car upon a rail- 
 road at the rate of five or six miles per hour he did 
 11 
 
not believe that they could ever be made of material 
 advantage, and that any attempt to transport 
 passengers and freight by railroad, from one part of 
 the country to another, must result in endless confu- 
 sion and loss. The Governor died in the belief that 
 the canal was the only means of conveyance for a 
 great commerce. 
 
 Notwithstanding his prediction, the railroads have 
 grown to such vast proportions, that to-day the 
 world's entire stock of money, gold, silver and paper, 
 would not purchase one-third of its railroads. 
 
 The building of the Erie Canal, extending from 
 Buffalo to Albany, a distance of 363 miles, was com- 
 menced July 4th, 1817. It was completed in 1825 
 at a cost of $7,602,000.00. In 1896 the State of 
 New York appropriated $9,000,000.00 for enlarging 
 and improving this canal, and a few figures from the 
 State Report on Canals may be of interest in this 
 connection: 
 
 Reliable statistics of its traffic are not obtainable 
 for the earlier years of its operation, but in accord- 
 ance with the last Annual Report of the Superinten- 
 dent of Public Works of the State of New York, we 
 find that the tonnage of all the property carried on 
 all the canals in both directions, in 1837 was 1,171, 
 296 tons valued at $55,809,288.00. 
 
 The tonnage and the value increased until 1872, 
 when it amounted to 6,673,370 tons, valued at 
 $220,913,321,00. 
 
 From 1872, the tonnage and the value of the 
 property carried decreased, until in 1897 there was 
 only 3,617,804 tons carried, with a value of $96, 
 063,338.00. 
 
 This, in face of the fact that the receipts of grain 
 and flour at Buffalo had increased from 1,184,685 
 bushels in 1837 to 242,140,306 bushels in 1897. 
 
 Decline in Canal Traffic^ 
 
 The greatest number of new boats registered as 
 operating on the canals in a single year was in 1862, 
 when there were 850 new boats. In the year 1897 
 there were only 16 new boats registered. You will 
 
 12 
 
wonder what has caused the abandonment of several 
 canals in the State of New York, and the steady de- 
 cline in the commerce passing through the Erie 
 Canal. 
 
 There are three general causes for these results. 
 The first is the great reduction in the rates of freight 
 by the railroads in the United States, and notably in 
 the State of New York. The second cause is the 
 marvelous development of the motive power and 
 rolling stock of American railways. Less than a 
 quarter of a century ago, upon the average American 
 railroad, the capacity of a freight car was twenty 
 thousand pounds; the capacity of a freight engine 
 was from twenty to thirty of such cars to the train. 
 
 To-day, on the New York Central, whose six tracks 
 run alongside the Erie Canal for the entire distance 
 from Buffalo to Albany, the capacity of the grain cars 
 is from sixty to sixty-six thousand pounds, and a 
 locomotive of the latest type will haul from seventy- 
 five to ninety such cars loaded to their full capacity. 
 It is not an infrequent occurrence for a single engine 
 to haul through the Mohawk Valley, beside the Erie 
 Canal, eighty-five to ninety thousand bushels of grain 
 in a single train. The same engine will haul from 
 one hundred and ten to one hundred and twenty-five 
 empty cars. When you consider that in the busy 
 season there are from seventy-five to one hundred 
 such trains a day passing over the New York Central 
 alone, you will get some conception of the situation. 
 
 Export Trade Requires Fast Time* 
 
 The third cause for the failure of the canals is the 
 general demand of the American public for quick 
 time. A shipper having a hundred thousand barrels 
 of flour, or a million bushels of grain for export, 
 must move it from Buffalo to New York within a 
 specified time, and he cannot risk the slow process 
 of the canal. 
 
 Railroads Essential to Progress. 
 
 In a recent address before the Chamber of Com- 
 merce of Rochester, N. Y., I cited this illustration 
 
 13 
 
of the difference between modem railway transporta- 
 tion and transportation by canal. 
 
