The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-01-02

! longest railroad net in Europe, and,
with one exception. she has the clos
est railroad net among the large ma
tons. The passenger service Ia eff
! 1cient: Bismarck. In 1892, said to a
union of manufacturing societies:
Even our much talked of technical
education has done less than our ma
| tionalized railroads for commerce and
! The first result Of Maybach's scheme
/ was an all-round lowering of freigA
rates. carried through simultaneously
with an increase of earning power. an
ideal never realized under private
ownership.
Politically, German railroad ma
tionalization has had stabilli2ing re-
suits. In Prussia $50 000. and in all
Germany 100000 private railroad en-
pioyes have become state officials
Nearly all these are former non-com-
in.ssioned army officers who volun-
tartly prolonged their term of army
service from two to twelve years, and
thus became the backbone of the Ger
man army. Even in peace times a
military discipline exists the rail-
roads. which, though 1t Influences poll
ties In reactionary direction, makes
/ Impossible railroad strikes and dove
tails neatly into the fashionable sys-
tenn OF state SOCIALISM.
| Is Financially Successful
/ From state financial standpoint,
railroad naturalization has achieved
! it's greatest Success The success is
great all over Germany. but greater in
Prussia. In the German railroads
there has been invested up to the out
! break of the war about S4,256.0O0,oO0
but IA result of thrifty management
inDn of ~ pa duo f1 he aIE
of Wasteful competition, such a large
annual surplus was attained that the
inauonaliZed railroads wiped Off a
great part of their outstanding CAPT
tai
In Prussia. according to the esti-
mates of Herr Won Rheinbaben the
state railroads will he entirely free OF
debt. and will constitute unencumber-
ca national property within twenty
years from 1915. Already, In 1900
w enty years after Bismarck nation
ailzed the railroads, the capital in
vested Of $3.50, 00o, 600 was reduced
ny amortization out of profits to lit
tie more than 81 .000, 900 900.
/ 'iermany's state railroads are run
with enormous profit to the revenue.
In the year before the war the rail-
roads brought in profit of about
s2,0. Q0o 600.
Inc Prussian state railroads
brought in profit of 1850, 600 900.
Int German state railroads as a
whole earned a profit Of ga per cent
on capital invested; and the Prusslan
state railroads earned fraction over
per cent. AS the German states In
I peace time could borrow money at 4
per cent, tho taking over bv the pub
nc mas yielded a very large surplus
10 national fina ncea.
frussia's finances have benefited
enormously. Already in 1880 her
railroad surplus paid the interest on
her whole national debt BY 1903
the $l2O,000,0 900 surplus was sufficient
to pay the interest on and to provide
for the legal amortization Of the ma
tlonal debt and to leave more than
$50. 200, 600 for other state purposes
IN The year before the war Prussia re-
ceived quarter of her revenues from
the state railroad surplus.
In Matchmaking her railroads, Ger
many from the start adopted them for
war. The first act of the nattonalizer
aybach. was to build a great strage-
teal line from Berlin to Wetzlar, near
Coblenz and he proceeded TO double
track the roads and TO build military
connecting stations and loading plat
forms,
When the war broke out Germany
had between Basel. In Switzerland
/, and Vessel, near the Dutch frontier,
fourteen east and west going lines,
all owned by the Prussian and other
German government She was far
better equipped with railroads than
her best equipped European adver-
sary. Minister of Railroads Won
> Rheinbanen said that on any one line
she could send from east to west,
: fnI otRf9 fKx 81
40 that on a single line she could
transport 100, 900 men from Russia
to France in two days.
since Matchmaking her railroads by
letting the state purchase them, Ger
many has continued to strive after
Bismarck's plan to unity them by
making the imperial government sole
owner. There is a strong agitation
In favor OF reviving the extinct i'm
perial railroad department"
AS q step toward that there exist
four railroad "gemeinschaften" or
organizations common to all the Ger
man lines, which regulate the build
ing of freight cars. the single pas
aenEer and freight rates and other
ma tiers of common interest. The es-
Establishment of the freight "gemein-
sohaft'' in 1909 alone caused an i'm
mediate fall of operating expenses by
deceastng the number of empty
freight cars bv seven per cent
America need not object to learn
ing from Germanys experience. The
German railroad system was found
ed by man who learned everything
he knew in America. This was the
economist, Friedrich List, who first
himself built a. railroad in Penns, "
vania and then brought home the
fruits of his studies and experiences.