Thfc Railways of BraziV John S.Braimer, Chicago, 1867. II Brazil |S64 Bait Negr94 ^JTgwe. theft Booki^,,- ¦.','- Uj 'or. the fojunding 'fa- College in, this .Colony! • iLEMR&iEir ¦ |?pB . T H E RAILWAYS OF BRAZIL, A Statistical A kit REPRINTED FROM THE RAILWAY AGE WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS. JOHN C. BRANNER, PH.D. CHICAGO: The Railway Age Publishing Company. 1,887." HMMP'lli I THE RAILWAYS OF BRAZIL, A Statistical Article Reprinted from The Railway Age, with Notes and Additions JOHN C. BRANNER, PH. D. CHICAGO: The Railway Age Publishing Company. 1887. PREFACE If it should at first appear somewhat strange that a geologist should interest himself in a subject so far removed from his pro fessional labors as that of railways, it should also be remem bered that new surroundings offer new opportunities and conditions for study in economics as well as in natural history. These notes are the result of observations extending over eight years of residence and travel in almost every part of the Brazilian Empire, and are published in this imperfect form, partly in the hope that even so they may be of some service to those seeking information in regard to Brazilian railways, and partly because constantly increasing professional duties render it highly improbable that I shall ever be able to write them up more carefully. To those who seek current information upon this subject, I confidently recommend the Revista de Engenharia, (Engineer ing Review) owned and edited by a distinguished Brazilian en gineer, Dr. Jose Americo dos Santos, and the Rio News, owned and edited by an American gentleman of ability and culture, Mr. A. J. Lamoureux. Both these periodicals are published in Rio de Janeiro, the former in the Portuguese, the latter in the English language. The railway laws of Brazil have been compiled and edited by Antonio Alvares Pereira Coruja Junior, under the title of Repertorio das Zeis, Decretos, Consultas, etc., das Estradas de Ferro, and the available statistics up to March, 1886, have been published by . Cyrio Diocleciano Ribeiro Pessoa Junior, with the title Estudo Descriptive das Estradas de Ferro do Brazil. Both these works are in the Portuguese language. The Author. THE RAILWAYS OF BRAZIL. The obj'ect of the present paper is to give briefly such statistics and other facts concerning the railways of the Brazilian Empire as may be useful to engineers, capitalists, contractors and others who are, or may be come, interested in the roads of that country. Lines or prolongations which have only been pro jected have been omitted from the accompaning maps; for, while the roads actually constructed, or under con struction, have extended themselves but slowly into the vast interior of the country, the imaginations of engineers and the eagerness of capitalists have not been idle, but have covered the empire with a great network of railways, which, under existing physical and econo mic conditions, cannot be constructed. Indeed a map of the northeastern or drouth region of Brazil, pub lished in all seriousness by a distinguished engineer, is facetiously known among the cold-blooded as the comic map of Brazil, on account of the large number of rail ways there projected. The statistics given herewith are, as far as possible, self explanatory. A few words, however, regarding these statistics may prove useful. PROVINCES. The Brazilian Empire is divided into provinces, as shown on the larger map. The tables begin with the most northern province having a railway, and follow south along the coast, the roads of each province being grouped together. It will be seen that some of the largest of the provinces, like the Amazonas, Matto Grosso, Goyaz, and Piauhy, have no railways, although the province of the Amazonas alone has a superficial area of 1,897,000 square kilometers and Matto Grosso 1,379,000 square kilometers. On the other hand, railways have doubtless been built in some of the provinces to satisfy the demands of politicians rather than to meet any demands of busi ness, either actual or reasonably prospective, while others have been projected or actually constructed for the purpose of taking advantage of the government's guaranteed interest upon capital invested in roads which I shall specify hereafter. GAUGES. It is very unfortunate that there should be several different railway gauges on the Brazilian roads. The most common one is that of one metre, forty-four out of the sixty-one roads in the empire having this gauge. The most important roads, however, are the Dom Pedro II. and the Santos a Jundiahy, both of which are broad gauge roads connecting systems of considerable extent with the sea-ports of Santos and Rio de Janeiro. But even the Dom Pedro II. line in its prolongation be yond Queluz in the Province of Minas Geraes, has its gauge changed to one metre. The Santos a Jundiahy line, a broad gauge road, is fed by roads of one metre