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Railway Control.

23rd January 1908
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Page 1, 23rd January 1908 — Railway Control.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

A regular contributor to this journal deals with some interesting phases of the cartage problem in this issue (pages 449 to 450This most thorny subject was discussed, at some length, at the date of the publication of the finding in the case of Fickford versus the London and North Western Railway Company, before the Railway Commissioners, who heard counsel and evidence in January of last year, and some of those who have only become supporters of this journal since the trials of September-October last may care to be referred, as we now do refer them, to our issues of the 23rd and 3oth May, 1907. The clear aim of the railway coin_ panics is to obtain the largest possible measure of control of cartage in various industrial and shipping centres of the country, so that they may, individually or collectively, give the manufacturer, trader, and shipper, less scope for the obtaining of alternative rates and routes.

There are two important features, in connection with this case of Pickford's, to which we feel it our duty to direct attention. The first of these arises in connection with the recent appeal to the High Court, the result of which is being now bruited abroad by railway managers and traffic superintendents as a great victory, and as a confirmation of their legal right to make ridiculous allowances to team owners out of any " collected and delivered " rate. The High Court, none the less, expressed no confirmatory opinion whatsoever : it merely dismissed the appeal on the ground that the points at issue between the parties were questions of fact, and not of law, for which reason the appeal court had no jurisdiction. We fear, however, that traders will not find an acceptable solution in the bringing of costly actions of this kind, and that something must be done upon the lines which are suggested in the latter portion of the article which appears in another part of this number. We would add to the recommendation of our contributor, as regards universal de

mands for "station-to-station " rates, an urgent recommendation that the Mansion House Committee, actingin conjunction with other trading societies throughout the Kingdom, should go further than this, and should demand the compulsory fixing of fair and equitable cartage charges in all cases, so that the railways will be unable to enter into one-sided and unfair competition with legitimate carriers and hauliers. The mere siffistitution of an "S.-to-S." for a

" C. and D." rate is insufficient to meet the case, as has been proved in many parts of the country already. The weakness of the position is this. 'The railway companies, when pressed in any particular case, merely deduct the amount of the inadequate. cartage rebates from the " C. and

D." rate, and, when the residual amount is found to be, as las often occurred, in excess of the legal charge for conveyance and terminals, they perpetuate the injustice to the independent carter by dropping the " S.-to-S." rate, in preference to increasing the cartage rebate. It is, therefore, vitally necessary that Parliament should pass a Bill which will make it illegal for a railway company to continue its present steps to squeeze out of existence firms and undertakings whose survival provides one of the few safeguards against worse treatment hereafter. All heavy motorists should come to the aid of the independent carter.

The Commercial Use of Highways.

We congratulate Mr. Howard Humphreys upon the terseness and meaning of the title which he has chosen for his paper before the Society of Road Traction Engineers, the reading of which paper has now been fixed for the loth proximo. It is only the most enlightened of our county councillors who have made any sustained effort to strengthen the roads within the area of their jurisdiction, and even these rare men are beginning to waver in their constancy, so considerable has the burden of through traffic become. It is an old dictum, and a truism, that the road should be made for the traffic, but the tendency to restrict traffic according to the degree of unfitness of the local roads is still the preponderating one. Changes are bound to come slowly, and, although more than seven years have already passed since motor traffic, both light and heavy, became common in all directions, there is no real awakening to the metamorphosis of conditions and possibilities even after this long experience. There is still occasion for that education of public opinion without which the Legislature can and will do but little, and we trust Mr. Howard Humphreys' forthcoming paper will receive the widespread publicity its theme deserves. No country stands to gain so much as England from the adaptation and maintenance of its roads in relation to the growth of commercial motoring, for no other country approaches its ratio of road-mileage to area. France has a much larger aggregate mileage of roads, but its lack of interconnecting links is as marked as the greater distances between its towns and cities. En2land, by reason of its existing roads, its dense population, and its suitable distances, has unrivalled opportunities for making commercial use of its highways to the end that its economic and internal prosperity may be advanced.

Business with South America and Spain.

Contemporaneously with the steady diminution in wheat imports from the United States of America, which has been so noticeable a feature in the food supplies of the United Kingdom during the past eight years, there have been even greater accessions to the export trade of the leading wheatgrowing countries of South America. The Republic of Argentina has enjoyed a very large share of these increased calls for supplies of cereals, and all indications go to show that the boom will continue and will make her purchasing power more and more substantial year by year. The several railway companies whose lines serve Buenos Ayres, Rosario, Monte Video and other important termini, were naturally the first undertakings to benefit by the augmentation of the country's wealth, and their yearly additions to mileage out of revenue have been sufficient to turn any British railway director green with envy. After the railways, electric traclion concerns had their turn, and now it has oome round to the commercial motor. Shippers and traders, whose city and suburban traffic is loudly demanding more up-to-date organisation and equipment, have begun to place orders more freely of late, and we are confident that this compensatory outlet for vans and wagons deserves the immediate attention of makers who have not turned their heads thitherward already. The " Spanish Supplement " of this journal was out betimes, and we are pleased to be in possession of written assurances from many of our supporters —both manufacturers and subscribers—that its contents, and the numerous extracts from it which were made by representative newspapers throughout the Spanish-speaking countries of South America, were in no small measure contributory to the placing of the enquiries and orders which have helped to keep the trade horizon clear during the last twelve months of slackness in the home trade. Many of our readers will recollect its publication on the 24th May, tgo6. Spain herself, the mother of the older enterprise in colonisation, has also come into the market as a buyer, notwithstanding the badness of her roads, but it cannot be expected that she can equal the requirements of the younger and richer countries, of which Argentina is pre-eminently the first. It is to the cultivation of export markets that constructors must look for the absorption of output during this and next year, at least in certain sections of the industry.


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