Co-ordinating Transportation.
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EXCEPT XCEPT FOR such modifications as can be secured in the committee stage of the Transportation Bill, the present intentions of the Government to control roads and road traffic, as part and parcel of one vast transport scheme for the country, will in all probability be carried out.
We have in this measure a clear instance of the difficulty that must confront any attempt to secure a quick reform. Sound in. some of its aspirations, the Bill has met with opposition on every hand– except from railway interests, who constituted the source of the measure. Whatever might be the fate of the Transport Bill, the lesson to be learned from its reception is that, in a country with vested interests at every point, with established •institutions and with many settled convictions, all constituting a vast and complicated piece of machinery, any efforts to introduce fundamental changes must be made slowly and gradually.
That is by the way, and, yet not wholly so. It is the general opinion that the Bin is overloaded, and that the new Ministry, if it be established, will break down of its own sheer weight. If the reform had been tackled piecemeal, first af all the railways being grouped together and their control co-ordinated to bring about some of the economies which the Minister-designate showed to be vitally necessary, We believe that the job would in the long run be better done and quicker accomplished. , As a matter of fact, the only possible way in which the Ministry can gain success will be to establish separate departments, one for railways, one f or canals, one for roads, one for electric power, and so on ; to set each to work co-ordinating, effecting economies, and attaining efficiency, the Ministry bringing to bear on the whole scheme its own co-ordinating influence.
Roads will tend to suffer under such a Ministry as is contemplated. The whole point of view of Sir Erie Geddes' s speech was that of the railway nap. He showed that reform was neoessary to save the situation in the railway world, -that the railways were Losing money under present conditions. Then, dealing with roads, how did he put the matter? He did not know the capital value of the roads, but " they cost sgmle 20 millions per ye:ar." " Cost" let it be noted. Does Sir Eric realize the wonderful value of the heritage left us by our forefathers in the shape of the roads? Does he understand that, without them, civilization Would virtually come to an end, and that intercourse and commerce (except hand to hand) must cease ; that railways, canals, docks, harbourn would be strangled I A railway from London to Edinburgh would be bankrupt in a week if it could only cater, because of the lack of roads of approach, for the people living or working close to the railway, stations. The roads repreAent capital expended upon them over many years. They are maintained cheaply and they carry nearly the whole of the commerce and provide for the individual locomotion of the whole of the country. The railways and canals are lesser links , in the chain—important links, of course, but of lesser, importance than roads. A ton of goods can scarcely be moved from producer to consumer anywhere without the use of a road proving necessary somewhere on the journey.
The Road-maker has an Opportunity.
0 NE CONSOLING FACT was contained in Sir Eric Geddes's speech. He announced the appointment of Brigadier-General H. P. Maybnry as head of the Road Department. On the whole this is good, as General Maybury, formerly Surveyor for the County of Kent and chief engineer of the Road Board, is essentially a road maker, and he will think and desire to act along the lines of road improvement and road development. But, safeguards must be provided so that his efforts shall not be stultified, or his recommendations overruled by the railway group. Suppose, for example, the Ministry decides that communication between Preston and Liverpool must be improved and the Road Department can show cause for connecting up existing roads and making a good road from one city to the other. Why should railway interests block the scheme and prevent the subsidiary developments in order that the railways should gain traffic? Even the speech of the Leader of the House, made under the advantage of a full debate, contained no convincing arguments for the inclusion of the roads, but merely the dogmatic statement that it would be ludicrous not to include them, considering that they must be used more and more, especially for agriculture. Mr. Bonar Law would have done better had he announced what we know to be a fact; namely, that Sir Erie Geddes has given an undertaking that the proceeds of ear taxation shall revert to road improvement, and that he will go on with road classification forthwith and provide from natidnal funds. for eontri: butions towards road maintenance under the classification scheme. This is a pledge to the County Councils' Association, and the fact that it has been given might just as well have been made known to the House, instead of only to a certain group of the members.
But even this we regard as insufficient. Further modifications are required in the Bill and General Maybury's hands must be strengthened. Otherwise roads, as we have said, will suffer.
One good feature of the debate was the renunciation by Sir Eric Geddes of the obsession of light railways. This will tend largely to allay the apprehension felt by road interests when the unpleasantlynamed " agrail " was first being boomed.
The Parliamentary Tactics of the Road Transport Group. The Parliamentary Tactics of the Road Transport Group.