 In 1822 Thurlow Weed, one of the great news- 
 paper men of his day, wrote of what is now the City 
 of Rochester, as follows: 
 
 "Rochester is a straggling village containing about 
 half a hundred inhabitants, but it is a go-a-head 
 place, and from its advantages is destined to become 
 an important inland town." 
 
 At that time Rochester's only means of transpor- 
 tation was the Erie Canal, and the difference between 
 the insignificant village of Rochester in 1822 and 
 the magnificant City of Rochester of to-day, is the 
 difference of its transportation facilities, and this 
 difference is graphically shown by a comparison of 
 the canal packet towed by a mule at the rate of 4 
 miles an hour and the Empire State Express, thun- 
 dering through the Genesee Valley at a speed of 60 
 miles an hour. 
 
 Influence of Railway Advertising* 
 
 American Railway management is always alert and 
 ready to take advantage of every opportunity for 
 extending the commerce of the country, and railway 
 men are among the very first to seize upon each coign 
 of vantage. "Within a week from the day that 
 the Paris Peace Commission adjourned, more 
 than one American railway had ordered the re-en- 
 graving of its maps to include the West Indies, the 
 Hawaiian Islands and the Philippines. The descrip- 
 tion of the beauty of our American lakes and valleys, 
 the magnificence of our rivers, the grandeur of our 
 mountains, the fertility of our soil, the wealth of our 
 mineral resources and the superiority of our manufac- 
 tures, with which our railroad advertising is filled, 
 hab been ol incalculable value to the export trade of 
 the United States. It has induced thousands of 
 foreigners to visit every section of our country who 
 otherwise would never have come here. It has been 
 the means of the investment in the United States 
 of untold millions of foreign capital. It has been 
 
 X4 
 
one of the strongest aids to tlie expansion of American 
 commerce in every direction. 
 
 Marvelous Increase in American Exports. 
 
 The general effect upon our export trade of the 
 increased facilities afforded by American railways is 
 shown in the marvelous increase in our exports, 
 which are now the largest in our history. The in- 
 crease for the eight months ending with August, 
 1899, being twelve million dollars. 
 
 A Century of Marvels. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, we are approaching the end of the 
 nineteenth century, a century which Henry Drum- 
 mond said : " Has added more to the sum of human 
 learning than all the centuries that have passed." 
 
 A few examples of the achievements of American 
 railroads in a little more than half a century, and 
 many of them within the last twenty-five years, can- 
 not be inappropriate. 
 
 Before the railroads were built, it took a week to 
 go from New York to Buffalo, nearly three weeks 
 from New York to Chicago ; and at that time no 
 man would have thought of making a trip from New 
 York to the Pacific Coast, except a few of the hardi- 
 est pioneers, and when on such an occasion the good- 
 byes were said, it was expected on both sides that it 
 would be forever. If to-morrow night you should 
 place a letter on the Pacific and Oriental mail train 
 which leaves New York at 9.15, you may be sure 
 that your correspondent in San Francisco will be 
 reading it next Monday night — four days from New 
 York. 
 
 The framers of our Constitution would have con- 
 sidered a man entirely beside himself, who would 
 have suggested such a possibility. 
 
 What the Railroads Have Accomplished. 
 
 In 1875 the States east of the Missouri River were 
 sending food and clothing to the starving people of 
 Kansas. 
 
 Thanks to the facilities afforded by the railroads 
 
 15 
 
the corn crop of Kansas this year is three hundred 
 and forty million bushels. 
 
 It seems but a very few years since I made my 
 first trip to Colorado, and stopped on my way at the 
 home of Buffalo Bill, at North Platte, Nebraska, on 
 the Union Pacific. At Ogalalla, fifty-one miles west 
 of North Platte, the Sioux Indians were roaming 
 over the prairies and making more or less trouble 
 for the early settlers who ventured so far out of the 
 beaten paths of civilization. The Nebraska corn 
 crop this year covers eight million acres, and the 
 yield is two hundred and ninety million bushels. 
 
 Previous to the construction of the Northern 
 Pacific, the Great Northern, Northwestern, St. Paul, 
 Burlington, Rock Island, and other railways that 
 traverse that wonderful region known as the "wheat 
 belt," there was nothing to be seen but prairie grass 
 and an occasional band of untamed savages. 
 
