Thurman William Van Metre

“ To a nation inhabiting a great continent not yet traversed by artificial roads and canals, the rivers of which above their natural navigation have hitherto been very little improved, many of whose people are at this moment closely settled upon lands, which actually sink from one-fifth to one-half of the value of their crops in the mere charges of transporting them to seaport towns, and others, of whose inhabitants cannot at present send their produce to a seaport for its whole value, a thorough sense of the truth of the position is a matter of unequalled magnitude and importance. ”

“ The term "internal commerce," though in its fullest signification embracing every purchase, sale, and exchange of commodities between the individuals of a country together with the business of transmitting intelligence and of transporting persons and things from place to place, is here used primarily as applying to the interchanges of commodities among the various sections of the United States carried on over interior lines of transportation--the rivers, highways, canals, lakes and railroads. ”

“ The localization of many industries within the manufacturing belt itself was an important factor in determining the course of internal trade between the manufacturing states and the rest of the country and among the manufacturing states themselves, which were the largest consumers as well as the largest producers of manufactured goods. The increase in the value of the products of manufactures from $2,000,000,000 in 1859 to $13,000,000,000 in 1899 gives an idea of the expansion in the trade in manufactured commodities, the details of which it is impossible here to consider. ”

“ At the close of the period before the war it had been demonstrated that railroads could economically carry high grade freight such as flour, live stock, lighter manufactured goods and general merchandise, but as yet they had been unable to compete successfully with waterways for the transportation of grain, and the carriage for long distances of such low-grade freight as coal and ore had not been attempted. As the railway developed, however, its use was extended, and it was soon found that there was no commodity so cheap that it could not be profitably handled. ”

“ If England would not buy food products from the United States, the United States must refuse to buy manufactures from England, and must, by the establishment of manufacturing industries at home, give rise to a non-agricultural population that would consume the redundant supplies of meat and grain. The problem of attracting capital to manufacturing enterprises, the farmers proposed to solve by the creation of a system of protective tariffs that would check importations and encourage investment in mills and factories at home. ”

“ The Civil War marked a notable turning point in the economic history of the United States. National development since 1860 has been shaped to a large degree by fundamental political and economic changes that occurred during the war—changes which were for the moat part the effect of various expedients resorted to by the federal government to bring the struggle for the preservation of the Union to a successful issue. ”

“ The laboring population of the growing manufacturing towns reaped immense benefits from the cheaper and better means of subsistence they could now secure, while the shipments of merchandise westward on the canal exceeded in value the receipts of raw produce at tide-water. New York had achieved economic unity at a single stroke. ”

“ Because of the importance of slavery as the underlying cause of the war, there has been a natural tendency to regard its abolition as the most striking and significant net result of the great conflict, but it is to be doubted whether the emancipation of the negro had as great an effect on subsequent economic development as the other innovations, which were so obscured by the turmoil of the war that they received but little attention and were regarded as being of much less significance. ”

“ The growth of agriculture proceeded on a magnificent scale. Within two decades after the war the United States assumed the leading place among all nations of the world in the production of grain and live stock, maintaining at the same time its supremacy as a producer and exporter of cotton and tobacco. Countless thousands of acres of virgin soil west of the Mississippi River were given away under the provisions of the famous Homestead Act of 1862 and by 1880 the continent was practically settled from one coast to the other. ”

“ As is usual in a new country, the settlers who had first pushed into the interior had founded their new homes close to the rivers, and these natural highways had always been and still were the most important means of transportation to and from the seacoast. At the mouths of the larger streams flowing into the Atlantic Ocean were to be found large and wealthy cities, where enterprising men were laying the foundations of large fortunes in a rapidly growing trade in the agricultural and forest products floated down from the interior. ”

“ While the country was being agitated by the tariff controversy and exceptionally bitter political contests, the New York canals were opened for traffic throughout their entire length (October, 1825) . No other single work in the United States has ever had a more beneficial effect on the prosperity of internal trade. The opening of the canals brought to an end what had been the bane of internal commerce for half a century—the excessive cost of freight transportation. ”

“ In the forty years following 1860 the number of people in the United States, exclusive of outlying possessions, rose from 31,000,000 to 76,000,000, the wealth of the nation grew from $16,000,000,000 to $89,000,000,000. These figures convey some idea of the progress of the country as a whole. Such an advance was possible only by the most rapid expansion of all the numerous lines of industry to which the resources and energies of the nation were devoted. ”

“ Labor, capital and transportation facilities alone were needed and as these increased the wealth production of the United States multiplied with astonishing rapidity. The extension of the railway system permitted the constant growth of agriculture and rendered accessible the mineral and forest products in which the land abounded; cheap and plentiful raw materials from field, mine and forest, made possible a phenomenal increase of manufacturing. ”

“ With the growth of population and wealth, the diversification of industry and the development of canals and railroads, there was a great increase in internal commerce. The trade of this period consisted of a few well-defined currents flowing between certain sections. A large volume of products, mainly agricultural, went from the Central States to the East, and a traffic of less volume but of greater value moved in the reverse direction. There was a heavy internal movement from the Northern to the Southern States and a light movement from the South to the North. ”

