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Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
change in the principle of transport itself; and, though electricity
may supersede steam to a considerable extent, especially for
suburban traffic, the resort to it is a reversal, in another form, to the
earlier idea of motive power distributed from a fixed point, as
originally represented by stationary engines, before the locomotive
had established its superiority thereto.

In any case, the railway is still the railway, whatever the form of
traction employed, and there is, after all, no such fundamental
difference between an electric railway and a steam railway as there
was between the railway and the canal, or between either railway
waggon or canal barge and the carrier's cart travelling on ordinary
roads. The question that really arises here is, not whether electricity
is likely to supersede steam for long-distance as well as for short-
distance rail traffic, but whether the railways themselves are likely to
be superseded, sharing the same fate as that which they caused to
fall on the stage-coach and, more or less, on the canal barge.

For the physical, economic and other considerations already

presented, there is no reasonable ground for expecting much from
the projected scheme of canal revival. When the country comes fully
to realise (1) the natural unsuitability of England's undulatory
surfaces for transport by artificial waterways; (2) the enormous cost
which the carrying out of any general scheme of canal revival would
involve; (3) the practical impossibility of canal-widening in the
Birmingham and Black Country districts; and (4) the comparatively
small proportion of traders in the United Kingdom who could hope to
benefit from a scheme for which all alike might have to pay;—it is
hardly probable that public opinion will sanction the carrying out of a
project at once so costly and so unsatisfactory in its prospective
results.

Still less than in the case of canals would any attempt to improve the
conditions of transport on rivers—serving even more limited districts,
and having so many natural drawbacks and disadvantages—be likely
to meet any general advantage or to foster any material competition
with the railways.

Developments in regard to road transport are much more promising

—or, from the point of view of the railways, much more to be feared
—than any really practical revival of inland navigation.

Dealing, in this connection, first with personal travel, we find that

the main competition with the railways proceeds from (1)
omnibuses, motor or otherwise; (2) electric tramways, and (3)
private motor-cars.

An omnibus, whether of the horse or of the motor type, is the

equivalent of the carrier's van or of the old stage-coach in so far as it
has the complete freedom of the roads. The electric tramway, while
having to keep to a certain route, and involved in greater capital
expenditure by reason of its need for rails, overhead wires and
power stations, may, if owned by a local authority, still be materially
aided, directly or indirectly, out of the local rates. Thus the omnibus
and the electric tramway may both be able to transport passengers
at lower fares than the railways, which, as regards the municipal
tramways, may even be called on to pay, through increased taxation,
towards the maintenance of their rivals.

In London itself the motor-omnibuses have undoubtedly abstracted a

considerable amount of short-distance traffic from the Central
London Railway, which, however, still has the advantage in regard to
longer distance journeys.

That electric tramways and motor-omnibuses have also diverted a

great deal of suburban passenger traffic from the trunk railways is
beyond dispute. But here the companies are seeking to meet the
position (1) by operating their own suburban lines by electricity,
giving their passengers a quicker transport than they would get with
tramways or motor-cars stopping frequently, or held up by traffic
repeatedly, on the roads or streets; or (2) by offering to town
workers greater facilities for removing from homes in the inner to
homes in the outer suburbs, if not in the country proper or even on
the coast itself—in other words, to such a distance that they would
naturally be dependent on the railway and the business trains that
are now run thereon from the places in question to meet their
special convenience.[71]

Of these two developments the former has not yet been generally
adopted, whereas the latter is in full activity, and, in combination
with the heavier local taxation which is steadily driving people away
from London boroughs, is helping to produce results of much
interest and importance.

The population, not only of London, but of great towns in general, is

undergoing a considerable redistribution. Land at greater distances
from urban centres, and hitherto devoted only to agriculture or
market gardens, is being utilised more and more for building
purposes; the increasing values of land within the radius of these
outer suburbs improves the position on urban markets of producers
in rural centres whose lower rents may more than compensate for
their slightly heavier cost of transport as compared with the
suburban growers; the health of town workers taking to what are
not merely suburban but country homes should improve. Social and
domestic conditions generally are, to a certain extent, in a state of
transition; while the trunk railways are getting back from their long-
distance suburban traffic some—though not yet, perhaps, actually
the whole—of the revenue they have lost on their short-distance
traffic.