guage entirely, with the exception of the Paulista line, so that most of the freight and passengers between the interior and the coast must be transferred. The same is true of most of the coffee shipped into Rio de Janeiro over the Dom Pedro II, because its feeders are narrow gauge roads. The Rio de Janeiro system of lines is practically separated from that of Sao Paulo by a break of gauge at Cachoeira. A change of the gauge of the Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo railway, to that of the Dom Pedro 1 1. /would, without doubt, be a great advantage to both of these roads, to the planters of Sao Paulo, and to the business interests of Rio de Janeiro. The principal line leading from Bahia into the in terior is the Bahia a Sao Francisco, a broad gauge road. The continuation of this railway, known as the Alagoinhas a Joazeiro road has its gauge reduced to one metre beyond Alagoinhas. The Recife a Sao Francisco is the principal railway leading out of the city of Pernambuco. It is a broad gauge road from Pernambuco to Palmares, a distance of seventy-eight miles, while beyond this point it is re duced to a one metre gauge. COST PER MILE. Readers will be struck by the cost of construc tion of some of these roads, the cheapest one in Brazil being the Oeste de Minas, which has a gauge of only 2 feet 5 4-5 inches, and cost §16,019 per mile. The principal coffee producing region of Brazil lies within the provinces of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Minas Geraes, and these provinces are either moun tainous or very hilly. In such regions as those pene trated by these railways the necessity of making many and large cuts and fills cannot be avoided, while the enormous rainfall of the tropics, concentrated within a few months of the year, necessarily renders the cost of maintenance very heavy. Embankments which, in the temperate regions, would, in a few months or years be covered by turf, must here be planted in grass- with the greatest care, one blade at a time, or must be cov ered with great pavements of stone or concrete to pre vent their being washed away. From the smaller map it will be seen that parallel to the coast and passing THE I3JLJnifOT"-S»"SrS OIP EIBJL.ZIIj eoad. Belem a Braganca Sobral Buturite Natal a Nova Cruz Conde d' Eu Recife ao Sao Francisco. . . . Palmares a Garanhuns Recife a Limoeiro Recife a Olinda e Beberibe. Recife a Caxanga Paulo Alfonso Central de Alag6as Bahia a Sao Francisco Alagoinhas a Joazeiro Central da Bahia Santo Amaro Nazareth Bahia e Minas Dom Pedro Segundo Rio do Ouro Corcovado Norte Principe do Gram Para Cantagallo Carangola Branch of Cantagallo UniSo Valehciana Macahe e Campos . . Santo Antonio de Padua . . . Santa Isabel do Rio Preto. . Pirahyense PE0VINCE. Para. Cear& Rio Grande do Norte Parahyba Pernambuco Alagoas . Bahia , Neutral Municipality. a it n 91,74676,046 36,610 a aa ita "18,808 48,037 24,818 a 21,124 Cost Per Mile. 19-715 35,206 54,5683!,982 34,9I5 92,432 33,34328,092 31,68636-43°9J.343 3°,277 42,691 25,886 Mil's in Traffic, 3880+68 757577 4460 7 n 7254 76 199180+ 222194 516 42 2 12 57 130116 423964 57 24+ Per Cent Capital Guaranteed. $2,474,190 2,404,222 2.624,6716.204,654 2,186,395 1,991,688 7,000,000 5,686,789 482,064 2,624,671 1,662,248 Without Guarantee. $1,025,371 2,624,6712,851,812 958,896 21,872 558,954 65,616 5,249,343 266,841 1,749,781 472,516 3,499,563 I.3'2,336 Deficit. 37,687 69,748 13,799 25,448 93,17864,433 37,379 17,851 4,o73 1,767 Balance. 16,776 180,694 23,721 22,891 Pays 5% EEMAEKS. Provincial Guarantee. Belongs to the Imp. Gov't Cf (< Ct (( ( Prov'ce of Pernambuco 1 •I guarantees also 2% on (capital of ^1,200,000. Belongs to 956 262,467 27,668 10,777 6,280 Commercio e Rio das Flores. . . . Balance for 1 st 9 mos. , ' 85 (C 962,379 354,331 • 14,727 ft .i a * ft 28,366 19, H3 7 6,649,168 6,778,4i3 612,423 2,099,737 305,804 10,254 • long to the Leopoldina Company. Muriahe .. .. ft 64,180 23,363 16,019 "9,327 32,505 106 236386 '43 ICO 77 5,394 549,673 16,459 1 720308 ' 55,968 259-451 52,54959,464 • 77 10,304,280 4,665,354 SSo Paulo e Rio de Janeiro 8,747,899 1,093,6131,703,678 34,995 1,421,697 2,187,227 30,277 n64- 777 6,7 240,594897,941 1,014,873 5,293,088 20,64034,533 14,524 14,182 73,31332,991 33,942 IOI 32 344 162 6869 176 112 26 8 114 48,63923,981 345,699 70,632 Rio Grande do Sul . . . 