s over thirty thousand miles were added, most of the
increase being in Texas. About 1898 there opened a period of
consolidation in which scores of short lines were united, mainly under
the leadership of Northern capitalists, and new through service opened
to the North and West. Thus Southern industries were given easy outlets
to the markets of the nation and brought within the main currents of
national business enterprise.

=The Social Effects of the Economic Changes.=--As long as the slave
system lasted and planting was the major interest, the South was bound
to be sectional in character. With slavery gone, crops diversified,
natural resources developed, and industries promoted, the social order
of the ante-bellum days inevitably dissolved; the South became more and
more assimilated to the system of the North. In this process several
lines of development are evident.

In the first place we see the steady rise of the small farmer. Even in
the old days there had been a large class of white yeomen who owned no
slaves and tilled the soil with their own hands, but they labored under
severe handicaps. They found the fertile lands of the coast and river
valleys nearly all monopolized by planters, and they were by the force
of circumstances driven into the uplands where the soil was thin and the
crops were light. Still they increased in numbers and zealously worked
their freeholds.

The war proved to be their opportunity. With the break-up of the
plantations, they managed to buy land more worthy of their plows. By
intelligent labor and intensive cultivation they were able to restore
much of the worn-out soil to its original fertility. In the meantime
they rose with their prosperity in the social and political scale. It
became common for the sons of white farmers to enter the professions,
while their daughters went away to college and prepared for teaching.
Thus a more democratic tone was given to the white society of the South.
Moreover the migration to the North and West, which had formerly carried
thousands of energetic sons and daughters to search for new homesteads,
was materially reduced. The energy of the agricultural population went
into rehabilitation.

The increase in the number of independent farmers was accompanied by the
rise of small towns and villages which gave diversity to the life of the
South. Before 1860 it was possible to travel through endless stretches
of cotton and tobacco. The social affairs of the