ation owes its introduction into
this country. The railroad problem in the United States was quite a
different one from that in Europe. Had we simply copied the railways of
England, we should have ruined the system at the outset, for this country.
In England, where the railroad had its origin, money was plenty, the land
was densely populated, and the demand for rapid and cheap transportation
already existed. A great many short lines connecting the great centers of
industry were required, and for the construction of such in the most
substantial manner the money was easily obtained. In America, on the
contrary, a land of enormous extent, almost entirely undeveloped, but of
great possibilities, lines of hundreds and even thousands of miles in
extent were to be made, to connect cities as yet unborn, and accommodate a
future traffic of which no one could possibly foresee the amount. Money was
scarce, and in many districts the natural obstacles to be overcome were
infinitely greater than any which had presented themselves to European
engineers.

By the sound practical sense and the unconquerable will of George
Stephenson, the numerous inventions which together make up the locomotive
engine had been collected into a machine which, in combination with the
improved roadway, was to revolutionize the transportation of the world. The
railroad, as a machine, was invented. It remained to apply the new
invention in such a manner as to make it a success, and not a failure. To
do this in a new country like America required infinite skill, unbounded
energy, the most careful study of local conditions, and the exercise of
well matured, sound business judgment. To see how well the great invention
has been applied in the United States, we have only to look at the network
of iron roads which now reaches from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico,
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

With all the experience we have had, it is not an easy problem, even at the
present time, to determine how much money we are authorized to spend upon
the construction of a given railroad. To secure the utmost benefit at the
least outlay, regarding both the first cost of building the road and the
perpetual cost of operating it, is the railroad problem which is perhaps
less understood at the present day than any other. It was an equally
important problem fifty years ago, and certainly not less difficult at that
time. It was the fathers of the railroad system in th