777 5,027,1392,384,517 5,914,896 5,568 (0 *Prop'ty of Imp. Gov't. 70,468 1,887 Porto Alegre a Nova Hamburgo ti 57,442 7 7,874,011 760,557 ti 6 2,595,000 4,974 1 * The Revista de JSngenharia^ the leading engineering publication, of Brazil, says in its issue of April 28, 1887, that the deficits of this road have diminished at the following rates: In 1883, average monthly deficit, $8,791 ; 1884, $6,171 ; 1885, $3,773; 1886, $2,540, (1) A newspaper of Pelotas, one of the principal cities of Rio Grande do Sul, Baid of this road in March last: "Ox carts have continued to compete with this road since October last. Over 1,700 cart loads of merchandise have been shipped since that time. The commerce of the interior prefers to have goods drawn by oxen, on account of the cheaper rates, greater security of goods, greater satisfaction in the case of reclamation, and because goods are frequently received sooner than when shipped by rail. • .IO through the provinces of Sao Paulo and Riode Janeiro is a range of mountains. This range is lofty and un broken, and all railways penetrating the interior must overcome it. The following fact? will convey some idea of the difficulty of carrying roads across these mountains. The Dom Pedro II. road crosses the Serra do Mar at an elevation of 1,495 feet above the bay of Rio de Janeiro, and the Serra da Mantequeira, the second range, at 3,630 feet. The Santos a Jundiahy road be tween the port of Santos and the city of Sao* Paulo, rises 2,530 feet in a distance of five miles, the cars be ing drawn up by stationary engines and wire cables. The road from the bay of Rio de Janeiro to Petropolis (the Principe do Grao Para) rises 2,630 feet in less than four miles, the system employed being the same as that used on Mt. Washington. The Parana road rises 1,082 feet in a distance of less than nine miles, crossing the Serra at an elevation of 3,282 feet, while the maximum grade of the Cantagallo railway (from Nictheroy to Nova Friburgo) is 8.3 per cent., reaching an elevation of 3,529 above the bay of Rio de Janeiro. On this latter road the Tell system is employed for ascending the mountain along about eight miles of the line, upon the most difficult grades and the curves of smallest radii. These fact* explain, in part, the cost per mile of so many of the Brazilian roads. MILES IN TRAFFIC. In some cases the railways are somewhat longer than they are represented in the accompaning tables. On the other hand, I have represented as being in traffic, roads which are completed, but which have not, as yet, been officially opened to the public. The total 1 1 mileage, however, will not vary much from five thousand miles at the present writing, (i) GOVERNMENT GUARANTEES. In order to induce railway construction in the em pire the government felt it necessary from the very outset to encourage capitalists to build certain roads by guaranteeing an interest of seven per cent, upon the capital so invested, besides granting certain other priv ileges to the constructing companies. Most of these guaranteed railways have been, from the beginning, constant sources of expense to the government, while but one of them, the Santos a Jundiahy, has done more than pay the guarantee. That this policy of guar anteeing interest has led to grave abuses there can be no reasonable doubt, for "It has created an insatiable army of parasites who have led the government into a labyrinth of unremun- erative, unnecessary and costly enterprises, which have become fixed pensioners upon the revenues of the country. Then, in their turn, the 'professional direct ors' of the London market have not been altogether blameless. They have floated schemes which they must have known to be visionary and unpromising, and they have flattered and wheedled Brazilian officials into the belief that scores of these wretched enterprises could be made remunerative, and that the 'natural re sources' of the country are incalculably great, but can be developed properly only through these so-called improvements. In this they have quite made Brazil believe that building a railway into a desert would (i) The Rio News, one of the best edited and most reliable papers published in Brazil, in its issue of April 15, 1887, gives the total mileage of the Brazilian railways as follows:In traffic 4,793 miles. Constructing 1,019 '' Surveyed 2,285 " 12 cause water to bubble forth in its waste places, and herbage to grow over its burning sands. Then they have turned to the confiding investor and have made him believe Brazil to be the long sought El Dorado, and that for every shilling planted there, nothing less than a sovereign could be produced. They have traded upon the amiability and rectitude of the Emperor, the peaceableness of the Brazilian people, the fertility of the soil, the wide expanse of territory, the product of a few gold and diamond mines, and the 'splendid fu ture' in store for the country. They have baited their hooks with many a glittering generality and have never failed to catch their fish with them." The above quotation from the (Rio News of April 24, 1887, is given at length because it indicates an ex planation for the large number of guaranteed roads in Brazil; it throws light upon where the capital comes from; why the Brazilians are so ready to guarantee a high rate of interest upon it, and why so many of these guarantees are likely to require payment during the full term of years specified. Below I give the leading points of the law relating to guaranteed