CHAPTER I

TRANSPORTATION A MEASURE OF CIVILIZATION As the several peoples inhabiting the earth have progressed from barbarism through the different stages of civilization, the transportation occasioned by their wants and desires has kept a close pace. By a study of the transportation--travel, movement of goods and commodities--and the means and facilities for its accomplishment, the relative civilization of any people, their rank and position may be accurately surveyed, graduated, and estimated. The highways of a nation, whether they be of the land or sea, or both, are most vital elements in its progress and could almost as well as transportation be considered the measuring rod of civilization. =Stages in Civilization.=--Sociologists differ as to what constitute the several stages of civilization. One might trace the development of man through literature, another through art, another through government; others consider his economic activities the more fundamental factors. The most widely used economic classification, according to Ely,[1] is based upon the increasing power of man over nature and consists of (1) Direct Appropriation, (2) The Pastoral Stage, (3) The Agricultural Stage, (4) The Handicraft Stage, and (5) The Industrial Stage. These stages are well illustrated in English history. The stage of direct appropriation corresponding to the prehistoric period and up to 54 B.C., when the Romans overran the island of Britain; the Pastoral stage from this time to the invasion by William the Conqueror, 1066; the Agricultural up to about the discovery of America, when a great impetus was given to travel and discovery; the stage of Handicraft, from 1500 to the invention of the steam engine and its application to manufacture at the beginning of the eighteenth century; the Industrial stage, to the present time. While these stages necessarily overlap each other considerably, it will be seen that as one declines the next is ushered in with some radical change in government or in economic or industrial condition. The present day--immediately following as it does the Great World War, out of which have issued many scientific discoveries and inventions, notably those advancing the theory and practice of air navigation, with many potential possibilities in new lines of transportation; and the setting forth of an idea which is capable of leading to a better understanding or even a confederation of nations and altering all forms of national government--may be the beginning of a new stage of civilization. =Stage of Direct Appropriation.=--This stage covers the whole course of prehistoric man from the time the first ape stood erect some 500,000 years ago[2] through the stone, bronze, and iron ages to the age of literature and art. During these long years civilization traveled far, for the least cultured savages observed have advanced not only away beyond the highest of the lower animals but also beyond the lowest intellectual estate of which human beings may be supposed capable of subsisting. And from the lowest to the highest of these tribes are shown traits varying as greatly in degree as from one stage in the above classification to another. The Indians at the time of the discovery of America and the three centuries following, and many of the tribes of Africa during the explorations of Livingstone and Stanley, were and still are in this stage and hence have been subjected to scientific study and investigation. Their governments while variable are of the primitive types. Ordinarily a chief autocratically rules because of hereditary influence. Little is manufactured, planting is scarcely known; by hunting, fishing, and collecting nature’s products of wild seeds and roots is a subsistence obtained often with long, arduous, and dangerous labor. Efficiency, as we understand that term to-day, is very low, and the number of persons that a given area can support is few. No one can predict but what to-morrow he may have to go hungry or suffer cold from the inclemency of the weather, for his store of food is _nil_ or small, his shelter rudimentary and clothing scanty. Note the hardships of the party of Henry M. Stanley during his expedition across the African wilderness in quest of Emin Pasha.[3] Notwithstanding Stanley’s men were possessed of firearms and edged tools and carried some provisions with them, and were traversing a country teeming with vegetable and animal life, many times they were on the verge of starvation. The number of the natives in these wildernesses are no doubt kept low because of the extreme difficulties of procuring the necessities of life. The barbarian requires less, of course, than the civilized man; he is satisfied with mere subsistence. He is improvident and relies upon picking up his needs from day to day as a robin picks worms from the grass. Cannibalism often exists, for the sacredness of human life has not yet been established, although magic and crude religious rites are seldom missing. While private personal property is recognized and retained by personal prowess, the ownership of land is absent. Coöperation of the crudest sort only is found; division of labor consists largely in having the females perform the work of planting, cultivating, carrying burdens--when these are attempted at all--cooking and caring for the children in the crudest fashion, leaving to the men the work of hunting, fishing, and fighting. Each tribe is self-sufficient and consists of a chief with a few followers bound together loosely for the purposes of protection from other tribes. Exchange, barter, and trade is at its lowest ebb; consequently transportation is practically unnecessary, and roadways except mere trails do not exist. =The Pastoral Stage.