Highways and highway transportation

Front matter

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Preface

The following pages on Highways and Highway Trans¬ portation do not pretend to be an exhaustive treatise on the subject, but rather a glimpse of the vast development of the humble road and its office as an agency for transportation. Possibly the grandeur of the mountains is best appreciated by one who lives among them, who climbs their acclivitous heights, who daily experiences their power and majesty, and measures their magnitude by grim muscular exertion. But, even so, it would be foolish to contend that he who gets his information from the seat of a Pullman car receives no benefit from the hasty glimpse, or, that his imagination is not quickened and cultured by the experience. In writ¬ ing this book, then, I have had constantly in mind the myriads of people who have not the time, and possibly not the facilities, to search the pages of the literature of the past for the origin and development, or to work out their present importance, of our amplification of roads and of road uses. It is felt that many of these people laudably desire a conversational knowledge of the origin, evolution and present status of highway transportation, even though it be glimpsed by a very rapid passage through a very large subject.

The primary objects have therefore been, to sketch briefiy and simply the development of the transportation systems of the United States, to indicate their importance and mutual relations, to present some practical methods used in the operation of highway transport and to make occa¬ sional suggestions for the betterment of the road as a usable machine for the benefit and pleasure of mankind.

Any observations made or conclusions drawn are purely personal. I entered into and have carried on the work entirely unbiased. I am not financially or otherwise, except academically, interested in any firm or company whose

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Preface business has to do with transportation either directly as a carrier, or indirectly as a manufacturer of the instruments or accessories to transportation, nor does any of my living come from societies or foundations organized as propa¬ gandists for any particular forms of transportation, or transportation materials or equipment. I have no admira¬ tion for the man who hopes to see the steam and electric railways put out of business or even caused to run at a loss by the automobile, motor express or motor bus. Neither have I any plaudits for the man who would arrest the growth of the new forms of transportation by drastic legal enactments and excessive taxation in order to preserve the old. I believe there is room and need in the United States for all forms of transportation, and that each can thrive in its respective field just as do wheat and corn but none will thrive if they attempt to occupy the same field at the same time.

The text is naturally divided into two parts — the devel¬ opment of highways and their use. The first part treats of the relation of transportation to civilization generally, explaining briefly how the two have grown together like children at school, how each has helped the other, and how the meter of one is the measure of the other.

Leaving the old world there is sketched all too briefly the development in the United States of transportation facilities from the coastal and natural waterways, from the pack and trail, used by the aborigine and early settlers, through the treks of the pioneers, the periods of canal digging, the toll road competition, and the railway frenzy, to the advent of the modern road with the coming of the bicycle and automobile and their wonderful accelerative impulse.

The effects of State and Federal aid upon the road condi¬ tions of the country are fully treated as is also the planning of highway systems.

Automotive transportation for business and pleasure in¬ cluding rural motor express and bus lines, and their effect on production and marketing are described and discussed.

Preface

Vll

In the chapters on highway accidents and highway aids to traffic, attention is called to many types of accidents, including railway crossing accidents, with suggestions for their mitigation. Here also are given the most recent practical rules for the regulation of traffic in both city and country.

A chapter is devoted to the esthetics of the highway, a subject just coming to the attention of road men who have heretofore been mostly concerned with distances, grades, widths and surfaces, which, by the way, are frequently mentioned in the text. As in all building construction the first appeal was made to material things and their relation to the pocket-book, while the last and most enduring appeal is spiritualistic and is made to the pleasures of the imagina¬ tion.

The same idea of making the road a means of catering to the preservative and pleasure instincts of man is con¬ sidered in the final chapter on aids and attractions to traffic and travel. Safety and warning devices are discussed as such, while comforts and conveniences are means for luring the average citizen to the highway, to the camps and parks, for the broadening effect upon his character, the health of his body, and the enlightenment of his soul.

Thus we close a most hurried journey from the very beginning of roads to their modern far superior yet very imperfect attainments. The main thought throughout has been the road as a usable agency in the economic and en¬ tertaining phases of life. Each equally important to the wealth, health, and happiness of our people. The mind easily travels ahead to a time when separate roads will be devoted to the two great ends of business and pleasure. Then the flight of fancy passes on to still another period of time and sees the highways made inoperative and super¬ fluous, overgrown by weeds and grass, for the argosies of business and pleasure have taken to the air.

George Richard Chatburn.

Lincoln, Nebraska March 9, 1923.

