Today the measure of our modern civilization is our transportation facilities. Safe, efficient and rapid communication, and the economy of the world's transportation systems, are binding the nations of the earth closer together day by day, and helping to create the conditions which will ultimately place the crown of accomplishment upon our modern civilization. Coming back to the South, from which we have been temporarily led astray, it is self-evident to the careful observer that all the diverse interests of this section--agriculture, mining, manufacture, commerce and banking--are unavoidably and irrevocably bound up with the transportation facilities furnished and to be furnished by the railway systems ramifying its territory and performing a service for the South similar to that performed by the arteries and blood-vessels in the body of corporeal man. It is also apparent to the impartial observer that if the South is to reach its highest state of development its transportation facilities should not lag, but should lead the march of progress, and that this development should be stimulated in every possible way; and men of the South should never forget for a single moment that _the needs of the railroads are the needs of the South_. It has been our custom in America to anticipate future needs in transportation, and in a measure attempt to forestall and provide for them. The policy of foreign countries has been practically the reverse. The railway systems of England have been constructed to take care of and supply a demand for transportation facilities that already existed. The railroads of the United States in the South and West have been projected and constructed, and to a great extent financed, by men whose inspiration was a firm belief in an unseen future and whose assets were largely composed of hope and an undying faith in the future development of their country. Now, the future demands for increased transportation facilities in the South are plainly indicated by past records, showing the growth of productive activities and the constant increase of tonnage to be moved. If these requirements are to be met, demand and supply must move forward hand in hand. Additional tonnage will justify increased facilities and increased facilities will stimulate still greater tonnage. During the past 25 years the total products of the South, from agriculture, forest, mines and manufactures, have increased in valuation over 225 per cent. During the last five years of this period, ending in 1906, the increase has been 50 per cent. The common fallacy that a railroad is completed when opened for traffic has long since passed away, at least in the minds of intelligent men.