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About two-thirds of the earnings are from passenger business and one-third from freight and sundry receipts. The average ride per passenger for 1915 was 9.6 miles on the private railways and 5.9 miles on the light railways, the average for the two being 7 miles. The average earnings per passenger mile for the private railways and the light railways were 0.86 cent. The average haul of freight was 18 miles for the private railways and 11 miles for the light railways, averaging 13.2 miles for both. The average earnings per ton-mile for the private railways were 1.49 cents and for the light railways 1.93 cents, the average for both being 1.76 cents.

The earnings of the private railways for the year ended March 31, 1916, aggregated $1,654,487 and of the light railways $3,248,807, or a total of $4,903,294. The working expenses and taxes of the private railways aggregated $710,396, leaving a profit of $944,090, equal to about 6.3 per cent on the cost of construction. The working expenses and taxes of the light railways totaled $1,985,669, leaving a profit of $1,263,139, which amounted to about 3.4 per cent on the cost of construction. The profit on the cost of construction for both the private railways and the light railways was about 4.2 per cent, which was an increase of about 1 per cent over that for the previous year.

Under the provisions of the Light Railway Law promulgated in 1911 and revised in 1914, the privately-owned light railways are guaranteed a profit of 5 per cent on the cost of construction for a period of 19 years after the date of opening of business. Under this provision 53 of these lines, whose construction cost aggregated $15,133,270, did not earn the necessary amount to pay this 5 per cent guaranty, and the sum of $499,876 was paid these 53 companies, the funds being supplied from the budget of the Imperial Government Railways.

The private railways, after payment of all interest and other income charges, showed a net profit of $984,469, of which $866,183

was paid in dividends and the remainder carried to surplus balance. The light railways, including the $449,876 paid them in subsidies, showed a net profit, after payment of interest and other income charges, of $1,191,450, of which $1,033,942 was paid in dividends. and the remainder carried to surplus balance.

EMPLOYEES AND WAGES.

As shown by the table on page 152, the private railways had 2,685 employees for the year ended March 31, 1916, of whom 46 were directors or officials and 2,639 were wage employees. The light railways had 9,810, of whom 883 were directors or officials and 8,927 wage employees. The average monthly wage of the officials of the private railways was $34.09 and that of the wage employees $5.64, making the average monthly wage of all employees $7.94. There were seven of the directors of private railways who received no compensation in the way of salary; the remaining directors and officials of the light railways received an average monthly salary of $7.57 and the wage employees received $6.74, making the average monthly wage of all employees of light railways $7.30.

OFFICIALS PURCHASES.

The writer went over the situation to determine whether it was practicable to locate these lines and prepare a directory of officials, but decided that it would be very difficult and take a great deal of time, and that the lists when finished would probably be of small value, so no attempt has been made to show the location of these various lines or to give lists of their officials.

Purchases of most of these lines are handled in a very scattered way and almost entirely through Japanese concerns, although some of the equipment has come from abroad, particularly the small locomotives, quite a number of which are of German manufacture.

VI. TRAMWAYS.

INTRODUCTION.

With 136 concerns, 1,255 miles of line in operation, and 289 miles under construction on March 31, 1916, it will be seen that there is at present an average of less than 11.4 miles of line for each tramway. This is sufficient to indicate that a great deal could be said about the tramway situation in Japan. However, the remarks regarding the private railways and light railways apply to a considerable extent to the tramways, except that special lines of American products are employed-principally electrical equipment, which has been extensively used in the past and probably will be in the future. financial results of these lines are also interesting, as an indication of what might be expected from tramways in certain parts of China.

EXTENT OF LINES.

The

The following table shows the performance statistics of all classes of Japanese tramways for the year ended March 31, 1916:

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The 668 miles of electric tramways are the most important and will he principally referred to in this text. The largest tramway center at present is the Osaka district, where there are now more than 250 miles of line connecting Osaka with Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, and other parts of this the most important industrial district of Japan. Next in importance is the Tokyo district, with 81 miles of line and 46.5 miles under construction in the city of Tokyo, all under municipal management-in addition to a number of other private tramways, including one to Yokohama. Considering the importance of the Moji industrial district, it has at present a very limited tramway service, there being only one line of about 20 miles, from Moji to Orio. The entire length of this line parallels the water front, which is a continuous line of industrial plants, one of them being the Japanese Imperial Steel Works. In addition to the Tokyo system, the Osaka city system of 35 miles, the Kyoto city lines of 15 miles, and the Kobe city lines of 15 miles are all now municipally owned and operated. All the other lines are privately owned and operated. The Keihan Co., with 33.7 miles in the Osaka district, has the greatest mileage of any of the private companies.