On the other hand, results are being brought about in the inner
suburbs which are viewed with much uneasiness by the local
authorities. The removal from the inner suburbs of considerable
numbers of those who can afford to live further away from their
business means (1) that population in the inner suburban circle is
decreasing, or, alternatively, that a better-class population is giving
place to a poorer-class one; (2) that much of the house property
there is either standing empty or is fetching considerably lower
rents; and (3) that the taxable capacity of the areas in question is
declining, although the need for raising more by local taxation is to-
day greater than ever.

Where the local authorities who are experiencing all these

consequences of an interesting social change have themselves
helped to bring them about by setting up municipal tramways to
compete with the railways, thus, among other consequences, driving
the latter to resort to measures of self-defence, they may find that
attempts to change, if not to control, the operation of economic
forces have their risks and perils; while the position for the
authorities concerned will be even worse if their municipal tramway,
in turn, should suffer materially from the competition of the motor-
omnibus.

Private motor-cars may appear to have deprived the railways of a

good deal of their passenger traffic, and they certainly constitute a
most material and much-appreciated increase in the facilities now
available for getting about the country. It must, however, be
remembered that a very large proportion of the journeys taken in
them would probably not be made at all if the motor-car did not
exist, and if such journeys had to be made by train instead. The
actual diversion of traffic from the railway only occurs when journeys
which would otherwise be made by rail are made by motor, in
preference. Here the railway certainly does lose.

Against the loss in the one direction in railway revenue, owing to the
greater use of motor-cars, there can at least be set the constant
growth in the taste for travel which the railway companies (partly,
again, to make up for the competition in suburban traffic) have done
their best to cultivate by means of abnormally low excursion or
week-end fares based, as one leading railway officer put it to me,
"not on any idea of distance, but on the amount that the class of
people catered for might be assumed to be willing to pay."

The travel habit has thus undergone a greater expansion of late

years than has ever before been known, so that a falling-off of
railway traffic in some directions ought, sooner or later, to be
compensated for by increases in others, if, indeed, that result has
not already been attained.

The actual position in regard to passenger travel on the railways of

the United Kingdom during the years 1901-10 is shown by the
following figures, taken from the Board of Trade Railway Returns:—

PASSENGER RECEIPTS FROM

YEAR. JOURNEYS.[72] PASSENGERS.
£
1901 1,172,395,900 39,096,053
1902 1,188,219,269 39,622,725
1903 1,195,265,195 39,985,003
1904 1,198,773,720 40,065,746
1905 1,199,022,102 40,256,930
1906 1,240,347,132 41,204,982
1907 1,259,481,315 42,102,007
1908 1,278,115,488 42,615,812
1909 1,265,080,761 41,950,188
1910 1,306,728,583 43,247,345

These figures give evidence of, on the whole, a substantial advance

in railway passenger journeys and receipts, notwithstanding all the
competition of alternative facilities, and we may assume that
although tramways, motor-cars, motor-omnibuses and even the
latest new-comer, railless electric traction, may supplement and
more or less compete with the railways, there is no suggestion that
they are likely entirely to supplant them for passenger travel.

In the matter of goods transport in general, it is the fact that during

the last ten or fifteen years, more especially, there has been an
increasing tendency for the delivery of domestic supplies to
suburban districts or towns within an ever-expanding radius of
London and other leading cities to be effected by road, instead of by
rail. The same has been the case in the distribution by wholesale
houses of goods to suburban shopkeepers, and, also, in the reverse
direction, in the sending of market-garden or other produce to
central markets.

Where the railway companies have really created new suburban

districts through the running of specially cheap workmen's trains, it
may seem hard upon them that they should be deprived of the
goods transport to which such districts give rise.

