The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-12

| from them The government has the con- viction-and 1t is a good one-tnat t2 se- cure satisfactory profit out or HWY you must give a group of capitalists it. The Bengal and Northwestern Railway. | for instance, has 2.000 mileage, or wncn TOO miles Is owned by capitalists IT is sort of cooperative plan. and the raiiWaya under it are in a highly prosperous conm-i tion. All the Indian railways. however. are in a sound condition. Not one ol Lns | lines is paying less than per cent -dfvfs
 dend and some are producing as hign as | and i0 peh cent to their Bharehoiders.
 Land Cheaply Acquired. .sone of the most important factors.
 however. of the financial success af tne l Indian railroads is due to the low rates
 at which lanr has been purchased; Ln | some instances wealthy land owners nave given the land free to the governmert for | the sake of having their names publisneos 1 in The Gazette. the chief organ or ln0@s as public benefactors. An .Indtan fnnce
 or Rajah. you know. likes nothing psffsr | than to see his name In print as .phii-
 anthropist, and. of course. the pEass is always willing to satisfy hip in ths mat ter The average price paid by the raa,- though in Presidency towns freQuently;
 s250 and as high as $l.ooo ansRore- has been
 paid.
 | of the railroads Is the cheapness of in- | dian labor. Unsixilled labor gets p cents a day and skilled labor 75 cents. In some parts of India, however, the wages are as
 low as 10 cents a day for ordinary laoo,. The Hindoos. of course, can live on al- mest nothing. Rice and currie is tneir principal food. and the sky fs their roof. They are splendid workers. however. go long as the eye of the white foreman IS upon them.
 .'Fortunately. there are no trade unions in India; still. strikes are by no means uncommon. If the contractor will not pay Yu-f-~ tN Superstition, too. of q most ghastly kind is prevalent among the Hindoo iaDorers- If a bridge, for instance. is being con structed over 8 sacred river, and an acci- dent occurs, nothing will induce the gangs to resume work till goats, kids. calves or other sacrifices have been made. Engineering Not So Good. "I daresay we could learn many things, especially rapidity, in the construction or railways from your engineers. The pro- cedure adopted in building Indian rail- | roads is not entirely up to date. For ex- ample. earthwork is done by baskets ana | trucks, wagons only occasionally peing employed, and the banks are made rom side trenches or burrow pitsaI was watch | ing some 1aborers working in your sup | way yesterday. and I noticed with mucn | interest the working of the steel buckets | as they lifted the earth from the exca- yation and dumped 1t into wagons These buckets are just the very thing we need l in railroad excavation and bridge work i in India. did not notice. them m use m tns underground railway work in London. 'sIn the matter of solid comfort in rail- road travelling. however. you cannot beat us. I have not yet seen any hrst class railroad coaches on your lines that can aurpass in equipment and comfort car riaTes of the same class on Indian rail- roads. I have no doubt the opposite i'm.
 pression prevails in this country. but assure you we are right up to date in the matter of luxury in railway travel. Then. too, our fares are very much cheaper than yours. In India the fare is one cent . mile. | 1t seems to me your prices could be some what reduced without in any way. oam- aeine inc dividends of the companies Why' it costs a man a small fortune to do any considerable amount of railway travelling here"