GERMANY. 



285 



and 23,490, of 5,702,625 tons, sailed in ballast. 

 Of the total number entered with cargoes 58,899, 

 of 9,457,549 tons, were German and 18.515, of 

 7,329,148 tons, were foreign, including 5,034 Brit- 

 ish, of 4,197,777 tons, 4,142 Swedish, of 910,678 

 tons, 4,810 Danish, of 843,529 tons, 1,462 Nor- 

 wegian, of 661,639 tons, 2,241 Dutch, of 281,718 

 tons, and 616 Russian, of 220,101 tons. Of the 

 number entered in ballast, 8,905, of 796,915 tons, 

 were German and 2,327, of 406,439 tons, were 

 foreign, including 189 British, of 155,500 tons, 

 1,225 Danish, of 81,591 tons, 97 Norwegian, of 

 48,912 tons, 216 Swedish, of 47,852 tons, 549 

 Dutch, of 32,847 tons, and 35 Russian, of 17,399 

 tons. Of the total number cleared with cargoes, 

 52,561, of 8,148,081 tons, were German and 13,278, 

 of 4,175,665 tons, were foreign, including 2,995 

 British, of 1,991,666 tons, 2.812 Swedish, of 679,- 

 065 tons, 4,363 Danish, of 669,480 tons, 814 Nor- 

 wegian, of 316,556 tons, 1,747 Dutch, of 230,174 

 tons, and 398 Russian, of 155,565 tons. Of those 

 cleared in ballast, 15,984, of 2,160,679 tons, were 

 German and 7,506, of 3,541,946 tons, were- foreign, 

 of which latter, 2,212, of 2,332,852 tons, were 

 British, 725, of 385,745 tons, were Norwegian, 

 1,536, of 281,957 tons, were Swedish, 1,679, of 

 258,267 tons, were Danish, 253, of 87,979 tons, 

 were Russian, and 1,016, of 84,018 tons, were 

 Dutch. 



The merchant navy on Jan. 1, 1901, consisted 

 of 391 sailing vessels, of 31,454 tons, and 452 

 steamers, of 192,315 tons, in the Baltic, and 2,102 

 sailing vessels, of 562,316 tons, and 938 steamers, 

 of 1,155,560 tons, belonging to North Sea ports; 

 total, 2,493 sailing vessels, of 593,770 tons, and 

 1,390 steamers, of 1,347,875 tons, counting only 

 vessels above 17.65 tons. Of the sailing vessels 

 673 and of the steamers 1,381 were made of iron 

 or steel. There were 22,564 vessels engaged in the 

 coasting-trade and inland navigation in 1898. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 railroad network of the German Empire in 1899 

 had a total length of 31,492 miles, all the property 

 of either the imperial or state governments ex- 

 cepting 3,060 miles. There were 1,064 miles of 

 narrow-gage railroads, of which the Govern- 

 ment owned 483 miles. The capital cost of the 

 railroads was 12,497,138,000 marks; receipts, 

 1.954,963.000 marks in 1899: expenses, 1,202,642.- 

 000 marks. In April, 1901, there were 32,205 

 miles of completed railroad, including narrow 

 gage. The freight traffic in 1899 amounted to 

 322,544,620 metric tons, which paid 1.221.313.738 

 marks; the number of passengers was 812,535,769, 

 who paid 513,088,652 marks, besides 171,412 sol- 

 diers. 



The imperial post-office in 1900 carried 1,608,- 

 666,862 letters, 926,544,518 postal cards, 855,972,- 

 346 pieces of printed matter, 4,765,802 business 

 papers, 56,298,366 samples, and 1,161,782,015 

 newspapers, and the amount of money remit- 

 tances was 25,633,627,933 marks; receipts, 394,- 

 542,596 marks; expenses, 382,760,515 marks. 

 The Bavarian post-office traffic was 173,754.930 

 letters, 59,969,440 postal cards, 72,827,286 printed 

 enclosures, 199,320 business papers, 4,800,480 sam- 

 ples, 213,480,659 newspapers, and 2,625,235,945 

 marks of money sent; receipts, 36,277,340 marks; 

 expenses, 32,181,410 marks. The Wiirtemberg 

 post-office handled 64,622,168 letters, 33,825,402 

 postal cards, 40,694,888 printed enclosures, 118,- 

 248 business papers, 1,524,224 samples, 56,443,415 

 newspapers, and 1,117,623,098 marks of money 

 remittances; receipts amounted to 16,221.888 

 marks and expenses to 14,212,148 marks. The 

 total postal traffic of Germany was 1,847,043,960 

 letters, 1,020,339,360 postal cards, 969,494,520 

 printed enclosures, 5,083,430 business papers, 62,- 

 623,070 samples, 1,431,706,089 newspapers, and 29,- 

 376,486,976 marks of money sent; the combined 

 receipts of the three postal services were 447,041,- 

 824 marks, and expenses 429,154,073 marks. 



The length of the imperial telegraph-lines in 

 1900 was 106,723 kilometers, with 414,992 kilo- 

 meters of wires, over which 29,801,309 internal 

 and 11,460,473 foreign telegraphs were sent in 

 that year; the length of the Bavarian lines was 

 16,624 kilometers, with 45,923 kilometers of wires, 

 over which 2,589,877 internal and 688,864 foreign 

 messages were transmitted; the lines of Wiirtem- 

 berg had a length of 4,968 kilometers, with 11,592 

 kilometers of wires, over which 1,237,333 inter- 

 nal and 230,939 foreign messages were sent; total 

 length of telegraph-lines in the empire, 128,315 

 kilometers, with 472,867 kilometers of wire; total 

 number of despatches, 33,628,519 internal and 

 12,380,276 foreign. There were in the empire 

 15,533 towns with telephone communications, 

 having 289,647 exchanges, with 49,295 miles of 

 line and 517,350 miles of wire; the number of 

 conversations in 1900 was 597,423,041. There 

 were 2,797 long-distance circuits, having 19.920 

 miles of line and 137,690 miles of wire; number of 

 conversations, 93,533,314. 



Politics and Legislation. The principal task 

 of the Reichstag in the section of the continued 

 session which began on Nov. 26, 1901, was to 

 frame a new tariff as a basis for new commercial 

 treaties. The session of the Reichstag began in 

 1900 and was continued by adjournment. The 

 legislative business was left in such an unfinished 

 state in May, 1901, that the expedient of ad- 

 journing instead of closing the session had to be 

 adopted, and on June 11, 1902, the session \\a> 

 again adjourned till Oct. 14. The bills and mo- 

 tions that accumulated retained their precedence, 

 so that there was no opportunity to raise fresh 

 questions, while in some cases the circumstances 

 in which the bills were drafted were altered. The 

 bill to guarantee interest on the cost of a railroad 

 in East Africa from Dar-es-Salam to Mrogoro 

 would be ineffective because the project of rais- 

 ing the money through a financial syndicate had 

 been abandoned owing to the state of the money 

 market. There were 49 motions of private mem- 

 bers not yet disposed of. The prolonged session 

 must come to an end with the legislative period 

 of five years, Avhich expires in June, 1903. when a 

 general election takes place. The German spirits 

 bill, a measure favorable to the Agrarians, intro- 

 duced in 1901, was finally passed before the ad- 

 journment. The saccharin bill was another leg- 

 acy from the previous year and another conces- 



