Expenditures of the Russo-Japanese war / by Gotaro Ogawa.

220 ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR

it is easy to imagine how hard the transportation service was
hit. Although the general passenger and freight service was
thus hindered, yet it must be remembered that these and other
agencies of transportation did everything possible to minimize
the congestion and used every available train for transportation of goods whenever there was a lull in their military service. They also strove hard to restore the peace-time number
of daily passenger trains. In consequence the congestion of
traffic did not reach the worst point feared by the general
public.
No details are available as to how much of the railway
service was put to military use; we can infer, however, that
its extent was very great. In the first place, the mileage of
running, which had been increasing year after year before the
war, was reduced by some Ioo,ooo miles as compared with
the previous year.
MILEAGE COVERED BY TRAINS, 1901-I905
Year ending March 31 State railways Private railways
es Miles
1901................................. 8,270,286 22,163,214
1902................................. 8,768,171 23,297,908
I903................................. o,I68,979 24,125,379
1904.................... 9,649,450 24,479,190
I905................................. I0,710,264 25,666,437
The decrease was chiefly in those lines of the state railways
which were on the main routes of military transportation.
A slight increase took place in some private railways, but
those which were charged with military transportation naturally lost their ordinary work, as will be seen from the subjoined table. Let us first study the effects of military transportation by the statistics of passengers and fares during the
five years 190o to 1905. (See table at the top of the next page.)
It is patent that there was a sudden fall both in the state
and private railway traffic in I904. But it should be noted
that this decrease must have been due partly to the habit of
thrift which the people in general cultivated and to the handi