CHAP. XXXI.

NAVIGATION AND INLAND COMMERCE.

1767

total of the exports and imports of that country, are to and from the United States. It has been estimated that the sea-going vessels that convey the world's commerce is nearly 63,000, of which number more than onehalf belong to Great Britain and the United States; and that these two Anglo-Saxon nations carry sixty-six per cent. of the world's aggregate tonnage.

Our inland navigation and commerce are of vast dimensions. A hundred years ago the inland trade was carried on chiefly by mears of pack-horses or mules, and clumsy wheeled-vehicles on land, and on the lakes and rivers by canoes, bateaux, and sloops. The steamboat and the railroad were then undreamed of, and the canal was only in embryo in the minds of a few men. The roads were wretched everywhere; and the incessant toil of muscle was the hard condition imposed upon our internal commerce. Our postal arrangements, which are essential helps in facilitating and simplifying the operations of commerce, were then very meagre. The entire length of postroutes in 1776 was 1,875 miles; now the entire length is 278,000 miles. Of this number, over 70,000 miles is by railroads, and nearly 16,000 miles by steamboats. The entire receipts of the General Post-Office in fifteen months, ending in November, 1776, were $27,900, and the expenditures were $32,142. In 1875, the annual receipts of the Post-Office Department were $26,672,000, and the expenditures were $33,613,000. Included in expenditures were about $6,000,000 granted by the National Treasury.

The first great improvement in our internal commercial facilities was the beginning of our canal system at the close of the last century; but the effects were small until the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, which soon revealed the possibilities of agriculture and commerce in the Great West. At that period the vast inland seas-the great lakes—with a total length of 1,500 miles, and an aggregate area of about 90,000 square miles, and draining a fertile region 336,000 square miles in extent, had no commerce of consequence on their bosoms. So late as 1819, when there was a steamboat on Lake Erie, the principal traffic in all the lake regions was carried on with the Indians, who came to ports in canoes with peltry and furs to exchange for the products of the Eastern States, borne upon the bosom of the waters in sloops and schooners. Now the Indian has disappeared from our commerce; and the value of the products of "the West," transported on the land and water vehicles, may be estimated by hundreds of millions of dollars. The canal, the steamboat and the railway, have caused large cities to spring up in desolate places, and the wilderness to bud and "blossom as the rose." Chicago, which was composed of vacant village lots in a wild and almost unknown region of our continent forty-five years

ago, is now a city of 300,000 inhabitants, and is the greatest grain market and centre of internal commerce in the world. Its entire trade amounts annually to $450,000,000.

When the Erie Canal was first conceived, the steamboat and the railway were unknown in our land. It is only seventy years since the first successful steamboat made a voyage between New York and Albany; and it is

only about fifty years ago that a railroad three miles in length was first put in operation in our country. The first American locomotive was built by Peter Cooper, of New York. Now the extent of our railways is 73,000 miles, and these represent a capital stock of $2,000,000,000. Full 20,000 miles of these roads were built and equipped between 1850 and 1860, at a cost of $720,000,000. For the benefit of the commerce of the United States and the world, we are now contemplating the construction of a shipcanal across the Isthmus of Darien, at a cost of more than $100,000,000.

In banking and insurance, commerce finds important auxiliaries. The Bank of North America, founded at Philadelphia in 1781, with a capital of $400,000, was the first one established in our country. After the National

CHAP. XXXI.

BANKS-INSURANCE-TELEGRAPHY.

1769

Government went into operation and commercial activity became very great, the number of banks rapidly increased; and when the civil war broke out in 1861, the number was 1,562. During that war a National system of banking was organized, and at the beginning of 1876, the number of banks formed under it was over two thousand, with an aggregate capital of more than $500,000,000. Savings banks were first established in the United States in 1816. These useful institutions have rapidly increased in numbers and importance, and now have an aggregate amount of deposits of about $810,000,000.

The first Fire Insurance Company in our country was organized in 1752, in Philadelphia, and is still in existence. Such companies have rapidly increased in numbers and capital within ten or fifteen years, and they now represent a stock capital of between $55,000,000 and $60,000,000. Marine Insurance had been conducted here by individuals. It was late in the present century before a regular Life Insurance Company was organized. The first was the "Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company," established in 1825. These companies also have recently increased in numbers and capital. One of them-the New York Life Insurance Com. pany-now has assets amounting to more than $30,000,000.

