Evening star., 1947-12-28

early as 1874 Parliament passed
legislation which provided for rail-
road naturalization, though this
power was never exercised. It re-
manned instead for socialism to
emerge, spend half a century grow
ing and eventually achieve almost
totalitarian power in Britain before
the railroads and other carriers were
nationalized. And during this time,
especially in the last decade or so,
the question has been given much
thoughtful consideration by political
scientists and economists. There has
even been something of precedent
available in the London Transport
Board, a public corporation since
1888, though the parallel is not
exact, since the system handles only
passengers in an urban area and no
freight at all.
Foundation of Program
1t is the basic Socialist policy that
the government must own and con-
troll the means of industrial pro-
duction and distribution. That is
the main foundation of the whole
naturalization program. Under
that policy the government moved
to acquire the railroads, though
in presenting its case to the people
it harped upon a simpler and more
popular theme. For the rank and
file the government asserted that
public ownership on road and rail
would improve transport efficiency
which, it charged, was in a state
of hopeless muddle and confusion
due principally to the evil Of cap
italist monopoly.
On this single peg of efficiency
they hung their whole case for
transport control, as far as the man
in the street was concerned. For
the better informed they admitted
the presence of the freight rate
question, and in this, the equaliza-
ton of truck and train rates, lies
the true heart Of the transport
difficulty in England today.
Little is wrong with railroad ef-
fciency that may be blamed on
the circumstance of private owner
ship. Back in 1921 the more than
100 railroads in Great Britain ANAL
gamated into four systems, and in SO
doing they provided rail system
so efficient that it successfully car
ried not only the men and mate
rial Of two great armies up and
down the land under actual COM
bat conditions, but at the same
time managed to transport all the
ordinary travelling civilians and their
goods as well. Unless you do as
the Socialists have done, and COM
pletely ignore or belittle the re-
markable war record Of British rail-
roading, the charge of ineflciency
seems a hollow one.
Freight Rates Complex
True, there are in some cities al
number of inconveniently scattered
stations, and along some routes
parallel services exist. But with
all transport overcrowded as 1t now
is, it is difficult to believe that
under socialism a consolidation and
reduction Of facility will improve
the railroads. And as for the quail
ity of the service, no fair criti-
cism can be directed at trans
port system which has been bat
tered by six years Of war and blitz
and two more of economic crisis
wherein almost all replacement and
maintenance supply has been cut
of by desperate government which
must export the locomotives and
other equipment which the railways
need so badly.
And so we come, circuitously, to
the one item that places road and
rail together in q single nationalist
ton Internationally Of rates
or. to put it more familiarly for the
American ear, truck competition. !