OCEAN TRANSPORTATION—ROYAL MAIL STEAMSHIP OCEANIC, WHITE STAR LINE
Beyond an independence that is more apparent than real, such a plan of social and industrial organization has but little in it to commend. Intercommunication increases knowledge, and under the conditions that formerly prevailed, there was a lack of the breadth of knowledge that comes with the mutual contact of peoples.
The utilization of national resources, such as the productiveness of the land, the existence of iron ore, coal, copper, and other economic minerals, finally brought about the policy of a territorial division of industries. This, in turn, made the prompt transportation and exchange of commodities essential; indeed, without such a plan, industrial centres could not long exist.
The man whose sole business is manufacture must look to others for his supply of food-stuffs and raw materials, and these are produced more economically at a distance from the centre of manufacture. Thus England must look to the United States for wheat and cotton, to the Australian Commonwealth for wool, and to New Zealand and the United States for meat. Her chief wealth is in her coal and iron, and these make the nation a great manufacturing centre. So, also, the manufacturer of New York must go to Pittsburg for steel, to Minneapolis for flour, and to Chicago for beef.
The application of this principle is very broad; it is the foundation of all commerce, and it underlies modern civilization. For this reason the question of transportation is just as important to a community as the industries of agriculture, mining, and manufacture. Food-stuffs are of no use unless they can be transported to the people who want them; nor can peoples remain in unproductive regions unless the food-stuffs are brought to them.
The gross tonnage of goods is transported mainly in one or another or all of three ways—namely, by animal power, by railway, or by water. Thus, the cotton-crop of the United States is usually transported by wagon from the plantation to the nearest station or boat-landing; by rail or by barge to the nearest seaport; and by ocean steamship to the foreign seaport.
Water transportation is more economical than land carriage, for the reason that less power is required to move a given tonnage through the water than on the most perfectly graded railway. Steamship freights, as a rule, are lower than those of sailing-vessels, because a steamship has more than twice the speed, and, being larger, can carry a greater tonnage. Freight rates on the Great Lakes are higher per ton-mile than on the ocean, because the vessels are necessarily smaller than those built for ocean traffic. For a similar reason, river and canal freights are higher than lake freights. Railway transportation is economical, partly because a single locomotive will draw an enormous weight of goods, and partly because of the high speed at which the goods move from point to point. Animal transportation is more expensive than any other means ordinarily employed.
Ocean Transportation.—In many respects, water-routes form the most available and economical methods of transportation. Intercontinental commerce must be carried on by means of deep-water vessels. Therefore an extraordinary development of ocean carriers has taken place in the past century.