INFLUENCE OF RAILROADS.
5. The effect of a judicious system of railroads upon any community is to increase consumption and to stimulate the production of agricultural products; to distribute more generally the population, to cause a balance between supply and demand, and to increase both the amount and safety of travelling. It is stated that within two years after the opening of the New York and Erie Railroad, it was carrying more agricultural produce than the entire quantity which had been raised throughout the tributary country before the road was built.
6. The following table, cut from a Chicago paper, shows the effect of railroad transport upon the cost of grain in that market:—
| Wheat. | Corn. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| By R. R. | By Wagon. | By R. R. | By Wagon. | |
| At market, | $49.50 | $49.50 | $25.60 | $25.60 |
| 10 miles, | 49.25 | 48.00 | 24.25 | 23.26 |
| 50 miles, | 48.75 | 42.00 | 24.00 | 17.25 |
| 100 miles, | 48.00 | 34.50 | 23.25 | 9.75 |
| 150 miles, | 47.25 | 27.00 | 22.50 | 2.25 |
| 200 miles, | 46.50 | 19.50 | 21.75 | 0.00 |
| 250 miles, | 45.75 | 12.00 | 21.00 | 0.00 |
| 300 miles, | 45.00 | 4.50 | 20.25 | 0.00 |
| 330 miles, | 44.55 | 0.00 | 19.80 | 0.00 |
Thus a ton of corn carried two hundred miles, costs, per wagon transport, more than it brings at market; while moved by railroad, it is worth $21.75 per ton. Also wheat will not bear wagon transport of three hundred and thirty miles; while moved that distance by railroad it is worth $44.55 per ton.
7. By railroads, large cities are supplied with fresh meats and vegetables, butter, eggs, and milk. An unhealthy increase of density of population is prevented, by enabling business men to live five, ten, or fifteen miles away from the city and yet do business therein. The amount of this diffusion is as the square of the speed of transport. If a person walks four miles per hour, and supposing one hour allowed for passing from the house to the place of business, he cannot live at a greater distance than four miles from his work. The area, therefore, which may be lived in, is the circle of which the radius is four, the diameter eight, and the area fifty and one quarter square miles. If by horse one can go eight miles per hour, the diameter becomes sixteen miles, and area two hundred and one square miles; and, if by railroad he moves thirty miles per hour, the diameter becomes sixty miles, and the area 2,827 square miles. The effect of such diffusion is plainly seen about Boston, (Massachusetts). People who in 1830 were mostly confined to the city, now live in Dorchester, Milton, Dedham, Roxbury, Brookline, Brighton, Cambridge, Charlestown, Somerville, Chelsea, Lynn, and Salem; places distant from two to thirteen miles.
8. In railroads, as in other labor saving (and labor producing) machines, the innovation has been loudly decried. But though it does render some classes of labor useless, and throw out of employment some persons, it creates new labor far more than the old, and gives much more than it takes away. Twenty years of experience shows that the diminished cost of transport by railroad invariably augments the amount of commerce transacted, and in a much larger ratio than the reduction of cost. It is estimated by Dr. Lardner, that 300,000 horses working daily in stages would be required to perform the passenger traffic alone, which took place in England during the year 1848. It is concluded, also, from reliable returns, that could the whole number of passengers carried by railroad, have been transported by stage, the excess of cost by that method above that by railroad would have been $40,000,000.