roads. In some cases provinces have guaranteed the in terest upon capital invested in railways, and in such cases the imperial government goes security for this guarantee; in other cases the provinces guarantee only a part of the 7 per cent., while the imperial government becomes responsible for the remainder of the full amount. CAPITAL. From the returns it will be seen that while some roads have the interest guaranteed upon their entire capital, others have guarantees upon only a part of their 13 capital, while still others are built without any guaran tee whatever, excepting such favors as the government grants in other forms. DEFICITS AND BALANCES. Of the fifty-seven railways mentioned in the ac companying tables (counting Nos. 40 to 44 as parts of the Leopoldina), twenty-five receive an interest guar antee upon capital, while at least ten of them belong to the imperial or provincial governments; in other words, thexgovernment is responsible for much more than half of the railways in the empire, as investments, and upon it falls the burden of the large number of deficits men tioned in the table (2). And this burden is larger than it would at first appear. It should be borne in mind that these figures may have hidden behind their apparent meaning facts which would modify them very materially, if reduced to our own method of regarding statistics. It is cause of com plaint, for instance, that the government, in order to diminish its guarantee or to increase its receipts from paying roads, forces the shareholders of guaranteed roads to pay local taxes upon their railways, instead of permitting them to be charged to working expenses and to be paid out of the gross earnings. (3) Attention should also be directed to the fact that certain guaranteed railways are credited in the tables with balances in their favor. This does not mean that these roads- return these amounts to the government (2) A late number of the Rio News quotes the following figures as official, but does not vouch for their accuracy: In traffic — State lines 1.145 miles. Provincial lines 205 " Guaranteed by empire 1,453 " Guaranteed by provinces 935 " Without guarantee 1,003 " This makes the government responsible for nearly four-fifths of the mileage in the empire. (3) See circular irom the Department of Agriculture, Commerce and public works of August 3 1883. treasury, or to the company's treasury, after paying the seven per cent, guarantee, but simply that this amount is all the road furnishes to be applied to that payment, and that the government must make good the de ficiency. As already stated, but one of these roads, the Santos a Jundiahy, does more than pay the interest guarantee. LAWS RELATING TO GUARANTEES. The following are the numbers and dates of the laws, etc., relating to the guarantee of interest upon railway capital: Law No. 641, dated June 26, 1852. This law re lates particularly to the Dom Pedro II. line. Law No. 2450, dated September 24, 1873. Decree No, 5561, dated February 27, 1874. This decree specifies the responsibilities of the imperial governments, and of the railway companies. A circular dated August 3, 1883, declares that taxes must not be charged to road expenses. Consulta, dated January 9, 1884, relates to the "privileged zone" of a railway, that is, the belt within which the government promises that no other road shall be built with specified exceptions. I translate here the leading features of law No. 2450 mentioned above. 1. The government is authorized to grant kilo- metric subvention or guarantee of interest not exceed ing 7 per cent, upon the capital for a term of thirty years, to companies which * * * propose to construct railways, in case they (the companies) can demonstrate by their plans and statistics that such roads may yield a net income of 4 per cent. > 2. In case of the guarantee being made by a pro vince, the government will secure the guarantee. i5 3. The government can guarantee interest for those roads only which are the principal communica tions between producing centres and exporting points, and shall not concede these favors to more than one road in each province as long as this one does not re turn a net income which dispenses with such favors. 4. The sum of the capital upon which the govern ment is authorized to guarantee interest must not ex ceed $43, 2'5 0,000. The following points are specified by Decree 5561, of February 28, 1874. The government retains the right to make conces sions for the following roads (that is, such roads can not be built without the authority of the general gov ernment) : 1. Those connecting two or more provinces ; those -connecting the capital with the provinces; those con necting the empire with bordering countries. 2. Those intended for administrative purposes (strategic ?). 3. Prolongations of any of the above mentioned. Other things being equal, preference for a conces sion will be given:. 