If The Great American Novel Is Ever Written, I Hazard The Guess That Its
Plot Will Be Woven Around The Theme Of American Transportation, For
That Has Been The Vital Factor In the National Development Of The United
States. Every Problem In the Building of The Republic Has Been, In the
Last Analysis, A Problem In transportation. The Author Of Such A
Novel Will Find A Rich Fund Of Material In the Perpetual Rivalries Of
Pack-Horseman And Wagoner, Of Riverman And Canal Boatman, Of Steamboat
Promoter And Railway Capitalist. He Will Find At Every Point The Old
Jostling and Challenging; The New Pack-Horsemen Demolishing wagons In
The Early Days Of The Alleghany Traffic; Wagoners Deriding clinton'S
Ditch; Angry Boatmen Anxious To Ram The Paddle Wheels Of Fulton'S
Clermont, Which Threatened their Monopoly. Such Opposition Has Always
Been An Incident Of Progress; And Even In this New Country, Receptive
As It Was To New Ideas, The Washingtons, The Fitches, The Fultons, The
Coopers, And The Whitneys, Who Saw Visions And Dreamed dreams, All Had
To Face Scepticism And Hostility From Those Whom They Would Serve.
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