The fact must be recognised, however, that when the distances are
within, say, a ten-, a fifteen- or even a twenty-mile radius, and when
only small or comparatively small parcels or consignments are to be
carried, the advantages in economical transport may well be in
favour of the road vehicle rather than of the railway. The road
vehicle can load up in the streets as it stands opposite the wholesale
trader's warehouse; it pays nothing for the use of the road; it does
not make any special contribution to the police funds in recognition
of services rendered in the regulation of the traffic; nor is it taxed by
the local authorities on the basis of the quantity of goods carried and
the extent of the presumptive profits made; whereas the railway
company must have a costly goods depôt, acquire land for their
track, lay lines of rails, maintain an elaborate organisation to ensure
safe working of the traffic, and submit to taxation by every local
authority through whose district the goods carried may require to
pass. There is, also, the further consideration, of which I have
previously spoken, that in the case of short-distance journeys the
cost of terminal services makes the rate per ton per mile appear
much higher, in proportion, than when, while remaining at the same
figure, it is spread over a substantially greater mileage.

While, with the increasing facilities for road transport, the railways
must expect to lose more of their short-distance traffic, they should
be able to retain their long-distance traffic, and more especially their
long-distance traffic in bulk, commercial motors notwithstanding.
Where commodities are carried either in considerable quantities or
for considerable distances, and more particularly when both of these
conditions prevail, transport by a locomotive, operating on rails, and
conveying a heavy load with no very material increase in working
expenses over the carrying of a light load, must needs be more
economical than the distribution of a corresponding tonnage of
goods among a collection of commercial motors, for conveyance by
road under such conditions that each motor is operated as a
separate and distinct unit.

The results, too, already brought about in the case of the suburban
passenger traffic may, possibly, be so far repeated that railway
companies deprived, also, of suburban goods traffic by the
increasing competition of road conveyances, will show further
enterprise in encouraging long-distance goods traffic to the same
markets, or to the same towns. In this way they might seek to avoid,
as far as practicable, any falling-off in their revenue at a time when
taxation, wages, cost of materials and other working expenses all
show a continuous upward tendency.

Should the policy here in question be adopted, market-gardeners,

more especially, may find that, while they have effected a slight
saving on their cost of transport by resorting to road conveyance,
they will have to face increased competition from produce coming in
larger quantities from long-distance growers who, with a lower cost
of production, and, also, with increased encouragement from the
railways, might have advantages on urban markets fully equal to
those of the short-distance grower located in the suburbs.

The whole question of the steadily increasing competition between

road and rail has thus become one of special interest, at the present
moment, alike for the trading, the motor and the railway interests.

That the use of motor-vehicles is destined to make even greater

advance in the immediate future has already here been shown. Yet
there are distinct limitations to its possibilities, although this fact is
apt to be overlooked by motor enthusiasts, some of whom are,
indeed, over-sanguine. One of them proclaims that "the new
locomotion" is "designed to be the chief means of transit to be used
by humanity at large," and "eventually will probably to a large extent
supersede all others." He further writes: "Many of us will live to see
railway companies in places pulling up their rails and making their
tracks suitable for motor-car traffic, charging a toll for private
vehicles and carrying the bulk of the traffic in their own motor-cars."

Granting that motor-vehicles are likely to supersede both tramways

and horse-vehicles, what are really the prospects of their
superseding railways, as well? Should railway shareholders at once
sell out and put their money, preferably, in motor-omnibus and
commercial motor companies?

In regard to goods we have the fact that the quantities thereof

carried by the railways of the United Kingdom in 1910 were:—

Minerals 405,087,175 tons.

General merchandise 109,341,631 "
—————
Total 514,428,806 tons.
Motor transport could obviously not be adapted to the transport of
400,000,000 tons of minerals, and for these, at least, the railways
would still be wanted. But the number of motor-vehicles necessary
to deal with 109,000,000 tons of general merchandise would still be
prodigious, apart from considerations of distance, time taken in
transport, wear and tear of roads, and, also, of the question whether
a locomotive, doing the work of many motors, would not be the
cheaper unit in the conveyance of commodities carried in bulk on
long or comparatively long hauls. The suburban delivery of parcels is
one thing; the distribution, for example (as mentioned in a footnote
on page 399), of 1000 railway waggons of broccoli from Penzance,
all over Great Britain, in a single week, is another.