1. To the company presenting definite plans for any given route ; 2. To the one to which belongs the priority of the idea or the endeavor to realize it; 3. To the company owning roads already built or under construction and of whose lines the new roads are prolongations; 4. To navigation companies connecting naturally with the railways; 5. To the company showing that it has already successfully ad ministered some railway. The government is authorized to grant some or all of the following favors to companies proposing to build railways in the empire: ninety years privilege, dating i6 from the incorporation of the company; free use of national lands necessary for roadway, stations, store houses, offices, etc. ; the right of disappropriation ; timber for construction from national lands ; exemption from import duties upon material to be used in construction and upon coal used by the road. These roads, on the other hand, are not allowed to own or employ slaves; must have a representative and their legal domicile within the empire; and at the end of the term of the concession, unless otherwise agreed upon, the road, its rolling stock, and other belongings become the property of the state without indemnity. FISCALIZATION. For each of the guaranteed railways the govern ment appoints a fiscal engineer, under various titles, whose duty it is to see that the company is held to its obligations, and to give the government information regarding the road whenever required. The business of inspecting the roads which receive favors of the gov ernment gives employment to a large number of civil engineers and other employes under the titles of in spectors, fiscal engineers, assistant fiscal engineers, secretaries, draftsmen, etc., but these are positions of but little real responsibility, and are entrusted almost exclusively to native Brazilians. Decree No. 8947 °f May 19, 1883, gives the regulations of this fiscal and inspecting services. Fiscalization is a natural concomitant of guaranteed interest, but the length to which it is sometimes carried is not productive of mutual good feeling. During the present year the Brazilian minister of agriculture requested that certain guaranteed London companies should furnish lists of their employes and statements of the salary paid each one. Two of the companies gave i7 the information as matters of courtesy, but were evi dently reluctant to recognize the right of the Brazilian government to carry their fiscalization to such an ex treme. Such cases show how annoying the inspection may be come, and yet, it cannot be denied that, obnox ious though the details of such fiscalization may be, the principle is a perfectly legitimate and logical one. It is probable that, through compromise or otherwise, the government and the companies concerned will avoid difficulties of this nature. OBSTACLES TO CONSTRUCTION. ft While it cannot be denied that Brazil appears to be but poorly supplied with railways, we should not lose sight of the reasons for the comparatively slow exten sion of the railways of that country. In many cases obstacles of a very serious nature have been met and overcome, in others but partly so, while in other cases still they impose almost impassible barriers to further development of existing lines. Some of the obstacles with which the Brazilians have had to deal are here re ferred to. (2) Technical difficulties which render the roads very expensive. — Some of the difficulties have already been mentioned under the head of "cost per mile," and need not be repeated here. Technical difficulties aris ing from topography are not, in themselves, of a seri ous nature, but in proportion as the cost of construc tion and maintenance is increased, either the govern ment becomes responsible for guaranteed interest up on large capital, or the risks are greater than com panies are willing to assume without such guarantees. (2.) The financial condition of the empire. — Al though Brazil has developed rapidly in many respects i8 during the past half century, she has increased her in debtedness more rapidly still. During the forty years preceding 1881 her exports increased 527 per cent., government revenue increased 892 per cent., while her indebtedness increased 1,389 per cent. The principal cause of this increase of the national debt was the war with Paraguay, but its continued increase since the close of that war is due, in no small measure, to the construction of new railways upon her own account, and the payment of guaranteed interest upon others. Intimately associated with the two obstacles mentioned above is the failure of many of the roads already con structed to pay dividends of seven per cent, on their capital. Such failure is doubtless due, in some cases, to -maladministration, while in others it must be at tributed to the inability, for the present at least, of the regions penetrated to support such railways. ' (3.) A sparse