"Evening Standard's" Attack Countered
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(IN our first editorial page in this ‘../issue of The Commercial Motor we state our views on an outspoken and unfair editorial, entitled " Starved Railways" which appeared in the Evening Standard on August 23. The British Road Federation has not let the Evening Standard's attack on road haulage pass unchallenged, for Mr. R. Gresham Cooke, secretary of the Federation, has written to the Editor of this evening paper on the subject.
Mr. Gresham Cooke states, inhis letter, that the paramount principle must be that the trader should have freedom of choice of the form of transport that is most efficient for his purpose—a point which the B.R.F. has thrust home on many occasions in the past. He goes on to ask : " Is a trader to be denied a quicker and more suitable transport in order to maintain the Stock Exchange value of railway shares for ever?" He adds that it is the rail ways that should maintain their value by scrapping redundant lines and reorganizing capital. In fact, he points out, legislation is working greatly to the advantage of the railway companies by restricting the carriage of goods by road. With reference to the statement, by the Evening Standard, that "The railway's position has been steadily undermined by competition from hauliers using roads which the State has built and maintains," Mr. Gresham Cooke says that the State is the 'taxpayer, and the taxpayer in this case is road transport.
Concluding with the observation that the article suggested the banning, from the roads, of " unsuitable " types of goods, he says: "Why should the railway companies be given a monopoly? You would not refuse to send your letters by Air Mail to Singapore just because the P. and O. has carried them for 100 years! "