A phenomenon of national importance was the rapid expansion of export trade in staple commodities, through New Orleans, Galveston and other Gulf ports. This began in 1889 when the Illinois Central first engaged in export business in grain. It soon assumed considerable proportions, with the growth of population and agriculture in the southwestern part of the United States; and, with the completion of the Panama Canal in 1913, will doubtless be even more notable in future. The opening of new railway connections with these Gulf ports about 1896 led to still further expansion of this trade. An immediate result was of course a decline in the relative importance of the great Atlantic seaports, particularly New York. A growing appreciation of this fact is accountable for the great interest in New York state in projects for enlarging the Erie Canal. A few figures, together with the diagram on the next page, illustrate the situation. A generation ago about nine-tenths of our exports of wheat and about seven-tenths of our exports of flour, went out through the port of New York. In 1899 less than one-half of our wheat and less than one-third of our flour was exported through the same city. The larger part of this loss ensued after 1896, with the opening of new lines to the Gulf ports as above mentioned. The New York Commerce Commission in its report for 1900 found that for 1899, while the nation's total foreign shipments of wheat was larger than at any time since 1892, New York actually exported twenty million bushels less than seven years earlier. Exports in 1900 were the smallest in her history, forming, that is to say, the lowest proportion of the total exports of the United States. They were actually about a million bushels of wheat less than went out through the two principal Gulf ports. An indirect result of this growth of New Orleans and Galveston was an intense competition between all the Atlantic trunk lines interested in the eastern seaports and the railroads tributary to the Gulf of Mexico. The part of the country most affected by this competition, of course, was that portion about equidistant from the two sea coasts. This rivalry led to rate wars on a scale not witnessed before since the trunk line struggles during the seventies. St. Louis, Kansas City and all the region thereabouts, enjoyed the benefit of ruinously low rates as a consequence,--an advantage not accorded to other parts of the country. One cannot doubt that this factor was most influential in encouraging the growth of their population and trade. [Illustration: EXPORT OF WHEAT BY SEAPORTS MILLION BUSHELS]