Outline of the development of the internal commerce of the United States Part 2

There were no other articles the movements of which equalled in importance those of the various commodities discussed above, but there were many that contributed a tonnage of large volume and value to internal trade. Dairy products, poultry and eggs, wool, hay, sugar, tobacco, fruits and vegetables from the farms, petroleum, gas, copper, stone and many other valuable mineral products, and the large annual quant.i.ty of imports of food products, manufactures and raw materials entering the seaports to be distributed among interior markets helped to swell the volume of traffic that moved from place to place within the country.

_Conclusion._ A most interesting and significant feature of the history of the United States during this period was the transition in the character of the economic problems of the country. Until the time of the Civil War its chief problems had been those of securing the means to develop its resources, of acquiring the facilities for transporting its products from place to place, and of providing markets in which its products could be sold. As capital, population and transportation facilities were provided to exploit the latent wealth of the continent it was found that out of their presence grew far larger and more vital problems than their absence had ever created. The economic difficulties of the nation after the Civil War arose chiefly because of the existence of the things which before 1860 it was a question of acquiring.

In no instance was this general proposition better demonstrated than in the railroad problem. For nearly sixty years of the nineteenth century the chief obstacle to internal trade had been the lack of the means of transportation. To overcome this difficulty the states had first built their own ca.n.a.ls and railroads. Many of the state enterprises failing because of weak administration, the states had surrendered the management of railroads to private corporations, but the public continued to share in railroad construction through numerous grants of aid by federal, state and local governments. For a number of years almost the only activity of the public in regard to railroads was to foster and protect the interests of the railroad companies. In the seventies the public gradually came to a realization of the fact that the railroad companies were displaying a lamentable lack of regard for the interests of the public. Persons and communities found themselves entirely at the mercy of railroad corporations, which, by vicious discriminations, built up and destroyed where they chose, and even endeavored to control arbitrarily the economic future of entire groups of states regardless of their natural advantages or the choice of their people. And not only did the railroad companies themselves become a source of danger, but they were instrumental in the creation and development of great industrial combinations, which were equally indifferent to the welfare of the general public. The transportation problem of the United States was no longer that of providing facilities, but of controlling and regulating the existing facilities in such a manner that reasonable rates and services would be given to the public which had entrusted the business of transportation to private agencies. The demand for relief was first voiced in state legislation. The states being powerless to regulate interstate trade, the national government found it necessary to act, and, in 1887, the Interstate Commerce Law was pa.s.sed, having for its chief purpose the prevention of unjust discrimination. As a regulative measure the law proved inadequate, its most important provisions being emasculated by court decisions, and the century ended with effective railway regulation unaccomplished.

No less pressing than the problem of regulating railroads, over which the internal commerce of the nation was carried on, was the question of regulating the great industrial combinations through which a large part of the buying and selling of the products of the country was controlled. The unfair advantages secured by large combinations because of their abundance of capital and the discriminating favors of railroads enabled them often to throttle compet.i.tion and to establish monopolies that were a menace to the public. This situation likewise called forth federal legislative measures intended to prevent the monopolization of trade. Previous to 1900, however, but little application of the law was made.

To the tariff and to the currency the nation owed its most bitter political struggles after the reconstruction of the Union was accomplished. The net result of a half dozen efforts to modify the tariff was the existence, at the end of a century, of a tariff law in which the general average of duties was 10 per cent higher than the average at the close of the Civil War. The currency system of the nation, with the exception of the improvement in banking, became worse instead of better after the war, the chief trouble arising because of the adoption of measures intended to satisfy insistent demands for a greater volume of money, without making provision for its retirement when business conditions were such as to warrant a contraction of circulation. A quarter of a century of struggle finally ended in the overthrow of the advocates of the unlimited issue of cheap money, but no attempt was made before 1900 to remedy the inelasticity of the national currency or to check the tendency toward a concentration of the control of credit in a few financial centers. In 1873 and in 1893 the country suffered from money panics, the latter one being due almost entirely to unwise financial measures that had virtually bankrupted the government and destroyed confidence in the money it issued.

The end of the century was reached with only a little headway made in the solution of the most vital economic problems. In striking contrast to the "golden age" of American history, noted for the absence of both pauperism and great riches, this period saw the development of the extremes of poverty and wealth, and, furthermore, an ever-growing tendency toward the concentration of the national wealth under the control of a few powerful interests. The disregard which too many of these interests evinced for the welfare of the general public and the power which they possessed to thwart the efforts of the public to protect itself created most of the great questions which confronted the nation--questions of such serious nature as to dim the record of achievement and material progress from 1860 to 1900.

However there was ample evidence that the national consciousness was beginning to take cognizance of much of the prevailing maladjustment and was awakening to a sense of duty--long undone. A growing sense of personal responsibility both on the part of those who suffered from existing conditions and on the part of those who profited by them was paving the way for a speedy application and a willing acceptance of a system of conservative public regulation of private business in which careful consideration would be given to the rights of all persons. In the intelligent realization of the meaning of the existing situation lay the basis of a dear perception of the proper steps to be taken and a strong hope for the immediate future.