General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1912 Original Publisher: University Extension Society Subjects: Transportation Railroads Inland navigation Transportation / General Transportation / Railroads / General Transportation / Railroads / History Transportation / Navigation Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER I. EVOLUTION OF THE COMMON CARRIER. Transportation, in some form, has ever been one of the necessities of the human race. Primitive man met his needs in this line by the use of his fellow men as pack carriers, and in some parts of the world, notably the jungle regions of Africa, this method is still in vogue. From the human pack carrier there has been a gradual evolution, through animal pack-carriers and beasts of burden, stage coaches, boats and other conveyances, which has had its development in the modern railroad with its palace cars and luxurious sleepers, and the monster steamers of the lakes and oceans. Civilization follows modern methods of transportation. Where primitive methods of freight and passenger traffic are still in vogue we find the progress of civilization slow, and frequently at a standstill. Where- ever there is adequate modern transportation there we will find the greatest intellectual and commercial prosperity, thriving and advancing communities, and happy peoples. It would be unfair to attribute all of this development to the railways, as water craft have had their fair share in it and in many sections of the country are indispensable, but it is undeniable that railways are first in the order of importance. Developments of Eighty Years. In 1911 there were approximately 340,000 miles of railway in the United States, and 26,230 in Canad...