Even such a differential as that established in favor of Baltimore and Philadelphia against New York and Boston. which would at first sight appear artificial. was the result of one of the fiercest and most expensive commercial wars ever waged upon this continent. and when a few months ago the Interstate Commission was called upon to arbitrate. under an agreement between the cities. as to this differential it reached the very conclusion that was the outcome of that war. The enormous expansion following the civil war was succeeded by the severe financial crisis of 1873. and for a half dozen years the country was in the gloom of a profound depression. There were armies of unemployed in the factory cities of the East. vast numbers of immigrants seeking employment who had poured into the country during the years of its apparent prosperity. Our industrial collapse would have been even more serious and profound had it not been for the policy of our railroads. New lines had been opened up through rich areas. inhabited only by the buffalo and the wolf.
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immigrants