Part 6 (2/2)
Intercommunication becomes vastly easier; the cost of transportation is lessened by more than one-half; and the wear and destruction of vehicles is reduced to a minimum. In every case the improvement of the road is designed to increase traffic by making a given power do more work in less time.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What have been the effects of Bessemer steel on the carrying power of railways?--on cheapening freight rates?
What would be some of the effects first apparent were a large city like London or New York suddenly cut off from railway communication?
What is meant by a tubular boiler?--by a forced draught?--by a switch?--by an automatic coupler?
Ascertain from a railway official the various danger-signals as indicated by lights, flags, and whistle-blasts.
Why should not crated furniture and coal have the same freight rate?
What is meant by a pool?--by long haul and short haul?--by rebate?
If the rate on a given weight of merchandise is one dollar and fifty cents for five miles, should it be three hundred dollars for one thousand miles?
FOR COLLATERAL READING AND REFERENCE
Hartley's Railroad Transportation.
American Railways.
[Ill.u.s.tration: DISTRIBUTION OF VEGETATION]
CHAPTER VII
FACTORS IN THE LOCATION OF CITIES AND TOWNS
The population of the world is very unevenly distributed. Not far from nine-tenths live in lowland plains, below an alt.i.tude of 1,200 feet, in regions where food-stuffs grow. The remainder live mainly in the gra.s.s-producing regions of the great plateaus, the mining regions or the flood-plains and gra.s.sy slopes of the higher montane regions.
=Communal Life.=--In each of these regions, also, there is a very unequal ma.s.sing of population. In part, the various families live isolated from one another; in part, they gather into cities and villages. In other words the population of a habitable region may be cla.s.sed as _rural_ and _urban_. In the United States and western Europe, agricultural pursuits encourage rural life, each family living on its own estate. In Russia, the agricultural population usually cl.u.s.ter in villages.
The farmer or freeholder who owns or controls his estate, exemplifies the most advanced condition of personal and political liberty. Only a few centuries have elapsed since not only the land but also the life of a subject was the property of the king or the feudal lord, and in those days about the only people living in isolation were outlaws. In most cases the communal system, best exemplified in Russia, marks an intermediate stage between a low and a high state of civilization; in other instances it is necessary in order to insure safety. German farmers in Siberia usually adopt the village plan for this reason.
For the greater part, the non-agricultural population of the civilized world is ma.s.sed in villages and cities for reasons that have nothing to do with either civilization or self-defence. The causes that bring about the ma.s.sing of urban population are many and their operation is complex.
In general, however, it is to facilitate one or more of several things, namely--the receiving, distribution, and transportation of commodities, the manufacture of products, the existence of good harbors, and the existence of minerals and metals necessary in the various industries.
=The Beginnings of Towns and Cities.=--The ”country town” of agricultural regions in many ways is the best type of the centre of population engaged in receiving and disbursing commodities. The farmers living in their vicinity send their crops to it for transportation or final disposition. The country store is a sort of clearing-house, exchanging household and other commodities, such as sugar, tea, coffee, spices, drugs, silks, woollens, cotton goods, farming machinery, and furniture for farm products. A railway station, grain elevator, and one or more banks form the rest of its business equipment.
Usually the town has resulted from a position of easy access. It may be the crossing of two highways, a good landing-place on a river, the existence of a fording-place, a bridge, a ferry, a toll gate, or a point that formed a convenient resting-place for a day's journey. The towns and villages along the ”buffalo” roads are examples almost without number.
The ”siding” or track where freight cars may be held for unloading, has formed the beginning of many a town. The siding was located at the convenience of the railway company; the village resulting could have grown equally well almost anywhere else along the line.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE EFFECT OF POSITION--BUFFALO IS AT THE FOOT OF LAKE ERIE AND THE HEAD OF ERIE Ca.n.a.l; AN EXCELLENT HARBOR FACILITATES ITS COMMERCE]
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