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Show A BIG MAN WITH" TA ...,,-. A SNTALL SAURY j ! i k turn s.y In the "Interesting People" depart; ment of the JulV American Magazine appears a.plctureand sketch of Rlr cardo Blanchi, director general of the Italian raiiwAyn.Balnchl is a Tan-kee-mlnded hustler wito has revamped revamp-ed a wrecked and doBplsed syfltem of state railways and 6 making a new Ithly tn the process. Followiii,- Is an extract from the article: "Clcardl Blanchi bosses, with superlative super-lative ability, 150,000 railway workers, work-ers, and contrives meantime to keep four hungry senators, and I do not know how many deputies, ht bay, for all of which ho receives a salary ot $4800 a year. "He wbb captured in the island ot Sicily, this regenerator, of the 8ta.e railways of Italy. This land of lemons lem-ons and romance had tho best railway rail-way service ln all the kingdom tho personal achievement of Blanch!. He had made a thorough study of Kng-)lsh Kng-)lsh railways and rallwoy methods, not merely as an investigation; but as a'pald' servant. He'had been a.clos student, through. books and periodicals, periodi-cals, of American railroads, and ho seems, to have been the one real rail-.Toad rail-.Toad man tn all Italy. "A handsome' salary, hs compo.ioa-tlona compo.ioa-tlona go lit that counry, was offered him, as an Inducement to become the director general of tho state railways, which comprised practically -ill tho lines outsldo Sicily. The hmount, I have been told was $12,000. Now slv-ty slv-ty thousand l'xo is a princely salary over tliero. But Blanchi declined. Tho salary was too largo. Ho was unwilling un-willing to accept morethan hs paid cabinet minister, which sum was and Is, $5000 per annum. A compromise comprom-ise wob accordingly reached, tho terms being ono hundred lire less than the cabinet salary or $4800. , "Nino yours havo passed. Blanchi' has shown his countrymen what n real railroad Is. He has displavet. marked abilities as a financier. Ho has tiiught some Important lessons In economics. t "As n result of, reduced rates upon both passenger and freight traffic nna greatly Improved 'service, tho volume of traffic increased by 61rper cent In eight vears, while the capital invested invest-ed was increased. ,by 2G,1 percent. The extent of this growth is attributed attribut-ed largely to so called differential tariffs, ".applied Ho pasengerr'ftofev SseMheMllaneseandniVeno-tians SseMheMllaneseandniVeno-tians to Naples ti,d Pnlerrao, and tho Neapolitans and Syracusans to Milan apd Venlce,i-a merely, nominal rate per mile Is offered the traveler who Jec!des to extend his Journey, after a brief stopover, beyond hlf orlglnat destination. The merchant or manufacturer man-ufacturer in Milan for examplo, pays the norma: second class rate of on and one half cents per "mile, to Rome; he decides to proceed to Naples, and finds tho additional journey costing him next to nothlngt This policy reacted re-acted very soon upon tho freight traffic, traf-fic, markedly stimulating commerce between the extremities of the lent, peninsula. Its prime object, however, howev-er, was social and political, and these ends, It woutd appear, tiro In a very fair way of attainment. Tho Noth and the South wero scarcely belter acquainted or more friend.?', than our own North and South of ante-bellum days. They were traditionally at odds. Tho new director general of the railways was ordered, In 1905, to bring them together and he is. doing lt. The policy ot differential rates,' his friends shy, Is of Blanchl's devising." |