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