The Electro-Magnetic Telegraph, perfected by Professor S. F. B. Morse, an American, a little more than thirty years ago, is one of the most efficient aids of commerce now known. It is a perpetual wonder, as the astonishing developments of its capabilities for good are rapidly revealed. Only a short time ago, it was discovered that messages might be transmitted over a wire each way at the same moment; now audible words and musical sounds may be transmitted to any required distance. This invention seems to be in its infancy. In 1846, three men conducted the entire telegraph business in the United States, from a dingy basement in New York city; now a thousand persons are employed in that business, in the city of New York alone; and one company (the Western Union), which monopolizes the business, has a building chiefly used for that purpose, which cost about $2,000,000. Now there are nearly 80,000 miles of telegraphic communication over the surface of our Republic alone. The telegraph is aiding commerce and agriculture potentially by the operations of Weather Signals, a system of meteorological observations originated by General Albert J. Myer of our army, a few years ago. By it, knowledge of the state of the weather in various parts of our Union is transmitted by telegraph simultaneously to the Signal Bureau at Washington, and thence sent immediately by telegraph all over the land, with predictions concerning the state of the weather, in different sections of the Union, twenty-four hours afterward. Agriculture and commerce are

greatly benefited by these forewarnings. This American system of weather signalling has been adopted in the eastern hemisphere.

Popular education has made great advancement in our country within the present century, and especially within the last forty years, by means of the common school and the printing-press. In 1776, there were seven colleges in this country for the higher education of the young; but the common schools were very inferior. Those colleges are yet flourishing institutions; but the common schools--the seminaries for the people-have now the real substantial work of education under their control. The colleges have increased in numbers, from seven in 1776, to three hundred and forty-nine in 1876. The increase in the school population has been wonderful within twenty-five years. It is now more than 13,000,000. Of these, about 6,000,000 are enrolled on the records of public schools. Within a very few years, higher seminaries of learning for young women have been provided, and are flourishing. The first college proper for women, ever established, was founded by Matthew Vassar, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and was opened in 1865. The other colleges of the land are now making way for the introduction of feminine students. Sabbath-schools are also doing a great work in the field of popular education. The first one was opened by the Methodists, in Virginia, in 1786; now they number 70,000, with over 753,000 teachers, and 6,000,000 pupils.

The printing-press not only multiplies books at a cheaper rate for popular education, but by newspapers and magazines it scatters knowledge broadcast over the land. A century ago, the number of newspapers in the colonies was only thirty-seven, with an aggregate circulation of not more than 4,000 a week. In 1870, there were published in the United States, 5,871 newspapers, with an aggregate circulation of 20,843,000 daily or weekly, and a yearly issue of more than 1,500,000,000 copies. In 1776, the printing-presses then in use turned out about 250 sheets, printed on one side, in an hour; now the "power-press" like Hoe's, turns out 15,000 perfected newspapers in an hour, all folded for delivery. In 1776, the publishing of books was not an extensive business in our country, for readers were few; now the value of books issued each year from the American press cannot be less than $46,000,000. One firm (Harper & Brothers) use $2,000 worth of white paper a day in their publishing establishment. Our public and private libraries are rapidly increasing. In the space of ten years-1860 to 1870-the aggre gate number of volumes in them increased from 13,316,000 to 45,500,000. In 1870, the number of libraries in our country was 164,815, of which 108,800 were private, containing a total of about twenty-six million volumes.

Literature, science, and art have kept pace in our country with material

CHAP. XXXI. LITERATURE-SCIENCE-BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.

1771

progress. In these pursuits very few were employed in the infancy of the Republic; and from 1776 until the war of 1812 our most eminent writers were the earnest statesmen. After that period belles-lettres literature received more attention, and now no department in the republic of letters remains untouched by American authors. In the domain of science, American men and women now occupy a front rank among the philosophers; and our artists of both sexes rival those of Europe in architecture, sculpture, painting, poetry, and music. The painters have not made much advance in historical composition, but in landscape they are unsurpassed.

Our physicians and surgeons hold a high place in the profession; and our benevolent institutions, especially those devoted to the deaf and dumb, the blind, the insane and the idiotic, not only attest the skill and philosophy of the medicinal professors, but the generous philanthropy of our people; for these and the many homes for the orphans, the infirm and the friendless, are largely supported by private gifts.

The institutions above-named have all been established in our country within the century just closed, and their numbers and usefulness have kept pace with the population. In 1870, there were about 4,000 persons in our country who were deaf and dumb, of whom 1,900 were girls; 20,000 who were blind; 38,000 who were insane, and 24,500 who were idiotic. Of the insane, only 16,000 were in asylums; the remainder were at their homes or in alms-houses.