77 



LOST TONNAGE ANNUALLY. 



Competent authorities put the loss arising from 

 damage to tin- crop in normal years, through, the ab- 

 sence of elevators, from 15 to 20 per cent, of the 15 mil- 

 lion tons harvested annually. What it is this year is 

 beyond computing, hi any case it means from one mil- 

 lion to nearly two million tons less freightage for the 

 railways, which quantity is equal, at least, to 10 mil- 

 lion pesos less income for the imilwaj^s : a vital matter 

 indeed, both for the prosperity of the railways and for 

 the country at large. 



The regulation of the traffic would reduce the 

 ost of running the lines. Although it might not reduce 

 the carriage rates it at least would impede their con- 

 tinual rise, one of the fundamental reasons for the hos- 

 tility towards the railways on the part of the major- 

 ity of camp folk. 



THE RISE IN FREIGHTS. 



The advance in freights is a symptom common 

 throughout the world: yet whatever may be the reasons 

 involved for increased tariffs in countries affected by 

 the war, such reasons appear less convincing when ap- 

 plied here, although apparently they are one and the 

 same. In a report of the general meeting of a North 

 American line, the following explanation was given 

 which, with exception of the last part, reads very much 

 like what we hear in this land. 



IN NORTH AMERICA. 



''Since the beginning of 1915, the cost of operat- 

 ing the railways has steadily advanced, and has ab- 

 sorbed a correspondingly larger proportion of the 

 earnings. Not until the winter of 1917 was an appre- 

 ciable advance in rates put into effect, and since that 

 time extraordinary advances in wages have been grant- 

 ed, necessitating a further increase in rates. In the 

 records of monthly gross earnings as given in the chart- 

 of monthly returns, this is easily remarkable, for 

 \vhereas -the rates were the same for some time after 

 the commencement of the war, no sooner was an in- 

 crease rendered inevitable than it was found impos- 

 sible to arrive at a satisfactory unit rate, and a further 



