The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-25 00:00:00

(Stamped id. Additional.) [T WOPENC E.

2111 CAB 81117.103 OF LOA 4:1°14
-.--

On Tuesday evening there was a martini of the
fellows of the Statistical &clay, Colonel gran, . P.,
in the ,hair, to hear a paper which Mr. Chadwick badlL
Min
Invited to mad on the principle of " Competition for the
Field." Poe Ilia moot part it was a more full development
el ths principles stated by him in a letter on "Omnibus
Compete ion." We r mad the following portion of his paper,
as supplementary to the statements which have been
previously putllatied on the omnibus traffic of London
• —Whilst I was acting so one of the committee of the Society
of Arts inquiring into the improvements in Paris some pro-
ceedings were initiated for applying to the service of cabrio-
lota the principle of administrative consolidation which lad
been applied to the mimice of conveyance by omnibuses; but
I then expressed my apprehension that obstacles would be
presented In the difficulty of disposing of the surplus bands
whose labour would be saved by consolidation. The diffi-
culty of dealing with the water-carriers, ohms labour would
be superseded, has long impeded the distribution of water
into the houses of Paris by mesas of pipes and engine power.
An attempt to introduce an improved system of cleansing,
which would have Interfere d with the labour of chiffoniers
or rubbish collectore, was once made the OCCIWOD of riots,
which were attempted to be turned to party political ac-
count. In truth, the labour market in Pails te not so ab-
sorbeat as it is in London. No material improvement has
yet, however, been effected in the service of the smeller
means of public conveyance in Paris. But the present con-
dition of the cab service of London is one which Nemeses to
me to be so prominently illustrative of the evils of the com-
petition of multiplied small and poor capitals within the
fieleLoe 113.14 j, . against the opposite principle which in my
view is the only tiredly° preventive, that 1 beg leave to ad-
vert to them. The number of cabs now licensed in London
154,600; each common cab and the two horses with the appoint-
meats requisite to work it are estimated to cost not more
than 601., so that the capital engaged is in round numbers
upwards of 270,0001., provided by upwards of 1,800
owners. The waste of the capital committed by this com-
petition within the field of supply Is visible to he eye, at
all times and all weathers, in fall stands, or long files waiting
hour after hour, and in the numbers crawling about the
streets looking oat for fares. The coat of the keep of each
horse Is estimated at 16e. 4d. pee week—the depreciation of
horse stock la put down at 2e. 6d. per week each, and of the
Talkiest Be. pre weak. Tete market veins of the labour of
such *man se the driver of a cab may bit set down in Lon-
don at 4s. per diem. The stable rant is, at hest, 10s. per
week, per cab and horses, so that the capital Invested for
=ern ore , end vehicle may be est down at mom than o
per hour lost during every hour of the twelve that
cabs are kept unemployed. On every cab stand where In foul
weather as well as fair • dozen cabs are seen oonstantly un-
employed, the administrative economist may see capital
evaporating In worse than waste 'at a rate of 12s. per hour
71. de. per diem, or eta raleof between two and three thooaaod
If gper annum, to be charged on some one, i.a. the public.
ees employed, as the usual rate of driving is mix miles
per hour, they must be each employed at least four hours per
diem to pay fur their keep. If, however, the cabs were con-
stantly employed daily at least throe horses must be em-
ployed, which would augment the charge by that of an
additional hone at the rate of 4d. per hour. A large pro-
portion of the cabs are employed during the whole 24 hours ,•
but there are then two men, a night man and a day man, end
three Donee. It is probably greatly below the tact to state
that at least one-third of the cabs are, the week through,
unemployed—that is to say, one-third of the capital invested
is wasted, a service for two capitals being competed for by
three, to the inevitable destruction of one. As in other came
of competition within the field, efforts are male by violent
manifeatations of discontent at the legal fare, by mendacity,
and by various modes of extortion, to charge upon the publi:
the expense of the wasted capital. Sometimes it is in the
form of a piteous appeal that the driver or the competitor has
been out all day and has not before had " one single blessed
fare." And yet the legal charge for the frequently wretched
service of the man, home, and vehicle is, when taken by the
hone nearly doubts, and by the mile needy treble—when
only two horses per diem are used—its actual prime cost,
which is, when driving at little more than six miles an hour,
2d. or M. per mile, and when waiting Is. 4d. per hour.
