An elaborate method enables the minister to get information as to the reasonableness of the proposed change, and constant shifting of rates, which is so harmful to the public, is care fully guarded against. In some cases, e.g., of export tariffs or transit tariffs, the ordinary regulations are modified so as to enable the companies to meet foreign competition.
Tariffs.—The terms of contract fix the max imum amount of the taxes which the railway companies are allowed to collect. That is the legal tariff. But the companies have exercised their right of introducing lower tariffs. When freight is conveyed with all the guarantees and under all the conditions laid down in the terms of contract, the general tariff is enforced. But when the public consents to some modifications of those conditions, then special lower tariffs are applied. The tariffs are based on the rate paid per kilometer or per unit of transportation. This base may be constant, and then the rate is proportionate to the distance traversed, as hap pens in the passenger service. Or it may vary with the length of the journey, so as to stand, for instance, at 8 centimes for transits below 100 kilometers (62.14 miles); 5 centimes for those below 300 kilometers (186.3 miles), and 4 centimes for those beyond 300 kilometers. Coal and mineral products were treated thus after 1863. It was a drawback of the system, however, that the rates came higher for jour neys of just less than 100 kilometers (62.14 miles), than for journeys of just more than 100 kilometers, and this was true also about journeys in the neighborhood of 300 kilometers. To remove this anomaly, it was specified that in no case should the rate in one section ex ceed the minimum rate in the section follow ing. This rule, however, produced an intermit tent scale (bareme a paliers), the rate not changing for a number of kilometers.
To get rid of this defect in turn it was de cided to adopt the Belgian tariff, so-called be cause it first came into general use in that country. Here the base varies only when you pass from one section into another. Thus, to return to our previous figures, the first 100 kilo meters (62.14 miles) are reckoned on the base of 8 centimes,' the next 200 kilometers on the base of 5 centimes, and those on the base of 4 centimes. So that we get a diminish ing base. The Belgian system is commonly used in France to-day both for rapid 'and for slow freight; but such • has not always been the case.
At first the tariff had a fixed base, but in order to encourage this and that special traffic the companies introduced for certain freights and between certain stations fixed rates called °steady rates° (prix fermes), lower than those called for by the general tariff. The number of
these rates° increased so rapidly, how ever, that the handling of the tariffs was much complicated. Moreover the principle involved in the °steady rates" was much attacked. Ac cordingly, after the agreements of 1883 the companies proceeded to recast their tariffs. They were simplified and partly unified ; freights were divided into six series; the diminishing base of the Belgian system was adopted; and a slight reduction of rates has been the general result.
However, the °steady rates° have not yet altogether disappeared, for they meet a real need, but their number is much smaller.
iconomic and Financial Results of the Agreements.— Under the agreements of 1883 the railways of France have attained to a de velopment which seems not far removed from the limits imposed by the nature of the soil and by •existing economic conditions, and be yond which they could not perhaps be profitably worked.
For each thousand inhabitants in France there is 1.26 kilometers (5.78 miles) of• railroad, while England has only 0.86 kilometer, Germany 0.94, Belgium 0.97, and the United States 0.41. Thus France has the lead in this respect. In pro portion to area France has 9.2 kilometers of road for each square myriameter miles 1 fur long 28% poles) ; England, 11.5; Germany, 10.0; Belgium, 22.7; and the United States, 4.3. Here, even setting Belgium aside, the order is reversed.
It must be remembered that, owing to the very variety of the regions traversed.hy _them, the several lines of the French system„show marked differences in the, importance,of ,their traffic. To become convinced of this one only has to glance At a map on which the thickness of the lines is proportioned to the gross receipts by kilometer. There one will quickly perceive a number of great arteries standing out clearly. These constitute die nuclei, as it were, of the great companies, and they are connected• to gether by a network of other lines mostly slender, and with meshes which are larger or smaller according to the nature of the districts they cover. If the creation of the lines had been left entirely to the 'initiative of the companies, it is certain that the principal arteries would long have remained the only routes opened up, while their ramifications would have been con structed but slowly. It was the influence of the agreements which enabled the, less productive lines to be opened and operated.