THE TENOR of the speech of Mr. Joynson-Hicks on the second reading of the Ways and Communications Bill must -considerably have puzzled those who knew how vigorous was the opposition that had been established to the inclusion of roads within the scope of the Bill. The Parliamentary Road Transport Committee was particularly strong, and this was looked upon by some as providing a substantial voting strength. He was also supported by the resolutions of no fewer than 335 local authorities. But, although a large number of members were acting in co-operation with Mr. JoynsonHicks to protect the roads from the dead hand of the railways, the general feeling of the House was found to be so strongly in favour of the Bill—at all events so far as it affected the railways—that the Committee felt that they could not divide against the second reading of the Bill.
Mr. Joynson-Hieks and his supporters have decided, however, at a later stage of the Bill, to move to omit roads from the powers of the new Minister, so as to provide the opportunity for the introduction of constructive legislation for the development of _roads and road transport and for this legislation to be dealt with under a separate Board. On this, the House will most certainly be divided, and it is hoped that, on that occasion, full support will be received from those members who, whatever may be their opinion with regard to the establishment of a Ministry controlling the non-competing components of transport, consider that the competing element, roads, should come under a different department. .
The Cippenham Explanation.
THE Government, through Mr. Churchill, has made a statement with regard to the motor depot at Slough, which still falls a long way short of silencing opposition to tlr scheme. -That opposition is based upon the need, so far as the industry and the users are concerned, of conserving the motor vehicle industry. If there is to be a vast factory which, when the great rush of repairing requirements on the returned army vehicles is finished, will be seeking for work to keep its machine tools and its staff occupied, there is: the danger of Government production of not only the vehicles required for the Services, the Post Office, and other Departments, but of vehicles actually competing with those produced by private enterprise. The only outcome of such a development must be the crippling or, at least, the severe hampering of the motor vehicle industry to the disadvantage of the commercial vehicle user.
It is quite evident from Mr. Churchill's statement that the Government is committed deeply to the Cippenharn scheme and will not be turned back from it. Objections to the scheme were raised when the operations on the ground had scarcely commenced 024 and when the outlay was small. There was a liability on March 6th of 21,100,000 plus the cost of the land, the cost of the machinery and the contractors' profit, whilst a fuither half a million sterling at the very least has to be expended.
It would be interesting if, in the course of the debate on the subject, which the Leader of the House has promised this (Thursday) afternoon, the Minister of Supplies were asked to specify the kind and type of machine tools which had been ordered or were about to be ordered for the depot. The list should give a clue to the kind of work which is contemplated to be undertaken there.
Educating Labour.
E HAVE RECEIVED from the British En gineers' Association an illuminating memo randuni on some factors tending to retard the reconstruction and development of our peace industries, and the fuller employment of the available workers of all classes.
It is pointed out that the most fruitful activity of our manufacturing industrie's is an immediate insistent necessity not only to provide us with the means of sustaining the enormous financial burdens imposed by the war, but also to ensure employment for our people. The latter item is important because, to the extent that employment is not provided, the internal disruptive forces already at work in this country will be reinforced.
The memorandum specifies a number of factors which tend to retard our progress towards industrial recuperation. The first of these is, of course, labour unrest, which is rightly given the first place in the category. It is pointed out that uncertainty as to labour costs, to be incurred per unit of selling value produced in the execution of a contract, makes it impossible to estimate the cost of production and to quote a competitive selling price in an overseas market, without running an. uncommercial risk. Moreover, if the number of working hours per week and the workers' standard performance per working hour are certain it becomes equally impossible to quote a date of delivery.
The effect of all this on British foreign trade is indicated at some length ; and, so far as the remedy is concerned, the memorandum advocates that we should enter upon a course of unrestricted publicity. The public mind must be educated, and a determined economic Propaganda of a non-partisan character must be undertaken The economic laws governing the material welfare of the community and limiting the rate of approach to ideals, must be explained in language understood by the man in the street.
The urgency of this question is the only excuse that we need offer for referring to it in this journal. Refusal to concur with the most extreme demands of the trade unions does not imply a hopeless lack of sympathy with labour. After all, there are very few people in this country who gain their living by any means other than that of work: we of this journal have certainly never found any alternative method of securing a livelihood.
We are convinced, however, that the greatest good of the greatest number is to be secured through the method of increased production and a general determination on the part of all to work hard in order to repair the wastage of the past four years. Before many of the workers can be brought to the frame of mind to do this, however, propaganda of the kind suggested by the British Engineers' Association is necessary; and in this we shall be very pleased to afford such assistance as we are able.