If this be true, the proximate effect of the isthmian canal in compelling a reduction and readjustment of the rates on the share of the transcontinental railway business that will be subject to the competition of the new water route, will be more than offset by the ultimate and not distant expansion of the through and local traffic, that must necessarily be handled by rail. It seems probable that the increase in the population of the country, and the growth in our home and foreign trade, will early demonstrate the need of the transportation service of both the canal and the railways. The reduction of freight through the use of the canal is sure to give a big stimulus to many leading industries of the Pacific states. One of the most important is the lumber industry. California and Oregon are very rich in forests of pine, spruce, cedar, and redwood, the last being much in demand in Atlantic countries. A good deal of this timber is exported to Europe and the eastern states, and it has all to be carried in sailing ships round Cape Horn. It is calculated that the opening of the Panama Canal will reduce the freight by 50 per cent., which means that all this Pacific coast timber will be correspondingly increased in value. The exports eastwards are sure to advance rapidly with the new means of transport. Grain, wine, and fruit will benefit, and the manufactured goods from the industrial states of the east will flow through the same channel to the western states in an ever-increasing volume. Every staple industry of the United States will feel the new stimulus, and England and Europe generally are certain to feel the pressure of this new competitive power of the American republic. In cotton and iron goods especially the exports from the eastern and southern states are bound to forge ahead. Manufactured cotton goods exported from the southern states have had to be carried by rail to the western ports, and thence by steamer to China and Japan, or else eastward by the Suez Canal, sometimes even _via_ England or Germany. We may imagine what a boon the Panama Canal will be to this trade, and how conveniently it will lie for the Gulf ports and all their raw and manufactured exports. American iron and steel will also be immensely strengthened for competition with those of England and Europe in the markets of China, Japan, British Australasia, and along the coast of South America. We need not describe in detail effects which are likely to be felt over the entire range of American industry. The United States appears, indeed, to be on the verge of tremendous developments. In a paper read before the Royal Colonial Institute,[20] that well-known physical geographer and economist, Dr. F. B. Vrooman, gave us a hint of further American enterprises in civil engineering, after the Panama Canal is opened:--