The length of railroads in the world has grown from 206 miles in 1830 to about 400,000 miles in 1892. The following table shows the growth of railroad mileage by quinquennial periods:
| YEAR. | MILES. |
| 1830 | 206 |
| 1835 | 1,502 |
| 1840 | 5,335 |
| 1845 | 10,825 |
| 1850 | 23,625 |
| 1855 | 42,340 |
| 1860 | 66,413 |
| 1865 | 90,280 |
| 1870 | 131,638 |
| 1875 | 182,927 |
| 1880 | 231,190 |
| 1885 | 303,172 |
| 1890 | 385,000 |
From this table it is seen that the railroad mileage of the world has doubled during the past fifteen years, and that its average annual increase is at present not far from 17,000 miles. There is no doubt that the extent of railroad construction has everywhere exceeded all anticipations. So fast has the railroad system expanded in the most highly civilized countries that it soon outgrew in nearly all of them the laws originally adopted for railroad control. In time an almost universal demand arose for reform, and the most progressive governments were not slow in heeding it. For the past fifteen years there has been a decided drift on the European continent toward state ownership of railroads, or to such strict control of the transportation business as virtually deprives the operating companies of the power to do injustice to the public.
The railroad is assuming more and more the character of an international highway. A movement is on foot to connect the railroad systems of the United States with those of South America by an intercontinental or "Pan-American" railroad. Appropriations have been made by the United States and several of the South American republics for a preliminary survey of the proposed line. Three different surveying parties are in the field, one in Central America and the other two in the United States of Colombia and Ecuador. The progress so far reported by them is encouraging, and there is now some hope that before the close of the nineteenth century one may be able to travel by railroad from New York to Valparaiso without even a change of cars.
It has also been proposed to span Behring Strait and connect North America with Asia and Europe by an international railway. This line, if constructed, would be simply an extension of the proposed Pan-American railroad and would follow the western coast of the United States as far as Behring Strait, then cross over into Asia, traverse Siberia and finally reach London via St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris. It is very questionable whether such a line is at present feasible either from a technical or financial point of view, but the time will probably come when the railroad track will connect New York and London.
CHAPTER IV.
MONOPOLY IN TRANSPORTATION.
From time immemorial efforts have been made by designing men to control either commerce or its avenues, the highways on the land and on the sea, by a power which law, custom, ingenuity, artifice or some other agency had placed into their hands.