Chapter I Page

Transpoktation a Measure of Civilization . . . . 1

Stages of Civilization: Direct Appropriation; Pastoral; Agricultural — Manorial and Feudal Systems; Handicraft — Merchant Guilds, Effect upon Trade, Domestic System, Government Control, Agriculture; Industrial — Building of Canals, Smelting Iron, Invention of Steam Engine, Railways Developed. Some Historical Roads and their Influence: Early Highways — Asiatic, Greek, Roman, Pre-Historic American.

Chapter II

Transportation Development in the United States: Early Trails and Roads . 34

First Settlements near Coast. Birch Bark Canoe, Meager¬ ness of Roads. Settlement follows Waterways. Portages. Lines of Travel — Through Alleghanies, from the North, Boone’s Trace or the Wilderness Road, Calk’s- Diary. Explorations — Marquette, Lewis and Clark, Fur Com¬ panies. Western Trails — Oregon, Salt Lake, Later Cali¬ fornia, Santa F6, Gila and Spanish. [Turnpike Roads, Wagon Road Neglect, .National Participation — Cumber¬ land Road. Early InnsTI

Chapter III

Coastal, Inlets, Rivers, Creeks. Canals — Europe, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Other States; Passenger Traffic on; Prosperity and Desuetude. Ship Canals: Sault Ste. Marie, Cape Cod, Panama — Inducements for. Early Schemes, Routes — Tehauntepec, Nicaragua, Others; French Participation — DeLesseps’ Grant, Company Organized; Other Promotion Schemes; Indignation in the

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United States against Foreign Building Canal; DeLesseps begins Work; Clayton-Bulwer Treaty; Hay and Pauncefote Treaty; Commission Reports Favorably on Nicaraguan Route; French Company Bankrupt; Colom¬ bian Congress Refuses to Sell to the United States Control of the Canal Strip; Panamanian Revolution — Roosevelt’s Part in Revolution; United States Secures Control of Canal Strip, Colombia Protests; Construction of Canal Begun; Description of Canal, Canal Traffic. River Trans¬ portation: Small Boats, Pole Boats, Large Boats, Rafts. Steamboat: Construction, Mississippi River Traffic, New Orleans Levee, Mississippi Steamboats and Steamboating; Steamboat Fares. Government Attitude toward River Improvement. John Fitch Granted a Right in New Jersey fICalhoun’s Activities, ^^nroe’s Attitude. National Aid for Internal Improvements.!

CHAPTER IV Raileoads . 99

Origin and Early Development. Optimism of Promoters. Early Locomotives. First Chartered Railroad — Charles¬ ton and Hamburg, First Passenger Car on Baltimore and Ohio, New York Central, Camden and Amboy, New Eng¬ land Roads, West of Alleghanies, in the South. Rapid Growth in Railway Mileage. Call for Government Aid. Land Grants. Pacific Roads — Congressional Discussion, Compromise Bills, Construction of Pacific Roads, Credit Mobilier. Era of Railway Consolidation — Typical Con¬ solidations, Methods of Consolidating. Mechanical Devel¬ opment: Rails, Freight Cars, Locomotives, Gauge, Tele¬ graph, Signals. The Evolution of the Sleeping Car. Street Car Service. Electric Traction — Origin, Development .

CHAPTER V The Modern Wagon Road

\Neglect and Desuetude of Wagon Roads, 1830-189^ Lay- — mg out and Working Roads, Statutory Width of Roads. Influence of Bicycle for Better Roads: Origin of Bicycle, Development, Ordinary, Safety, Cycling Boom, Organiza¬ tion of Wlieel ClubsXjBropaganda for Good Roads^ Prev¬ alence of Poor Roads, Comments by Writeri^T Good

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Roads.. AssD-ciations; League of American Wheelmen, National Highway Commission, Col. Pope’s Propaganda,

Bills Introduced in Congress. Office of Public Roads Inquiry: Duties and Limitations, Cooperation with Good Roads Organizations, National Good Roads Associa¬ tion — Good Roads I rains. Object Lesson Roads, Policy Discontinued, Duties and Scope of Office of Public Roads Widened and Name Changed — Educational Work, Re¬ search, Administration of Federal Aid. Rural Free Delivery of Mail: Origin, Development, Advantages. State Aid: Origin — New Jersey, Salient Features, Dif¬ ficulties of Getting it Enacted; Massachusetts; Other States; State Bonds for State Aid. Federal Aid; Enact¬ ment of Law, Provisions, Appropriation, Administration, Additional Appropriations.

