great organisation, the Constitutionalist Government created an autonomous Department, called Direction of Constitutionalist Railways. The execution of such acts was not arbitrary, but based on express provisions of the Railway Law.
This state of affairs and the destruction caused by the war created a situation, special to the Mexican Railway and special to the National Railway of Mexico Company, in which the Nation has a preponderance of shares. This company remains in existence to conserve its legal personality, and to administer certain properties outside of the traffic service; but the service of traffic was suspended and the system of exploitation was altered. This being so, on constitutional reorganisation of the country, the National Government must solve the grave problem of the rehabilitation of the railway companies, that they may carry on the service of traffic in the constant and systematic manner satisfactory to the needs of the Nation, which cannot live without a proper service of railway transport.
The condition of the National Railways of Mexico Company particularly interests the Government, as much because this system is the most extensive and necessary for the national life, as because the country has extended its guaranty for the payment of its debt and is the owner of the majority of its shares, by reason of which it controls the system.