population. — Although Brazil is as large as the United States, leaving Alaska out of ac count, she has a population of less than twelve mil lions, while the proportion engaged in productive labor is very much smaller than in this country. Scattered over such a vast territory, the people are not able, or rather they have failed, to build common roads, and whatever transportation there may be goes on upon the backs of mules or horses following bridle paths which, in many places, are next to impassible even for a single animal. Beside the influence of sparse popu lation, this lack of tolerable highways is due partly to an cestral habits, and partly perhaps to the difficulty of keeping a road in good conditicTn when once made in that climate and with such rains. It naturally occurs to anyone acquainted with the histories of some of the railways of this country that* 19 new roads might bring population to the thinly settled interior, and with it a source of support for themselves. The consideration of this phase of the subject brings us to another obstacle which Brazilians have had to encounter in the development of their railway system. (4.) The absence of any considerable immigra=° Hon permanently indentifying itself with the interests cf the country. — The government has made and con tinues to make every immediate and direct effort in its power to induce European immigration upon a large scale, even going so far as to pay the passages of im migrants, but these efforts have never met with any marked success. This lack of success is due, in part at least, to some or all of the following causes : — the existence of slavery ; the existing system of land owner ship and the difficulties and burdens placed upon real estate transfers ; the restricted political privileges ac corded persons who are not Roman Catholics ; marriage laws ; the partial enforcement or non-enforcement of police laws, etc. I am well aware that but few Brazil ians, perhaps none of them, will recognize the force of my statements regarding the influence upon immigra tion of these customs, laws, etc., but after a residence of eight years in that country and a wide acquaintance among natives, foreigners and immigrants in all parts of the empire, I am fully convinced of their importance. The difficulty of procuring laborers for railway construction, however, is not so great as people in this country usually imagine. The Italians and Portu guese, who form the great body of immigrants, and the native matutos, all of whom work well in that cli mate, can be procured at reasonable rates. I mention this fact lest the fate of the Madeira and Mamore la borers be taken as a typical case. 20 RAILWAY SUPPLIES. The railways of Brazil have been built very largely with English capital, and even when the government has nominally furnished the money, the contractors have frequently been Englishmen or Frenchmen. Where the roads are owned or operated by English companies, the railway supplies have been brought from England without exception, and when the con tractors have been Englishmen, the supplies have come from England, except when otherwise stipulated by the government. In some cases roads contracted for with Frenchmen have been supplied with French material. It is very noticeable, however, that American lo comotives are now used almost exclusively on Brazil ian roads, and it is highly probable that the proportion of railway supplies sent from this country to Brazil will increase from year to year. It would be well, though, in any endeavors we may make to extend our commerce with that country, if we could rid our minds of the idea that clap-trap methods can accomplish any thing of permanent value. As matters now stand, Brazil is an open market in which we must compete with the rest of the world, and laws which are pro tective at home are of no avail whatever in that coun try. The reasons why Brazilians buy or do not buy their railway supplies in the United States are so self- evident that it seems useless to mention them. I do so, however, for the benefit of those who think a trade can be "worked up" in anything and in any part of the world. We cannot sell steel rails in Brazil at present sim ply because the English can make and ship them to that country cheaper than we can. Whenever we 21 shall be able to compete with the English in open market we may hope to get our share of the trade which now naturally goes to them. We sell the Bra zilians freight cars, passenger coaches and locomotives when we make what they want cheaper than they can get it elsewhere. It is no matter of like or dislike for Americans or Englishmen, but a matter of business pure and simple. An incident intimately connected with the first rail way building done in Brazil is an interesting item in the history of the business of one of our American firms, while it offers a most instructive lesson to those who would cultivate commercial