 Minnesota this year will ship ninety million bushels 
 of wheat. South Dakota forty-five million bushels, 
 North Dakota sixty-five million bushels and Montana 
 four million bushels. 
 
 Development of the Pacific CoslsU 
 
 In 1849 there came across the continent reports 
 of the discovery of gold in California, but the only 
 means of reaching its Golden Gate was by sea around 
 Cape Horn, or the long and perilous journey, with ox 
 teams, across the plains, including what was then 
 styled in our geographies the American desert, and 
 through the hazardous mountain passes of the west- 
 ern part of the continent. 
 
 The completion of the Pacific railroads changed 
 all this and opened new fields for all kinds of enter- 
 prises, in an unexplored territory stretching over 
 more than two thousand miles to the west, north- 
 west and southwest of the Mississippi River, the pro- 
 ducts of which region were practically valueless 
 until the means of transporting them were provided 
 by the railroads. 
 
 The wheat crop of California this year is 37,000, 
 000 bushels. The largest crop ever produced in 
 
 16 
 
California was in 1880, when owing to exceptionally 
 favorable weather conditions that State produced 
 63,000,000 bushels. 
 
 The gold output of California for the year 1899 is 
 estimated at $16,000,000. 
 
 The vineyards and orange groves of California 
 would be of practically little value were it not for 
 the fact that the railroads, by their trains of re- 
 frigerator and ventilated fruit cars, make it possible 
 to transport the products of her fertile valleys to all 
 sections of the country. 
 
 It seems but yesterday that the railroads were 
 completed into Portland, Oregon, Tacoma and Seattle, 
 Washington, and it is marvelous that for the year 
 ended June 30, 1899, there was exported from 
 the Columbia River Valley 16,000,000 bushels of 
 wheat, and from the Puget Sound region, 10,000,000 
 bushels. 
 
 Oregon and Washington form the northwest cor- 
 ner of the territory of the United States, south of 
 the line of British Columbia, and are directly on the 
 route to our extreme northwest possession, Alaska. 
 
 The wheat crop of the States of Oregon and 
 Washington for the year 1899 is 48,600,000 bushels. 
 
 There were exported during the year ended June 
 30th, 1899, from the Columbia River direct to 
 foreign ports, 1,100,000 barrels of flour, and from 
 Puget Sound points 800,000 barrels. 
 
 'Colorado, which, with its inexhaustible mines of 
 gold, silver, lead, iron and coal, forms almost an 
 empire in itself, will produce this year of 1899 of 
 gold, $24,000,000 ; of silver, $14,200,000 ; of lead, 
 $4,400,000, in addition to a magnificent crop of 
 wheat, fruit and vegetables. 
 
 Thanks to her railroad facilities Montana is to- 
 day the richest mineral region of its size in the world. 
 The latest published statistics — those of 1897 — give 
 the mineral output of Montana as $54,000,000. 
 
 Without railroads, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, 
 North and South Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Cali- 
 fornia, Oregon and Washington would still be the 
 home of savages. 
 
 17 
 
Service of American Railroads* 
 
 It is beyond question that American railroads to- 
 day furnish the best service in the world, at the 
 lowest rates of fare, at the same time pajdng their 
 employees very much higher wages than are paid 
 for similar service in any other country on the 
 globe. 
 
 In the United States the first class passenger fares 
 last year averaged 1.98 cents per mile, although on 
 some large railways the average was several mills 
 less than two cents per mile ; in England the first- 
 class fare is four cents per mile ; third class fare 
 for vastly inferior service is two cents per mile, but 
 only on certain parlimentary trains. 
 
 In Prussia, the first class fare is 3 cents per mile ; 
 in Austria, 3.05 cents per mile ; and in France, 3.36 
 cents per mile. 
 
 Our passenger cars excel those of foreign countries 
 in all that goes to make up the comfort and conve- 
 nience of a journey. 
 
