nto closer relations. The rural community which
takes pains to have good roads not only lessens the cost of hauling grain
to market by saving friction and toil, but actually enlarges its market at
home. Hard roads enable them to do four times the work they can do on soft
roads. In the same way any improvement of railroads, construction of pipe
lines for gas and oil, or introduction of pneumatic tubes, for mails and
light packages in cities, directly spreads the range of market for the
products of every individual laborer and makes more sure the returns for
any effort he may give in production. Perhaps this is even more easily
seen by considering how the world's markets are opened by improvement in
water transportation. Water freight on a bushel of wheat from Chicago to
New York from 1865 to 1874 averaged over twenty-two cents; from 1885 to
1894 it was less than seven cents.

The universality of markets for all kinds of products is clearly shown by
realizing what we have within reach of every country community today. Such
easy transportation adds to the productive abilities of every person. Over
ordinary roads the cost of transporting wheat two hundred miles is equal
to its value at the end of the journey. Corn will usually pay its way not
more than half that distance. So in countries where railroads do not exist
the people consume only what they themselves produce, or devote themselves
to very few products, and so occupy only a portion of their time. In the
best developed regions of our country, every family can reach a steady
supply of all kinds of goods, and can know that every article produced has
its proper place in the market without waste. The cost of delivering bread
in Boston is greater than the cost of carrying the flour in it two
thousand miles. This ready transportation leads to more complete and more
definite occupation and so to larger returns in the way of satisfaction
from all efforts. The extended market gives added value to all permanent
or fixed capital. It makes both farms and homes more useful, if full
advantage of such improvements is taken. At the same time, values of land
tend toward an equality throughout the world.

_Diminishing cost of transportation._--That the cost of transportation
keeps diminishing in spite of combinations of capital to prevent it, and
in spite of local legislation restricting it, proves that the increasing
perfection of machinery and the accession of capital in railroads an