90 TRANSPORTATION 



science has based its demands concerning the organizations of rail- 

 ways. The development of the railway system shows in the mili- 

 tary states of Europe, especially in France, Germany, Austria, in 

 large measure the characteristic type of military railroads which is 

 constructed, not with regard to local transportation of freight, but, 

 in the first line, with regard to transportation of military forces, 

 certain cases of war being presupposed. At the concession of each 

 new railroad to be built, officers of the Ministry of War participate 

 in the council; they decide about the minimum demands, as to ability 

 of transporting, construction of stations, water-supply, etc., which 

 the line has to fulfill before the concession to build and operate the 

 railroad is granted. The average daily supply of provisions for an 

 army of 1,000,000 soldiers and of 250,000 horses is estimated to 

 amount to 4000 tons; the transportation of this mass requires 14 

 trains with 5000 tons brutto-weight each day, a wagon carrying 

 8 tons. But as reserve forces, ammunition, material of each kind 

 must be transported besides, the number of trains must be increased. 

 This transportation can, of course, not be effected by any vehicles, 

 and a very well-organized system of railways is necessary to satisfy 

 these claims. Such extended use of railways requires also strong 

 defense and protection of the army's connections with the rear; a new 

 problem has thus arisen for the science of war. 1 As the history of 

 war shows, the chief operations of the army depend greatly upon 

 good natural communications (brooks, rivers, the seacoast). 2 In the 

 future the railways seem to be destined to a still more important 

 role. The war of the future will become rather a war in the province 

 of technic science; who possesses the most complete equipment and 

 institutions will finally be victorious. The armies of to-day are no 

 longer chained to one line as formerly, nor dependent upon the 

 possession or loss of a source of their force. They depend upon the 

 entire railroad region in the rear and are thereby closely connected 

 with their entire country. The railroads will bring about quick and 

 powerful decisions in future wars. 3 



In this essay on the relations of transportation to the sciences, 

 I have already spoken of political economy, but only in so far as I 

 tried to show at which place and in what way the science of econom- 

 ics has taken up this subject as a whole and how it has embodied it 

 in its system. I shall now return to the relations between trans- 

 portation and political economy in order to show that the efforts 

 to conquer space have also influenced other realms of political econ- 

 omy and have furnished new problems. I shall not direct the 



1 Cardinal von Widdern, Der Krieg an den riickwdrligen Verbinchtngen des 

 deutschen Heere und der Etappendienst, 1870-71, Berlin, 1893. And of the same 

 author: Der KJeine Krieg, 1. Theil, 1899. 



2 Ohauer und Guttenberg, loc. cit. S. 292. 



3 Joesten, loc. cit. S. 83. 



