TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTA TION IN GERMANY. Germany's railroads are nationalized and the profits they make are devoted to governmental purposes, thus lessen ing the burdens of taxation to that extent. In the year 1911 the total .freight earnings of Ger man railroads were $516,303,000 or $8 per cap ita or $40 per family of five. The net profit of the German railroads of $160,000,000 is devoted to governmental purposes.
The average passenger fare for a second class ticket, which compares favorably with the ordinary day coach in America, is 1.8 cents, while the first-class rate is 2.5 cents per mile, the third class 1.1 cents per mile, and the fourth class hut 0.8 cent per mile.
Although the German railroads are owned by the various states, they are under the ad ministration of the empire. The supreme au thority in railroad administration is the Bundesrat (Senate of the empire). The head of the state railroads in Prussia is the Minister of Public Works, appointed by the king, while the Reicheisenbahn Amt (Imperial Railroad Bureau), the members of which are appointed by the emperor, exercises general supervision over the whole system. General conferences are held from time to time in which the vari ous railroads are represented in proportion to their mileage. A committee of the conference consisting of 16 members selected by chambers of commerce and hoards of agriculture and constituted of five representatives of manu facturing interests. five of agriculture, five of distributing and commercial interests and one of the Bavarian government, decide upon rates, as worked out by a permanent rate commission. There are similar district boards of conference for more local problems. For the physical operation of the roads, there is a central de partment at Berlin which supervises equipment and serves as a centre for administration, the several states having administrative depart ments for their own portions of the roads.
To the shipper, the railroads of Germany are all one system, and there is no more ex pectation of receiving favors from them than there is of receiving favors in America from the post office. As the roads are the property of the states, they are made to serve the pub lic interest, and the rates are so adjusted as to cause the roads to have a stimulating effect upon general business conditions.
Thus, for example, shipments from abroad if made in German vessels are given prefer ential rates on canals and railroads in Ger many. This amounts to a ship subsidy and en courages the ship-building industry. Again,
special rates are often made so that the geo graphical location of a factory will not be a handicap to its business, and this preference enables factories to be operated in cities and districts where they could not otherwise exist, making industry more widespread and contrib uting to the prosperity of the country as a whole rather than to congested districts. The underlying principle is to use the public utili ties as an instrument to promote the general welfare as well as a means of transportation.
Although the railroads of Germany are highly developed, the building of canals, water ways and harbors has been carried out upon an enormous scale, and is planned far ahead in a vast and far-reaching system. The similar developments in other countries are entirely overshadowed. When completed, canals will unite the Rhine, the Danube, the Oder, the Vistula, the Elbe, the Weser and the Meuse, of sufficient dimensions to carry large craft The navigable waterways of Germany amount to 8,600 miles, of which 2,200 miles are in canals. In 1911 there were transported 408, 870,000 tons of goods on railroads and 76,632, 000 tons on waterways, or more than one-sixth of the amount carried by rail. Berlin, as the result of canal building, now has an in and out traffic of 8,000,000 tons, and though 400 miles from the sea is a seaport only exceeded by the North Sea ports • and certain cities on the Rhine. In a few years Berlin will be con nected by canals with the Rhine on the west and the Danube on the east, and as a result ves sels will pass from the North Sea to the Black Sea. The building of many of Germany's canals is carried out in the face of great engineer ing difficulties, which are, however, overcome and highly efficient systems of waterways con structed. In some instances canals are elevated and placed above railroads and streets, and in stead of locks, a whole section of the canal with water and vessel is lifted on the elevator principle, to the next water level, effecting a great saving of time. The canals carry the heavy bulk freight, such as coal, iron ore, lum ber, grain and the heavier articles of commerce on which very low freight rates are charged. The railroads, canals, waterways, overseas shipping and ports are operated in conjunction with each other and ample facilities are pro vided for transshipment of freight. The public has the full benefit of the cheapest forms of transportation, with its consequent stimulation of industry.