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will continue until the freight earnings will measurably exceed the passenger earnings. From this same table the earnings per passenger carried 1 mile will be noted as 0.668 cent, and 0.739 cent for a 2,000pound ton carried 1 mile. These figures are for the year ended March 31, 1917. The corresponding average receipts for the railways of the United States for the year ended June 30, 1915, were 1.985 cents per passenger carried 1 mile and 0.732 cent per 2,000-pound ton carried 1 mile, as shown by the Bureau of Railway Economics, Bulletin No. 103.

For the year ended March 31, 1916, only 0.17 of 1 per cent of all passengers rode first class, 4.05 per cent rode second class, and 95.78 per cent rode third class. The first-class passengers made an average ride of 91.1 miles, the second class 55.8 miles, and the third class 20.8 miles; the average ride for all passengers was 22.4 miles. The average earnings for first-class passengers were 1.40 cents per mile, second class 0.85 cent per mile, and third class 0.63 cent per mile. These figures do not include berth and excess-luggage charges, but do include extra fare charged first and second class passengers on some express trains.

For the year ended March 31, 1916, the coal traffic constituted about 40 per cent of the total tonnage. Lumber was the next largest item, constituting about 73 per cent, and rice was third, amounting to nearly 5 per cent. All minerals combined made the fourth item, amounting to 24 per cent. The very large number of commodities that constituted the remainder of the traffic confirms the statement made regarding the class character of the goods business. The average earnings for less than carload shipments for the above year were 1.598 cents per 2,000-pound ton per mile, and for carload shipments the average earnings were 0.659 cent per ton-mile.

OCEAN FERRY SERVICE.

An important feature of the Japanese Government Railway operations is the shipping (or, rather, what might be called the oceangoing ferry) service from Shimonoseki to Fusan-the port at the southern terminus of the Korean Railways-and the car transfers and ferries between Shimonoseki and Moji.

On March 31, 1916, the railway administration owned 40 steamers of all classes and had 4 others under charter, making a gross tonnage. of 20,700 (Japanese basis). The length of route worked was 298 nautical miles, and the average number of daily trips was 132.

For the above year the number of passengers carried was 232,318, with earnings of $609,356. The cargo handled totaled 1,024,390 tons of cargo, and the earnings realized were $509,811 from cargo, $43,151 from parcels, and $43,916 from mail, thus making a total of $1,205,234 for shipping operations.

There are in all nine routes; eight are under the jurisdiction of the western division and one is under the jurisdiction of the Hokkaido division.

BUDGET AND ACCOUNTS.

As early as 1887 a law required the Government Railways account to be separated from the other treasury accounts. After nationalization this law was modified, but the accounts were still left under

what might be called treasury control. The results were unsatisfactory, particularly as regards failure to provide necessary amounts for taking care of the railway situation, these essential amounts being procured through reductions made in the general Government budget. In March, 1909, a new railway-account law was passed, and Dr. Watarai gives the principal points as follows:

(1) In order that the national railroad enterprises may be successfully carried on, the railroad accounts will be separated from the general State budget. The capital of the railroads will consist of the funds invested, and to be invested, in the railroads and in railroad stocks. The annual expenses shall be defrayed out of the annual

revenues.

(2) The necessary funds for additions and improvements will be provided by the operating income. If this does not suffice, a loan or some other form of liability will be contracted, which is to be included in the railroad accounts. The total amount of loans and liabilities may not exceed that allowed in the estimate for additions and improvements.

(3) In order to regulate or to discharge the loans and other liabilities incurred for the purposes of managing the railroads, the Government may issue a new loan, or a call loan, on the State administration, which the railroad administration must enter on its debit account.

(4) The loans that are issued for the State roads-including those contracted for their regulation or amortization, on the grounds mentioned above in 2 and 3, and those loans or other liabilities contracted according to the law of nationalization—are, if not yet paid off, to be charged to the railroad debit account. The sums needed for the payment of interest and sinking fund are to be transferred from the railroad account to the books of the special fund for amortizing State debts.

(5) After subtracting the amount destined by law for the reserve fund, the rest is transferred to the capital account. By "gain" is to be understood that amount by which the annual receipts exceed the annual expenditures.

The results of this law have been beneficial, but it has not entirely prevented political control of the railway account. During the writer's first visit to Japan the budgets for the Imperial Japanese Railways, the South Manchuria Railway, and the Korean Railways were being considered by the Japanese Imperial Diet, with the result that the general railway officers in Tokyo devoted practically all their time to furnishing information in this connection. The situation reminded one very much of the condition in the various departments in Washington when their appropriation allowances are being considered before the Appropriations Committees of Congress.

The "set-up" of the Japanese Railway account is in a way similar to the American methods, as indicated by the performance figures already quoted. The data are quite complete; in fact, in some particulars they are rather elaborate. One interesting point, however, is that the Japanese have not been any more successful than American railways in allocating the expense between passenger and freight traffic.

INVESTMENT ASSETS.

