Twelve main lines of railway enter the city, and these are splendidly equipped. An import ant waterway for large ships from Berlin to Stettin on the Baltic, a distance of 62 miles, was opened on 2 May 1914. It is an extension and deepening of canals previously existing, and is expected to devClop enormously the several trades of the metropolis.
The character of the population of Berlin is subjected to a gradual change, whkh. is caused partly by the building up of new industries, partly by the removal of well-to-do taxpayers to the suburbs. This migration of the wealthier classes is attended by an influx of the laboring classes, especially in the newly built parts of the city, so that the laboring population .is con stantly increasing. Again, the inner residential part of the city is coming to be used more and more for business purposes, so that here the population is decreasing continuously.
The development of facilities for transpor tation has contributed much to these changes. The "Stadtbahn," a railway which crosses the city from east to west, then encircles it both on the north and on the south, was and has been the cause of the wonderful growth of the western suburbs. Migration vvas encouraged by the ex ceedingly low fare of 10 pfennigs to the fifth station, or 20 pfennigs for the entire distance, not to mention the great reduction allowed on monthly tickets. This has led to the building of new stations along the outer parts of the °Stadtbahn" and to the institution of suburban trains, on which one may have a monthly ticket at a price varying with the distance.
In this connection must be mentioned also the "Grosse Berliner Strassenbahn." This is a private traction company which owns nearly all the street cars in the city. Since on most of the lines the fare is only 10 pfennigs this com pany has had great influence in the development of the suburbs. The fare is 5 and 10 pfennigs. The electric elevated and underground road passes along the southern periphery of the city from east to west. Important extensions of the subway system are now (1916) almost com pleted. During construction a section under the Spree was flooded on 27 March 1912, happily without loss of life.
Since 1911, when the lease of the operating company expired, the tramway lines within the city have been municipally owned. In 1912 the decision was taken to electrify the entire suburban system of Berlin. Electric locomo tives are to be used in traction, the current for which is to be supplied by two 150,000 horse power electric plants, one near Bitterfeld coal mines, 80 miles from Berlin, and the other ill Berlin. The entire cost, including stations, cables, feeders and rolling stock, is estimated at $32,000,000. The system has been leased to a company for a period of 30 years. The whole enterprise was completed in 1917.
The bridging of the Havel Valley, completed in 1914, marks an important epoch in the de velopment of Greater Berlin. This engine ring triumph, carried through in despite of bad soil conditions, has involved the building of a dam and two bridges — the Stateserge and the Havel — the latter, 79, feet' wide and 537 feet long, with five spans.
Under the influence of improved facilities for. transportation the composition of the popu lation in the various parts of the greater city has becotne quite varied. The well-to-do live in the west and in the western suburbs, while the working classes have settled in the east and the north, and partly in the southeast. The large factories are situated in the east and in the northwest. While in Berlin 80 persons out of every thousand pay tax on an income of $750 and upward, the proportion of people in Ftixdorf, a southeastern suburb, who have such an incorne is only 27 out of a thousand. On the other hand, in the wealthy western suburbs, Griinewald and Wilmersdorf, the proportion is 441 and 228, respectively, out of every thousand. Similar differences can also be noted in the interior of the city.
The city mitintains a statistical bureau that keeps a careful record of all these conditions. Undoubtedly, such differences in the composi tion of the population will be found to account for the varying rate of mortality in the different parts of the city, as well as for the varying rate of taxation.