The longest steam tramway line is 29.7 miles, the longest gas-motor line is 32.2 miles, the longest horse line is 15.8 miles, and the longest man-power line is 18.25 miles.

On March 31, 1916, there was under construction 232.62 miles of line of all classes, but there was projected at that time a very considerable additional mileage, much of which will probably be built in the next few years. It seems entirely safe to predict that the present mileage of electric lines will be very considerably increased in the near future.

HISTORICAL SURVEY.

The following from the annual report of the Imperial Government Railways of Japan for the year ended March 31, 1916, is a brief statement of the history of the tramway development:

The Japanese tramways date from 1880, when in February an application was tendered for the construction of the Tokyo Horse Tram Co.'s line. The application was sanctioned and the line was completed and opened for traffic in June, 1883. This was soon followed by others in rapid succession, and, especially since 1888, every year witnessed applications for four or five horse tramway undertakings. The result was the promulgation of the Tramway Regulations by law No. 71, on August 23, 1891, by virtue of which horse tramways and similar means of transportation to be laid on public roads for general traffic came to be authorized subject to the special sanction of the Minister of Home Affairs. On October 22, 1908, it was provided by Imperial

Ordinance No. 266 that application for the construction of tramways under the Tramways Orders should also obtain the sanction of the Minister of Communications; this was subsequently revised by Imperial Ordinance No. 307, whereupon the control of the tramways, as to construction and working, came under the charge of the Imperial Government Railways.

As already mentioned, the control and regulation is handled by the general administration bureau of the Government Railways. It is a matter of interest that the first cars used on this horse tramway in Tokyo in 1883 were secondhand cars purchased from one of the New York City street railways. These were used in Tokyo until the lines were electrified, after which these cars and a quantity of light rail were sent to Mukden, in Manchuria, where they are still in service on the 4 miles of horse tramways running from the railway station to the west gate of the inner walled city.

CONSTRUCTION COST AND CAPITALIZATION.

The total construction cost of the 667.66 miles of electric tramways was $138,093,033 up to March 31, 1916, but of this amount $29,223,195 was the cost of outside undertakings, leaving the construction cost of transportation property as $108,869,838, or about $163,060 per mile of line. Of this amount, $88,575 represents expenditures for permanent way and $46,965 expenditures for rolling stock, power equipment, and buildings, leaving $27,520 for general expenditures, which is the account carrying promotion expenditures and other similar expenses.

On the above date there was outstanding $131,656,901 in capital shares and $23,648,774 in bonds and floating indebtedness, making the total outstanding capital obligations $155,305,675, or about $212,700 per mile of line. The capital item, however, as shown in the 1916 annual report, is only $131,656,901, but this does not include the outstanding bonds, loans, and floating indebtedness.

Separating the capital allowed by prorating the construction costs makes the amount to the transportation properties approximate $183,500 per mile of line, on which amount the Japanese electric tramways are paying returns in the form of interest or dividends amounting to about 5 per cent. These figures strongly support the statement that electrified lines of light railways should be successful in the densely populated parts of China, particularly when it is considered that the average fare per passenger in Japan is slightly less than 2 cents gold per ride.

TRAFFIC AND RATES.

On the electric lines the traffic is about 97 per cent passenger travel and 3 per cent goods business. This division of traffic varies greatly between the different lines. About 50 per cent of the lines do no goods business, among them being most of the city systems such as those in Tokyo and Osaka. On some of the small (but in some cases important) lines the goods business constitutes about 50 per cent of the traffic, varying from this figure down to a small percentage of the total.

For the year ended March 31, 1916, the average earnings per passenger on all the electric lines was 1.98 cents, and the average earnings per ton (2,000 pounds) of freight was 31.8 cents. The average earn

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