relations with that country. When the Dom Pedro II. railway was being built across the serra in 1858, it was found, in cutting the great tunnel, that a road connecting the ends of the tunnel across the mountain was highly essential. Bids were asked from several of the leading locomotive manufacturers of Europe and America for a locomo tive able to do a given service upon the grade. But one firm, an American one, would undertake to con struct such a locomotive, and it therefore received the order. The order was filled with scrupulous care, and the locomotive gave such perfect satisfaction that other orders followed. The locomotive company did its business in a business like manner ; it spared no pains to do — not as little as it could for the money — but as much as possible ; it sent out no locomotive that was not in every way up to the highest standard ; it held itself scrupulously to its bargains, and was thus able to hold its customers to theirs also. The result is just what we should expect: — almost all the locomo tives used to-day upon the railways of Brazil, except- 22 ing only those owned and operated by English com panies, go from the shops of the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia. The trade of that company in Brazil has increased to such an extent that it now keeps, and has for years kept, a skilled locomotive en gineer from its own shops permanently employed in that country for the purpose of mounting, starting and otherwise supervising its locomotives. The American locomotives have therefore grown so in favor that the English manfacturers have been forced, in order to re tain any share of their trade in Brazil, to construct their locomotives upon the plan of the Baldwin engines. Whenever our manufacturers of railway supplies take similar pains to oblige Brazilian customers, they will get Brazilian trade, and not before. It should be borne in mind too that no ''short cut" methods can ever build up our trade with that country. I regard the Brazilian trade in railway supplies as an important one, and worthy of serious efforts on the part of our manufacturers and dealers. The demand for such supplies has been larger perhaps, up to the present, than that of any other country with an equal railway mileage, and doing an equal amount of busi ness. The people, moreover, are naturally conserva tive, and when they once form the habit of dealing with a given firm or nation, only extraordinary induce ments cause them to form new business relations. It may not be out of place here to refer to the agents employed and sent out occasionally by some of our American houses. Adventurers have been per mitted in some cases to use the names and do business for some of our American firms, these firms 'probably acting under the impression that if orders came they 23 would be so much clear gain, and if none came there would be nothing lost. It is a sad fact that there are people who believe and act upon the belief that they need not concern themselves about their conduct when so far from home. Corporations having such low standards of business morality need not try to get a foot-hold in Brazil, and self-respecting firms cannot safely employ those who have them. Sharp practice by such men has already brought the name of Ameri can manufacturers into disrepute in that country. EMPLOYMENT. It will interest engineers who may seek employ ment under the Brazilian government to know that a law passed in 1880 requires that all engineers, geogra phers, and land surveyors, employed upon commis sions under the government, shall present their diplo mas of graduation. The diplomas of foreign universi ties and of "official" schools are received as equiva lents of those of the Escola Polytechnica— the Bra zilian school of technology. The diploma or certificate of membership of the London Institute of Civil Engi neers is also accepted. The government has been asked to define " official " as used in connection with foreign institutions of learning, and the director of the Escola Polytechnica has been requested to furnish a list of them, but, as far as I am able to learn, no such list has as yet been published. This list, however; will, without doubt, include all the bona fide colleges, universities and technical schools in this country. . There are certain other bits of information which those who seek employment upon Brazilian railways should bear in mind. The language of the country is Portuguese — not Spanish — and as there is some an tipathy in that country toward Spanish speaking peo- 24 pie, the less Spanish one speaks the better. It is use less, however, to try to get along without Portuguese. French may take its place with a diplomat, but not with an engineer or mechanic. No one from this country need hope to obtain a position as conductor, accountant, station agent or tel egraph operator. Such positions are filled by the proteges of polititians, and