CONTINENTAL RAILWAY CONDITIONS 5 



source of revenue, to the extent of which the 

 Ministers are independent of Reichstag votes ; 

 that the development of the State railways, so 

 as to meet present-day conditions — on the lines 

 on which an English or an American railway 

 company would have developed them — has been 

 retarded because a generous expenditure would 

 have interfered with the finances of the State ; 

 and that while the Government have granted 

 extremely low rates for goods or produce for 

 export (especially when such traffic might other- 

 wise go via Belgium or Holland), they have been 

 far less generous to home traders, who have 

 found it a matter of extreme difficulty to get 

 reductions in local rates, either because the con- 

 dition of the State finances would not allow of 

 them, or because the State officials were afraid 

 of arousing the jealousies of rival districts. I 

 found in Belgium that the rates not only for 

 export, but also for inland, traffic were distinctly 

 low ; but I learned, too, that there were very 

 grave doubts indeed if the railways of that 

 country could be said to represent in themselves 

 a commercially sound institution, however use- 

 ful may be the role which, in various ways, they 

 play as part of the political machine of the 

 country. I found in France the same keen 

 desire as in other Continental countries to 



