The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-09

with sleepers and diners. This road is about as long as from New York to Cleveland. Leaving Antofagasta. the chief seaport of northern Chile the train takes you through the nitrate fields and across the Chilean desert 10 the Bolivian frontier. You are all night and the whole of one day in making that journey, and you arrive at Oruro at about o'clock the next morning. During the first 229 miles you reach an altitude of l3.000 feet. You then drop about 800 feet to the great borax lake. and thence climb over the mountains to the Bolivian plateau A part of the way is over vast plans spotted with lamas and alpacas, and in plain sight of snow clad peaks from 16,00o to 20.0e0 feet high Oruro. the commercial center of the plateau. is the halfway station, ans the distance from there to the Bolivian capital is 150 miles.
 The Antofagasta road is one of inc scenic routes of the world and geo-loe- ically and geographically It Is one of the most interesting. The Bolivian plateau was once a great inland sea hundreds of miles long and 50 or more miles in width. Parts of 1t are as flat as a floor, and the road goes for miles over beds of stone and stretches of sea sand. am told that sea shells are often found, and that fossils of fishes are in evi- dence. Some of the way is past volca- noes and you see beds and mountains of lava of the most wonderful character. The road he trot the Andes and its freight is largely tin and copper ore. whica is shipped from Antofagasta to the srnelters of Europe and the United States.
 The reconstruction of this Bolivian rail- way and it's extension was financed and built by Americans. Only few years ago Bolivia and Brazil entered into a treaty by which Bolivia coneede to Brazil a rubber region about twice as large as the state of Indiana for the sum of s10.- CO0,000. This money was used to biuld certain railroads for the development of Bolivia. Messrs. Speyer & Co, and the National City bank of New York got the contract for the completion and extension Of the Antofagasta road. Their scheme involved an expenditure of more than 21WO,0o0. the capital to be made up of Sl5,oO0oo0 advanced by the Americans, and Of SIP. 500,000 by the Bolivian government. one of the extensions to be made was the standard gnage from Oruro to La Tag, another was from Oruro to Coch- abamba, and a third line 10 Tupiza to connect with the Argentine system. The P0tDSi of the contract This was in 1s)6. shortly after which time the work was begun. American engineers were brought in and hy 1908 the line from 9ruro to viacha above La Paz was almost completed Otler constructions were yell under way when the controlling interest in the un dertaking was sold to rhe English An tofagasta and Bolivia Railway company. aud that at big profit
 In this way the Antofagasta and Ro- livia railroad pass out of the control Of the Americans and into that of the English. The Americans may still own some or the stock, but the railroads petongs 10 and is managed by English Capitalists. It has been completed to La Paz, and is now advancing toward Cochabamba. a thriving town on the SostoiH sue O1 tne Andes. The same company is building line from Uyuni to Tupiza, the total length of which VIII be about 120 miles. A short exten- sion will connect that line with the Ar genuine railways. and then one can travel across the country from Bolivia to Argentina. 1 understand that the Bolivian government has already con tracted loan for the building of the break from Tupiza to the Argentina frontier
 The Antofagasta road Is one of the most profitable roads of all South America. It is the great down-the- mountain chute for the tin and copper ores of the Bolivian plateau and. as 1t has a monopoly it can charge all that the traffic will bear. The freight rates are enourmous and that on coal from Antofagasta to La Paz Is something like $20 or $25 a ton. Suppose you had to pay $25 for getting a ton of coal from Washington to Detroit. I venture you would object, even as the La Paz reople do.
 By the extension of the lines the