 Our sleeping and parlor car system is vastly supe- 
 rior to theirs ; our baggage system is infinitely 
 better than theirs and arranged upon a much more 
 liberal basis. American railroads carry 150 pounds 
 of baggage free, while the German roads carry 
 only 55 pounds free. 
 
 The lighting of our trains is superb, while the 
 lighting of trains on most foreign lines is wretched. 
 
 Some Strikingf Examples* 
 
 I may be pardoned for citing two examples of 
 what I mean by the unsurpassed passenger train 
 facilities of American railways. 
 
 A single locomotive recently hauled a passenger 
 train of sixteen cars, nine of which were sleeping 
 and parlor cars, from New York to Albany, a dis- 
 tance of 143 miles, in three hours and 15 minutes, 
 which is 44 miles per hour, and is the regular sched- 
 ule time of this train. The train weighed 1,832,000 
 pounds, and was 1,212 feet, or nearly a quarter of a 
 mile long. 
 
 18 
 
The Empire State Express has for years been 
 making the run from New York to Buffalo, 440 miles 
 in eight hours and 15 minutes, an average speed of 
 53 1-3 miles an hour, including four stops — two of 
 them for changing engines — and 28 slow-downs, on 
 account of running through incorporated towns and 
 cities. 
 
 For one stretch of 22 miles, another of 17 miles, 
 another of 16 miles, and another of 60 miles, the 
 regular schedule time is exactly 60 miles an hour. 
 
 For one stretch of 12 miles it is 63.40 miles an 
 hour. For another stretch of nearly ten miles, it 
 is 64.86 miles an hour. 
 
 The weight of this train is 608,000 pounds, and it 
 has a seating capacity for 248 passengers. 
 
 These are some of the achievements of American 
 railways in passenger service that have not been 
 approached in any other country on the globe, and 
 in my opinion it is achievements of this character 
 that have made it possible for the United States to 
 expand its commerce with such astounding rapidity. 
 
 The fact that American passenger service attracts 
 the attention of people of every other country who 
 visit our shores is demonstrated by the desire of all 
 foreigners to ride on the Empire State Express — the 
 fastest long-distance train in the world — and the 
 further desire to examine the magnificent machines 
 that haul our great trains. 
 
 Extent of American G)mmerce, 
 
 The extent of our commerce, both domestic and 
 foreign, may well astonish the representatives of 
 other lands who visit us for the first time, but the 
 extent of the territory of the United States made 
 possible by the negotiations of Admiral Dewey in 
 May, 1898, supplemented by those of the Peace 
 Commission at Paris, will surprise our own people, as 
 well as our cousins from across the water 
 
 We thought before the purchase of Alaska that 
 our territory was large, but what vistas of commer- 
 cial enterprise present themselves to us as we con- 
 
 19 
 
template the fact that it is 3,144 miles from San 
 Francisco to St. Michaels, Alaska, where an empire 
 in extent awaits development by American capital 
 and energy — and that it is 7,729 miles from San 
 Francisco to Manila on the Island of Luzon, and that 
 this is only one of hundreds of rich islands that 
 await similiar development. Nor overlooking the 
 Hawaiian Islands which lie in our new ocean pathway. 
 
 Saturday afternoon last a United States cruiser 
 left New York for Manila, via the Suez Canal, and 
 the Sunday papers stated it would take her three 
 months to reach her destination. 
 
 Railroad men will be interested in knowing that 
 the Manila and Dagupan Railroad on the island of 
 Luzon, which is the principal one of our Philippine 
 group, is laid upon mahogany ties, the road passing 
 through forests of that valuable wood and over in- 
 exhaustable beds of coal and other rich minerals. 
 Shall we wonder then that American railroads are 
 seeking connections that will secure a portion of the 
 commerce that must come from the development of 
 this rich region, which has so recently been added 
 to the territory of the United States? 
 
