The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-05-23

would be railway minister, and railway
council in london, with systems OF local man
agement at different important points. Boil
central and local councils would necessarily be
divided into committees having SPECIAL duties
In connection with traffic, rolling stock, engi
neerlng, finance and personnel. He asserted
I that the affairs OF earning and working depart
ments OF the State were, on the whole, better
managed und more economically conducted
than the concerns of railway companies, and
especially in those parts OF their business
which were carried on under the public eye
Much OF the dicffulty in regard to rates and
fares would disappear in consequence OF the
general reduction which would be made gradual
ly over the whole kingdom. and the traders and
manufacturers Of the country would be placed
in better position for competing with their
rivals. However undesirable State purchase
might be from various points OF view, how was
it to be avoided?
Mr. Horatio Lloyd protested strongly against
the proposal. AS to the sensational and trivial
complaints made 10y Mr.. Martin and other
speakers of railway Encouragement, he thought
1t was simply extraordinary that with the mil
hons OF miles traversed the thousands or
trains running, and the immense numbers OF
passengers and quantities of goods carried,
there should be so few and such paltry nstan-
ces forthcoming. There was no analogy be-
tween the State purchase Of railways and that
Of the postal and telegraph services, which IN
COMPARISON were mere trihes; neither was there
any precedent in this country or elsewhere for
such a gigantic proposal. Would the State
make the signalmen more wide awake, prevent
fogs, or render accidents things Of the past /;
was our Mr.. Fortescue, or any other president
OF the Board Of Trade, 30 omnpitent as to
control the elements and direct the energies of
two hundred thousand men? lie ndcued the
idea OF Captain Tyler that the State should
purchase the lines one by one and argue that
instead OF completing the purchase as Mr..
Martain had suggested, for .f6O0, ,000, 600, the
sum to be paid would be nearer eS00, 900, 00O
or e1 600, 900 600, from GA, ,000 100000 to So,
600, ,0OO, 900. He also showed that as the notion
OF Government competition with private indi-
viduals or companies would not be tole rated,
the state would have to buy mp the traffic on
various navgable rivers, and, perhaps, also the
ships conveying Goals to London; and that the
Government would lose the passenger duty
which they at present levied. lie concluded
by contendlng that the State was not prepared
to undertake the management OF the railway
system. and that the proposal OF Mr.. Martin
was impracticable, ineXpedient. and, as regar'
ded the financial part of it, wholly fallacous.
Mr.. Edwin Chad dwicb, and Sir VIM. Wright
spoke IN favor OF Government purchase. and
Messrs. Il. Haughton and VIM. Newmarch
+. II. s., opposed it. The latter argued IN a
lengthy speech that the scheme broke down
fiancially, and that in the public interest, il
was advisable that the lines should continue tc
be worked by means of private enterprise.
VIEWS OF MR. scUDAMoRE.
At public dinner gwen in Ednburg in
honor of Mr.. frank Ives Scudamore Second
Secretary of the British Post Office Depart
ment, and Chief OF the Postal Telegraph Ser
vice, that gentleman, in response to a toast
made some very suggestive remarks on the dis
position of the public to keep q vigilaat watch
over those departments of the Government
(such as the Post Office Department. in whose
operations the people generally had direc
and constant interest, and the effect Of this
public vigilance in promoting the efficiency Of
such departments From an abstract or hii
speech published in the london HtsUrdac
Gazetie of April /, we present the followin;
brief extract:
1.-The efficiency of the Post Office, lie sad
"did not result from the special ability Of tht
people IN that department 1t resulted slmpl,
from the pressure which was put upon tha
branch of the civil service by the pubic. lie
them just consider the different way in which
they treated the Post Office from that IN whicl
they treated other Government departments
They all knew perfectly well that III Scotland
for many years, he might say for centuries
there had been perfect horror Of Illicit distil
latlon but he did not suppose that even il
Scotland any man ever thought of reporting
the Exchequer for laxlty OF supervision. Again
he did not suppose that in that room, or in tn
city OF Edinburgh, there was anybody wh,
would suddenly rise up at the breakfast tabl
and say to his wife, My dear, that rascally tax
gather has not called for three years; vii
write to the Inland Revenue Commissioners an,
get him dismissed. Applause and laughter
But dilatory letter-carrier a postmaster VIII
could not cash a money order, telegraph
clerk who made blunders, brought down ter
rifle complaint from the offended person. n
laugh. They would not allow those officials L
say as Wordsworth said of the human race
Our birth Is but sleep and a forgetting"
Laughter. Quite the contrary; they contin
ually kept the Post Office up TO the mark, an
that, he thought, was salutaIy thing for th
public. 1t was we'll that the public shou,
know the power which they had over the Pos
Office; that it was their complaints; that il wa
their continual determination to have tho wor
we'll done that made it we'll done. Applause
lie might go little further and say that if a
any time the Government should take upoi
itself the acquisition OF the railways, somewha
similar results would follow. Applause. The
were not to suppose that he was going to advo
cate the acquisition OF tho railways. lie wa
not gong to do anything Of the sort; especal
he was not going. 70 ask that thera'ways shoul,
be attached TO the Post Office. Laughter.
They might as we'll attempt to put set o
ostrich eggs under barn-door fowl as to Civ
the railways to the Post Office. IApplauso.