Evening star., 1918-01-13

chambers of commerce or similar
bodies that have an official character.
Fuller explanation OF the elaborate
machinery of the railway administra-
ton is not important. The principal
thing about it all was the basis of the
freight rates rather than the actual
operation of the lines. The basis of
freight rates was and Is the applica-
tfon of the principle of the scheme OF
kilometric or mileage rates for differ
and slow service. It is. therefore. a
two-fofd basis. But it has always been
kept in mind that the control of rates
rests with the empire. and not with
embarrassment of a constitutional or
other nature under which distinction
would have to be made between inter-
state and intrastate rates.
In everything relating to railway
rates the German practice was con-
trary to the practice in the United
States. In the first place, the water
ways systems of transportation were
means of lowering rates. German to-
Biography and geography have to be
understood in their relation to the riy-
er and canal systems in obtaining any
proper conception Of transportation
rates in the empire. German critics of
what would be called in the United
States river and harbor improvements
used to complain that the railways
and rivers. When joint congress
sional comnittee went to Europe seF-
eral years ago to study inland water
ways communication on the continent,
its members found it necessary to have
n report on the German railway sys-
TENS as preliminary to the water
ways system. The late Senator lsador
Rayner of Baltimore. who was a stu
dent of this subject, declared that Ger
many. with its agriculture. its manu-
factures and it's trade. rested upon the
waterways and not upon the railways;
The government, he said. had reduced
the railways to the condition of feeders
to the rivers and canals.
This may have been an extreme view,
but the German canal system. with Its
military strategic object as well as its
commercial purposes. is a very impor-
tant factor in transportation. and the
most important thing about 1t is that.
the canals and the rivers are not treat
ed as a means of competing with the
railways.
To American shippers who recall the
abuses of the old system of rebates. it
may seem cause of astonlshment
that. under the German system, rebates
to big shippers were favored. This
was done for reasons OF state policy
relating to economic conditions The
so-called exceptional rates on the
rule and not the exception. In almost
any year a detailed analysis would
show that about two-thirds of the
rates were exceptional. There would
be, for example, twenty-five or thirty
classes of exceptional tariffs for inter
nal trade and thirty to thirty-five
classes Of exceptional tariffs for ex-
port. trade.
The principle proclaimed as the basis
for freight rates was the cheapening OF
production and distribution of agricul-
tural products for the consumption of
ening of the transportation Of raw ma
terial of industry. especially when this
raw material had to be imported from
abroad as was the case with the great
body Of Germdn Industries. The Sc
quence Of this policy was the exception
ally low rates for manufactured goods
which were to be sent abroad.
Foreign markets had more to do with