LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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No, Stenson, I Won't Write to LI. G. "Invitations to Tender." The Wait and See Bill.
FROM ALL I can hear there are only two topica in the industry at the moment that are coming in for any kind of discussion, and they -are, respectively, the' Government's Gargantuan proposals to control all things that -move upon the surface of our little bit of the globe and the widespread "industrial unrest" and its effect on output and the future prospects of reconstructed trade generally. With regard to the proposed Ministry of Ways and
Communications, I do not appear to have heard of any frantic opposition threatened except from the road users. No doubt there will be others, but this impetuous effort to .embody Lloyd George's spoken aims for the improvement of internal transport has certainly raised the dust in motoring circles gener ally. * * * Fanum House, or, to the uninitiated, the Auto mobile Association and Motor Union, got busy very quickly. I received a lengthy screed from the militant and military Stenson Cooke asking me, and I suppose tens of thousands of others, to write personally to Lloyd George, to the chairman of my Urban Council, to my own special M.P. and generally, it will appear, to make myself, Pankhurst-like, an unholy nuisance to any particular person holding an official position for the time being.
I, personally, think that individual petitioning of
this kind is rather worse than useless. As to writing to my M.P., I am, afraid I hardly know who he is, and I have not the faintest idea who is the chairman of our local council, while as to where' the County Council lives—in the vernacular, " napooh." Panic means of this kind are of very little use, and, moreover, the individual is very apathetic in such matters. He will sign a paper if it is put under his nose, but precious few of him will trouble to write a P.C. or dictate a s letter on his own initiative. We most of us feel that there ought to be some association to do all this sort
. of thing in our name, by virtue of our subscription
and the proxy it almost carries with it. It is to be hoped that signed petitions, by the time this appears in print, will have been initiated by the various local branches of the motoring organizations. If the A.A. is as bright as it thinks it is, it will have pushed the collective petition by then and dropped the post-card scheme. The Post Office and Telegraph Service is bad enough now in all conscience. I refuse to suggest its further overloading, and, as to writing to Lloyd George himself, as friend Stenson seriously suggests, I shall do nothing so futile. With regard to "my own M.P.," I imagine 3-oynson-Fficks.and his party have sufficiently advertised the opposition to the Bill to render it unnecessary for me to jog his memory. No, I will merely sign that giant petition—or that sheet of it which is near my house.
"Invitations to Tender."
One of the Editorials in last week's COMMERCIAL MOTOR, it may be recalled, concerned the reputed proposals of the M.T. Disposal Section of the Ministry for the sale of such vehicles as they already have to get rid of. And I notice the Editor mentions a rumour to the effect that sales of certain Government machines were being disposed of by negotiation and not by public offer. Well, curiously enough, I too have heard these rumours' and so circumstantial were the details of certain deals, as related to me, that before I could accept that such means were not being employed, I should like to see an official declaration that these Disposal Authorities have not recently disposed of any mechanical transport by private negotiation—pot excluding tractors and accessories, of course.
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The Editor appears to have it officially that the future intention at any rate is to offer by auction—. and on occasion by public tender. Now, I maintain that, to avoid the "knock-out" tactics of the less reputable second-hand dealers who attend these sales, at any rate so soon as the present temporary high prices are no longer obtainable, these no-longerwanted stoma should only be disposed of by public sealed tenderings, advertised for as widely as possible. This is the only way to ensure that the stores go for the very best offers obtainable, and it is the only way teagive the individual buyer an equal ' chance with the professional second-hand man while, at the same time, avoiding the strictures which are, almost inevitable if these Government goods are "disposed of by private treaty."
The Wait and SeeBill
I cannot refrain from writing shortly again this. week with regard to the industry's latest bogey, Sir Eric Geddea's new W. and C. Bill. As I write, I have to confess to convictions that, whatever the dust kicked up by the combined thousand-voiced shrieks of the A.A., the R.A.C. and the C.M.U.A., the determination of the industry to fight against absorption is not going to convince the public very much. I fear me that the opposition which will secure the closest attention—if any attention is forthcoming at all, will be that being put forward by the ports, docks and harbour authorities, and put forward effectively by constitutional meetings of protest, and communicated in proper form to the civil authorities.
It appears, after further consideration of the text and intention of the Bill, that the reason at least why "Roads arid,the Vehicles that Use Them" are being brought within the purview of the new Minister, is a far more 'astute one than was at first suspected. The Road Board has had millions of money to dispose of,. millions for, which the motor sport and industry have been judiciously squeezed. It is the Board's money they want, even supposing they want the Board itself, which may or may net be. The Road Board's considerable funds, held in trust for the benefit of the community as a whole and for road Users particularly, and running into very considerable figures, even in these days of millions, are, if the Bill become law, to be placed at the disposal of a new autocratic and dictatorial department dominated by railway exigencies.
I think there is just a danger that, in our newlywon hunger for co-ordination and similar idyllic conditions, we are rather thoughtlessly scrapping the benefits accruing to the public from keen and even cut-throat competition for their custom. Was not the very excellent two-hour train service from London to Birmingham entirely due to murderous competition between the G.W.R. and the L.N.W.R. ? True, the two:!services did not co-ordinate, but, as services, individually, they were excellent. Co-ordinate them and, conscientiously, you would have to do away with a large proportion of the services. Com petition removed, the time to Birmingham would bo found very soon to be three hours instead of two.
Why should not the G.W.R. and the L.N.W.R. have local booking offices next door to each other at the same time? Who suffers but the railway shareholders? Not the general public. Economically, I suppose, we should not waste effort or material, but we are not going to be rationed for either very soon. Transport will have to be a very sturdy patient to survive the unimaginative and lethargic control of which Government Departments are alone capable.