ing the road were chiefly Irish, and their daily wages seldom exceeded seventy-five cents.

On September 16, 1850, the Pennsylvania Railroad was completed from Harrisburg to Duncansville, a distance of 137 miles, at which latter place it connected with the Allegheny Portage Railroad, whose tracks were used in crossing the Allegheny mountains to a point a few miles east of Johnstown, from which point westward its own tracks were again used. The road was opened to Pittsburgh on December 10, 1852, about five and a half years after its construction was undertaken. The mountain division of the road, from Altoona to the Portage viaduct, including the celebrated horseshoe bend and the long tunnel at Gallitzin, was completed on February 15, 1854, this division avoiding the use of inclined planes, although the grades were heavy. Like the Portage Railroad itself the building of this division of the Pennsylvania Railroad was a remarkable feat of engineering skill.

On April 21, 1849, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company leased the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy, and Lancaster Railroad, 34.49 miles long, for twenty years, and on December 29, 1860, this lease was continued for 999 years. This road was one of the earliest railroads in Pennsylvania. It was chartered on June 9, 1832, and was opened for business in 1838. With the lease of this road and the purchase in 1857 of the State railroads above mentioned and described in a previous chapter the Pennsylvania Railroad Company obtained control of an unbroken line of railroad from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, now styled the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Sunbury and Erie Railroad, 289.67 miles long, from Sunbury to Erie, with many important connections to-day, was leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for 999 years from January 1, 1862. A controlling interest in the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad was acquired in 1881. The Northern Central Railway, extending 460.39 miles, including branches and connections, from Baltimore through Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario, New York; the Cumberland Valley Railroad, extending from Harrisburg to Powell's Bend, on the Poto

mac river, in Maryland; the Allegheny Valley Railway, from Pittsburgh to Oil City, with branches and connections to Buffalo and other points; the West Penn division, extending from Bolivar to Allegheny; and the Schuylkill division, extending from Philadelphia to Pottsville-all these are important branches of the Pennsylvania system which mainly lie in Pennsylvania and which are either owned or controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Other branches might also be mentioned.

The Pennsylvania system extends into many States, its most important subsidiary interest west of Pittsburgh being the Pennsylvania Company, which operates the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, and Chicago Railway. It owns a controlling interest in other important railroad lines in States west of Pennsylvania, including the "Panhandle" and Vandalia lines; it is the lessee of the United Railroads of New Jersey, giving it access to New York City; it controls railroads to Atlantic City, Cape May, and other seaside resorts; and it has important Southern connections.

In 1907 the Pennsylvania system owned and operated or controlled the operation of 11,175.74 miles of main track, (including a few miles of ferries and canals,) of which total 6,078.17 miles are east of Pittsburgh and Erie and 5,097.57 miles are west of these cities.

In 1907 the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company owned 304.60 miles of main track in Pennsylvania and operated in all 1,440.22 miles, extending from Jersey City to Phillipsburg, New Jersey, thence to Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, and thence to Buffalo, New York, with branches. This road was originally a consolidation of several short anthracite coal roads. The Lehigh Valley Railroad not only penetrates a rich part of Northern Pennsylvania but it is a most important agent in carrying to market the product of the anthracite coal mines of the State. It is the third of the great railroad systems of Pennsylvania.

A historical fact that should not be overlooked is the opposition to the building of railroads which was sometimes encountered in Pennsylvania. Many of the farmers along the line of the Columbia Railroad were opposed to its construction because they believed that it would in

terfere with the sale of horses, oats, and other farm products which were needed in the operation of the Lancaster Turnpike, and which also gave employment to many of them as wagoners. For similar reasons farmers were opposed to the building of the Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mount Joy, and Lancaster Railroad. When the project of building a railroad from Harrisburg to Reading through the Lebanon valley was proposed many of the farmers of the valley opposed it for the reason that it would seriously check the demand for their horses and the grain to feed them and also interfere with their business as wagoners. They also objected to the building of the road because the counties through which it passed would be called upon to furnish financial aid, and for this reason they feared that their taxes would be increased. So it happened that the Lebanon Valley Railroad, the building of which was authorized by an act of the Legislature on April 1, 1836, was actually not undertaken until 1853, a lapse of seventeen years. It was finished in 1858, on January 18 of which year the whole road was opened.