The term "investment assets" is used for the reason that the amount shown as capital is somewhat misleading. The term used represents the fixed property as usually understood. This item is shown in the table on page 158 only for the year ended March 31, 1916, and the investment assets are given as $88,625 per mile. While this appears like a very high amount, it indicates the difficulty of railroad construction in most of Japan. Deducting $115,109,650 profit to the private owners, previously mentioned in connection with the nationalization of the first 17 lines, and assuming that the other figures represent construction costs (which is probably a close

approximation, allowing only a small percentage for "cost plus"), the total construction costs would total $395,167,970, or in round numbers $68,500 per mile of line. This figure is surprisingly close to what good authorities estimate the cost of the railways in the United States to be as a whole, but the comparison quickly loses its force. when one considers the Japanese 3-foot 6-inch lines in comparison with the American 4-foot 8-inch lines with their very low grades and small amount of curvature.

EARNINGS AND EXPENSES.

The year ended March 31, 1915, was not a representative year on account of the war and some other internal influences in Japan. For that year there was a falling off in the earnings and an undue increase of expense; therefore, that year will not be referred to except in the averages for the last five years. During the five years ended March 31, 1913 to 1917, there has been an increase of 639 miles of line; traffic revenues have increased from $53,850,781 to $70,415,784 and operating expenses from $25,031,818 to $30,490,027, making an increase of operating income from $27,818,963 to $39,925,757. This shows, with an increase of operating revenues of $16,565,003, that $11,106,794, or almost exactly two-thirds, was made effective as operating income, and the operating ratio during this interval was reduced from 46.1 to 43.3 per cent. With the increase in wages and cost of materials, this performance during this particular five years certainly warrants attention from the railway managers in other parts of the world, especially when considered in connection with the average rates per passenger mile and per ton mile already given.

NET INCOME AND SURPLUS.

Interest charges for the year ended March 31, 1913, were $17,732,942, and for 1917 they were $19,847,931. Deducting all the other income charges, including the subsidies to the guaranteed light railways, there was carried in 1913 a surplus balance of $9,786,582 and in 1917 of $17,444,371. Thus it is seen again that two-thirds of the increase in operating income was carried to surplus balance.

In view of what has already been said regarding the amortizing of the nationalization loans, the question arises as to the disposition of this balance to surplus. The Japanese Railway accounts do not make this clear, but the item shown as capitalization March 31, 1913, was $464,936,633 and the amount shown March 31, 1917, was $542,368,028, an increase of $77,431,375. The aggregate amount carried as surplus for this same period was $55,752,681, leaving a difference of $21,678,694, which had to be raised from some other source than railway

revenues.

ROADWAY AND TRACK.

The roadway construction in Japan is rather difficult. Grades up to 2 per cent occur on many of the lines, and in numerous cases they exceed this. The alignment as a rule has a great amount of curvature; in some cases this is excessive The amount of tunneling is probably equal to that of any other similar amount of railways in the world. The matter of drainage and roadway protection is one requir106229°-19-11

ing an unusual amount of attention, because of the fact that many of the lines run through rice-growing areas, and on account of the slipping tendency of much of the side-hill ground in Japan when disturbed by cuttings and embankments. All bridges are built with very large openings for the normal water flow. This is on account of the large volume of flood water during storm seasons. There are a good many very long bridges-sometimes 15 or more spans of considerable length. The greater number of these are over dry channels during ordinary weather, but these openings are sometimes inadequate during the typhoon seasons. Conditions in Japan and China in these respects are in many ways similar, the trouble in China being caused by the fact that the heavy rains run off very quickly on account of the lack of forests.

Station buildings are somewhat along the lines of British and American practice and do not follow the general type of Japanese architecture. Figure 1 (the frontispiece of this book) shows the central station at Tokyo, which is modern in every respect. The lower floor is used as a station, including post office, restaurant, check rooms, etc., while the top floors are used, in part, as a very comfortable European-plan hotel.

The track arrangement and construction are very similar to American and Canadian practice, although the details of track material tend toward British designs. The Japanese oaks and hardwoods are used almost exclusively for ties (sleepers), and the track as a rule is liberally ballasted with broken stone or good gravel. As in China, much of the rock ballast is broken by hand.

Because of the exclusively left-hand running, all signaling is lefthanded.

LOCOMOTIVES.

The total number of locomotives in service on March 31, 1917, was 2,727, but the details of these are lacking. On March 31, 1916, there was a total of 2,661, of which 77 were of new superheater type furnished by contract that year. During the same year 16 light locomotives were transferred to the light railways.

Of the 2,661 locomotives, 1,197 were of tank type and 1,365 were of ordinary type with tenders; 62 were Mallets, 25 were Abt, and 12 were electric locomotives. The latter were used on a 3 per cent grade at Kariuzawa, where there are 26 tunnels (all of considerable length) in a distance of 7 miles. Of the above locomotives, 2,272 use saturated steam and 389 are superheaters. For the superheater locomotives the Friedman (Austrian) mechanical lubricator is generally used. Since the war these are being manufactured in Japan. Figure 37, facing page 163, shows one of the passenger locomotives recently built in Japan. The reader will notice that there is no bell and that the engine has the British type of pilot and the traction-engine type of whistle. The working weight of this engine with full tender is approximately 200,000 pounds, and the maximum over-all height is 12 feet 6 inches. The largest Mallet now in use weighs, in working order with full tender, approximately 220,000 pounds, with the same maximum over-all height.

The present locomotive equipment represents a decided assortment of different makes. Many of the ordinary locomotives are of American manufacture, but some purchased just prior to the war were

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FIG. 36.-MULTIPLE UNIT ELECTRIFIED EQUIPMENT USED IN TOKYO SUBURBAN DISTRICT.

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