In the matter of passenger traffic, while people of means may prefer

to make such journeys as that from London to Scotland in their own
motor-car, the railway will continue to form both the cheaper and the
quicker means of travel for the great bulk of the population as
distinct from private car-owners, whose number must needs be
comparatively small.

It is in respect to urban and suburban traffic that motor-vehicles

have their best chance of competing with the railways on any
extensive scale; yet even here, and notwithstanding all that they are
already doing, their limitations are no less evident.

Taking only one of the many railway termini in London, the average
number of suburban passengers who arrive at the Liverpool Street
station of the Great Eastern Railway Company every week-day
(exclusive of 12,000 from places beyond the suburban district) is
81,000, and of these about 66,000 come by trains arriving, in rapid
succession, up to 10 a.m. To convey 81,000 suburban dwellers by
motor-omnibus instead of by train would necessitate 2382 journeys,
assuming that every seat was occupied. On the basis of the average
number of persons actually travelling in a motor-bus at one time, it
would probably require 4000 motor-bus journeys to bring even the
Great Eastern suburban passengers to town each day if they
discarded train for bus, and the same number to take them back in
the evening. So long, too, as a single locomotive on the Great
Eastern suffices for a suburban train accommodating between 800
and 1000 passengers, the company are not likely to pull up their
rails and provide tracks in their place for a vast "fleet" of motor-cars
or motor-omnibuses.

In some instances tramways and motor-omnibuses have,

undoubtedly, deprived the railways of considerable traffic, and
certain local stations around London have even been closed in
consequence. In other instances tramways and buses have been of
advantage to the railways by relieving them of an amount of
suburban traffic for which it might have been difficult for them fully
to provide. But any general supplanting of railways by motor-vehicles
is as improbable in the case of passenger travel as it is in that of
goods transport. Motor-vehicles are certain to become still more
serious rivals of the railways than they are already, but they are not
likely to render them obsolete; and, taking the country as a whole,
the "bulk of the traffic" may be expected still to go by rail, motor-
vehicles notwithstanding.

Although, at the outset, some of the railway companies were

disposed to regard the motor as a rather dangerous rival, the most
enterprising have themselves adopted various forms of motor-
vehicles, alike for establishing direct communication between
country stations and outlying districts unprovided with branch lines,
for enabling passengers arriving in London to pass readily from the
terminus of one company to that of another, and for the collection
and delivery of goods.

In regard, again, to the outlook for the future, important possibilities

were foreshadowed by a letter addressed to "The Times" of August
23, 1911, by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, concerning "Road Transport
during Strikes." The hope of the leaders of the then recent railway
strike had, of course, been to produce such a paralysis in the
transport arrangements of the country that the railway companies
would have been forced, owing to the resultant loss, dislocation of
traffic, and, possibly, actual famine conditions, to surrender to all the
demands made upon them. While the attempt failed on that
occasion—thanks to the loyalty of the majority of the workers, the
almost complete lack of public sympathy with the strikers, and, also,
the employment of troops for the protection of the railways—there
will always be the possibility of a renewal of the attempt. Pointing,
therefore, to the large number of motorists in the United Kingdom,
and mentioning, also, that there are, in addition, at least 10,000
commercial motor-vehicles as well, mostly running in or near the
larger industrial centres, Lord Montagu wrote that, if supported by
the Royal Automobile Club and the Automobile Association and
Motor Union and assisted by his brother motorists in general, he
would undertake in the case of a national emergency to carry out
the following operations:

(1) The carriage of all mails where railways are now used.

(2) The supply of milk, ice and necessaries to all hospitals and
nursing homes.

(3) The supply of milk, fish and perishable produce to London and
other large towns.

(4) The supply to country villages of stores not produced in or near

their area, such as sugar, tea, etc.

(5) The carriage of troops or police.

(6) The conveyance of passengers if on urgent business in
connection with family matters or trade.