CHAPTER VI Inteerelation between Highway and Other Kinds of Transportation . 159

Classification of Transportation. Railroads have not always Acted Honorably. Quantity Production and Divi¬ sion of Labor Applied to Railway Transportation, to Motor Transport. Automobiles Cutting into Railway Earnings, Babson’s Prediction. Effect of Motor Com¬ petition on Interurban Trolley Lines, on Street Car Lines, Taxicabs and Jitneys, Buses, Trackless Trolleys. Guar¬ anteeing Earnings of Street Car Companies, Legitimate Fields of Transportation Agencies. Length of Haul for Economic Trucking. Reduction of Rates and Expenses. Carving out New Fields. Still Room for all Kinds of Transportation.

Chapter VII

Defined, Radical Changes to be Expected. Business Pas¬ senger Traffic: Jitney and Taxicab, Motor Bus — Qualifi¬ cations, Fares, Competition with Street Cars, Cross-coun¬ try Service, Carriers of School Children, Transfer between Depots. Pleasure Passenger Traffic : An Influence in the Purchase of Automobiles, Pleasurable Effect of Automo¬ bile Riding, Recreational and Pathological Benefits of Motoring, Cost of Motoring. Freight Traffic; Cost and

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PAQB

Time Factors, Motor Trucks and Congested Districts, Time Devoted to Loading and Unloading, Depots, Ware¬ houses, Devices, Removable Bodies, Sectional Containers, Store to Door Delivery, Mass Loading. Devices Con¬ nected with the Truck. Devices Separate, Special Types of Bodies. Traffic between Towns: Economic Distance, Licenses and Insurance, State Regulation without Com¬ petition, Development of State Regulation. Motor Bus Traffic: Buses, Rates, Future of Motor Bus and Other Types of Transportation. To and from the Farm: Impor¬ tance of Farm Trucking, Arguments in Favor of. Cost of Trucking, Diversified Farming, Intensive Farming, Live Stock. Trucking, Benefits to the Farmer, Economy of Farm Trucking, Parcel Post Service and the Farm, Rural Express, Milk Trucks, Convenience to the Farmer, Pur¬ chasing a Truck. Terminal Facilities : Advantages. Social Aspect of Motor Transportation: Effect on Merchan¬ dising, Housing, Unification of Society, Standard of Living,

Size of Farms, Salesmen, Hotels, City and Country Stores. Consolidated Rural Schools: The Public School and Patriotism, Peace, Changing Concepts of Public Schools. Rural Mail Delivery. Automobile and Health : As a Form of Exercise, Effect on Styles; Medical Science; Sanitary Effects — Mosquitoes, Flies. The Automobile and Crime: Bootlegging, Robbery, Vandalism. Types of Automobile Transportation.

CHAPTER VIII Planning Highway Systems: Selection of Road Types . 222

Object of a Road. Road Classification: Agricultural. Recreational, Commercial, Military. Problem of the Road Planner: Economy, Accommodation, Utilizing Existing Roads. Essentials to be Considered: Ruling Points, Branch Lines and Detours, Alternate Routes, Existing Highways and City Streets, Vested Rights, Widening Roads and Streets, Railroads, Trolley Lines, etc.. Bridges, Culverts, Drainage, etc.. Ruling Grades, Esthetics. Motor Transport Efficiency Outline, High¬ way System Unit: Arguments in Favor of National Sys¬ tem — Eliminates Sectional Differences, Gives Continuous Roads, Military Roads, Benefits of Example. State Systems — Benefits. Procedure of Laying out a Road System : Commission, Determining Factors, Maps, Tenta¬ tive System, Reconnaisance Survey — What Shown, How

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Taken, Instruments; Hearings — Object; Final Location — Considerations, Traffic Census Advisable. Financial Con¬ siderations: First Cost, Upkeep, Traffic Census: Affects Location, Type of Road, Grades, Width, Foundations. Making a Traffic Census: Variation of Traffic — Number of Counting Days, Hours Each Day, Weights, Observer’s Cards, Both Way Count, Weather, Stations — Location of. Classification of Traffic: Object, Maximum Loads, Effect of Heavy Loads, Influence Units of Traffic — British, French, Other Countries, Maryland, Massachusetts, Borough of Brooklyn; Suggested Form of Traffic Sheet — New Jersey. Destructive Factors: Density of Traffic, Weight of Vehicles, Impact, Speed, Wrinkling, Sprung and Unsprung Weight, Tires, Pleasure Cars and Light Traffic to be Considered. Other Methods of Estimating the Amount of Traffic: Area Served, Tonnage Arising. Distribution of Traffic over Township Roads. Selection of a Suitable Type of Road. Taxpayers Allowed to Assist in Selection, Engineers to Suggest. Ideal Road: Quahties of — Low First Cost, Durability — Materials and Design, Resistance to Traction and Tractive Force — Horse, Truck, Speed, Temperature, Roughness, Width of Tire, Diameter of Wheel, Table of Resistances; Resistance Due to Grade — Formulas, Coefficient, Available Engine Effort; Slipperiness — ^Type of Pavement, Climatic Con¬ ditions Sanitariness — Definition, Effect of Type of Road; Noisiness; Acceptability. Some Types of Roads and their Qualities: Earth, Sand-clay, Gravel, Macadam, Bituminous Macadam, Bituminous Concrete, Brick, Con¬ crete, Creosoted Wood Block, Asphalt Block, Sheet Asphalt, Other Types. Comparison of Roads — Specimen Tables.

Chapter IX

Effect of Ease and Cost of Transportation on Pro¬ duction AND Marketing . 273

Production Defined, Productive Activities — Change of Form, Change of Place, Change of Time. Nature and Labor. Capital — Stored up Labor. Marketing — Whole¬ saling and Retailing. Grain Exchanges; Defined, Object, Commission Merchant, Dealing in Futures — Hedging. Cooperative Marketing: Advantages. Local Grain Mer¬ chant — Financing Movement of Crops. Elements Enter¬ ing into the Cost of Marketing. Transportation from

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Farm to Local Market. Cost of Production, Effect of Good Roads upon, Intensive Farming, Fruit Farming, Long Haul Transportation. Stock Marketing: Changing Character of Stock Raising, Distance of Economic Hauling by Team and by Truck, Effect of Truck Hauling on Number of Hogs Marketed. Seasonal Effect. Stock Merchant — Local, Shrinkage, Dairying. Poultry. For¬ estry: Logging and Lumbering, Forest Management, Use of Truck and Trailer, At Saw Mill, Log Loader, in Lum¬ ber Yards, Mining. Factory Products. From Factory to Retailer. Terminal Charges Eliminated. Construc¬ tion.

CHAPTER X Financing Highways and Highway Transpoetation Lines . 306

Origin and Reasons for Road Work. Working out Road Tax Abolished. Private Financing, Public Financing. Taxation: Tax Defined, Classified. Direct Taxes — Levied Uniformly. Indirect Taxes: Defined, Classes of, Special Taxes, How Levied, Benefits Decrease with Dis¬ tance, Petitioning Influence — Curve of. Concrete Illustra¬ tion. Zone Weights: How Determined, Plots and Tables. Frontage: De&ied, Calculation, Illustrative Example. Unequal Zones and Irregular Lots — Concrete Illustra¬ tion. Another Method of Apportioning Assessments. Rule for Assessment. Miscellaneous Sources of Revenue: Public Service Corporations, Bus and Truck Lines, Municipal Sale of Water, Gas, Electricity, Ice, Coal. Public Ownership of Transportation and other Necessary Utilities. Bonds: Sinking Fund, Serial, Annuity, Com¬ parison of Costs. Term of Bonds. Stocks and Bonds. National and State Aid. Present Status of Federal Aid. Matching Federal Aid Dollars. Financing Highway Transportation: Individual, Partnership, Corporation. Public Ownership — When Advisable.

Chapter XI

Accidents Result of Disorder, Codes to Prevent, Automobile Accidents Lead in Number. Causes: The Driver — Men¬ tally or Physically Unfit, Ignorant, Indifferent, Reckless; Driving and Operating: Recklessness, Speeding, Around Sharp Turns, Passing Cars. Horns. Stopping Cars on

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Grades, in Streets, etc.. Backing. Other Forms of Care¬ lessness. The Car: Skidding, Brakes, Flexibility, Steering and Turning Ability, Lights, Unlighted Vehicles, Speed¬ ometer. Bad Roads: Slipperiness — ^High Crowns, Em¬ bankments and Guard Rails, Super-elevation — Rule for, Clear Vision, Curves, Bridges and Culverts. Railway Crossing Accidents: Prevalency, Elimination of Cross¬ ings — Cost, Automobile Drivers Careless — Observations, Methods of Mitigation; Bridge Clearance. Pedestrians — Jay-walkers, Obstacles that Obscure Vision, Pedestrians on Country Roads, Slow Going Vehicles, Bicycles. Road and Traffic Regulations: Development of. Council of National Defense Code, Education Necessary.

