New-York tribune., 1909-04-18

The Board of Trade is a great administrative
organization. with competent and experienced
staff. If two energetic presidents OF that body
have agreed in thinking that new railway
policy is possible. 1t is because their advisers In
that department have told them that amaIga-
nations can be arranged for the protection OF
public interests and the prevention Of economic
waste. Outsiders may not share the faith of
the veteran officials of the Civil Service. but the
problem Is a practical and necessary one when
the railways in existing circumstances are dis
appointing shareholders. traders. travellers ser
wants and property owners. II competition has
proved wastefuI and ruinous and can be pre-
vented by enlightened self-interest, it ought not
to be impraCticable to provide guarantees
against excessive rates for passenger and freight
traffic and TO protect public interests by
larger measure of department control AS com
petition declines. public supervision and regula-
ton must Increase. AS one amalgamation fol-
lows another, there must be ample reserves Of
authority in the Board of Trade for supplying
communities with compensations for the lack OF
competitton More difficult problems than this
have been worked out satisfactorily by the
British Civil Service.
Mr.. Churchill foresees the enlargement of the
circle Of amalgamations. il an agreement can be
reached on a railway law. The Northern
and Eastern lines running out of London may
form one combination and the Southern and
Western another; and as time goes on the two
groups may be reduced to a single one II is
not incredible that the forty-odd railway
panies doing business in the kingdom, with a
capital of f14OOOOOOoO and employing more
than six hundred thousand servants, may event
uslv be brought under management. Mr..
Churchill is not frightened by the idea, since
the system will be under public regulation and
control and unity OF management will reveal
the practicability OF government ownership and
operation The companies in agreeing among
themselves to amalgamate their services and TO
get rid of Improbable competition Will be forced
10 accent A more drastic form of state regula-
ton than they have ever known and govern
roent purchase on some reasonable basis OF val
uatlon may loom up the ultimate outcome.
That will be a costlier experiment in collectiv-
ism than government ownership of the tele-
graphs but Continental experience has shown
that IT can be safely introduced and converted
into q source of national revenue. notwthstand
ing the enormous expenditures on capital ac-
count.
The railways Of the kingdom have become.
through lack of thorough regulation and
through wasteful methods of competition, more
or less unmanageable Oldtime dividends are
no longer practicable. owing to various causes.
md there are neither reductions OF charges on
the carriage of passengers and goods nor ex-
tensions of lines for the convenience Of the
public Investors have ceased to put their
money into new issues of stock. and sharehold-
ers are dependent for such meagre returns as
they receive upon the efficiency of the Board OF
Trade officials IN keeping peace between mas
ters and men, A new survey of the railway ser
vices seems Indispensable for every interest
concerned in their improvement and welfare.
Traditions may have to be sacrificed and
drastic methods of state regulation adopted.