The railroad is assuming more and more the character of an international highway. A movement is on foot to connect the railroad systems of the United States with those of South America by an intercontinental or "Pan-American" railroad. Appropriations have been made by the United States and several of the South American republics for a preliminary survey of the proposed line. Three different surveying parties are in the field, one in Central America and the other two in the United States of Colombia and Ecuador. The progress so far reported by them is encouraging, and there is now some hope that before the close of the nineteenth century one may be able to travel by railroad from New York to Valparaiso without even a change of cars. It has also been proposed to span Behring Strait and connect North America with Asia and Europe by an international railway. This line, if constructed, would be simply an extension of the proposed Pan-American railroad and would follow the western coast of the United States as far as Behring Strait, then cross over into Asia, traverse Siberia and finally reach London via St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris. It is very questionable whether such a line is at present feasible either from a technical or financial point of view, but the time will probably come when the railroad track will connect New York and London. CHAPTER IV. MONOPOLY IN TRANSPORTATION. From time immemorial efforts have been made by designing men to control either commerce or its avenues, the highways on the land and on the sea, by a power which law, custom, ingenuity, artifice or some other agency had placed into their hands. The ancient Phoenicians early aimed at and finally obtained the empire of the sea by making themselves masters of the most commodious harbors of the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Gulf. They established a regular intercourse with the countries bordering on the Mediterranean as well as with India and the eastern coast of Africa. From these latter countries they imported many valuable commodities which were not known to the people of other parts of the world, and during a long period they held this lucrative branch of commerce without a rival. The character and the situation of the Phoenicians aided them greatly in acquiring this mastery of commerce. Neither their manners and customs nor their institutions showed any marked national peculiarity; they had no unsocial prejudices and they mingled with the people of other countries without the least scruple or repugnance. As their native country was small and quite barren, they early learned to rely upon commerce as the best source of riches and power. Like the other Semitic tribes, the Phoenicians were noted for their energy and acumen, and while they were not a literary people in the strict sense of the word, ancient civilization received probably a more powerful impetus through their commercial supremacy than through any other agency.