JAPANESE RAILWAYS
Dr.Hirai, Director of the Government Railway Bureau, graduated in the Van Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute just after the exhibition in Philadelphia in 1878, and on graduating was employed in the Mississippi River Commission by the United States Government, and did not return to Japan till 1882.
His pioneer railway service was in the Hokkaido, on the line which was built by Col. J. U. Crawford, an American, and run on purely American plans and methods. It has changed since, as afterDr.Hirai left the engineer introduced English customs, but retained the American cars.
“In my day,” saidDr.Hirai, “the New York Central and the Pennsylvania were the leading roads in America. I hope to see myself what thirty years have brought about, on my trip to that country next year. I had intended visiting Europe and America during the war time, but was prevented on that account from travelling. On my return I shall have seen and investigated modern railroading as it actually is in America and Europe. What I shall see will naturally bring benefit to my system.”
“What do you think of American railroad men,Dr.Hirai?” we asked.
“I think they are the greatest men that you have in any line. We are working at this moment for the amalgamation of seventeen private railroads and are reducing them to the same standard of rates, fares, and working staff. Our railroad system is just a little over 45,000 miles, whichdoes not show very large, but its significance is in the fact that it includes all the main lines of this Empire and is therefore important. It includes the lines in the Hokkaido, Kyushiu, all of the main island, and Shikoku, one third of which belonged before to the Government, the rest having been acquired since 1906-07. The method by which these seventeen railroads have been acquired is based on the calculation that the stockholders will receive Government bonds bearing interest at the rate of 5 per cent., equal to the average of the dividend they have been receiving during the three years previous to the time of nationalization. When the railroad has been paying less on the capital than that, the amount of the bonds to be paid for the railroad is to be agreed upon between the Government, and the representatives of the stockholders. The whole amount of bonds to be issued for nationalization will be nearly Y450,000,000, or Y500,000,000, which we calculate will be paid off, interest and principal, in 60 years. The actual result since acquiring the railways is better than had been anticipated. Rates for goods and fares for passengers have been reduced to a single standard. The reduction on some lines has been more than 30 per cent., but still on the whole our receipts are about 10 per cent. on fares and 20 per cent. on freight more than the receipts of the previous year. The results are, therefore, most gratifying. The total receipts for the fiscal year ending the 31st of March this year will, I think, approximate Y70,000,000; the net receipts are about 32 to 35 millions. The actual net receipts for nine months to the end of last December are a little over Y28,000,000. This is a showing which speaks for itself.
“The most marked results of nationalization of our railroadsis seen in the Hokkaido, where the best part of the railway was under the control of the Hokkaido Colliery and Railway Company. Naturally this company transported their coal in preference to all other freight, and the development of paper mills and other manufactures was slow. Since the Government has taken over the railway, no preference is given to any particular freight, and in consequence the development of other industries is facilitated.
“The steel works at Wakamatsu are supplying the army and navy, so we are short of materials from this source, but we obtain the greater part of our rails from them. We are building our cars in our own shops and in three private shops, but we import our locomotives from foreign countries, and you see English, German and American locomotives on our road. The most economical engines so far in use we find to be English. We hope to introduce greater ease and luxury in our cars every year. We are now exporting wood for ties and sleepers to America. Our first aim is for cheap and quick transportation of goods. Heretofore our receipts have been mostly from passengers, over 70 per cent., but of late we are giving more facilities to freight. We expect to build a central station in Tokyo, beginning the work this year, and Shimbashi will be like an old horse which in pride has once drawn his master’s carriage, but is later relegated to a dray, for it will be used for goods alone. We expect to connect the elevated line we are building now to Uyeno and Ochanomidzu. The plan of the new central station is already complete. It will be located in Marunouchi and will be a thoroughly modern station costing about Y2,000,000. It will be completed in time for the exposition, and we expect to have a station hotel in connection withit, after the plan of the Canadian Pacific hotels. But, when it is all finished, we shall have, like the man in the scripture, to pull down and build bigger, so fast does the tide and onward sweep of modern life outreach even the large projects of man’s brain. We have something like 70,000 employes, a good standing army, and our Society for the relief of the injured and disabled has on its list 50,000 members; this provides for medical treatment and care for those laid aside in any way. It is a society in which the railroad and the men co-operate. The men pay in every month 3 per cent. of their wages, and the government 2 per cent., so that 5 per cent. of the income of all wages is appropriated for this relief fund. The officers of the road get a pension after 15 years’ service amounting to one quarter of their salary. We have to supply the staff of the Korean, Manchurian and Formosan times, who are men trained with us.
“During the war we sent 15,000 men to work the military lines in Manchuria and Korea. A Railway School is situated near Uyeno Station in Tokyo, where the course is preliminary. After graduation the men come to us and work up. For high grades we employ university graduates or those from high commercial schools. The most urgent work we have on hand in the coming year is the extension of station facilities, doubling of tracks, extension of repairing shops for the existing lines, for which we have an estimate of eight millions for the coming year. In the line of new construction, we have an estimate of about 25 millions yearly extending over twelve years, which will add about two thousand miles to our railway when completed.”
Dr.Hirai speaks the English of a generation gone, with the clear cut pronunciation of another age when men andwomen had time to do things well, and as he speaks English, so he stands at the head of one of the great railroads of the world, with the gentle suavity and calm reflective face of a scholar, not a man of affairs, with a serene self-possession which is the unmistakable mark of genius combined with self-mastery. He is more like the greatDr.Charcot than any man I ever met, and I remembered on coming home that inDr.Charcot’s Paris house was placed, in his vast library, a statue of Buddha.