 Trade Follows the FIa§f« 
 
 If it is true that "trade follows the flag," then 
 with co-operation and reciprocity between the great 
 transportation interests of the United States and 
 the commercial and industrial interests of our 
 Republic, and with proper encouragement given to 
 American shipping, our commerce should be as diver- 
 sified as are the products of our soil, our mines and 
 our mills; and our export trade should reach every 
 mart on the earth, and should flourish on every sea 
 and river where vessels ply; for, since the almost 
 miraculous events in Manila Bay and off Santiago, we 
 may paraphrase the sentiment of Joaquin Miller in 
 regard to Colorado and say of our flag, "it floats 
 forever in the sun." 
 
 20 
 
ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ^'FOUR-TRACK SERIES/^ 
 
 A BOOK OF BOOKS 
 FOR TRAVELERS. 
 
 ^2^^ ^2^ t2^ 
 
 'roUR-TRACK SCRICS. 
 NO. 18. 
 
 A copy of the Illustrated Catalogue of the *' Four 
 Track Series " is an essential part of the equipment 
 of every traveler. It is beautifully printed on 
 
 coated paper,, and in 
 addition to a brief 
 review of the various 
 books and etchings 
 comprised in the se- 
 ries, it contains ^ 
 half-tone reproduc- 
 tion on a small scale 
 of the title page of 
 each book, and the 
 subject of each etch- 
 ing. 
 
 A copy will be sent 
 free, post-paid, to 
 any address on re- 
 ceipt of a one-cent 
 stamp, by George H, Daniels, General Passenger 
 Agent, Grand Central Station, New York. 
 
 21 
 
''FOUR TRACK . SERIES/^ 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 The Railroad and the Dictionary. 
 
 'rOUB-THACK SERIES. 
 
 i iiiii i iiiiiiiiiirii iiiiimi 
 
 iiiiiii.iiiiiiiiiiniiiiii i i i ii iiiiii iiiim.rn ii v 
 
 THE 
 
 RAILROAD 
 
 "Life's stream liurries all too fast ; 
 In vain, sedate reflections we 
 
 would make. 
 When half our knowledge we 
 must snatch, not take." 
 
 —Pope. 
 
 AND THE 
 
 DICTIONARY 
 
 PgSSUED By THE NEW YORK CENTRAL I 
 Bg & HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD 
 Kul BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE 
 PUBLISHERS or THE CENTURY DICTIONARY. ± : 
 
 ] ii iiini;iiiin!!!'!!!'!:!i! 
 
 "AMERICAS GREATEST DICTIONARY**: 
 
 :iiiiiiim!iui!'!!;;^''-:'--'i':;i; :afflj: ■ 
 
 A very useful little book, 
 particularly to students and 
 teachers. The railroad now 
 occupies so important a place 
 in the world of commerce and 
 of letters, that a knowledge 
 of railroad terms is essential 
 to almost every one. 
 
 In this small work may be 
 found the definitions of a 
 great many technical expres- 
 sions in common use; also an 
 interesting article on railroad 
 bridges. The book is illus- 
 trated with cuts of the various 
 appliances used in the con- 
 struction and operation of 
 modern railroads, among 
 which is a complete diagram 
 of a passenger engine with 
 all the parts named. The 
 characteristics of different 
 styles of American and foreign locomotives are also pointed out. 
 
 It will be observed that 
 the cover lettering, color of 
 ink and paper follow closely 
 the design of the Century 
 Dictionary cover. Its center- 
 piece is a fac-simile repro- 
 duction of the Century Dic- 
 tionary in combination with 
 a cut of the world-famous 
 Empire State Express of the 
 New York Central. 
 
 Among the illustrations 
 are full page, half-tone en- 
 gravings of the new fast 
 passenger engines of the 
 New York Central, and the 
 interior of a parlor car. , j^ Signal Tower. 
 
 Sent free to any address, post-paid, on receipt of a 1-cent stamp. 
 22 
 
 Cover Copyrighted by 
 Geo. H. Daniels, Gen'l Pass'r Agt. 
 
'^FOUR-TRACK SERffiS/^ 
 
 No. i. 
 
 The Luxury of Modern Railway Travel. 
 
 FOUR-TRACK SERIES.' 
 NO. 1. 
 
