The morning call., 1893-02-02
BRITISH TRANSPORTATION.

The traders agitation in England against
excessive railway rates is now taking form
which points to one Of two emed!es-either
firmer Government control in the public in
jerest or purchase of the railways by the
state. Some newspapers support the first
remedy for immediate relief, and indorse
the second when the time is oppOrtune.
The history of rates is peculiar. In the
early acts of Parliament authorizing rail-
ways no rates were fixed; they were simply
to be reasonable charges" subject to the
common law. This reasonableness could
not be kept uniform because juries could
not be made 10 render accordaat decisions
In 1916 the railways were compelled 10 draw
up maximum rates for both freight and pas
sengers. In practice they still acted on the
principle of reasonable rates. Where there
was competition for traffic the traders bene-
fited where monopoly existed in any dis
trict a company might wrest all it could out
of the public. Very little dissatisfaction
was heard of in public until 1880. From
that date there have been grievances. a
committee of the House Of Commons found
that maximum rates were being exceeded.
This was justified by the companies on the
plea that they were entitled to charge for
station terminal accommodation, besides
haulage The Railway Commission decided
that terminals were not a charge, but in
1885 this decision was reversed on appeal.
The traders continued their agitation, and
the Board of Trade recommended a reclassi-
fcatiOn of freight and a rev sion Of rates.
From two TO eight cents per ton per mile
might be charged for various classes
of freight, and rightly or wrongly
much was rated at the latter figure.
10 addition to that one railroad
would charge on the lowest scale and an
other on the highest for the same goods.
An act of Parliament was passed authoriz-
ing Lord Balfour of Burleigh "a railroad
director and Sir Courtney Boyle to draw up
schedules and classifcations for all rail-
roads. They spent two years over the
work. and then a joint committee of Par
lament took it in hand and heard witnesses,
the sittings extending to eighty days. The
outcome was the rates against which so much
complaint is now made, not by passengers,
but by traders.
1t seems clear that the railroads have
gained an undue advantage if they could
succeed in keeping the volume of freight
up TO its former level. But numbers of
traders complain that they cannot do bust
ness at profit on the rates charged DR..
Hunter. Nj. p, who is regarded as perhaps
the highest legal authority on railway man.
agement and law, favOrs the remedy OF in
yesting the Board of Trade with power to
decide whether a rate is reasonable or not,
giving also liberty to appeal to the Railway
Comm ssioners. The latter body consists of
three members-one Judge OF the High
Court, second who has experience of rail-
road management and a third who is cred
tied with oommon-seDse, but with no spe-
cal knowledge. 1t costs on an average
$1,000 to take a case before this august tribu-
nal and no poor man applies. II she does
buy up tie railroads England has the exam
pie Of several countries in Europe to prove
that state mana cement is successful