Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1897-10-13
GERMAN RAILROADS.
Government Ownership Il Proving Bis
marck's Wisdom In Advocating It's Adop-

Government Ownership Il Proving Bis
marck's Wisdom In Advocating It's Adop-
tion.
Germany has more miles of railway
than any other country in Europe, her
total being 2s, 237, of which 3,0S2 be-
long to private parties, the remainder
to the government There are about
1000 miles now under construction,
which will be open to traffic during
the present year. Russia has %, 200
miles of road, France 5000, Great
Britain and Ireland 21,O0O. Austria
$4,000. Spain 1000. The total length
of railway in Europe is 157, 14O miles.
Bismarck is responsible for the ina
tionalization" of the railways of Ger
many. Originally the construction
and management of transportation
lines was left to private capital, the
state reserving the right of control
and taxation. In order to secure the
construction of railways that were re-
quired for military purposes rather
than for commerce the government
inaugurated a system of subsidies and
guarantees of interest to investors, and
in ten years, from 1865 to 1876, more
than $500, 600, 600 was voted in this way.
Ah AS'A II OCS oh W oCSuLC UNI
formity in management for the con-
venience of the travelling public. The
next step was to formulate regulations
in regard to speed and rates of charges,
and commission was appointed SINH
lar to the interstate commerce commits
sion in the United States. Two years
later the reichstag passed law con-
ferring far-reaching authority upon
several states over their systems, but
so much difficulty was found in its en-
forcement that in 1915 the control of
the railways in the several kingdoms
and principalities in Germany was
transferred to the imperial government
on the pretext of military defense and
economical management. Bismarck
had taken the ground all along that the
government should not only control
but own the railways, and declared
his belief in the socialistic principle
that transportation lines and all other
public improvements should not be
maintained for profit, but solely for
the convenience of the people, and
should be relieved entirely from pri-
vate control. He urged that central
lzation would result in lower tariffs
and better conveniences for the public
and more economical management for
the road. His ideas were at first de-
nounced as revolutionary, but public
opinion came gradually to indorse
them until finally, in 1887, nearly all
the railways in Germany were brought
within the ownership of the state, and
as result the treasures of the king
doms have received many millions OF
marks which otherwise would have
been distributed in dividends to pri
vate capital.
The railway management of the gov
ernment in Germany is very econom-
ical in some respects and very extrava-
CANT in others, particularly in the way
of construction. The stations are
magnificent structures all through the
empire. That at Frankfort cost 35,-
600, 900 marks and is the finest in the
world. In Dresden is another almost
as good, and wherever you go you will
find the railway depots, like all other
public buildings, ornaments to the
towns. Their designs are in the high
est order of architecture; their facades
are embellished with statues of an ap-
propriate character. carved in granite
or marble or cast in bronze-Special
Correspondence Chicago Record.