offices are made and multi plied upon government roads to supply the demands for such positions. The climate of Brazil is, of course, quite different from anything we have in this country, but it is by no means as bad as it is generally believed to be. For persons of temperate habits, and who take proper care of themselves, it is both healthful and pleasant, especi ally in the southern provinces. EXTENSION. On March 28, 1858, the first section of the Dom Pedro II. railway, from the city of Rio de Janeiro "to the station of Queimados, a distance of thirty miles, was opened to traffic. This was the first piece of rail way built in the empire, the modest beginning of that system which now radiates from its principal sea-port and metropolis, and is the most important railway in South America. The region penetrated by this road has gradually developed, the production of coffee has increased enormously, and to-day this road is one of the few yielding an income to the national treasury. From the thirty miles inaugurated in 1858 the railways of the country have been extended, especially through the coffee-producing parts of the country, until they now aggregate nearly five thousand miles in actual traffic. It is not safe or just to draw comparisons between 25 this country and Brazil when treating of the expansive powers of the latter country. We in the United States have a much larger population ; the technical difficul ties of railway construction here are, as a rule, very small ; our population and our soil can support more railways ; railways penetrating new regions here have carried with them the resources of their own prosper ity, namely, a productive population, and while our general government has made donations of land to railway companies, it has never burdened us with guaranteed interest upon any road's capital. While our roads have taken care of themselves the Brazilians have felt themselves obliged to tenderly care for theirs ; an immense immigration pours spontane ously upon our shores every year, while the Brazilian government has been obliged to pay dearly for almost every immigrant entering the empire ; from passable to good wagon roads cover our entire country, feeding and keeping alive our railways, while, with the excep tion of a few miles of highway built by the govern ment, there are • no tolerable wagon roads in the Em pire of Brazil ; and, finally, the difference between the peoples of the two countries "is as ancient as the trop ical and temperate zones themselves." With such a vast disproportion in the forces and circumstances which help or hinder railway construc tion in the two countries, it is clear that, under normal conditions, the expansion of Brazilian railways can not soon reach the proportions attained in this country. But notwithstanding the financial difficulties under which the Brazilian government is laboring, and the physical obstacles which engineers have to encounter, the extension of the Brazilian roads goes gradually on, and the Brazilians are growing into an experience of 26 railway management under the peculiar economic con ditions surrounding them, which, it is to be hoped, may at some time go far toward enabling them to de velop the roads of their country beyond what now seems to be the limits of safe investments. MAP SHOWING THE RAILWAYS OT BRAZIL APRIL . 1887. BY JOHN C.BRANKER. Sca/e of Miles. UO 50 O IDO 200 300 400 . OF THE BRAZILIAN PROVINCES. Taken from the Graphic Tables, prepared by Jose Carlos de Carvalho, and published in the Revista do Club de Engenharia, Rio de Janeiro, March, 1887 Amazonas, Para Maranhao PlAUHY Ceara Rio Grande do Norte Parahyba Pernambuco Alagoas Sergipe. Bahia. Espirito Santo. Rio de Janeiro and Neutral Municipal ity Sao Paulo Parana Sta Catherina Rio Grande do Sul . , Minas Geraes Goyaz Matto Grosso ( Area \ Population ( Railways. . ( Area \ Population j Railways. . ( Area J Population j Railways. . Area PopulationRailways. . Area Population v Railways. . (Area ^.Population ( Railways . . ( Area ) Population ( Railways . . j Area } Population j Railways . . ( Area .... . J Population ( Railways. . j Area J Population j Railways. . Area PopulationRailways. . Area PopulationRailways. . Area PopulationRailways . j Area J Population ( Railways. . I Area. . . . . . } Population j Railways. . ( Area ¦t Population ( Railways. . ( Area / Population | Railways . . Area PopulationRailways. . j Area 1 Population j Railways. . { Area -! Population ( Railways. , None. mmm m None. None. IHJLI11UIIUJL nmnniiiiininniiiiirimniiJTiT mnrnnnnr None. niwini) mmm n i mm mmmms mmmm 1 li rr ; 1 1 1 1 n 1 1 1 n mi 1 i mujnu riLnrrrrrTnii uirn titi rrTTmriTTTii nni rrrmi nn 1 1 1 nm ) i j 1 1 n rrp i n m 1 1 m 1 1 j 1 1 1 u n 1 1 1 u u miLin u=yj^m£ iiiiiiiniiiiinii^TiTTiiiimiiiiiiiiiimujiiJiuiimiiuiii^m m mm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmrWmmmmmmmmmmmmm None. None. 3 9002 I