nd.
Intercommunication increases knowledge, and under the conditions that
formerly prevailed, there was a lack of the breadth of knowledge that
comes with the mutual contact of peoples.

The utilization of national resources, such as the productiveness of the
land, the existence of iron ore, coal, copper, and other economic
minerals, finally brought about the policy of a territorial division of
industries. This, in turn, made the prompt transportation and exchange
of commodities essential; indeed, without such a plan, industrial
centres could not long exist.

The man whose sole business is manufacture must look to others for his
supply of food-stuffs and raw materials, and these are produced more
economically at a distance from the centre of manufacture. Thus England
must look to the United States for wheat and cotton, to the Australian
Commonwealth for wool, and to New Zealand and the United States for
meat. Her chief wealth is in her coal and iron, and these make the
nation a great manufacturing centre. So, also, the manufacturer of New
York must go to Pittsburg for steel, to Minneapolis for flour, and to
Chicago for beef.

The application of this principle is very broad; it is the foundation of
all commerce, and it underlies modern civilization. For this reason the
question of transportation is just as important to a community as the
industries of agriculture, mining, and manufacture. Food-stuffs are of
no use unless they can be transported to the people who want them; nor
can peoples remain in unproductive regions unless the food-stuffs are
brought to them.

The gross tonnage of goods is transported mainly in one or another or
all of three ways--namely, by animal power, by railway, or by water.
Thus, the cotton-crop of the United States is usually transported by
wagon from the plantation to the nearest station or boat-landing; by
rail or by barge to the nearest seaport; and by ocean steamship to the
foreign seaport.

Water transportation is more economical than land carriage, for the
reason that less power is required to move a given tonnage through the
water than on the most perfectly graded railway. Steamship freights, as
a rule, are lower than those of sailing-vessels, because a steamship has
more than twice the speed, and, being larger, can carry a greater
tonnage. Freight rates on the Great Lakes are higher per ton-mile than
on the ocean, because the vessels are necessarily smaller than those
built for o