=--In the process of evolution certain animals undoubtedly were domesticated and used for food. Whether or not this domestication preceded or followed primitive agriculture or “hoe culture,” is not important, as the pastoral stage of culture evidently lies between the hunting and the farming stages. The written history of mankind indicates that this stage largely prevailed among the earlier Hebrew, Greek, and Teutonic races. A private ownership in cattle and herds was recognized, but the necessity of moving about with the flocks precluded fixed habitations, although large areas were claimed and held or endeavored to be held from trespass thereon by neighboring tribes. A given area would thus support a much larger number of people than in the preceding stage. A small amount of trading or bartering was carried on and consequently some transportation was required, but road building as such was little known. Rivers and coast waters for canoes and dugouts were no doubt early taken advantage of by the aborigines of bordering territories. But since there is so little division of labor, so little of barter and exchange, commerce was not developed much during this stage. =The Agricultural Stage.=--The growing and storage of crops, increased by the use of animal power, greatly changed the economic and social conditions of man. It made possible and profitable the living in fixed habitations, even in communities, and this brought out the needs of rules of government. But even yet each family provided without the assistance of others for practically all its own needs. In planting, reaping, threshing, grinding the meal and cooking, the family became the unit. No great division of labor was yet evident, consequently exchange, barter, and transportation still remained low. Ownership of land was necessary if a family was to cultivate the same land year after year. This meant definite rules and laws and consequently the development of governments. Ownership of herds and land brought wealth and a certain distinction in the community. Slavery, which had no doubt existed to some extent in the pastoral stage, here, because it greatly increased wealth, grew immensely. Large families likewise meant more workmen and greater wealth, distinction, and leisure, hence polygamy and polyandry often existed. As the evolution continued there was a trend toward handicraft and the division of labor; the products of one place began to be exchanged for the products of other places. This necessitated some forms of transportation, meager though they might be, and trails between communities. =The Manorial and Feudal Systems.=--In England and on the continent during the later years of this stage there were developed the manorial or feudal forms of government. The people lived largely in villages each controlled by a lord or earl (eorl) and to whom in return for his protection, the use of land, and other favors, they were bound to return to him service in the cultivation of his land and in waging war when called upon to do so. The lords in turn held their allegiance to the king. Some handicraftsmen were among the retainers but they were so few that they did not form an important part of the village, neither was there a great deal of travel or transportation. The manor instead of the family was the unit, and it was almost self-sufficient. The land was allotted in small tracts and tilled in the manner designated by the lord. Each person raised barley, oats, peas, and lentils sufficient for his own needs. Variation in crops was little practiced. Much land at distances from the manor was still devoted to herds and flocks. However, toward the later part of this stage, the feudal system began to break down. There were more free-holders and free-tenants, living upon the land they cultivated according to their own ideas. Wheat, rye, flax, and root crops were assuming greater importance. This variety in farming and the larger fields cultivated by the individual naturally increased the products to be sold or exchanged and hence increased transportation. People who had devoted only so much of their time to spinning and weaving as was necessary to supply their own family needs, were beginning to do more, selling the excess and purchasing from others things not grown or manufactured by themselves. Thus were developed towns as centers of trade; money as a medium of exchange assumed greater importance; and a division of labor brought into being and increased the social standing of trades and professions. Thus was ushered in the Handicraft Stage of civilization. =The Handicraft Stage.