 
 A» •X.USTMATCO BY THC 
 
 (i!istrAIa 
 
 riT®- 
 
 af,i (onneetionj 
 
 " We are advertised by our loving 
 friends." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 This is one of the most beau- 
 tiful books of the kind ever 
 published ; it has thirty-two 
 pages, narrow octavo, printed in 
 several colors, on heavy coated 
 paper; contains twenty-two 
 illustrations, a map of the route 
 and a diagram of a modern Wag- 
 ner vestibuled train of five cars, 
 twenty-four inches long. 
 
 This handsome little brochure, 
 presents, in an attractive and in- 
 teresting manner, the perfection 
 to which modern means of travel 
 have attained, and contains use- 
 ful information for every trav- 
 eler and every person interested 
 in the development of one of the 
 most important agencies of nine- 
 teenth century civilization. 
 
 The frontispiece is a handsome 
 
 half-tone engraving of the 
 standard passenger locomo- 
 tive of the New York Cen- 
 tral, which towers like a 
 Gulliver above the two men 
 — in comparison, Lilliputi- 
 ans — ^who stand at its side. 
 The buffet and cafe cars, th- 
 interior of a sleeping car, 
 the interior of a compart- 
 ment car, a parlor car and a 
 dining car, are all elegantly 
 pictured. 
 
 The text of the book is an 
 illustration of the highest 
 style of typographical art. 
 ^nt free to any address, post-paid, on receipt of a 1-cent stamp. 
 
 Interior of Wagner Palace 
 Sleeping Car. 
 
 23 
 
"FOUR-TRACK 
 
 No. 25. 
 
 SERIES." 
 
 A MESSAGE TO GARCIA. 
 
 'rOUR*TRACK .SEAICS. 
 NO- 26. 
 
 A MESSAGE 
 
 To GARCIA 
 
 ^ 
 
 A prominent New YorlT 
 detgyman tays of " A 
 Mettagc to Garcia," " It 
 it gotpel trnth every 
 word of it. ItJ publica- 
 tion wilL do great good." 
 
 IN EXPLANATION. 
 
 Thb imall preadunent by ElbcH Hubbard 
 wai bnX printed in the Philistine' Magazine for 
 March, 1899. It was then done into a booiLlct 
 by the Roycroften at the Roycroft Shop, which 
 J> In East / urara. Eric County, N(W York, 
 U.&A. 
 
 Having received to many requests frora 
 Clergymen, Teachers and others interested in 
 I he education of the young for copies of "A 
 Message to Garcia," «re have decided, after 
 securing the kind permission of the author, 
 to make it one of our "FOUR -TRACK 
 SERIES," which Is an educational as well as 
 a travel senes, and to print it in editions of one 
 hundred thousand until the demand is nipplicd. 
 It h lakes the entire Twentieth Century to 
 
 GEOROE H. PANELS, 
 
 Cental Passenger Agent, 
 
 This little brochure con- 
 tains a homily or "preach- 
 ment," written by Mr. Elbert 
 Hubbard, editor of the "Phil- 
 istine Magazine," ol East 
 Aurora, Erie Co., New York, 
 and published in the March, 
 1899, number of that peri- 
 odical. 
 
 IL contains about as much 
 practical wisdom as could be 
 well printed in this small 
 space, and should be read by 
 every young man or woman 
 entering upon a business 
 career, and by those who 
 need enlightenment as to 
 their duties and the best way 
 to perform them. 
 
 It also contains a map of 
 the New York Central Lines, 
 and a number of very fine 
 half-tone illustrations, prom- 
 inent among which are the 
 United States Battleship 
 "Oregon" and Cruiser 
 " Raleigh." 
 
 Sent free, post-paid to any 
 address in the world, on re- 
 ceipt of a postage stamp is- 
 sued by any country on the 
 globe, or it will be sent in 
 packages of 100 each, on 
 receipt of fifty cents for 
 each 100, to cover express 
 charges. 
 
 Copyright, 1898, by J. C. Hemment. 
 United States Battleship "Oregon,' 
 
 24, 
 
^J 
 
 4 
 
 i 
 
 i