Page:The truth about the railroads (IA truthaboutrailro00elli).pdf/77

Rh of the value of American railroads as a whole will prove their value to be greater than their capitalization.

There were in 1900 engaged in manufacturing, mechanical pursuits, trade, and transportation nearly 12,000,000 persons. No very complete figures exist of the exact number of persons belonging to labor unions, but it is thought that the number is not more than 3,000,000, or about 25 per cent of the total number employed in these four lines, which do not include agriculture, in which there are no labor organizations. These figures clearly show the growth of the country, and how, from the rather simple forms of agriculture, transportation, mining, and manufacturing, that growth has made necessary the great instrumentalities of business as they now exist and has created the complex relations between the various forces that affect business to-day. Most of this great development has come since the Civil War, or in only forty-five years, and, as a result of this wonderful forward march, due largely to the unexcelled railroad Rh