Mississippi River to New York, 1200 miles, for $3.20 per ton.
The value of farm property in Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin increased in the last ten years 83 per cent; in Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas, 165 per cent; in Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, 197 per cent. The increase in the value of farm property in all the States named has been from $7,640,940,000 in 1900 to $17,762,401,000 in 1910, or more than $10,000,000,000, — at the enormous rate of $1,000,000,000 per year. Without the rail transportation furnished by the American railroad-owner this great increase in national wealth would have been impossible. In 1880 the capital employed in manufacturing in this country was $2,790,272,606, and in 1905 it was $13,872,035,371, — an increase in twenty-five years of $11,000,000,000 or $440,000,000 a year. Without the work of the railroad-owner in creating the transportation machine that has enabled the country to expand its population, with a resulting increase in farm values of $1,000,000,000