Lord Montagu added that "the Government would, of course, have

to guarantee open roads and protection for loading and unloading
vehicles, and provide for the swearing-in of motorists as special
constables, who would be thus engaged in saving the community
from starvation and chaos." He further thought that the compilation
of a national register of motorists willing to lend their cars should be
proceeded with at once.

The existence of such an organisation as this, with the inclusion,

also, in the proposed registry, of horsed waggons, waggonettes and
other vehicles owned by the country gentry and others, might be of
incalculable service both in enabling the railway companies to stand
against the coercion of a really general strike, and in saving the
transport of the country from any approach to a complete
dislocation, pending the time when the full railway services could be
resumed.

A further example of the possible usefulness of motor-vehicles was

shown by a War Office memorandum, issued on September 26,
1911, giving particulars of a provisional scheme for the subsidising
of petrol motor-lorries already manufactured and owned by civilians,
complying with certain specified conditions, the War Office thus
acquiring the right to purchase such lorries from the owners for
military service, in the case of need.

Measures of the kind here in question would, of course, be

temporary expedients only, there being, as shown above, no
probability that motor transport by road would ever take the place
altogether of transport by rail.
Nor is aerial locomotion likely to be a more formidable rival of the
railways than either inland navigation or motor transport by road.
One may safely anticipate that further great advances are yet to be
made in the art of flying; yet one may, also, assume there is no
prospect of aerial locomotion becoming a serious competitor with
the railway. It is extremely interesting to know that the journey from
London to Scotland has now been made in quicker time by
aeroplane than by the fastest express, and that a 1000-mile flight
round England has been accomplished with perfect control of the
machinery employed. Yet, even allowing for the greatest possible
improvements in the construction of the aeroplane, the number of
passengers who could be carried is so limited, and the fares charged
to cover capital outlay must needs be so high, that there could be no
idea of rivalry between the aeroplane and the railway in regard to
passenger traffic.

Like considerations should apply in the case of goods traffic.

In theory the idea of an aerial express goods service looks very

promising. Yet, as a business proposition, one must needs again
consider: (1) the capital cost of the aeroplane; (2) the comparatively
small quantity of goods that could be carried on a single journey;
and (3) the high rates that would necessarily have to be paid for
their transport on commercial lines. A "record" in the aerial carriage
of a 38-lb. consignment of electric lamps from Shoreham to Hove
(Brighton) was established on July 4, 1911, by Mr H. C. Barber, of
the Hendon Aviation Grounds; but this particular exploit was
suggestive mainly of an advertisement for the lamps in question. I
ventured, therefore, to put the following proposition to Mr Barber:—

"Assume that, owing to a railway strike, no goods trains could pass

between London and Liverpool, and that a London merchant had a
consignment of goods which it was of the utmost importance should
be taken to Liverpool for despatch by a steamer on the point of
sailing. Then: (1) What would be the maximum weight, and, also,
the maximum bulk, of such consignment as an aeroplane could
carry? (2) In what time, approximately, could the journey from
Hendon to Liverpool be made? (3) What sum would the London
trader have to pay for the transport?"

Mr Barber informs me that the maximum weight of such

consignment as could be carried would be about ten stone (1 cwt. 1
qr.); that the maximum bulk would be about 30 cubic feet; that the
journey would take about four hours; and that the charge for
transport would be ten shillings per mile. The distance "as the crow
—or the aeroplane—flies" between Hendon and Liverpool being
about 200 miles, the charge would come to £100. Mr. Barber adds:
"There is no doubt that within the very near future it will be possible
to make much smaller charges; also charges could be very much
reduced if there were sufficient business to make it worth while."
This is what one would expect to hear. Yet, assuming that the
aeroplane rate were reduced even by fifty per cent, it could not,
even then, compete with the railway rate under normal conditions;
while to convey through the air the 150 tons of general merchandise
which a single locomotive attached to one of the many goods trains
passing between London and Liverpool will haul would, on the basis
of 1 cwt. 1 qr. per machine, require the use of 2400 aeroplanes. This
calculation leaves out of account, too, the much greater weights of
grain, timber and other heavy traffic in full truck-loads which pass
from Liverpool to various inland places, and could not, of course, be
dealt with by aeroplane at all.

