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 CHAPTER IV RAILROADS, ARMY AND NAVY EDUCATIONAL MATTERS The government of Chile, like the government of a few other countries, considers the building and operat- ing of railroads as a legitimate function of legislative and executive concern. An important item of the na- tional expenditure has been for the extension of the railway system. To this purpose have the nitrate royalties been largely applied. Chile was the first country in South America to build railroads ; the work was begun in 1850. The state at present owns and operates the line be- tween Santiago and Valparaiso, with the important branch of Los Andes, which is on the great South American trans-continental line from Buenos Ayres to Santiago and Valparaiso. The state also owns and operates the line from Santiago to Talcahuano, and its branches to Palmilla, Los Angeles, Traiguen and Col- lipulli. These lines have a combined length of 1,068 kilometers, or less than seven hundred miles, and were worth in 1888, something near fifty millions of dollars and gave a clear profit of over a million and a half, exactly 3. 11 per cent upon the capital. They carried over three millions of passengers, a remarkable show- ing, when we take into consideration the fact that