Chapter XII

Indispensable Elements of Architecture — Stability, Utility, Beauty. Esthetic Sense — ^Applied to Roads, to Land¬ scape Gardening. Styles — Natural and Formal. Appli¬ cation to Roads. Varieties of Road and Street Trees — List; Shrubs — List; Climbers — List. Semi-formal Style. Telephone and other Poles, the Ideal Section, Legislatio7i Necessary. Local Conditions Determine Planting.

Chapter XIII

Pleasure Riding — Extent, Advantages to a Community to Have Tourists Pass through. Ranking and Parldng, Parking Spaces a Convenience to Motorists — Space for and Angle of Parking, Location of Parking Spaces, One Way and Rotary Traffic, Opera House Traffic, Public Garages — Several Story Garages. Terminal Stations — Omaha, Pough¬ keepsie, Elsewhere. Gas, Air and Water Stations, Named and Numbered Roads; Marks, Signs and Guides — Distance and Direction Signs, Letters and Colors, Warning Signs,

Map Signs, Detour Signs, Location of Detour Markers, Dummy Cop, Semaphores, Signal Lights and Colors, Road and Street Lighting, City Traffic Lighting, Traffic Officer, Semaphore and Towers. Touring: Prevalency and Pleasures of. Camping — Grounds, Caravans, and Equipment. Camp Sites, Hotels, Parks, Information Bureaus and Agencies.

LIST OF INSERTS

Storm King Highway . Frontispiece

A Great Engineering Project Along the Hudson between Cornwall and West Point, N. Y.

PAGE

The Appian Way . 22

Showing the original Paving Stones laid 300 b.c.

Map of Italy . 24

Showing Some of the Tw^enty or More Roads that Radi¬ ated from Rome.

Map of Roman Roads in England ....... 26

(After Jackman: “Development of Transportation in Modern England.”)

Map of the North-Eastern Portion of the United States . 36

Showing the Location of Well-known Portages. There Were Other Portages Wherever Two Water Courses Came Near to Each Other. (See Farrand: “American Nation,” Vol. I, and Thwaites, Ib. Vol. VII.)

Map . 42

Showing Main Highways and Waterways in the United States about 1830. When the Railroads Entered the Industrial Arena, the Country Was Being Covered With a Net Work of Highways. (Based on Tanner’s Map of 1825 and Turner in “American Nation,” Vol. XIV.)

Map . 54

Showing Transcontinental Trails in the United States.

Way Bill . 66

Used on the Slaymaker Stage Line from Lancaster to Philadelphia, 1815. (Courtesy of Prof. P. K. Slaymaker, Lincoln, Nebr.)

The Sault Ste. Marie Canal . •. . . . . .76

XVll xviii

List of Inserts

PAGE

The Evolution of the Railway Train . 102

1. The First Railway Coach — 1825.

2. Horse Power Locomotive — 1829-30.

3. Stourbridge Lion — 1829.

4. Stevenson’s Rocket Locomotive — 1829.

5. The DeWitt Clinton Locomotive — 1831.

(From Brown’s “First Locomotive” — Courtesy of D. Appleton & Company.)

Modern Locomotives . 120

1. Showing the Growth in the Size of Locomotives Dur¬ ing the Past Twenty Years. The Smaller Locomotive is an American Type Class Engine of 1900. The Larger is a Mountain Type Engine. Both are Used on the C. B. & Q. R. R. Photographed at Lincoln, Nebr., Sept., 1922.

2. One of the New Gearless Electric Locomotives Built by the General Electric Company for the C. M. & St.

Paul R. R.

Transportation Across Death Valley . 126

A Picturesque Method of Earlier Days.

Good Roads Day in Jackson County, Mo . 132

Chart of the Organization of the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads and Rural Engineering, 1917 . . 142

Hard Surface Highway in Oregon . 146

A Farmer’s Wife Meeting the Postal Truck . . . 146

Trackless Trolley Operated on Staten Island, N. Y. . 166

Motor or Rail-Car . 166

Showing the Gasoline Locomotive and Trailer, Operated by the Chicago & Great Western R. R.