After surveying all these possible competitors or alternatives we are

left to conclude that, as far as foresight can suggest, the railways
are likely still to constitute at least the chief means of carrying on
internal transport and communication in this country.
If this be so, then the main proposition as to the outlook for inland
transport in general relates to the outlook for the railways in
particular.

Here the first consideration which presents itself is that, as regards

main lines, our railway system to-day may be regarded as
approximately complete.[73] There may still be good scope for the
construction of extensions, new links or of short cuts; but these
should count as improvements rather than as fresh lines of
communication.

In London there are to be extensions of some of the existing tubes

with a view to affording to the public increased facilities both for
reaching the termini of the great trunk lines and for a still easier
interchange of traffic between the different tube or underground
railways themselves.

An exceptionally important scheme of improved transport was

announced, on November 18, 1911, by the London and North-
Western Railway Company, such scheme comprising (1) the
electrification of 40 miles of suburban railway, including a material
portion of the North London Railway; (2) the construction by the
London Electric Railway Company of a new tube, extending their
Bakerloo line from Paddington to the L. & N. W. system at Queens'
Park; and (3) the running, for the first time, and by means of
specially-constructed carriages, of through services between a trunk
line and a tube.

While the existing tube companies may thus extend their lines, and
while the trunk companies may seek to co-operate more with them
in providing for suburban traffic, the outlook for any new tube
companies in London would not seem to be very promising in view
of the fact that the holders of £9,300,000 of ordinary stock in the
London Electric Railway (controlling the Bakerloo, Piccadilly and
Hampstead lines), out of a total capitalisation of £16,200,000,
received in 1911 a dividend equal to only one per cent.

In the country what is most wanted is an increase in transport

facilities between existing railways and outlying districts, the traffic
from which would not be sufficient to justify the construction of
branch lines of ordinary railway. There are fishing villages,
agricultural districts, market gardening areas, and innumerable small
communities which would gain a material advantage by being
provided with better means of communication with the nearest
railway.

Whether or not such facilities should be provided by (1) road

motors, (2) railless electric traction, or (3) light railways, is a
question that must depend on the conditions, circumstances or
prospects of the locality concerned; but if more people are to be
sent "back to the land," and if colonies of small holders are to be
established thereon with any hope of success, then it is desirable, if
not essential: (1) that each colony of such settlers should form an
agricultural co-operative society; (2) that each society should set up
its depôt to facilitate the combination of purchases or consignments
into grouped lots; and (3) that between the depôt and a convenient
railway station there should be provided some means of collective
transport under the most effective and economical conditions.

It is thus mainly in the direction of railway feeders that the need for
increased transport facilities exists to-day.

In this absence of any general necessity for additional railways, the

policy of the railway companies of late years has been directed more
to the consolidation and economical working of the existing system
of lines. This policy has especially aimed at the furtherance of those
mutual agreements and amalgamations which, as we have seen,
have constituted a prominent phase in the development of railways
from a very early period in their history. Present-day tendencies in
this direction are especially due to the fact that working expenses
have greatly increased while the powers of the companies to
increase their charges are still subject to the restrictions of the Act of
1894, under which they may be required to justify before the
Railway and Canal Commission any increase in a rate since the 31st
of December, 1892. Increase of expenditure is found in the higher
wages bills, in the ever-expanding items of rates and taxes, in the
heavier cost of raw materials, in the greater amount of clerical and
other work resulting from the sending of frequent small
consignments in place of consignments in bulk, and in the provision
of greater conveniences and luxuries in travel.

An increased volume of traffic has, to a certain extent, compensated

for these heavier expenses; but it has not done so sufficiently, and
the ideal remedy has appeared to lie in the direction of effecting
economies in operation and management, either by individual
companies or through arrangements between two or more, to their
mutual advantage, and without, as the companies have claimed, any
disadvantage to the public.