“ Because of its isolated position Boston had not shared in the direct trade with the Central States, but had been compelled to buy and sell through the merchants of New York and Philadelphia. The new railroad completely altered the position of Boston and brought an era of great prosperity to the city, at the same time demonstrating the practicability of the steam road as a carrier of nearly all kinds of freight. ”

“ The disregard which too many of these interests evinced for the welfare of the general public and the power which they possessed to thwart the efforts of the public to protect itself created most of the great questions which confronted the nation—questions of such serious nature as to dim the record of achievement and material progress from 1860 to 1900. ”

“ The opening of the Mississippi marked the beginning of an active internal commerce within the United States. The farmers of the Ohio Valley, which was now being rapidly settled, found an outlet for their heavy agricultural produce, and consequently secured a purchasing power, enabling them to buy manufactured goods and merchandise, which, notwithstanding the distance and the inferior roads, could be carried to them in wagons from the East. ”

“ As soon as the Ohio Canal was completed (1832) there was a diversion of traffic from the Mississippi River to Lake Erie, and as early as 1838, the receipts of western wheat and flour at Buffalo were larger than the receipts at New Orleans. The repeal of the English Corn Laws in 1846 gave a great stimulus to cereal production in the United States. As the population of the Central States increased and as canals and railroads were built to connect all parts of the cereal belt with the lake cities, the lake grain trade constantly swelled in volume. ”

“ The anxiety to connect the Atlantic and Pacific coasts by rail led the federal government to adopt the practice of granting large subsidies to the builders of great transcontinental railway lines. The stimulation which the war gave to manufacturing and transportation in the North and the shrewd manipulation of the money market during the years of the national crisis made possible the accumulation and concentration of large quantities of capital funds under the control of a small number of persons. ”

“ Living close along the ocean where numerous excellent harbors and long stretches of sheltered water gave ample facilities for the little inter-colonial trade that existed, and where rivers afforded natural means of transportation from the interior to towns on the coast, the people of early colonial days had not found it necessary to give much time to the construction of roads. The gradual inland movement of the population had finally compelled them, however, to give some attention to the means of land transportation and many rude earth roads were built to replace the old Indian trails. ”

“ The multiplication of factories in the North together with the spread of cotton culture in the South and the opening of foreign markets to American grain brought about the demand for cereal products, which the agricultural interests had been so anxious to create. When the market problem was solved, the tariff duties were reduced to a revenue basis.
In the solution of the transportation problem the people freely used their political institutions. Nearly all the numerous canals built after 1825 and several of the early railroads were public enterprises, undertaken by state governments. ”

“ The inclined planes which carried the traffic across the mountains proved to be an expensive and cumbersome device, and because of a lack of better transportation facilities, the trade of Philadelphia and Baltimore suffered constant losses, and for a time it seemed that New York was destined to monopolize the entire commerce between the Atlantic coast and the trans-Appalachian region. ”

“ An abundance of unoccupied land, of rich and varied natural resources, favorable climatic conditions, a complete absence of checks on individual initiative and enterprise and of restrictions on internal communication and trade, and the encouragement afforded to industry by the liberal policies of the federal government all combined to create economic opportunities of boundless scope. ”

“ Its new factories were drawing artisans from the East and taking laborers from the country to swell the demand for flour and grain that had recently been seeking in vain for a market. The volume of shipments of food and merchandise down the Mississippi was larger than ever and the manufacturing population of the East, already too large to be fed by the agricultural produce of New England, New York and Pennsylvania, was beginning to draw subsistence from the western farms. ”

“ A growing sense of personal responsibility both on the part of those who suffered from existing conditions and on the part of those who profited by them was paving the way for a speedy application and a willing acceptance of a system of conservative public regulation of private business in which careful consideration would be given to the rights of all persons. ”

“ For a number of years almost the only activity of the public in regard to railroads was to foster and protect the interests of the railroad companies. In the seventies the public gradually came to a realization of the fact that the railroad companies were displaying a lamentable lack of regard for the interests of the public. ”

“ Multitudes of European immigrants, eager to share in the wealth of the new world, poured in and recruited the labor force necessary for the industrial conquest; and the invention and application of labor-saving machinery of every description increased many fold the effectiveness of the effort of each individual. ”

“ In 1900 the ten markets named received about 850,000,000 bushels of grain, including flour, and shipped 650,000,000 bushels.
Live Stock and Meat. The extension of railroads to the grazing lands of the West and the tremendous increase of corn production in the Mississippi Valley after 1860 gave a great impetus to live stock raising. Like the trade in grain the trade in live stock centered around a series of great cities located centrally within easy reach of the producing sections on one side and of the consuming region on the other. ”

“ The only market left to the western farmers was the cities on the eastern coast. Peltry, ginseng and whiskey were almost the only products that would pay their cost of transportation to Philadelphia, and the proceeds derived from the sale of these were sufficient to purchase only a few things of prime necessity such as salt, gunpowder, and some indispensable articles of iron. ”