The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-18
RAILWAYS BIG !. PROBLEM FOR
 THE JAPANESE
Rattle of Gauges Interesting Feature of Long ContrO-
 sersy In Kingdom.

~ Tho mosts interesting domestic is- Sue in Japanstoday is the battle of the gauges, says the Manchester Guar sdian. InsCoreaN tha Japanese found che railroads built onN the standard Lguuge, Y feets8 1-2 inches, and retain edit. In, South Manchuria they found tho broad Russian gauge. and they reduced it to the standard gauge.
 The narrow military line from .Au- teng to Mukden they converted to the standard gauge. Thus all the rail- ways on the Asiatic continent under Japanese controS Cincluding the Shan \ tung line taken from the Germans) fare of the standard gauge. But all the lines in Japan proper-national 1 and private, steam and electric-are lof the narrow gauge, feet inches IVY To the travelled coming from China iand Corea the change is rather a lshock. The Japenese trains are slow (the fastest expresses are under thir- tty miles an hourl; the carriage are How and narrow nhe indifferent tram Icars; the sleeping cars cramped and Ainconvenient
 s, Cheapast syjtem Adopted
 4 The, British engineer under whose !advice the Japanese railways were fbegun in 1871 put before his clients the relative merits and demerits of tths various gauges But in those et days the Japenese did not look very far ahead, and they chose the nar- TOW gauge because 1t was the cheap ct. L <, Adopted for the Tol1o-K Kobe line, fl became the pattern, as that line wal I extended to Shimonoseki and for all Aother lines. Not that the broad kEause was without. it's advocates. Ir 416p2 at the first railway conference . proposal was made. but rejected, to convert all the lines of the main is. land to theS broad gauge. In 1S9S-4 a committee inquired into the matter but nothing came of its deliberations
 In 1896 the Diet voted in favor ol converting the main. Tokiado, Hnt (Tokio to shimonoselxi), but the Min i:istry did not act. Business men ther Fbegan to take up the matter, and il K 1889 the Ministry of Communication appointed committee to go into thu engineering and financial aspects O the matter. In October of that year i'the railway board drew up a plan fol ia broad gauge system and asked thu Dist to vote f2s,o00.o 0.o00 toward trans Morning the Tokio-Shimonseki line; 1t {; intention was to complete the re building of this line in thirteen years
 The Dict rejected the scheme on thu ! ground that 1t was not well consid
 cred A committee of official an' l pxfvate experts recommended tn oouversion, but again nothing result g a encept moro com4issions and com ! q
 Docaaon Is Forced
 n The party now in office agitated when in opposition. for the oonver don, so this year the House of Peer d4cfded to force decision. It pass ..ed the budget on three conditions, on liof which Has that the railway ques tion should be settled.
 That Ministries should hesitate be fore beginning such task is naturs Y enough Once begun 1t will have t be carried right through to the ent
 and the financial and commercial con
 sequences involved are of the fir
 magnitude There are about 500
 miles of Government rai1way-almol
 1000 miles in the main island alone
 exclusive of private lines. Not onl
 must the track be >widened and th
 rolling stock be rebuilt or scrappet
 but the stations fill have to be rebui \ and the tunnels deepened. widened C { entirely reconstructed.
 The estimated cost for the main i, Hand alone is fsO.0Oo, ,000, and tn
 work must take many years, durin
 which the country will have to suffs
 the inconvenience of two differer gauges and some measure of disc,
 ganizatdon. Important business me
 with whom discussed the questio
 doubt the wisdom of the change. The
 ray that the money could be muc better spent on other public works
 harbors, roads and the like; and tn;
 the inconveniences of the present sy { tenn could be disposed of by doub ing the tracks and by building speci
 lines for express traffic. Again, son