In some instances companies have had to grant such concessions to

local communities as a means of overcoming threatened opposition
to their proposed arrangements that the value of the advantages
eventually obtained has been represented almost by a negative
quantity. In other instances the opposition has been so keen, and
the "prices of assent" have been so exacting, that the companies
concerned have preferred to abandon their schemes rather than go
on with them. In still other instances companies have refrained from
attempting to carry out amalgamations requiring Parliamentary
sanction, and thus likely to provoke opposition, and have made such
arrangements between themselves as were within their powers and
were likely to give them some of the advantages they wanted,
though not, perhaps, all.
Following on certain developments in these various directions, a
Departmental Committee was appointed, in June, 1909, by the
Board of Trade to consider and report "what changes, if any, are
expedient in the law relating to agreements among railway
companies, and what, if any, general provisions ought to be
embodied for the purpose of safeguarding the various interests
affected in future Acts of Parliament authorising railway
amalgamations or working unions." The report of this Committee
[Cd. 5631] was issued in May, 1911.

In so far as they deal with the principle that even Parliament itself is
powerless to prevent the tendency to co-operation between railway
companies originally designed to compete with one another, the
Committee do little more than re-echo what was said, not only by
the Joint Committee of 1872, but even by Morrison in the speech he
made in the House of Commons on May 17, 1836. There is, also, a
close resemblance between what I have stated concerning the
position in 1836 and at subsequent dates—namely, that there was
no allegation that the railway companies had abused their powers,
only fear that they might do so—and the following extract from the
report made by the Departmental Committee in 1911:—

"It is, of course, to the interest of the railway companies not to raise
rates or stint accommodation to an extent that will reduce traffic
unduly, but, subject to this, a policy of self-interest might frequently
lead the companies to charge rates which, judged by any existing
standard, would be unreasonable."

So, in 1911, no less than in 1836, and at any time between those
dates, the policy of the State towards the railways, as far as it can
be summed up in a single word, is represented by this word "might."
The attitude of distrust and suspicion originally engendered towards
the railways by the canal companies evidently still survives, and is
expected to form, even to-day, the approved basis of State action.
The principle of railway co-operation is, indeed, frankly and fully
accepted by the Departmental Committee, who declare they have
come to the unanimous conclusion "that the natural lines of
development of an improved and more economical railway system lie
in the direction of more perfect understandings and co-operation
between the various railway companies which must frequently,
although not always, be secured by formal agreements of varying
scope and completeness, amounting in some cases to working
unions and amalgamations." But, although they admit that mutual
competition between railway companies exists to-day in only a
"limited degree," and although they do not show that the
agreements and amalgamations thus far carried out have been in
any way really detrimental to the public interests, they are still
influenced, as Parliaments, Select Committees and Departmental
Committees before them have been for the last three-quarters of a
century, by that one word "might." Railway companies may be
allowed to co-operate—more especially because they cannot be
prevented from doing so; but fresh restrictions and further
obligations must be imposed lest they might abuse the facilities
granted to them, in seeking to cover increased taxation and other
items of heavier working expenses. Thus among the
recommendations of the Departmental Committee are the
following:—

"That it should be provided that when a facility or service is

diminished or withdrawn, it should lie upon the railway company to
show that the reduction or withdrawal is reasonable.

"That it should lie upon the railway company to justify a charge

made for a service hitherto rendered gratuitously.

"That it should be declared that the law with regard to increased

charges applies to passenger fares and other charges made for the
conveyance of traffic by passenger trains."
These proposals are, no doubt, inspired by a genuine desire to
protect the public interests; yet the effect of carrying them out
would be effectually to destroy the small amount of elasticity that is
still left in the relations between the railway companies and the
public. If, in addition to having to "justify" the increase of any rate
for goods or minerals, the companies were required to run the risk
of having to "justify" the taking off of any train they found no longer
necessary, or even the slightest increase in any of the now often
extremely low railway fares, the result would be to tie their hands
still further in the making of experimental concessions, and, in the
result, the travelling public, as is the case already with the traders,
would stand to lose through a policy nominally designed to protect
their interests.