But them Is now a cry from the cab proprietors that this
charge of double the prime cost does not pay, ea it probably
does not under sloth • ruinous system, and an appeal
is proposed to parliament for an augmentation of
the fares; but such augmentations under this prin-
ciple of competition within the field would only aggro,-
vats the evil, for it would lead to an increased number of
competitors, and instead of there being a competition of three
to do the work of two, there would be • competition of two or
more to do the work of one—that is, a greater waste of
capital to be paid for by some one. Since the reduction of the
fares In 1862, the number of cabs in the metropolis, insteatrof
being reduced, has been hutment from 8,297 to 4,607 in 1857.
If there were no legislative restraints of extortion, the extor•
none under the system of competition within the field would
reach each a height as to go for to extinguish the service alto-
.
, or cooties it to caws of extreme neceesi and very
sr mean, of payment. My friend Mr. Harney Aahwortb, of
ton in an amount of his travels In America. gives an
illaanition of this state of things. Speaking of New York,
he says "They have their coach-stand—coaches with two
horses each, such as we formerly kept on late, and the fares
appear to be discretional, or according to bargain. Upon a
rainy day the sum of two dollars, or 99. 4d., was demanded
as the fare for half-an-boor. I offered onethalf the sum and
it was declined. I then pointed the attention of the driver to
the string of twenty other carriages all waiting to be em-
ployed, and remarked upon the uncertainty of his making
say money at all within the next half-hour. He very
coolly replied The rein is falling very feet, and I
I'll spec. it.' He prsherod to speculate upon
es
mehances which might offer, and so left him.
r .41see
.itures of competitions within the field perfectly ones-
by law are presented amongst the boatmen on the
coast when a baged traveller hurries from Loudon, and pre-
emie himself to half a dozen—or a dozen, say—of Deal
boatmen, to be put on board a vessel just out of hail, and on
the point of starting. They see that unless the " fors" is
put on board he will hoe his pommy-money and his voyage,
sad instances have occurred where not one boat was to be
had finless than five pounds or more to put him on board,
or perform a service for which, at the rate of wages of men In
regular employment, of the clews of the boatmen, as many
shillings would be a moot liberal, not to Pay exorbitant,
remuneration. At Liverpce where emigrant passengers are
frequently belated, ships being delayed so long beyond their
time that it is believed they are sot going for days, when they
suddenly do go, carrying a wife sad family away, and leav-
ing a husband on shins, who sots the ship turning the rock,
there the boatmen's charges have risen to such a height ea
to bring into competition the steam tugs. The execution of
the laws for the reunion= of the fern of the Thames
watermen having been relaxed or fallen into desuetude,
their charges have so augmented beyond the legal rate as
almost to extinguish the habitual use of boats on those
parts of the Alva Thames Mete occupied by steamboats or
the larger craft, where ocaveyance by bat, would he con-
venient or pleasurable, if the chaster were reasonable. At
Richmond the boatmen require 2s. and Is. 6d. per hour
(sometimes however accepting le. 6d. for the second hour)
which at full work, of ten or twelve hour,. would give a re-
muneration of 16s. or 18e. per diem, to labourers of adzes to
whom five or six shillings would for regular employment be
high wages. Double and treble the legal faros do not, how-
ever, satisfy the competitors, who charge their anxieties and
discontent,, as well as their losses, upon the public. For,
with all these extortions upon the public, the condition o
those engaged in such service is a wretched one. In the
conflict of three men for the scram of two, or of two for the
service of one, anti-social feelings of the most malignant
character era engendered; and the necessity under which such
people consider themselves to be placed, of compensating
themselves for the waste of their time and the risks
of the competition, produce what I have characterised as
feelings of a wolfish rapacity to prey upon the neon-
litied of all of the public who are exposed to them.
The criminal returns afford melancholy indications of their
moral condition to these conversant with penal statistics.
Thug, in the police returns we find, under the head of
" Coach and cabmen"—but it is stated by the police to be
chiefly of oabinen— a very heavy list of offences. In the
year 1864 it was 652; in the year before that, 777. The
recurring crimes are thus demoted :
Apprehensions for
Offences against the Hackney Carriage 1863. 186 e.
Act
Simple laceoies
Other larcenies
Common assaults 64 42
as dwpoiloa 24 .. 11
Cruelty to animas
Disorderly characters
Drunk and disorderly characters
Druckenneers
Furious driving 24 ~ 3
Is respect to this—esevics of cabs—the analysed charges and
statistics show that by a oepconduoted competition by
adequate capital for the whole field—for which, in my view,
the chief police or local administrative authorities ought, as
servants of the public, to la made responsible—service equal
d_
to the present might be obtained at 3d. or 4d. per mile ; mat
the present legal fare of sixpence per mile, a service sp=
tug in condition to that of private carriage', might be
out of the waste which now wars. hlitc.binee have been in-
vented, which are stated to be convenient and not expensive,
which, I em assured, measure time and distanoe, and deter-
mine
for the pawner the fame to be paid, and register the
earnings due to the proprietors. Under a system of compe-
tition for the field, such securities might be introduced.
