The network of railways in project includes the section between Uyuni and Tupiza, and the line from Uyuni or Sevaruyo to Potosi, and from Oruro to Cochabamba. The commerce of Cochabamba is considerable, yet the most pressing national need is to furnish the Potosi mines with transportation facilities. After the convention with Chile for the construction of the line from Arica to La Paz the American engineers who were making the reconnaissance indicated a preference for the routes from Oruro to Potosi and from Potosi to Tupiza as the complement of that system.[16]
16 Reconnaissance Report upon the Proposed System of Bolivian Railways, by W. L. Sisson, C. E. La Paz, 1905.
BOLIVIAN RAILWAY ROUTES
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How soon the territory of the Yungas, that is, the head-waters of the Beni, will be opened up may be a matter of conjecture; but the very great advantage resulting to the Bolivian government from having this rich tropical territory developed, which among other things would help to provide the capital with fuel, insures the building of a railway of some kind. The success attending the electric road from the Heights of La Paz down into the city may afford some test of the feasibility of using the waters of the Inquisivi River as the means of traction to Puerto Pando, for the water-power of this stream is almost unlimited. Once the head-waters of the Beni are reached, the way will be open for navigation to the confluence at Villa Bella of the Mamoré and the Madre de Dios, which later reach the Amazon. When the Brazilian government carries out the long-postponed plan of building a railway around the Madeira Falls, Bolivia’s course to the Atlantic will be shortened.
This Amazon outlet is likely to become practicable long before the route by way of the Paraguay and the Plate is opened.
The Antofagasta and Oruro railway, with its 2½ feet gauge for the whole 575 miles, has been a very profitable enterprise, and indicates the prospective profit of other railways. The government guaranteed 6 per cent annually on the cost of the Bolivian section, that cost not to exceed £750,000, but it never has been called on to meet the guaranty, the net earnings being sufficient to pay all fixed charges and handsome dividends. The railway between Viacha and Oruro, when built, will be of the 1 metre gauge (3 feet, 3⅜ inches) which is the gauge of the line between La Paz and Viacha. Ultimately the Oruro and Antofagasta line is bound to be widened in conformity with it.
There may be halts in the policy of the Bolivian government. Changes may occur. Unexpected obstacles may postpone the fruition of all these national hopes. Yet during the period when the Panama Canal is building between $35,000,000 and $40,000,000 is likely to be employed in railroad construction, and this will mean collateral expenditures in other directions. It may be guessed that $50,000,000 will be spent in internal development during the next twenty or twenty-five years. That would not seem much in the United States, but in a country such as Bolivia it is an enormous sum.
What is the human material for this development, the mineral and other physical resources being understood? Taking the Acre region from it, and averaging the territory which will be given Bolivia in the settlement of the boundary disputes with Peru and Paraguay, the country may be said to have an area of 400,000 square miles. A reasonably trustworthy census was taken in September, 1900, and this placed the total number of inhabitants at 1,816,000. Of these the classification was made: