Again, the railway at once causes the concentration of people in cities and at the same time is the prime factor in the creation of cities. It is impossible that such inland towns as Atlanta and Denver, for example, could have acquired their present importance without the facilities for carriage and intercourse which railroads provide. In 1870 nearly forty-seven per cent of all our people employed in gainful occupations were engaged in farming; while only twenty years later barely thirty-six per cent were following that pursuit. And what is still more suggestive, the recent census shows that more than one-third of our entire population live in towns of 5,000 inhabitants and upwards, as against less than seven per cent in 1830. That so great a change has taken place in so short a time in the geographic distribution of our people can only be explained by the potent force of steam transportation, while the fact itself has a social significance which can hardly be overstated. In the region west of the Alleghanies the railroad has been the pioneer in opening up unoccupied lands for settlement, while the lines upon which railroads were there built and the points they reached determined the location and growth of numerous towns and cities in that great section of country. On the other hemisphere, as is well known, a wonderful railway is now pushing to completion across the vast stretches of Siberia, a territory larger than the United States and Europe combined, connecting the capital of Russia with the Pacific Ocean. The consummation of that project cannot but have immense effect upon the commerce, industries, social welfare and military power of a large portion of the world’s inhabitants. In connection with this should be observed the rapid increase in stationary steam power which has been coincident with and primarily caused by steam locomotion. Taken together they make up the colossal forces now exerted in the fields of commerce and industry, in comparison with which all the power of all the beasts of burden is hardly worth the mention. And this in turn reminds us of the mutual action of production, shipping and land transportation in producing the stupendous results we everywhere observe. It is impossible that these gigantic agencies should come into such active operation without the most vital consequences to every phase of human life. Take into account, also, the new and wonderful means of transmitting intelligence. The obstacles of time and distance, hitherto so formidable, are swept away by telegraph and telephone. We send our thought and speech with lightning swiftness to the four quarters of the globe, and hold all lands and peoples within the sphere of instant intercourse. So recent is this miracle that we are still dazzled by its marvels and fail to realize how powerfully it aids the unification of world-wide interests.