Wonderful Achievements Annually as Result of Ca-operation:
Effective Transportation. Over Thousands of Railbeds: Som Comparisons From Our Own San Francisco, Sept, 5.
At has very often ben truly remarked that what the mercantile marine is to Britain railways are to the United States. There are some who, making a journey on any trunk line across the United States are apt to vail against the number of times they are awaken-during the night as a result of indifferent' stopping and starting, noting with anger the difference b tween the easy riding of the (London and North-western or the Great Western in England (for examples). And they are, therefore, apt to form snap judgments to the effect that the railways of America are not what they are cracked up to be. It is true that many Tines in England and some. other countries are smoother in running, ne no doubt to superior roadbeds, a fact not to be wondered at, however, when one considers the enormous distances that the railways this country have to cover. But s0'far as effective transportation of merchandise and human beings concerned, there is nothing in the world that can compete with the average American line, or "road," as they have it in this country, Everything about the transcontinental line here is colossal. One notices it first in the majestic locomotives, giants that have to snort their way from sea level over some of the highest mountains in the world—through tropical valleys up through driving blizzards into the Perennial snow line, and arrive remarkably near to' schedule time on 1,000 or 1,500 mile runs. One sees it in the carriages, great steel ears that are the last word comfort and: efficiency. But particularly does one notice it in the freight cars that carry almost tnbelievable quantities of produce and merchandise along the arteries steel that thread their course into the outermost points of the country. These dull-red freight ears rattle their way cheerfully up and uiyn the land, covered with chall ed hieroglyphics that would an Egyptologist, and which for years has been the most cursed factor in the whole of the intricate railway system.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.