GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

204 THE RAILWAY INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE OF INDIA
Germany (9' 2) = 1'24 Great Britain, (7'4)
= 1·84 Russia in Europe (5'0)
= 3·4 japan (2'7)
= 4·84 India (1'9)
japan (2'7)= 1·42 India (1'9)
= 9 China (0'3)
India (1'9) = 6·3 China (0'3) +
= 9·5 Persia (0'2)
, These equations are no speculative abstractions.
We understand at once with mathematical precision that
in the U.S.A. every individual possesses 3·17 times as
much command over railway facilities as every F renchman
and 20 times as much as every Indian. It is clear
that the railway mileage per head of the French people
is more than that for the German people per .head., that
likewise is every German 1'24 times as railway-equipped
as every Briton and 3'4 times as every japanese. Every
japanese is in the same manner 9 times as railwayequipped
as every Chinese, and every Indian possesses
6'3 times as much facilities as every Chinese and 9·5
times as every Persian. It is evident, then, that countries
like Persia and China belong to the lowest rung of
the railway-hierarchy and that India will need quite .a
long and extensive development in order to attain to the .
nearest higher level, say; 'that already attained by japan
which, by the bye, is rather modest by the worldstandard.
It is clear, however, that there is a great difference
between a "great power" and·a "great power" in regard
to the railway co-efficient. One cannot say that a country
must possess a certain number of railway kilometres