COMMERCE.—For the five years 1906-10 the average value of the produce of the United States exported abroad was 065,000,000, and of the merchandise imported into the country 080,000,000.
Over three-fourths of the raw cotton exported goes in the first instance to Great Britain, Germany, and France. The United Kingdom is the chief consumer both of wheat and of wheat-flour, but for the latter there are also important markets in the north of South America and in the Far East. Canada is one of the chief purchasers of iron and steel goods, though these are somewhat widely distributed; and along with Russia, France, and the Argentine it buys large quantities of agricultural machinery. Copper is exported to the countries of Western Europe, oil to various parts of the world, lard to the United Kingdom and Germany, and bacon and ham to the United Kingdom. Timber goes to Great Britain and Canada, and boots and shoes to Great Britain, Germany, and Cuba.
Of the imports, cane sugar comes from Cuba and the Philippines, hides from Germany, Russia, and the Argentine, chemicals from the United Kingdom and Germany, coffee from Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia, raw silk from China and Japan, cotton goods from the United Kingdom and Switzerland (lace goods), linen fabrics from the United Kingdom, silk goods from France and Switzerland.
COMMUNICATIONS.—The railways of the United States, which have a length of 250,000 miles, are so numerous and, especially in the east, cover the land with so intricate a network of lines that it is impossible to do more than to describe briefly a few of the more important.
As New York is the great port of entry into the country, it is the point from which diverge some of the principal lines to the interior. The chief obstacle encountered by these lines is the Appalachian system, which offers a considerable barrier to free communication. The New York Central railroad overcomes the difficulty by a flank movement. Striking north along the Hudson as far as Albany, where it is joined by a line from Boston, and then following the Mohawk westward, it reaches Buffalo, and establishes communication with Chicago, either by its own lines which skirt the southern shores of Lake Erie, or by those of the Michigan Central which pass through the Ontario peninsula to the north of that lake. The Erie railway, crossing the outer Appalachian ridges where they are low behind New York, and then following first the Delaware and afterwards the Susquehanna and its tribu taries, also runs to Chicago with connections to Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburg, and Cincinnati. The Pennsylvania line goes south-west from New York to Philadelphia, passes through the Blue Ridge at the gap formed by the Susquehanna at Harrisburg, and follows that river as far as Williamsport, the junction of lines from Lakes Erie and Ontario. At Harrisburg, a branch breaks off from the main
line and runs to Pittsburg by the valleys of the Juniata and Cone maugh. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad runs from New York to Washington along the coastal plain, passes through the Blue Ridge at the gap formed by the Potomac, and ascends the valley of that river as far as Cumberland, where it divides, one line going by the Youghiogheny to Pittsburg, and thence to Chicago, the other striking westwards for Cincinnati and St. Louis.
From New York to New Orleans and the south there are several routes. One, followed by the Great Southern and its connections, runs along the Piedmont Plateau by Charlotte and Albany, and turns the southern end of the Appalachians ; while another, of which the Alabama, the Great Southern, and the Norfolk and Western are the principal links, crosses the Blue Ridge at the water-gap of the James, and runs to New Orleans by Knoxville and Chattanooga, in the valley of the Tennessee. Chicago and the more important towns on the Ohio and Mississippi are brought into communication with New Orleans by the Illinois Central Railway, which follows the general direction of these rivers.
The Chicago and North Western, and the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha Railways connect Chicago with Duluth, St. Paul, Omaha, and Kansas City, the starting-points of some of the more important routes to the Pacific coast. The Great Northern has its eastern terminals at Duluth and St. Paul, the lines from which meet at Grand Forks. It then runs westward, following for the greater part of the way the course of the Missouri and Milk rivers, enters the Rocky Mountains by the valleys of tributaries of the Missouri, and descends the Kootenay for some distance on its way to Spokane. From Spokane it strikes across to the coast and terminates at Tacoma. The Northern Pacific railway likewise starts from Duluth and St. Paul, but it follows the course of the Yellowstone River by whose valley it enters the Rocky Mountains, and after passing through the Bozeman Tunnel arrives at Helena. It then crosses the main watershed at Mullan's Pass, descends to Spokane by Hellgate River and Clark's Fork, and runs to Pasco, near the confluence of the Columbia and the Snake, where it bifur cates, one line following the Columbia to Portland and then turning north to Tacoma and Seattle, and the other going direct to Tacoma by the Yakima valley, which opens a way across the Cascades.