|
|
Chapter
IX
Railways
THE preceding chapter gave a description
of the transportation facilities of China and
the condition in which they are allowed to
exist. The state of affairs is quite anomalous. In
other countries, including Japan, good high-roads
were constructed and maintained long before rail-
ways were thought of, thus permitting internal
trade to be carried on, if not with the economy
and speed of steam, at least with reasonable de-
spatch and cost, against which railways, when in-
troduced, were obliged to compete. In China
there was, and is, nothing of the kind. It is not
a question whether any line or system of railways
can stand the competition of existing canals or
high-roads, but whether it is best ab initio to im-
prove rivers, to lay out roads, or to build railways.
The answer to this question is not difficult to find.
It is idle to expect any initiation from the great in-
ert mass of Chinese inaction, and the sole hope for
the beginning of a revolution of existing methods
lies in finding some way in which the foreigner
can levy a direct tariff in return for his services,
where no expense will be incurred by the Chinese
themselves previous to the charge for actual ser-
vices rendered, and where the direction of the
maintenance of the facilities created will not be |
|
|