Hitherto isolated attempts to introduce such machinery into
cabs, even in Pais, has been uniformly defeated by tb.,,
whole body of the drivers. It has been nr.u.
clously broken or spoiled by the drivers of other
vehicles than those in which it was Introduced,
There are moral elements Involved in the question, which
maybe referred to the moralist, who will agree thee! the waste
commonly involved sin, malignity, demerelieereen,
suffering. In this instance, the Toffee-4 is extended to the
animas who minister to out tourenience. The condition
of. ,the cab-hones which are driven mercilessly, and then
r• 10692 belted 10 tiltif *tend, there to remain for hours

sapmed to oold and wet, and which indeed often only have
variations of suffering, when taken to the foul, confined
stables of the small owners, which I well know are the seats
&nue and comp only amongst the inhabithnts of the
:=,lt ti arm points of the outburst of epidemics. The
existence of the nib-horses Is soon worn out. The
tiataof the men are commonly
_of • piece with those of
ltglerses. Whilst waste is triad, it is a deep conviction
from my own observation, that sin by the infliction of animal
as wellaa human suffering, is in such cases criminally wasteful
Hence economical science will be found to be a more power-
ftd aid of sure beneficence than is commonly supposed.
Mr. Bisnconl, the great manager of horses in Ireland, re-
ceived roach applause from religious communities for only
perrai:ting those animate under his charge to work six days,
that thi7 might rest on the seventh day, but at our section
on economic science, at the meeting of the British Association
held at Dublin, he frankly disclaimed any other motive than
his own interest, which was answered by a saving from the
imp ieved practice of eleven per cent of his outlay for horses.
My friend, Mr. Whitworth, who has paid much attention to
horses, declares that it is more economical to use up two
light vehicles, as gigs, and one horse, than two berme and one
vehicle. There can be no doubt that good, wen-veatilated,
and warm stabling for the horses, and better shelter and care
during the day, would be economical of capital, as good sani-
tary dwellings would be to the men. BM this could only be
ensured by the application of large capital. On a compila-
tion forte field, improvements would no doubt be made in
the practice which prevails at Paris, whew only the bead of
one bone appears from beneath a shelter, where it stands
ready harnessed, and others are In proper stables behind,
ready to be harnessed s• fast as the demand.
The consideration of the traffic of a populous district, and of
the condition of those engaged in It, would reader it de-
sirable to encourage locomotion by steam; and the use of
tramweya through the attests. But judging from expo-
rience in Paris and elsewhere, there appears to be no proba-
bility of much diminution of the demand for horse power for
the minor traffic of conveyance in populous districts.
There are large elementary distinctions, which I will men-
tion here' but which I must avail myself on some other op-
portunity of displaying fully, between charges and payments
as for services, and charges on and payments proportioned to
the preemies of necemities. Payments as for service Imply
responsibilities to render that service in a proper manner,
and those responsibilities are best brought about, as I may
show mote fully, by my principle of competition for the
fleid ; whilst charges made on tommities and on estimates
of the premieres and means of paying them, are elle*
tabled by monopolies, which are incident, and almost
amentiell to the practice of what is called fres
competition within the field of service. In the case
of the New York hackney coachman mentioned by
Mr. Ashworth, the coachman, by the agreement with hb
knows on the stand, had virtually an irresponsible monopoly
of the service, giving him the power to exact payment ac-
cording to his estimate of the traveller' necessities and
means. In the cam of a water supply, the actual met of
water for the supply of a water closet would be Gd. per annum
if paid fur as a service; but u a charge upon moralities or
convenience the =upsides levy 10s. each per annum, which
forms a serious obstruction to the sanitary Improvementof
towns, And so with the Deal batmen; and the cha-
racter of the monopoly is similar, whether It be by the three
cabs or the three omnibuses, to do what, under compe-
tition for the field, might be the service of conveyance of pas-
mopes by two ; or by two or three competing lines of rail-
way, the London and North Western do what might be a
responsible service for one by two, or by the seven originally
competing establishments for the distribution of water, a
servos which might be beet rendered by one; or by nume-
rous establishments of undertakers for the conveyance of
the dead, a service which might best and moat economically
and responsibly be rendered by one. The result is a common
effort and necessity to charge the waste upon the public, the
creation of virtual multiform monopolies, and high charges
for bad service.