=--In England this stage lasted through approximately five centuries, from 1200 to 1700. The merging of one period into another came about so gradually that a definite date can hardly be designated, and the time is so long that undoubtedly many changes occurred in the economic activities as well as in the government and literature of the people. While it is probable that merchants, middlemen who bought from one person and sold to another, had thrived throughout the earlier civilizations of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and even extended their trade to Britain, merchandising held a comparatively minor position in England until the twelfth century, when merchants became very prominent, so much so that combinations or guilds were formed by them in all the large towns for the purpose of protecting and controlling the conduct of business and, to some extent, of maintaining a monopolistic control of the trade in their particular businesses. A guild was an association or fraternity of persons engaged in the same line of business. It differed from a trade-union in that the guild was an association of masters and employees, whereas the trade-union is an association of employees only. Many of the merchant guilds grew wealthy and strong; they obtained Royal Charters from the Crown either by direct payment or by an arrangement to pay a special tax, or secured recognition in the borough charters. By authority of these they were endowed with certain privileges such as: (_a_) limiting the number of their own members and the number who could participate in any line of merchandising; (_b_) entering into secret price agreements and trade arrangements; (_c_) controlling the import and export of wares; (_d_) the establishing of a court which had absolute jurisdiction over its members and others not members engaged in the same line of business. This court “could settle trade disputes, discipline its apprentices with the whip if necessary, could imprison its journeymen who struck work, and could fine its master members who acted against its rules. And, finally, the members of the company were forbidden to appeal to any other court unless their own court failed to obtain justice for them.”[4] Moreover, the meeting together for social enjoyment, feasting, and worship; the helping one another in sickness and poverty; and uniting together for the pursuit of some common cause, naturally brought about very close and fraternal relations. =Craft-guilds.=--Craftsmen of like occupations joined together in guilds also and they, too, became not only numerous but very influential. They regulated their own internal affairs and specified how many apprentices might be entered, and under what circumstances a man might become a journeyman or master craftsman. Numerous other guilds, social and religious, were extant throughout Europe. =Effect upon Trade.=--The merchant guilds and the craft-guilds materially affected the production and trade of the community and country. The merchants of Phoenicia and later of Greece and Rome are said to have visited the British Isles to secure tin and copper. The great merchant guilds outfitted adventures to the ends of the then known world to secure the goods--whether they were silks, spices, furs or grain--in which they dealt. They were instrumental in the passage of laws encouraging and securing commerce. They themselves regulated the quality of goods dealt in. For example the Goldsmiths’ Guild of London required that all silver and gold-plate and jewelry manufactured within three miles of London should be brought to the guild hall for inspection. If it did not come up to the specified standard it was ordered remelted; if it did it received the “Hall Mark” that anyone purchasing it might be assured of its quality. It is said the guilds were so punctilious in the matter of quality that “Made in England” goods received in the markets of the world a standing of the highest rank; a reputation that never entirely disappeared, and as a consequence English uprightness of character became proverbial. =The Domestic System.=--All this made necessary the building of ships and harbors, and the improvement of internal highways of trade, and these in turn stimulated manufacture which as yet was carried on by hand. The family instead of the town or guild became the unit; apprentices were entered and kept, usually, as members of the family and worked along side the sons and daughters of the master. As these grew to manhood their pay, beginning with mere keep, was gradually increased with their work and responsibility until at the end of seven years they were fitted to go forth as journeymen and later themselves became masters. The work was done at or near the master’s home. The raw material was usually received from a middleman, to whom was returned the finished product; the middleman disposed of it to the merchant who in turn sold it to the consumer. This corresponds rather closely to what is called the “sweat shop” method of the present time. Goods in a raw or a semi-raw state are received by the workman from the “manufacturer” and carried home; the workman performs, with the help of his family, certain specified operations and upon the return of the goods is paid for his work. Or in agriculture, to the contract method, whereby specified products such as sugar beets, sweet-corn, peas, beans, tomatoes, fruits, and other products for manufacture, canning, preserving, or pickling in a factory, are raised by the farmer and sold to the manufacturer at a previously agreed-upon contract price. Under the guild plan the manufacturer or importer sold usually to the ultimate consumer. So the economic system was gradually growing more complex, and the interdependence of man upon man more pronounced. The older agricultural procedure had not entirely disappeared. Most families cultivated land, and raised more or less stock and poultry, but performed the work of manufacturing as a side line, as at present in the Middle West farmers make grain and stock raising their main industry with dairying, vegetable gardening, poultry, and eggs as mere adjuncts, although these latter often bring in about as much money as the former. Defoe[5] describes these methods (1724-1726) as follows: [The land] was divided into small inclosures from two acres to six or seven each, seldom more; every three or four pieces of land had a house belonging to them ... hardly an house standing out of a speaking distance from another.... We could see at every house a tenter, and on almost every tenter a piece of cloth or kersie or shaloon.... At every considerable house was a manufactury.... Every clothier keeps one horse, at least, to carry his manufactures to the market, and everyone generally keeps a cow or two or more for his family. By this means the small pieces of inclosed land about each house are occupied, for they scarce sow corn enough to feed their poultry.... The houses are full of lusty fellows, some at the dye-vat, some at the looms, others dressing the cloths, the women or children carding or spinning, being all employed, from the youngest to the oldest. =Governmental Control.