70 



xnent has led to enormous tracts of land being crossed 

 by railway lines and has brought with it the crossing 

 of much poor land, too poor to pay adequately for the 

 costs of maintenance, yet despite this, and the fact that 

 generally speaking the lines serve an extremely thinly 

 populated country, they do not lack of the things con- 

 sidered necessary in more populated countries, where 

 steady and continuous traffic easily permits recupera- 

 tion on outlay. 



Generally speaking, Argentine Railway manage 

 ments have shown a spirit of enterprise if not in ad- 

 vance of the common in this country, at least equal to 

 that current, and if the railways have not attained that 

 high grade of excellence attributed to North American, 

 railway undertakings, it must be imputed more than 

 anything else to the want of due appreciation on the 

 part of the average Argentine client. 



In the efficient exploitation of her railway lines 

 no country in the world has attained the fame of the 

 United States and Canada. In the combination of all 

 means of transport, railway, river, canal, etc., the rail- 

 ways of North America mark a record. 



Europe, with its densely populated cities, and in- 

 tensely cultivated fields does not enjoy a more efficient 

 railway service than the North Americans. Their cha- 

 racteristics are cheap freights, rapid transport, abun- 

 dance of rolling stock, the adoption of every sort of 

 useful appliance for facilitating handling of merchan- 

 dise, contriving to work with the fewest number of men, 

 and the payment of the heaviest salaries in the world 

 to the officials and the highest wages on record to the 

 workmen. They register the heaviest working expenses 

 of anj r railway lines in the globe, and yet are the most 

 profitable in the world. 



Whereas, ur^der normal pre-war conditions, rail- 

 way freights elsewhere in the world have continually 

 risen, in the U.S.A. railway freights have steadily fal- 

 len and the basic rates for the chief farm products, 

 meat and grain, are by far the lowest in the world. 



AMERICAN RAILWAYS AND FREIGHTS. 



Under similar conditions, neither, Now Zealand, 

 nor Australia, the one with State railways, the other 

 with competitive private owned lines under State con- 



Wheat: cost of freight or transport in U.S.A. 0.759 cets~ 

 gold per ton per mile. England 2.31 cents gold per ton per 

 mile. 