Whatever course may be actually taken in regard to these particular

aspects of the question, the trend of events in the railway world will
probably be more and more in the direction of continuing the policy
of agreements and amalgamations on lines which, while giving the
fullest transport facilities to the public, should check wasteful
competition and ensure all practicable economy in the matter of
working expenses.

That the trade of the country would suffer, in consequence, is hardly

to be anticipated. Assuming that three railway companies, who had
already agreed as to the rates they would charge, had each been
conveying goods between A and B, and that they arranged for the
consignments entrusted to all three to be taken in one train by one
route, instead of in three trains by separate routes, a clear economy
would be effected without any detriment to the traders, since the
goods would reach B all the same, while savings in the working
expenses should render the companies better able to meet the
wishes of traders in other directions.
In regard to the possibility (as already told on page 448) of an
increase in railway rates to enable the companies to meet increases
of wages or other betterment of the positions of their staffs, any
general increase might well occasion uneasiness, and even alarm, to
traders who already find it difficult enough to meet foreign
competition, and to whom greater cost of transport might be a
matter of no little concern. On the other hand there is an undoubted
anomaly in the fact that whilst the burdens on railway companies
have greatly, if not enormously, increased of late years, and whilst
other commercial companies are free to pass on to the consumer
increased costs of production or heavier working expenses,
including, especially, a much heavier taxation, the statutory standard
for railway companies' rates and charges should still be that of the
last day of December, 1892.

A further result of the railway strikes in the autumn of 1911 was to

revive the agitation in favour of railway nationalisation. In some
quarters it was argued that an effective guarantee against the
recurrence of railway strikes would be found in State ownership; but
this theory is certainly not confirmed by the actual experiences of
Holland, Hungary, Victoria, Italy and France. There is no suggestion
that, if the railways were owned by the State, the railwaymen would
voluntarily abandon the right to strike; but State ownership is
favoured by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (which
passed a resolution approving thereof at the annual conference at
Carlisle on October 4, 1911), in the expectation (1) that, under these
conditions, the unions would be certain to get "recognition"; (2) that
they would then be able to bring such pressure to bear on the
Government that they would be sure to get what they wanted
without having to strike; and (3) that, owing to the economies to
which State operation would lead, the Government would be in a
position to give the railway workers higher pay and shorter hours.
Here, however, the questions arise whether the country would be
willing to allow the railway unions practically to control alike the
Government and the economic situation; whether the assumed
"economies" under State ownership and operation of the railways
would really be effected; and whether any such changes in railway
service conditions as those that were demanded in the National All-
Grades Programme could be conceded even under a nationalisation
system without imposing on the railway users greater burdens in the
way of higher rates and fares than they might be disposed to
tolerate.

On the other hand there is the consideration that if the working

expenses of the railway companies are to be swollen to still greater
proportions by heavier wages bills, abnormal taxation, public
demands for greater facilities, and State requirements in equipment
or operation; if, at the same time, the companies are to be subjected
to statutory restrictions in regard to the charges they may impose
for the services they render; and if, also, the danger of strikes and of
outside control or interference is to be increased, the day may
conceivably come when transfer of the railways to the State, under,
presumably, fair and equitable conditions, would be the only
effectual means of relieving the railways themselves from what
might then be an otherwise hopeless position.

While the outlook for the future has various elements of uncertainty,
and, in regard to matters of detail, gives rise to some degree of
concern, a review of the conditions under which trade, industry and
communication have been developed throughout the ages leads to
the conclusion that the country may, at least, regard with feelings of
profound thankfulness and generous appreciation the efforts of that
long succession of individual pioneers, patriots and public-spirited
men to whose zeal, foresight and enterprise we are so materially
indebted for the advantages we now enjoy.
 AUTHORITIES

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(1852); "Lancashire and Cheshire, Past and Present" (1867).

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Bradfield, J. E.: "Notes on Toll Reform and the Turnpike Ticket

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Brand, John: "History and Antiquities of Newcastle" (1789).

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