(d) Oils and Lubricants. Again, falling prices. A further reduction is due to "consumption of stocks provided in the preceding year', (Torre Report). (e) Finally, certain railway services have been leased to private industry, and to this extent the economy in personnel is only apparent. Increased Re7:enue. (a) Tariffs have been raised : Third class, 15 per cent. ; second class, 6 per cent.; fi,1-stclass, no increase. (b) 134 1nillions is a mere transfer from postal to railway revenue. (c) Goods traffic shows an increase of 9 per cent. in the first half of 1923 ; nothing so exceptional as to justify the High Commissioner's description of emergence from darkness to light. Railway Direction. For the ten months of the Fascist regime the Italian railways had three heads : the Minister of Public Works, a lawyer; the High Commissioner, a medical man ; and the DirectorGeneral. Conflicts were continual, and finally the only technically competent head, SignorAlzona, the DirectorGeneral, resigned (August 2, 1923). I~eases to Private Industry. One of the fundamental points in the Fascist programme before Fascism came into power was the leasing of public services, and in particular railways, to private industry. UnderSecretary Rocco confirmed it ·on November 6, 1922; the Council of Ministers confirmed it, as regards the railways of the Trentino (frontier railways !) on November 14; and the Premier's Under-Secretary confirmed it on February 4, 1923, in the programme speech. On March 15 the official Stefani agency announced that the Council of Ministers had approved the broad lines laid down in the report of the Minister of Public Works for the leasing of the State railways~ ''The Biblioteca Gino Bianco
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