=--The numerous guilds reached their zenith during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and then gradually diminished in importance. Some of them, however, still remain active in London. During the recent World War several were engaged in welfare work. Guilds in France were destroyed or lapsed into desuetude during the revolution, 1791-1815. Those of Spain and Portugal likewise during the revolutionary years of 1833-40; of Austria and Germany in 1859-60 and of Italy in 1864. Guilds, as known in Europe, never found a substantial lodging in the United States. The functions of the guilds were gradually taken over by the government, which seemed later to be a better and more satisfactory medium to control labor, trade, and commerce. Laws were enacted in England to regulate the entering of apprentices, to force able bodied men to serve as agricultural laborers in case of need, and to work the roads annually. Justices of the Peace were given authority to settle disputes and regulate wages. Foreign trade was by laws and Royal Grants encouraged; likewise immigration of artisans to introduce new industries, the establishment of foreign colonies and the development of banking and insurance. Almshouses were built and poor laws enacted to care for the old and indigent. The public roads were still very poor but a beginning was made for their betterment. Macaulay, in writing of the State of England in 1685,[6] has considerable to say regarding the condition of the highways. Speaking of the lack of homogeneity among the people he says: There was not then the intercourse which now exists between the two classes. [The Londoner and the rustic Englishman.] Only very great men were in the habit of dividing the year between town and country. Few esquires came to the capital thrice in their lives. [And again], The chief cause which made the fusion of the different elements of society so imperfect was the extreme difficulty found in passing from place to place. _Of all_ inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, _those inventions which abridge distance have done most for the civilization of our species. Every improvement_ of the means of locomotion benefits mankind morally and intellectually as well as materially, and not only facilitates the interchange of the various productions of nature and art, but tends to remove national and provincial antipathies, and to bind together all the branches of the great human family. [Further on], It was by the highways that both travellers and goods generally passed from place to place; and those highways appear to have been far worse than might have been expected from the degree of wealth and civilization which the nation had even then attained. The degree of civilization attained was no doubt due to other things than the public roads. Sea transportation brought to England the products of the world. Coast transportation was well developed and river and canal transportation had well begun. Macaulay states that One chief cause of the badness of the roads seems to have been the defective state of the law. Every parish was bound to repair the highways which passed through it. The peasantry were forced to give their gratuitous labor six days in the year.... That a route connecting two great towns, which have a large and thriving trade with each other, should be maintained at the cost of the rural population scattered between them, is obviously unjust. This sounds like modern arguments against paving rural roads and charging the cost to the abutting property, and is evidently one good reason for state and national aid. However, transportation and travel continued to improve. On the main roads “waggons” were employed to transport goods and stage coaches for people, while pack animals and riding horses were used on less frequented trails and roads. Four and six horses were necessary to pull a carriage or a coach “because with a smaller number there was great danger of sticking fast in the mire.” A diligence ran between London and Oxford in two days, but in 1669 it was announced that the “Flying Coach would perform the whole journey between sunrise and sunset.” The heads of the university after solemn deliberation gave consent and the experiment proved successful. The rival university at Cambridge, not to be outdone, set up a diligence to run from Cambridge to London in one day. Soon flying coaches were carrying passengers to other points. Posts were established for the change of horses and longer distances essayed. This mode of traveling was extolled by contemporaneous writers “as far superior to any similar vehicles ever known in the world.” It is not to be thought that these advances in rapid transportation were without objectors. According to Macaulay, It was vehemently argued that this mode of conveyance would be fatal to the breed of horses and to the noble art of horsemanship; that the Thames, which had long been an important nursery of seamen, would cease to be the chief thoroughfare from London up to Windsor and down to Gravesend; that saddlers and spurriers would be ruined by hundreds; that numerous inns, at which mounted travelers had been in the habit of stopping, would be deserted, and would no longer pay any rent; that the new carriages were too hot in summer and too cold in winter; that the passengers were grievously annoyed by invalids and crying children; that the coach sometimes reached the inn so late that it was impossible to get supper, and sometimes started so early that it was impossible to get breakfast. Objections of this character have been made against every innovation and advancement in travel and transportation to the present day when the air-plane is beginning to attract notice as an economic vehicle. Laws were then demanded and passed, as they are now, to regulate power and speed, accommodations and rates, and multifarious other things which might affect the privileges or profits of those interested in older methods, as well as laws for the protection and safety of the general public. =Agriculture.=--It might be thought that the agriculture of the preceding stage of development might wane. But not so; with the division of labor and improved transportation and marketing facilities agriculture received a great impetus. Larger tracts were farmed by the individual. Growing crops and stock became more of a business and from the lords of the manor was evolved the landed aristocracy of the country. To be sure, there were holders who cultivated their own soil, but much was held upon leaseholds for short or long periods. Many still lived in the villages where “commons” were laid out for the pasturage of the few cows each family needed for its own milk. Farms were divided by hedges into fields or closes, the amount of land depending upon the rent. The “Book of Surveying,” by Fitzherbert, 1539, gives reasons for such closes and explains the manner of laying them out so that they shall be most convenient and together. The following is a specimen of his style: Now every husband hath sixe severall closes whereof iii. be for corne, the fourthe for his leyse, the fyfthe for his commen pastures, and the sixte for his haye; and in wynter time there is but one occupied with corne, and then hath the husbande other fyue to occupy tyll lent come, and then he that hath his falowe felde, his ley felde, and his pasture felde al sommer, and when he hath mowen his medowe then he hath his medowe grounde, soo that if he hath any weyke catel that wold be amended, or dyvers maner of catel, he may put them in any close he wyll, the which is a great advantage; and if all should lye commen, then wolde the edyche of the corne feldes and the aftermath of all the medowes be eaten in X or XII dayes. And the rych men that hath moche catel wold have the advantage, and the poore man can have no helpe nor relefe in wynter when he hath most nede; ... and if any of his thre closes that he hath for his corne be worn or ware bare, then he may breke and plowe up his close that he had for his layse, or the close that he had for his commen pasture, or bothe, and sowe them with corne and let the other lye for a time, and so shall he have always reist grounds, the which will bear moche corne, with lytel donge; and also he shall have a great profyte of the wod in the hedges when it is growen; and not only these profytes and advantages aforesaid but he shall save moche more than al these, for by reason of these closes he shall save meate drinke, and wages of a shepherde, the wages of the heerdmen, and the wages of the swineherde, the which may fortune to be as chargeable as all his holle rent; and also his corne shall be better saved from eatings or destroying with catel. Later the system of crop rotation came into vogue resulting in great improvement in the fertility of the soil. In the same author’s “Book of Husbandry,” 1534, are described farm tools and their uses. There are explanations to show where a “horse plow” is better and where an “oxen plow.” It indicates that beans, peas, wheat, barley, and oats are common crops, and that some vegetables and root-crops were coming into use. Wheat was probably sowed after plowing up a pasture or “fallowe” field, for he observes, the greater clottes (clods) the better wheate, for the clottes kepe the wheate warm all wynter; and at march they will melte and breake and fae in many small peces, the which is a new donynge and refreshynge of the corne. The industries and arts of transportation continued to develop: ocean craft, especially, became more numerous and more efficient. Learning and art grew in harmony as the intercourse of the peoples of the country and of the world increased. =The Industrial Stage.=--This stage of economical civilization, while brought about gradually through many years as factories and special work shops came into existence, was nevertheless greatly accelerated by the inventions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The invention of the canal lock (it is a disputed question whether in Holland or in Italy) in the fourteenth century had made practicable the building of many canals throughout Europe, one of the largest across France connecting the Bay of Biscay with the Mediterranean Sea. However, the building of important commercial canals began in England with the Bridgewater Canal from Worsley to Manchester, completed in