sters of that American "international
tribunal," the Supreme Court, and they appear only as items of passing
interest in our newspapers.

In unifying the nation the influence of the Supreme Court has been
priceless, for it has given to Americans, in place of the colonial or
provincial mind, a continental mind. But great is the debt of Americans
to the men who laid the foundations of interstate commerce. No antidote
served so well to counteract the poison of clannish rivalry as did
their enthusiasm and their constructive energy. These men, dreamers and
promoters, were building better than they knew. They thought to overcome
mountains, obliterate swamps, conquer stormy lakes, master great rivers
and endless plains; but, as their labors are judged today, the greater
service which these men rendered appears in its true light. They
stifled provincialism; they battered down Chinese Walls of prejudice and
separatism; they reduced the aimless rivalry of bickering provinces to
a businesslike common denominator; and, perhaps more than any class of
men, they made possible the wide-spreading and yet united Republic that
is honored and loved today.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The history of the early phase of American transportation is dealt
with in three general works. John Luther Ringwalt's "Development of
Transportation Systems in the United States" (1888) is a reliable
summary of the general subject at the time. Archer B. Hulbert's
"Historic Highways of America," 16 vols. (1902-1905), is a collection
of monographs of varying quality written with youthful enthusiasm by the
author, who traversed in good part the main pioneer roads and canals of
the eastern portion of the United States; Indian trails, portage paths,
the military roads of the Old French War period, the Ohio River as a
pathway of migration, the Cumberland Road, and three of the canals which
played a part in the western movement, form the subject of the more
valuable volumes. The temptation of a writer on transportation to wander
from his subject is illustrated in this work, as it is illustrated
afresh in Seymour Dunbar's "A History of Travel in America," 4 vols.
(1915). The reader will take great pleasure in this magnificently
illustrated work, which, in completer fashion than it has ever been
attempted, gives a readable running story of the whole subject for the
whole country, despite detours, which some will make around the many
pages devoted to Indian relation