The Evolution of the Steam Automobile .... 182

1. The Cugnot Steam Carriage — 1770.

2. The Trevithick & Vivian Steam Carriage — 1801.

3. The Gurney Steam Carriage — 1827.

4. The Church Automobile Carriage (Steam) — 1833.

5. Gaillardit’s Steam Carriage — 1894.

(Courtesy of the Scientific American.)

A Modern Rural Passenger Bus . 184

List of Inserts

XIX

PAGE

A New York City ^^Stepless^^' Bus . 184

It Has an Emergency Door, with Wire Window Guards, and will Seat 30 Persons.

The Evolution op the Gasoline Motor Car . . , 188

1. Panhard & Levassor Carriage — 1895.

2. Duryea Motor Wagon — 1895.

3. The Benz Motocycle,

4. Hertel’s Gasoline Carriage — 1896.

5. The Olds Horseless Carriage.

6. Winton^s Racing Machine.

(Courtesy of the Scientific American.)

Hauling Beans by Motor Truck and Trailer . , . 200

Sacramento Valley, Calif.

Hauling Sugar Beets to Market in a Motor Truck . . 200

Traffic on Fifth Avenue, New York City .... 234

Giving a Macadam Road an Application op Tarvia Binder 254

This is Followed by a Coat of Screenings and then the Road is Rolled Again.

A Road op Mixed Asphalt and Concrete Being Tested Out . 254

Crowning a Dirt Road in California with Tractor Drawn Grader . 263

A. Milk Truck Equipped with both Cans and Tank . . 296

A Lumber Log Truck Used in the Northwest . . . 296

A National Highway in the Mountains op Maryland . 332

A Dangerous Curve Made Safe by an Artistic Concrete Wall . 364

The Tennessee State Highway at Lookout Mountain, Built of Cemented Concrete.

Pin Oak Street Trees . 388

About 15 Years Old on Land that Was Once Considered to be a part of the ‘‘Great American Desert.”

A Cottonwood Wind Break . 388

Formerly very Common in the Prairie Region.

Warning and Direction Signs Used in the State of Illinois . 434

XX

List of Inserts

PAGE

Traffic Guides . 442

(From Eno^s ^‘The Science of Highway Traffic Regula¬ tion/^)

New York City Traffic Guides . 444

In November, 1903, one hundred blue and white enameled signs, directing slow-moving vehicles to keep near the right-hand curb, w^ere put in use in New York. These were probably the first traffic regulation signs ever used.’^

(From Eno’s ‘‘The Science of Highway Traffic Regula¬ tion.”)

Traffic Tower on Fifth Avenue, New York City . . 446

Camping Ground and Caravan . 458

A Gipsying Touring Caravan . 458

HIGHWAYS AND HIGHWAY TRANSPORTATION

Chapter I Trajtsportation A Measure Of Civilization

As the several peoples inhabiting the earth have pro¬ gressed 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 trans¬ portation — 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 con¬ sider his economic activities the more fundamental fac¬ tors. The most widely used economic classification, according to Ely,^ is based upon the increasing power of man over nature and consists of (1) Direct Appropria-

' ^ ‘ Outlines of Economics, ^ * by Richard T. Ely. The Macmillan

Co., N. Y.

tion, (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 pre¬ historic period and up to 54 b.c., when the Komans over¬ ran 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 be¬ ginning 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 govern¬ ment 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 in¬ ventions, 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 ^ 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 vary¬ ing as greatly in degree as from one stage in the above classification to another. The Indians at the time of the

* See * ‘ The Man of the Stone Age, ^ ^ by H. F. Osborne.

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 in¬ vestigation. Their governments while variable are of the primitive types. Ordinarily a chief autocratically rules be¬ cause of hereditary infiuence. Little is manufactured, planting is scarcely known; by hunting, fishing, and col¬ lecting nature’s products of wild seeds and roots is a sub¬ sistence 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. ^ Notwithstanding Stanley’s men were possessed of firearms and edged tools and carried some pro¬ visions 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 improvi¬ dent 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 recog¬ nized and retained by personal prowess, the ownership of land is absent. Cooperation of the crudest sort only is found; division of labor consists largely in having the females perform the work of planting, cultivating, carry-

Darkest Africa’^ (two volumes), by Henry M. Stanley. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York.

ing 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 fiocks precluded fixed habitations, although large areas were claimed and held or endeavored to be held from trespass thereon by neighbor¬ ing 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 con¬ sequently 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 advan¬ tage 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 conse¬ quently 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 handi¬ craft 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.