Lack of Cohesiveness in a Country Without Power.—Those arguments were based on the knowledge that every country in ancient times broke apart because there was no unity of interest established, and because the different parts of the same empire did not become acquainted or associated with each other.
The Railroad as a Factor in Civilization.—The introduction of railroads, by virtue of motive power, changed the whole philosophy of history in this respect. Even in our own country an example of the value of railroads was shown in the binding effect which they produced between the East and the West prior to the Civil War.
All railroads, before that period, ran east and west. Few extended north and south. It is popularly assumed that the antagonism between the North and the South grew out of the question of slavery. This is, no doubt, largely so, as an immediate cause, but it was the direct cause which prevented the building of railroads between the two sections.
It simply reënforces the argument that the motor, the great power of enginery, was not brought into play to unite people who were antagonistic, and who could not, due to imperfect communication, understand each other.
To-day the United States contains an area nearly as great as the whole of Europe, including Russia, with their twenty, or more, different governments. Here we have a united country, with similar laws, habits, customs and religions throughout. In many of those foreign countries the people of adjoining provinces are totally unlike in their characteristics.
It has been shown that wherever this is the case it is due to lack of quick and cheap intercommunication.
The Wonderful Effects of Power.—This remarkable similarity in the conditions of the people throughout the United States is due to the railroads, that great personification of power, notwithstanding the diverse customs and habits of the people which daily come to our shores and spread out over our vast country.
It has unified the people. It has made San Francisco nearer to New York than Berlin was to Paris in the time of Napoleon. The people in Maine and Texas are neighbors. The results have been so far reaching that it has given stability to the government greater than any other force.
But there is another lesson just as wonderful to contemplate. England has an area of only about 58,000 square miles, about the same size as either Florida, Illinois, or Wisconsin.