Pennsylvania may well be proud of its great railroad systems. They have contributed greatly to the development of its natural resources and to the upbuilding of all its productive industries. They and all other Pennsylvania railroads well deserve the continued good will of all Pennsylvanians. Recent legislation directly affecting the railroads of this State has been conspicuously unappreciative and most ungracious in view of the great benefits which these railroads have conferred upon all our people.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE GREAT INDUSTRIES OF PENNSYLVANIA.

We now come to the consideration of the great industries of Pennsylvania which have made its name famous in every civilized country. A general survey of these industries will be given in this chapter in the light of recent authentic statistics. Historical details of leading Pennsylvania industries will be given in other chapters.

Pennsylvania has long been noted as the leader of all the States in the mining of coal, the manufacture of coke, and the production of iron and steel. Its leadership in these great industries in 1905 is shown in the following table, which gives its percentage of the total production of coal and coke and of leading forms of iron and steel in the whole country in that year of industrial activity.

Contrary to common belief Pennsylvania has not been. a large producer of iron ore since the ores of the Lake Superior region came into general use about 1880 in the manufacture of Bessemer pig iron. Its small production in 1905 is included in the table. And yet Pennsylvania I was first of all the States in the mining of iron ore down to the census year 1880, when it produced 1,951,496 gross tons. In the census year 1870 it produced 978,113 tons, or over 32 per cent. of the total production of the country in that year. In 1889 it fell to the third place, in 1904 to the ninth place, and in 1905 it occupied

the sixth place among the iron-ore producing States. In 1906 it occupied the fifth place. Its production of iron ore in 1905 was 808,717 tons and in 1906 it was 949,429 tons. In 1904 its percentage of the total production was 1.4, in 1905 it was 1.9, and in 1906 it was 1.99.

It is not necessary to comment on the prominence of Pennsylvania as a producer of iron and steel except to call attention to its extraordinary percentages of the total production in 1905 as they are shown in the tablepig iron, 46.0 per cent.; all kinds of steel, 55.1 per cent.; all kinds of rails, 33.0 per cent.; all other forms of rolled iron and steel, 57.9 per cent. Of the production of coal in Pennsylvania in 1905 69,339,152 gross tons were anthracite and 105,726,461 tons were bituminous; the total was 175,065,613 tons, or 49.9 per cent. of the country's production. Of the total production of coke in the same year 63.8 per cent. was made in Pennsylvania. In 1906 the whole country produced 369,783,284 gross tons of coal, of which Pennsylvania produced 179,085,372 tons, or 48.4 per cent. In 1906 the country's total production. of coke was 36,401,217 net tons, of which Pennsylvania produced 23,060,511 tons, or 63.3 per cent. Nearly all the bituminous coal and coke produced in Pennsylvania is to be credited to Western Pennsylvania. Practically all the anthracite coal produced in the United States is mined in Eastern Pennsylvania.

The statistics of another leading industry of Pennsylvania, the silk industry, for the census year 1900 and the census year 1904 will surprise the average reader. In both years Pennsylvania occupied the second place among the States in the manufacture of silk products, New Jersey being first in rank. Pennsylvania made great progress in the development of this industry in the decade between 1890 and 1900 and also from 1900 to 1904. In the census year 1904, which was virtually the calendar year, all the States had $109,556,621 invested in the manufacture of silk and employed 79,601 persons as wage earners, exclusive of clerks, etc., paying the wage earners $26,767,943 in wages. In the same year the silk industry of Pennsylvania had $31,312,386 of capital invested and employed